Vanishing Landmarks

In this connection permit me to urge every man whose wakeful hours are spent in toil, to make it exceedingly clear to his children that there is more satisfaction in drawing dividends than wages. Let the youth also know that nearly every one who now draws dividends began by drawing wages. I can recall very few men whose names are or have been known beyond the confines of local communities, whether bankers, lawyers, manufacturers, merchants or railroad presidents, whose hands have not been calloused with humble toil. This is conspicuously so of Rockefeller, Carnegie, Wanamaker and Schwab, and was equally true of E. H. Harriman, C. P. Huntington, J. J. Hill, George M. Pullman, the McCormicks and practically all others who in days past rendered conspicuous service in making America.

CHAPTER XIV

AMERICAN FORTUNES NOT LARGE, CONSIDERING

A country of such resources could not be developed as America has been without great fortunes resulting. Inequality of results in every field of human endeavor, except the acquisition of property, is welcomed and approved by everyone.

I am not surprised at the fortunes that have been made in this country. On the contrary, even greater fortunes might have been reasonably expected. As I look over the matchless resources of America, the surface of which as yet has been only scratched, and the matchless resourcefulness of our people, I marvel that even greater accumulations have not been made. I have been frequently surprised that I did not make more myself. But I can account for it, so far as I am concerned. I heard of a man who said he could write as good poetry as Shakespeare, “if he had a mind to.” His friends assured him he had discovered his handicap. That was my difficulty. I had the disposition, and I have had the opportunity. As I look back over the years of my mature life I recognize that I have failed to heed opportunities where I might have made more money than any man has made. But I did not have the vision; I did not have the courage; I did not have the “mind to.”

I can construct a highway so the worst old scrub of a horse, with his mane and tail full of cockleburrs, can keep up with a thoroughbred. Yes, I can. But the mud must needs be very deep and quite thick. When the mud is sufficiently heavy, one horse can keep up with another. But when the track is improved, the horse with aptitude for speed will soon distance the old cockleburred scrub, who would, if he could talk, very likely insist there is something wrong with our civilization, and become a socialist.

We all demand good roads, though we all know that if we have good roads we will have to take someone’s dust. The only way, my friend, to protect yourself from the other man’s dust is to have the roads so bad he cannot pass you.

A PARABLE

During the free silver campaign of 1896, a man with a full unkempt beard and shaggy hair, after several times interrupting the speaker, finally asked in squeaky voice: “Mr. Speaker, how do you account for the unequal distribution of wealth?” The answer came with promptness. “How do you account for the unequal distribution of whiskers?” When the audience had quieted down, the speaker might have said: “My friend, I did not make that remark to cause merriment at your expense. I made it to illustrate a great truth. I was born with equal opportunity and equal aptitude for whiskers with yourself. But I have dissipated mine. Whenever I have found myself in possession of any perceptible amount of whiskers, I have dissipated them. Had I conserved my whiskers, as you evidently have, I, too, would be a millionaire in whiskers.”

Tell your boys, and the boys you meet, that if ever they become millionaires in dollars as in whiskers, the chances are it will be because they conserve. John J. Blair, the pioneer railroad builder west of the Mississippi River, once told Senator Allison that the wife of Commodore Vanderbilt had many times cooked for him a five o’clock breakfast, for which she charged twenty cents. The seed from which all great fortunes have been grown was hand picked.

In the war between the states more than a million men enlisted on either side, and at the end of four and one-half years there were fifty or one hundred multi-millionaires in military achievement and military glory and ten thousand in unmarked graves. Socialists do not object to these inequalities. While they seem to welcome millionaires in art, in music, and in athletics they all point to millionaires in business as an unanswerable indictment of America’s political system. They rejoice that it can produce an Edison, but mourn that it can also produce a Rockefeller. Yet the success of these two wizards is traceable alike to extraordinary aptitude in their respective fields of achievement, plus extraordinary application. Neither of these men ever robbed me of a penny. On the contrary each has contributed to my comfort, thus adding to the worth of living, and each has cheapened for me the cost of high living. But for Mr. Edison, or someone of a different name to do what he has done, I would be deprived of electric light and many other comforts. But for Mr. Rockefeller, or some one of a different name to do what Mr. Rockefeller has done, every owner of an oil well would be pumping his product into barrels in the olden way, hauling it to town and selling on a manipulated market, while I would be deprived of a hundred by-products of petroleum, be still paying twenty-five cents per gallon for poor kerosene, and there would be no such thing known in all the world as gasoline.

CHAPTER XV

POPULAR DISSATISFACTION

It is as logical that dissatisfaction should develop because of inequality of results in “money making,” as it is that inequality in results shall follow inequality of aptitude and effort. This dissatisfaction has tended strongly to develop socialistic thought and teaching.

A century and a quarter, during which representatives were chosen because of actual or supposed aptitude, and retained in office during long periods – frequently for life – when nearly every industry was fostered, and none fathered, developed a people, the best paid, the best fed, the best clothed, the best housed, the best educated, enjoying more of the comforts of life, far more of its luxuries, enduring less hardships and privations, than any other in all history; but it is an even guess if, at the same time, we did not become more restless, discontented and unhappy.

We were not so much dissatisfied, however, with our own condition, abstractly considered, as with our relative condition. The man with rubber heels would have thought himself favored had he not seen someone with a bicycle, and the man with a bicycle was contented until his friend got a motorcycle. The man with a motorcycle thought he had the best the world afforded until he saw an automobile and the man in the automobile was happy until his neighbor got a yacht. “All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king’s gate.”

I have lived some years in this blessed land and the only criticism I have ever heard, either of our form of government or our policy, is the fact that some men have got rich.

I made this statement in a public speech some months ago and asked who had heard any other. A man answered: “Some people have got poor.” I admitted that I had known a number of fellows whose fathers had left them money and who had got poor, but I told the audience that most of the poor men whom I had known had simply remained poor. I asked my critic if he had ever fattened cattle. He admitted he had not. Then I assured him that he would seldom see a steer getting poor in a feed yard where others were doing well and most were getting fat, but he would frequently see one that remained poor, notwithstanding his environments.

Two men were standing by the side of the New York Central Railroad. One said to the other: “My, see this track of empire! Four tracks, great Mogul engines taking two thousand tons of freight at a load, passenger trains making sixty miles an hour. There comes the express!” As the train passed a cinder lit in the eye of the enthusiast, when immediately he denounced the road, cursed the management and swore at all four tracks.

In a country like ours, where conditions have been superb, resources matchless and resourcefulness unequalled, none should be surprised at the speed we have developed and no one ought to use language unfit to print simply because there are cinders in the air. Admittedly there are. We have all had them in our eyes. They are more than annoying, but the only way to prevent cinders is to tear up the tracks. And it is simply surprising the number of good people who are trying to make the world a paradise through a policy of destruction.

Socialists, near-socialists, bolsheviki, anarchists, I. W. W.’s, non-partisan leaguers, single taxers, and all the infernal bunch of disturbers and propagandists of class hatred, unintentionally led and reinforced by a large percent of the teachers of political economy and sociology in our colleges and universities, seem bent upon nothing less than a revolution in both our form of government and our policy of government. Unless something be speedily done to counteract there surely will be precipitated in America what France experienced, and what Russia is now suffering.

WHILE STATESMEN SLEEP THE EVIL ONE SOWS TARES

In the winter of 1898 I attended a much advertised lecture by George D. Herron, then Professor of Applied Christianity in one of the largest colleges west of the Mississippi. The lecture was given in the largest church of Des Moines, on a Sunday evening, and most of the other churches adjourned their services that they might hear this “remarkable man.” Several of the leading pastors occupied the pulpit with him and the pastor of the second largest church in the city introduced the lecturer, I remember, as “a Man with a Mission.” He spoke at length and his utterances were applauded by a good percent of the congregation, and by several of the pastors. Of course the vile life he was living, and the viler social belief which he then and now entertains, were unknown, but his far more dangerous teachings were well known to all and approved by many. The burden of his “mission” was denunciation of what he called the “Divine Right of Property,” which he compared to the “Divine Right of Kings” and predicted that as the latter had been overthrown by revolution, the former must be. It was indeed a “theory pickled in the preserving juices of pulpit eloquence and laid by against a day of reckoning.” I speak of this not to criticise the good people who approved his utterances, many of whom did not comprehend what was involved, but to show the prevalence of bolshevist teachings twenty years ago. Unless he has changed he should prove very satisfactory to the bolshevists of Russia, where at this writing he is supposed to be at the request of the President.

Quite recently the professor of political economy in one of the state universities of the Middle West, in the course of his daily denunciations of the policy of internal improvement as pursued by this government, and his condemnations of wealth and the possessors thereof, referred to the grant of land to the Northern Pacific Railroad and characterized it as a “gigantic steal.” A member of his class who had had rare privileges interrupted to ask: “If the lands in this grant were so valuable how do you explain the fact that Jay Cooke, after financing the Civil War, went broke in selling Northern Pacific Railroad Bonds, secured by both the road and the lands, at 85 per cent of par?” The professor inquired where the young man had obtained his information and was told: “From the memoirs of Jay Cooke.” “Well,” said the professor, “that is a subject to be considered.” But the next day he continued sowing seeds of anarchy.

During the winter of 1916 I listened to a lecture by a man of international reputation before the students of one of our very large eastern universities. Early in his tirade, improperly called lecture, he informed the students that there were two ways to make money – “one to earn it and the other to steal it.” He told them that when they worked on the street railway they earned their money, but when the company charged five cents for a ride, it stole its money. The students applauded. Later he told them that if they wanted to go to Boston over the New Haven Railroad, and all the workmen should die or strike, they would get no farther than they could walk; but if all the stockholders and bond owners were to die, they “might thank God for the dispensation but they would get to Boston just the same.” The students applauded. He closed in this language: “They talk about preparedness, and well they may, for if these conditions continue, preparedness will be necessary against the internal uprising that is certain to follow.” The students again applauded.

If there has been any systematic effort made to suppress, nullify or destroy bolshevistic teachings, not always as bold but of the same character, with which nearly every college and university is daily deluged, both from chair and rostrum, I will be glad to know when and where the counteracting forces have been applied. Many men of wealth have thought they were advancing the interest of their country and humanity generally by endowing colleges and universities. We have made education a fetich and have assumed that all education is alike good. It would be far better for America to have its youth poisoned with strychnine than with bolshevism. Poison administered through the stomach is not contagious, but what has been lodged in the brain at these hotbeds of socialism spreads, and when it breaks in epidemic no army can effect a quarantine.

CHAPTER XVI

GREED AND ITS PUNISHMENT

The government very properly interfered to curb aggression and extortion. That is a most appropriate function of government, but a very inappropriate end and can be carried too far.

Just cause for complaint did, does and always will exist. The Kingdom of Heaven has not yet been established by human agencies. Greed of gain, whetted by indulgence, led to practices in many instances reprehensible. Some of the big fellows who had achieved great things, and rightfully owned what they had accomplished, seemed to think they also owned the little things that others had done. Punishment became necessary and the government administered it wisely and with lavish hand. Not a few of the big boys were whipped in the presence of the infant class, a thing always gratifying to juniors. Thereupon, all the little people became hilarious over these just punishments and it became a pastime to get after “those higher up.” One of our distinguished senators is credited with the statement that the people changed the motto over their Temples of Justice to “Soak Him.” It soon became more difficult to secure the acquittal of an innocent man of affairs, than it had been to convict the guilty. Until time is no more the pendulum will continue to swing from one extreme to another.

PUNISHMENT A MEANS, NOT AN END

I know of no better illustration of the necessity of punishment and the desirability of quitting when its purpose is accomplished than an incident told me by a man who claimed to have been an eye-witness.

Back in the days when young men attended school until they were married, a theological student attempted to teach in a country district on the frontier of Ohio. The big boys became obstreperous. He urged them to treat him respectfully for he said he was studying for the ministry. The effect was as one might suppose. They carried him out, they washed his face in the snow, they dipped him in the creek until he gave up in despair.

Shortly thereafter, another youth applied. The director told him he could not maintain discipline. He said if he failed, it would cost the district nothing. Certificates to teach were then unknown. When the pupils assembled, they found him sitting at his desk reading. They looked him over, sized him up, thought him an easy mark and commenced pounding their desks and stamping their feet, and kept it up until nine o’clock. Then the new teacher laid aside his book, locked the door, put the key in his pocket and called school to order. The preliminaries having been unusual, silence was secured. He informed them they need not attempt to escape, for the windows were nailed down. Then, opening his carpet bag, he brought forth a revolver, a bowie knife and a blacksnake whip. Then after warning the pupils not to arise until their names were called, he summoned John Jones to the floor. With whip in one hand and revolver in the other, he proceeded to give private lessons. When through with John he called Bill Smith. He did not need to ask their names. After going some distance down his list, he told them they had probably learned more that day than they had ever learned in any one day in their lives, and perhaps as much as it was wise to attempt to learn in one day, adding: “When you come again, come expecting to obey the rules, attend to business and make no false motions. There will be no further exercises today.” They never knew whence he came nor where he went. He had performed his mission and wisely left future tasks to his successor.

I did not inquire concerning the subsequent history of that school, but I understand human nature enough to know that if his successors were men without plan or purpose or policy of their own, and only sought to repeat the popular practices of their predecessor, they permanently ruined that school. There was but one wise course. Without apologizing for what had been done, or lowering the standard of discipline, there should have been a return to the ordinary tasks of the schoolroom without unnecessary delay, for I declare to you that corporal punishment is not the purpose for which schools are established, nor are criminal prosecutions the aim and end for which governments are instituted among men. Both are essential at times, but let us hope that captains of industry and business men generally have learned their lesson sufficiently so that it shall not be necessary to continue indefinitely what was so admirably done a decade or more ago.

Unless punishment is discriminately administered, demoralization will follow, and if the big boys are whipped for no other purpose than to please the little folks, they will probably go fishing. And whenever the big boys of America take a day off, trouble ensues. Only a very few years ago, I saw a thousand men standing in line awaiting their turn for a cup of coffee and a slice of bread at the hands of charity. Business simply could not stand the lash incessantly applied. It had taken a day off.

Then the war came, abnormal demands were created and great prosperity ensued. But before the revival of industry, sufficient time elapsed to permit a fundamental economic principle to be elucidated in the greatest school of the world, the school of experience.

CHAPTER XVII

OBSTRUCTIVE LEGISLATION

While supervision and control of big business is essential, the trend has been in the direction of interference and in many instances inhibition.

While both political parties, and all administrations, profess great friendship for business, the treatment that both political parties have accorded business is well illustrated by the fable of the elephant that, in going through the jungle, stepped on a mother bird. When the elephant saw the havoc she had wrought, she called the orphaned chick and said: “This is deplorable. I did not intend to kill your mother. I am a mother myself and have the mother instinct. But the deed has been done and is past recall. Being unable to restore your mother I shall give my efforts to the task that your mother would perform if she were living.” So the elephant sat down on the chicks.

The American people have shown great aptitude and achieved unparalleled success in two distinct fields – baseball and business. During the period of development and successful prosecution of these two great national games, the rules of the game were made by experts in the respective games. Practical bankers made the rules of banking, experienced traffic men made rules governing transportation, and expert baseball players formulated the rules of that game. Business has suffered because of modern methods, and baseball will go where business had gone prior to the war, should the same policy be pursued and the committee that is to make the rules of baseball be selected under the direct primary system, from among those who never play the game, and seldom see it played, upon a platform demanding that strenuous playing shall cease, and that the score must be a tie regardless of errors.

Instead of permitting practical bankers to apply fundamental banking principles, we have forty-nine distinct sets of statutory rules, one for each state and one for the union of states, enacted by men some of whom have no more knowledge of banking than they have of aeronautics, and frequently administered by those whose tenure of office depends upon the amount of trouble they can make.

We legislate to prevent monopolies and for the ostensible purpose of encouraging competition, but the rules of banking are well nigh prohibitive of the creation of new competitive concerns. The president of one of the largest banking institutions in the United States, whose operations extend into every state, told me that he had refused a loan to Phil Armour except upon collateral that could be sold on the stock exchange of any city, and in the same conversation said there was not a loan in his institution except upon listed collateral. Only big concerns can furnish that class of security.

Suppose you were to build a packing house costing one million dollars and should make a bond issue of five hundred thousand dollars so as to have collateral. The officers of no bank would care to lend on those bonds. To do so would be to rely upon their judgment, and some little bank examiner would report that the bank had loaned on collateral that had no market value. Thereupon the Banking Department would write criticising the loan and directing that the letter be read to the board and a certain number of directors sign a reply. The course of least resistance is to refuse all loans except to monopolies or upon stock exchange collateral.

Not long ago a friend applied to one of the large banking institutions in New York City for a loan upon unlisted securities. The president took from his desk a certificate of stock of a certain railroad and said: “I do not believe this stock worth the paper it is printed on, but I will lend money upon it. I believe your securities are absolutely good but I will not lend a dollar upon them.”

The reason was sensible, and the banker was wise when banking laws and the rules of banking departments are considered. The railroad stock was listed and dealt in every hour. Hence the public assumed it had value, and it could be sold on the stock exchange for a price that fluctuated little. Its intrinsic value, if any, was problematic, but it did have a market value. The security offered was not listed. In the opinion of the banker it had abundant intrinsic value, but since it did not have a market value on the stock exchange, he did not feel justified in inviting criticism from the Banking Department by relying upon his judgment. It is difficult for a new concern to get credit and without credit no concern can live.

BECAUSE ONE HORSE KICKS SHALL WE HAMSTRING THE WHOLE DROVE?

To a greater or less degree, the same policy has been applied to nearly all important branches of business. The rules for the operation of railroads and insurance companies are both complex and conflicting. The books have to be kept to conform to the legislative requirements of every state in which the concern does business.

A certain express company formerly employed one attorney at two thousand dollars a year. It now maintains a legal department occupying an entire floor of an office building, and the officers of the company are in daily consultation lest they violate some state or federal statute and go to the penitentiary.

The president of an insurance company told me that if he did in Missouri what he was required to do in Texas, the penitentiary would await him, while if he omitted it in Texas, his punishment would be equally modest.