The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical ProblemsFetter, Frank A. (Frank Albert)
General
The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical Problems
Fetter, Frank A. (Frank Albert)
Economics
2. _The organizer requires ability to judge men and tact in relations
with them._ In the small group, ability to get on well in personal
contact with workmen is of great importance. Especially rare is the
genial manner that wins the confidence and even the affection of the
men. A sense of humor and the ability to turn a joke are said to have
obviated many a strike and thus to have prevented losses both to the
employer and to the men. In large affairs much of this managing tact can
be hired in good foremen; but the organizer must still have a knowledge
of men, ability to judge of human nature, to select his subordinates,
and to animate them with his own purposes and plans. Mr. Carnegie has
said that an appropriate epitaph for himself would be, "He was a man who
knew how to surround himself with men abler than he was himself." That
seems too modest; but in a sense it is not, because he claims for
himself, and justly, the highest of all industrial qualities. A great
administrator in political or industrial affairs can dispense with
everything else rather than with this, the supreme quality of the great
organizer.
[Sidenote: Foresight in commercial affairs]
3. _The organizer must have unusual foresight and the ability to form a
large commercial policy._ This proposition is to be interpreted
relatively to the task before the organizer, and to the size of the
business. Modern industry anticipates demand far more than did primitive
industry. Large amounts of materials and energy are embarked in
directions from which they cannot be recalled. With the progress of
electrical engineering it soon may become possible to recall at any
moment a cargo embarked for a distant port. But no wireless telegraphy
is able to recall the great masses of capital that are embarked on
distant and definite journeys in modern business. The organizer
anticipates future demand, and prepares for it. The process has been
figuratively expressed somewhat as follows: the enterpriser throws into
the crucible great quantities of material; they melt, and an industrial
result is secured, but whether the deposit is greater in value than the
material is a question that cannot be answered for years. The need of
anticipating demand is greater to-day than ever before, and this
requires large investments months and even years in advance. The losses
are proportionally large if there is miscalculation of demand. A large
commercial policy is one that takes into account the more distant
factors, and anticipates the new conditions. The rare ability to do this
is rightly called statemanship in economic affairs.
[Sidenote: Command of financial resources]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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