The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fundamentals of Prosperity, by Roger W. Babson potx

What he had in mind was that they were looking too much to the structure above ground, and too little to the spiritual forces which must be the foundation of any structure which is to st

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Fundamentals of Prosperity, by Roger W Babson

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Title: Fundamentals of Prosperity

What They Are and Whence They Come

Author: Roger W Babson

Release Date: May 16, 2007 [EBook #21502] Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK

Cover

LONDON AND

EDINBURGH

Foreword

II Honesty or Steel Doors?

III Faith the Searchlight of

Business

IV Opportunity

V Coöperation—Success by

Helping the Other Fellow

VI Our Real Resources

VII Study the Human Soul

VIII Boost the Other Fellow

IX What Truly Counts

X What Figures Show

XI Where the Church Falls

XII The Future Church

Return to Contents

Some two thousand years ago the

greatest teacher who ever walked the

earth advised the people of Judea not

to build their houses on the sand

What he had in mind was that they

were looking too much to the

structure above ground, and too little

to the spiritual forces which must be

the foundation of any structure

which is to stand Following the war

we enjoyed the greatest prosperitythis country has ever witnessed;—thegreatest activity, the greatest bankclearings, the greatest foreign trade,the greatest railroad gross earnings,the highest commodity prices.

We then constructed a ten-storybuilding on a foundation meant foronly a two or three story building.Hence the problem confronting usbusiness men is to strengthen thefoundation or else see the structurefall I am especially glad of theopportunity to write for businessmen There are two reasons:—first,because I feel that the business menare largely responsible for having this

ten-story structure on a foundationmade for one of only two or threestories; secondly, because I believesuch men alone have the vision, theimagination and the ability tostrengthen the foundation andprevent the structure from falling.

The fact is, we have become crazyover material things We are lookingonly at the structure above ground

We are trying to get more smokefrom the chimney We are looking atspace instead of service, at profitsinstead of volume With our eyesfocused on the structure aboveground, we have lost sight of thosehuman resources, thrift, imagination,

integrity, vision and faith whichmake the structure possible I feelthat only by the business men canthis foundation be strengthenedbefore the inevitable fall comes.

When steel rails were selling at

$55 a ton, compared with only $25 a

t o n a few years previous, our steelplants increased their capacitytwenty-five per cent Increaseddemand, you say? No, the figuresdon’t show it Only thirty-one milliontons were produced in 1919,compared with thirty-nine milliontons in 1916 People have forgottenthe gospel of service The producingpower per man has fallen off from

fifteen to twenty per cent We haveall been keen on developingconsumption We have devoted nine-tenths of our thought, energy andeffort to developing consumption.This message is to beg of everyreader to give more thought todeveloping production, to thereviving of a desire to produce andthe realization of joy in production.

We are spending millions andmillions in every city to develop thegood-will of customers, to develop incustomers a desire to buy This is allwell and good, but we can’t continue

to go in one direction indefinitely

We cannot always get steam out of

the boiler without feeding thefurnace The time has come when inour own interests, in the interests ofour communities, our industry, and

of the nation itself, for a while wemust stop adding more stories to thisstructure Instead, we muststrengthen the foundations uponwhich the entire structure rests

R W B

Honesty or Steel

Doors?

Return to Contents

W HILE FIFTY - ONE PER CENT OF THE

PEOPLE HAVE THEIR EYES ON THE

GOAL OF INTEGRITY , OUR

INVESTMENTS ARE SECURE ; BUT

WITH FIFTY - ONE PER CENT OF THEM

HEADED IN THE WRONG DIRECTION ,

OUR INVESTMENTS ARE VALUELESS

T HE FIRST FUNDAMENTAL OF

prosperity is Integrity.

Chicago, I was taken by the president

of one of the largest banks to see hisnew safety deposit vaults Hedescribed these—as bank presidentswill—as the largest and mostmarvellous vaults in the city Heexpatiated on the heavy steel doorsand the various electrical andmechanical contrivances whichprotect the stocks and bondsdeposited in the institution

While at the bank a person came

in to rent a box He made thearrangements for the box, and a boxwas handed to him In it he depositedsome stocks and bonds which hetook from his pocket Then the clerkwho had charge of the vaults went to

a rack on the wall and took out a keyand gave it to the man who hadrented the box The man then put thebox into one of the little steelcompartments, shut the door andturned the key He then went awayfeeling perfectly secure on account ofthose steel doors and various

contrivances existing to protect his

a few minutes after he had left thebuilding The great steel door and the

contrivances would have beenabsolutely valueless

Of course the point I am making

is that the real security which that

great bank in Chicago had to offer its

clientele lay not in the massive stone

columns in front of its structure; nor

in the heavy steel doors; nor the

contrivances The real strength of

that institution rested in the honesty,

—the absolute integrity—of its clerks

That afternoon I was talking

about the matter with a business

man We were discussing securities,

earnings and capitalization He

seemed greatly troubled by the mass

of figures before him I said to him:

“Instead of pawing over these

earnings and striving to selectyourself the safest bond, you will dobetter to go to a reliable banker orbond-house and leave the decisionwith him.”

“Why,” he said, “I couldn’t dothat.”

“Mr Jones,” I went on, “tell methe truth! After you buy a bond or astock certificate, do you ever take thetrouble to see if it is signed andcountersigned properly? Moreover, ifyou find it signed, is there any way bywhich you may know whether thesignature is genuine or forged?”

“No,” he said, “there isn’t I amabsolutely dependent on the integrity

of the bankers from whom I buy thesecurities.”

And when you think of it, there isreally no value at all in the pieces ofpaper which one so carefully locks up

in these safety deposit boxes There

is no value at all in the bank-bookwhich we so carefully cherish There

is no value at all in those deeds andmortgages upon which we depend so

completely The value rests first, in

the integrity of the lawyers, clerksand stenographers who draw up the

papers; secondly, in the integrity of

the officers who sign the documents;

thirdly, in the integrity of the courts

and judges which would enable us to

enforce our claims; and finally, in the

integrity of the community whichwould determine whether or not theorders of the court will be executed

These things which we look upon

as of great value:—the stocks, bonds,bank-books, deeds, mortgages,insurance policies, etc., are merelynothing While fifty-one per cent ofthe people have their eyes on the goal

of Integrity, our investments aresecure; but with fifty-one per cent ofthem headed in the wrong direction,our investments are valueless So thefirst fundamental of prosperity isintegrity Without it there is nocivilization, there is no peace, there is

no security, there is no safety Mindyou also that this applies just asmuch to the man who is working forwages as to the capitalist and everyowner of property.

Integrity, however, is very muchbroader than the above illustrationwould indicate Integrity applies tomany more things than to money.Integrity requires the seeking after,

as well as the dispensing of, truth Itwas this desire for truth whichfounded our educational institutions,our sciences and our arts All thegreat professions, from medicine toengineering, rest upon this spirit ofintegrity Only as they so rest, can

they prosper or even survive.

Integrity is the mother ofknowledge The desire for truth is thebasis of all learning, the value of allexperience and the reason for allstudy and investigation Withoutintegrity as a basis, our entireeducational system would fall to theground; all newspapers andmagazines would become sources ofgreat danger and the publication ofbooks would have to be suppressed.Our whole civilization rests upon theassumption that people are honest.With this confidence shaken, thestructure falls And it should fall, for,unless the truth be taught, the nation

would be much better off without itsschools, newspapers, books andprofessions Better have no gun at all,than one aimed at yourself Thecorner-stone of prosperity is thestone of Integrity.

Faith the Searchlight

of Business

Return to Contents

T HIS RELIGION WHICH WE TALK

ABOUT FOR AN HOUR A WEEK , ON

S UNDAY , IS NOT ONLY THE VITAL

FORCE WHICH PROTECTS OUR

COMMUNITY , BUT IT IS THE VITAL

FORCE WHICH MAKES OUR

communities The power of our

SPIRITUAL FORCES HAS NOT YET

been tapped.

About three years ago I wastravelling in South America Whengoing from Sao Paulo up across thetablelands to Rio Janeiro, I passedthrough a little poverty-strickenIndian village It was some 3,000 feetabove sea level; but it was located atthe foot of a great water-power Thiswater-power, I was told, could easilydevelop from 10,000 to 15,000 horse-power for twelve months of the year

At the base of this waterfall lived

these poverty-stricken Indians,plowing their ground with brokensticks, bringing their corn twohundred miles on their backs fromthe seacoast, and grinding it by handbetween two stones Yet,—with alittle faith and vision, they could havedeveloped that water-power, eventhough in a most primitive manner,and with irrigation, could have madethat poverty-stricken valley averitable Garden of Eden Theysimply lacked faith They lacked

vision They were unwilling, orunable, to look ahead to dosomething for the next generationand trust to the Lord for the results

I met the head man of the villageand said to him: “Why is it that youdon’t do something to develop thispower?”

“Why, if we started to developthis thing,” he answered, “by the time

we got it done, we would be dead.”Indians had lived there for thelast two hundred years lacking thevision No one in that communityhad the foresight or vision to think orsee beyond the end of his day It waslack of faith which stood betweenthem and prosperity Hence, thesecond great fundamental ofprosperity is that intangible

“something,”—known as faith, vision,

hope, whatever you may call it.

The writer of the Book ofProverbs says: “Where there is novision, the people perish.” Statisticsteach that where there is no vision,civilization never gets started! Thetangible things which we prize sohighly,—buildings, railroads,steamships, factories, power plants,telephones, aeroplanes, etc., are butthe result of faith and vision Thesethings are only symptoms ofconditions, mere barometers whichregister the faith and vision ofmankind

This religion which we talk aboutfor an hour a week, on Sunday, is not

only the vital force which protects

our community, but it is the vital

force which makes our communities.

The power of our spiritual forces has

not yet been tapped! Our

grandchildren will look back upon us

and wonder why we neglected our

trust and our opportunity, just as we

look back on those poor Indians in

Brazil who plowed with crooked

sticks, grinding their corn between

stones and hauling it on their backs

two hundred miles from the

seaboard

These statements are not the

result of any special interest as achurchman I am not a preacher I

am simply a business man, and mywork is almost wholly for bankers,brokers, manufacturers, merchantsand investors The concern withwhich I am associated has onehundred and eighty people in asuburb of Boston who are collecting,compiling and distributing statistics

on business conditions We have onlyone source of income, and that isfrom the clients who pay us for ananalysis of the situation Thereforeyou may rest assured that it isimpossible for us to do anypropaganda work in the interests of

any one nation, sect, religion orchurch The only thing we can giveclients is a conclusion based on adiagnosis of a given situation Asprobably few of you readers areclients of ours, may I quote from aBulletin which we recently sent tothese bankers and manufacturers?

“The need of the hour is notmore legislation The need of thehour is more religion More religion

is needed everywhere, from the halls

of Congress at Washington, to thefactories, the mines, the fields andthe forests It is one thing to talkabout plans or policies, but a plan orpolicy without a religious motive is

like a watch without a spring or abody without the breath of life Thetrouble, to-day, is that we are trying

to hatch chickens from sterile eggs

We may have the finest incubator inthe world and operate it according tothe most improved regulations—moreover, the eggs may appearperfect specimens—but unless theyhave the germ of life in them all ourefforts are of no avail.”

I have referred to the fact thatthe security of our investments isabsolutely dependent upon the faith,the righteousness and the religion ofother people I have stated that thereal strength of our investments is

due, not to the distinguished bankers

of America, but rather to the poorpreachers I now go farther than thatand say that the development of thecountry as a whole is due to this

something, this indescribable

something, this combination of faith,

thrift, industry, initiative, integrityand vision, which these preachershave developed in their communities.Faith and vision do not comefrom the wealth of a nation It’s thefaith and vision which produce thewealth The wealth of a country doesnot depend on its raw materials Rawmaterials are to a certain extentessential and to a great extent

valuable; but the nations which day are richest in raw materials arethe poorest in wealth Even whenconsidering one country—the UnitedStates—the principle holds true Thecoal and iron and copper have beenhere in this country for thousands ofyears, but only within the last fiftyyears have they been used Water-powers exist even to-day absolutelyunharnessed Look the whole worldover and there has been no increase

to-in raw materials There existed onethousand years ago more rawmaterials than we have to-day, but

we then lacked men with a vision andthe faith to take that coal out of the

ground, to harness the water-powers,

to build the railroads and to do otherthings worth while So I say, thesecond great fundamental ofprosperity is Faith

Industry vs.

Opportunity

Return to Contents

I NDUSTRY IS THE MOTHER OF

INVENTION S TRUGGLE , SACRIFICE

AND BURNING MIDNIGHT OIL HAVE

PRODUCED THE COTTON GIN , THE

SEWING MACHINE , THE PRINTING

PRESS , THE STEAM ENGINE , THE

ELECTRIC MOTOR , THE TELEPHONE ,

THE INCANDESCENT LAMP AND THE

OTHER GREAT INVENTIONS OF CIVILIZATION S OME RELIGIOUS

ENTHUSIASTS THINK ONLY OF THE

“ LILIES OF THE FIELDS ” AND FORGET

the parable of the talents.

A few years ago I was employed

by one of the largest publishinghouses in the country to make astudy of America’s captains ofindustry The real purpose of thestudy was to discover some industry

or some man that could be helpedgreatly through national advertising