“In this country, it is customary for the sons of the presidents
of great railroads, or other companies, to begin at the bottom of
the ladder and work their way up step by step, just the same as any
other boy in the employ of the corporation. This course has become
imperatively necessary in the United States, where each great business
has become a profession in itself. Most of the big machine shops
number among their employees, scions of old families who carry dinner
pails, and work with files or lathes, the same as anyone else. Such
shoulder-to-shoulder experience is invaluable to a man who is destined
to command, because he not only masters the trade technically, but
learns all about the men he works with and qualifies himself to grapple
with labor questions which may arise.
“There is no end of conspicuous examples of the wisdom of this system
in America. There are also many instances of disaster to great
industrial concerns due to the inexperience or the lack of tact of men
placed suddenly in control.”
“What is the responsibility of wealth, Mr. Mills?”
“A man must learn not to think too much of money. It should be
considered as a means and not an end, and the love for it should
never be permitted to so warp a man’s mind as to destroy his interest
in progressive ideas. Making money is an education, and the wide
experience thus acquired teaches a man discrimination in both men
and projects, where money is under consideration. Very few men who
make their own money use it carelessly. Most good projects that fail
owe their failure to bad business management, rather than to lack of
intrinsic merit. An inventor may have a very good thing, and plenty of
capital may be enlisted, but if a man not acquainted with the peculiar
line, or one who is not a good salesman or financier be employed as
manager, the result is disastrous. A man should spend his money in a
way that tends to advance the best interests of society in the country
he lives in, or in his own neighborhood at least. There is only one
thing that is a greater harm to the community than a rich spendthrift,
and that is a miser.”