The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-23

A~' -' ~% HA9A" running well into six figures. had set him down as tremendous hustler, possessing unusual initiative in the production end.
 But the last time 1 talked with him. which was quite while ago, I felt that he had become unduly obsessed by sense of his own importance. His whele manner made one feel that he way saying to himself: q am one of the highest paid men in America and don't care who knows it. At that, am worth far more than am get t1ng. l am wonder, all right"
 Questioned further, his ex-employer said: "He has ability, very great abil- ity. But prosperity spilled him. He began to strut around, letting every body know that he was cock of the walk. He began to think more about himself than about his responsibilities. Worse than that he developed an ugly streak of selfishness. Before he got up so far he certainly applied him. self to make good. And he did make good. But after he was quite sure he had arrived, his whole interest seemed in himself and his own interests first, not in the interest of the business. "So l had to let him go
 He is starting in to make a big splash on his own account but unless he changes his tactics and plays the game less selfishly, I rather think he will come a cropper."
 Not so very many men can bear up against phenomenal success.
 Why?
 Here, briefly, are some of the req sons some of the main causes:
 To begin with, extraordinary success in the business world bring with it an unusual amount of money. Also it usually brings great power. Men who attain wealth and power find them- selves flattered on all sides. People kow-tow to them. Subordinates flat ter them. Other men doing business with them play up to them. At every turn they are reminded how tre- mendously big and important they have become.t
 It is not easy to spend a very large amount of money every year without displaying more or less estimation. A city palace, and an extensive country estate mean many servants, and usual ly, lot of entertaining. This brings toadying from the army of servants and flattery from those anxious to associate with the rich-and their number is legion: Wherever he goes the con- s2iciously successful man is pointed out and everybody seeks to curry favor with him.
 Not many men cGn stand all this without becoming puffed up. There is every ttemptation to let it go to the head. It becomes 'difficuIt-with too many men it !"' o,;tS imposs; <. tn maintain a spirit of II ( esty and hum;l ity.
 Power very often begets pride. And pride usually begets arrOgancy. And arrogancy courts failure.
 The other day discussed with one of the famous business leaders in America the probability of improbabil- ity of certain automobile manufactur- CT, now much in the public eye, being able to put it over"
 "I'fear," he replied, "that his chances are less than fifty-fifty. He is able, L. has one fatal weakness. He thinks he knows it all himself and he wont take even his principal associates into his confidence. He not only does not ask their judgment before he makes i'm portant decisions, but he dosn't tell them what he is doing or anything about his plans. He is trying to run a one-man organization and his ambitions are so big that can't see how, big man though he is, he can prove big enough to swing all that he is taking on."
 This, too, is species of swell headedness.
 I know several men in their forties who have reached the presidency of very large concerns, men of brilliant ability, but who are in danger of fall ing from their pinnacles because I can see that their intoxicating success is going to their heads.
 If things are going beautifully with you, if you feel that you have the world by the tail, it may save you and yours lot of humiliation if you will pin a little placard in front of your eyes on your desk, bearing this eternally true warning:
 "PRfDE GoETH BEFORE A FALL"
 COFFEE MARKET
 NEW YORK, July 22.-The market for coffee futures was irrgeular today, but generally higher. It opened 5 to 20