Chapter 2

Civilization is ultimately dependent on the ability of men to cooeperate. The best barometer of civilization is the desire and ability of men to cooeperate. The willingness to share with others,--the desire to work with others is the great contribution which Christianity has given to the world. The effect of this new spirit is most thrilling when one considers the clothes which he has on his back, the food which he has on the table, the things which he has in the house, and thinks of the thousands of people whose labour has directly contributed toward these things. Now this clearly shows that the fourth great fundamental of prosperity is cooeperation, the willingness and ability of men to cooeperate, to serve one another, to help one another, to give and to take.

But the teachings of Jesus along these lines have a very much broader application than when applied merely to raw materials, or even manufactured products. As we can begin to prosper only when we develop into finished products the raw materials of the fields, mines and forests, so we can become truly prosperous only as we develop the greatest of all resources,--the human resources. Not only does Christianity demand that we seek to help and build up others; but our own prosperity depends thereon as well.

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When in Washington, during the war, I had a wonderful opportunity of meeting the representatives of both labour and capital. I had some preconceived ideas on the labour question when I went to Washington; but now they are all gone. I am perfectly willing, now, to agree with the wage worker, to agree with the employer, to agree with both or to agree with neither. But this one thing I am sure of, and that is that the present system doesn't work. The present system is failing in getting men to produce.

By nature man likes to produce. Our boy, as soon as he can toddle out-of-doors, starts instinctively to make a mud pie. When he gets a little older he gets some boards, shingles and nails and builds a hut. Just as soon as he gets a knife, do you have to show him how to use it? He instinctively begins to make a boat or an arrow or perhaps something he has never seen. Why? Because in his soul is a natural desire to produce and an inborn joy in production. But what happens to most of these boys after they grow up?

Our industrial system has resulted in almost stultifying men economically and making most of them economically non-productive. Why? I don't know. I simply say it happens and the salvation of our industries depends on discovering something which will revive in man that desire to produce and that joy in production which he had instinctively when he was a small boy.

Increased wages will not do it. Shorter hours will not do it. The wage worker must feel right and the employer must feel right. It is all a question of feeling. Feelings rule this world,--not things. The reason that some people are not successful with collective bargaining and profit sharing and all these other plans is because they think that men act according to what they say, or according to what they learn, or according to that in which they agree. Men act according to their _feelings_, and "good feeling" is synonymous with the spirit of cooeperation. One cannot exist without the other and prosperity cannot continue without both. Hence the fourth fundamental of prosperity is Cooeperation.

V

OUR REAL RESOURCES

We have gone daffy over things like steam, electricity, water power, buildings, railroads, and ships and we have forgotten the human soul upon which all of these things depend and from which all of these things originate.

Two captains of industry were standing, one day, on the bridge at Niagara looking at the great falls. One man turned to the other and said: "Behold the greatest source of undeveloped power in America."

"No. The greatest source of undeveloped power in America is the soul of man," the other replied.

I was talking with a large manufacturer the other day, and he told me that he was supporting scholarships in four universities to enable young men to study the raw materials which he is using in his plant. I asked him if he was supporting any scholarships to study the human element in his plant, and he said "No." Yet when asked for definite figures, it appeared that eighty per cent. of every dollar which he spends, goes for labour, and only twenty per cent. goes for materials. He is endowing four scholarships to study the twenty per cent. and is not doing a thing to study the eighty per cent.! Statistics show that the greatest undeveloped resources in America are not our mines or our forests or our streams, but rather the human souls of the men and women who work for us.

This is most significant when one resorts to statistics and learns that everything that we have,--every improvement, every railroad, every ship, every building costing in excess of $5,000, every manufacturing concern employing over twenty men, yes, every newspaper and book worth while, has originated and been developed in the minds of less than two per cent. of the people. The solution of our industrial problems and the reduction of the cost of living depend not on fighting over what is already produced, but upon producing more. This means that this two per cent. must be increased to four per cent., and then to six per cent. If all the good things which we now have, come from the enterprise of only two per cent., it is evident that we would all have three times as much if the two per cent were increased to six per cent.

Jesus was absolutely right in His contention that if we would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness all these other things would naturally come to us. This is what Jesus had in mind when He urged people to give and serve, promising that such giving and serving should be returned to them a hundred fold or more. Jesus never preached unselfishness or talked sacrifice as such, but only urged His hearers to look through to the end, see what the final result would be and do what would be best for them in the long run. Jesus urged His followers to consider the spiritual things rather than the material, and the eternal things rather than the temporal; but not in the spirit of sacrifice. The only sacrifice which Jesus asked of His people was the same sacrifice which the farmer makes when he throws his seed into the soil.

The story of the loaves and fishes is still taught as a miracle, but the day will come when it will not be considered such. The same is true regarding the incident when Jesus found that His disciples had been fishing all night without results and He suggested that they cast the net on the other side. They followed His advice and the net immediately filled with so many fishes that they could hardly pull it up. If we to-day would give more thought to the spiritual and less to the material, we would have more in health, happiness, and prosperity. The business men to-day would be far better off if--like the fishermen of Galilee--we would take Jesus' advice and cast our net on "the other side."

We are told that with sufficient faith we could remove mountains. Have mountains ever been removed or tunnelled without faith? The bridging of rivers, the building of railroads, the launching of steamships, and the creation of all industries are dependent on the faith of somebody. Too much credit is given both to capital and labour in the current discussions of to-day. The real credit for most of the things which we have is due to some human soul which supplied the faith that was the mainspring of every enterprise. Furthermore in most instances this human soul owes this germ of faith to some little country church with a white steeple and old-fashioned furnishings.

The reason I say "old-fashioned" church is because our fathers were more willing to rely upon the power of faith than many of us to-day. What they lacked in many other ways was more than compensated by their faith in God. They got, through faith, "that something" which men to-day are trying to get through every other means. All the educators, all the psychologists, all the inspirational writers cannot put into a man the vision and the will to do things which are gained by a clear faith. Most of us to-day are frantically trying to invent a machine which will solve our problems, when all the while we have the machine within us, if we will only set it going. That machine is the human soul.

The great problem to-day is to develop the human soul, to develop this wonderful machine which each one of us has between his ears. Only as this is developed can we solve our other problems. When we give as much thought to the solution of the human problem as we give to the solution of the steam problem or the electrical problem, we will have no labour problem. We have gone daffy over things like steam, electricity, water-power, buildings, railroads and ships, and we have forgotten the human soul upon which all of these things depend and from which all of these things originate.

VI

STUDY THE HUMAN SOUL

The first step is to give more thought and attention to people, to establish more points of contact. Let us do humanly, individually, man to man, what we are trying to do in a great big way.

I was visiting the home of a famous manufacturer recently and he took me out to his farm. He showed me his cattle. Above the head of each heifer and each cow was the pedigree. The most careful record was kept of every animal. He had a blue-print in his library at home of every one of those animals. Yet when we began later to talk about the labour problem in his own plant and I asked him how many of his people he knew personally, he told me,--I quote his words:

"Why, they are all alike to me, Mr. Babson. I don't know one from the other."

Later in the evening--it was during the Christmas vacation--a young fellow drove up to the house in a fancy automobile, came in and asked for this manufacturer's only daughter in order to take her to a party. I didn't like the looks of the fellow very well. After they had gone out, I said to the father:

"Who is that chap?"

The father replied: "I don't know; some friend of Mary's."

The father had every one of his cows blue-printed, but he didn't know the name of the man who came to get his daughter and who didn't deliver her until two o'clock the next morning! That man was neglecting the human soul, both in his factory and in his home.

* * * * *

I repeat that we have gone crazy over structures above ground. We are absolutely forgetting the greatest of our resources,--the great spiritual resource, upon which everything depends. How shall we develop these resources?

Certainly we are not developing this great spiritual resource in the public schools. The educational system was originally founded by the Church to train the children in the fundamentals of righteousness. Gradually, but constantly, we have drifted away from this goal and to-day the purpose for which our schools were started has been almost entirely lost. In some states it is now a criminal offence for a school superintendent to ask a prospective school teacher what she believes or whether she has any religion whatever! Under these conditions, is it surprising that the spiritual resources of our children are lying dormant?

Much of the prosperity of this nation is due to the family prayers which were once daily held in the homes of our fathers. To a very large extent this custom has gone by. Whatever the arguments pro and con may be, the fact nevertheless remains that such family prayers nurtured and developed these spiritual resources to which the prosperity of the nation is due. The custom of family prayers should be revived along with many other good New England customs which some modern radicals may ridicule, but to which they owe all that they possess.

The masses to-day are getting their real education from the daily newspapers. Many of these newspapers have much good material, but the great effort of the daily press is not to make _producers_, but rather to make _consumers_. The policy of the daily press is not to get people to serve, but rather to get them to buy. Not only is the larger portion of the newspapers given up to advertising, but most of this advertising is of non-essentials, if not of luxuries. With this advertising constantly before the people of the country, it is but natural that the material things should seem of greatest importance. To remedy this situation is a great problem to-day facing the Christian business men of this country. What shall we do about it?

The first step is to give more thought and attention to people, and to establish more points of contact. Let us do humanly, individually, man to man, what we are trying to do in a great big way. Another method to develop this human resource is to give people responsibility. Moreover, we must do so if the nation is to be truly prosperous.

VII

BOOST THE OTHER FELLOW

Just as our property is safe only as the other fellow's property is safe, just as our daughter is safe only as the other fellow's daughter is safe, so it also is true that in order to develop the human soul in other men, we have to give those men something.

My little girl has a black cat; about once in four months this cat has kittens. Opposite our place is a man who has an Airedale dog. When that dog comes across the street and that cat has no kittens, the cat immediately "beats it" as fast as she can, with the dog after her. But when that dog comes across the street and that cat has the responsibility of some kittens, she immediately turns on the dog and the _dog_ "beats it" with the cat after him. It is the same dog, the same cat, and the same backyard; but in one instance the cat has no responsibilities and in the other case she has. Responsibilities develop faith, vision, courage, initiative, and other things that make the world go round.

Just as our property is safe, only as the other fellow's property is safe; just as our daughter is safe, only as the other fellow's daughter is safe; so is it also true that, in order to develop the human soul in other men, we have to give those men something. We must give them a chance. We must give them opportunity. We must give them a boost. All of us are simply storage batteries. We get out of life what we put into life. We care for others, not in accordance with what they do for us, but rather in accordance with what we have done for them.

I am quite often asked about investments. Well, there are times, about once in three or four years--during panics, when every one is scared to death--that I invest in stocks. There are other times when I advise the purchase of bonds. The fact is, however, that I have not made my money investing either in stocks or bonds. What money I have made has come from investing in boys and girls, young men and young women.

There is a common belief current to-day that only people with experience are worth while. But I say: Quit looking for the experienced salesmen and trying to make a man out of him; get a _man_, and then make a salesman of him. I have a young man in my business who was delivering trunks for an express company twelve years ago. To-day he is my sales manager and has built our gross from $100,000 to $1,000,000. One of my best experts, a man who is sought for by the leading Chambers of Commerce all over the land, was a carpenter on my garage nine years ago. Another one of my experts, a man the demand for whose services I cannot supply, never acquired recognition until he was over forty-five years of age. I found him keeping hens at Wellesley Farms! A young lady in my office to whom I pay $200 a week and who is worth, to me, $1,000 a week, I picked up at $4 a week twelve years ago.

Such cases exist everywhere. You men yourselves know them. You look over your own organizations. Who are the men who are really doing things? Are they the men you acquired ready-made from other concerns? No! They are the men that have been taken up and developed. These are the men that have made money for you and have created the business enterprise of which you are the head. Yet when we have reached a point of prestige, and have a big business, we are tempted to say: "I haven't time to develop any more people, I have got to get them already made." This is a big mistake.

* * * * *

I beg my readers--those who have them--to get your foremen together. Say to the partners or the officials of your concern: "Haven't we given too much thought to developing the structure? Aren't we piling too many stories one upon another with too little thought to the foundation?" Then go out and look over your plant and select a few people in each department to whom you will give a real opportunity. Start in to develop them and thereby strengthen the foundation of the business and the prosperity of the nation.

VIII

WHAT TRULY COUNTS

The greatest resources in the world to-day are human resources, not resources of iron, copper and lumber. The great need of the hour is to strengthen this human foundation and you business men are the one group that can do it.

When it comes to the sale of goods, the same principle applies. Eighty per cent. of our sales organizations are devoted to selling to ten per cent. of the population. We have forgotten to consider whether or not goods are needed. We only consider whether or not they are being bought. We are forgetting to establish new markets, but rather are scrambling over the markets already secured. Tremendous opportunities exist in developing new industries, in creating new communities, in relocating the center of production from one community to another community to match up with the center of consumption.

We have forgotten the latent power in the human soul, in the individual, in the community, in the different parts of the country. We have forgotten those human possibilities upon which all prosperity ultimately depends. I cannot perhaps emphasize this any more than by saying that the foundation of progress is spiritual, not material.

The greatest resources of the world to-day are human resources,--not resources of iron, copper and lumber. The great need of the hour is to strengthen this human foundation and revive in men a desire to produce and a joy in service. Business men are the one group that can do it. They understand the emotions, understand the importance of the intangible things. They understand how to awaken in people new motives. So my appeal is not to wait too long to revive man and awaken the soul which is slumbering to-day.

The nation is only a mass of individuals. The true prosperity of a country depends upon the same qualities as the true prosperity of its people. As religion is necessary for the man, it is also necessary for the nation. As the soul of man needs to be developed, so also does the soul of the nation.

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Let me tell one more personal incident. Not long ago I was at my Washington office spending the week. While there a little Western Union messenger girl came in to apply for a position. It was in the afternoon--about half-past five. I was struck with the intelligence of the girl's face and asked her two or three questions. She was tired. I asked her to sit down. I was astonished to hear her story.

She had been born and brought up in the mountains of West Virginia,--many miles from civilization. Her father and mother died when she was four years old. She had been living with an old grandfather and brother. When I began to talk with her I found her to have a most remarkable acquaintance with Emerson, with Thoreau, with Bernard Shaw and with the old Eastern writers.

I said to her: "How is it that you are delivering telegrams in a khaki suit and a soldier cap?"

She replied: "Because I could get nothing else to do. I lived down there in the mountains just as long as I could. I had to get to the city where I could express myself and develop my finer qualities. When I got to Washington there was nothing that I could do. They asked me if I could typewrite, but I had never seen a typewriter. Finally, after walking the streets for a while, I got a job as a Western Union messenger."

I wrote Mrs. Babson and made arrangements to have the girl come to Wellesley and work for a few months with the Babson Organization. I saw in her certain qualities which, if developed, should make her very useful to someone somewhere. She came to Wellesley. About a month after her arrival I was obliged to leave on a two months' trip and Mrs. Babson invited her up to dine the night before I left. I told her that I was going to speak while away on "America's Undeveloped Resources." After dinner she went to my desk and took her pen and scribbled these lines and said:

"Perhaps during your talk on America's Greatest Undeveloped Resources you will give those men a message from a Western Union girl." These are the lines she wrote. They are by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

I gave a beggar from my little store of wealth some gold; He spent the shining ore, and came again and yet again, Still cold and hungry, as before. I gave a thought--and through that thought of mine, He found himself, the man supreme, divine, Fed, clothed and crowned with blessing manifold; And now he begs no more.

The mind of man is a wonderful thing, but unless the soul of man is awakened he must lack faith, power, originality, ambition,--those vital elements which make a man a real producer. I do not say that you can awaken this force in every soul. If you are an employer, perhaps only a few of all your employees can be made to understand. But this much is certain,--in every man or woman in whom you can loose the power of this invisible something, you will mobilize a force, not only for his or her good, but for the good and perhaps the very salvation of your own business.

IX

WHAT FIGURES SHOW

Panics are caused by spiritual causes rather than financial. Prosperity is the result of righteousness rather than of material things.

The large black areas on the adjoining chart are formed by combining and plotting current figures on New Building, Crops, Clearings, Immigration, Total Foreign Trade, Money, Failures, Commodity Prices, Railroad Earnings, Stock Prices and Politics in order to give a composite view of business in the United States. (When Interstate Commerce reports of earnings of all United States railroads became available, January, 1909, this record was substituted in place of the earnings of ten representative roads which had been used previous to that time. Revised scales for monetary figures were also introduced, in August, 1912.)

The line X-Y represents the country's net gain or growth. Based on the economic theory that "action and reaction are equal when the two factors of time and intensity are multiplied to form an area," the sums of the areas above and below said line X-Y must, over sufficiently long periods of time, be equal, provided enough subjects are included, properly weighed and combined. An area of prosperity is always followed by an area of depression; an area of depression in turn is always followed by an area of prosperity. The areas, however, need not have the same shapes.