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
4. _The organizer need not himself have great wealth, but he must have
ability to command financial resources._ Business to-day is done in many
cases with borrowed capital. Even a subscription to stock is frequently
as much in the nature of a loan, made in reliance on the reputation of
the organizer, as an investment for profits. There are many temporary
needs that require sudden loans. The confidence of investors, whether
banks, trust companies, individual shareholders or investors in bonds,
must be secured by the organizer. Good judgment of the money market
often is as vital as judgment of the market for the particular product.
In some of the largest corporate enterprises this quality becomes the
most essential.
[Sidenote: Scarcity of great organizing ability]
[Sidenote: The industrial leaders]
5. _Organizing ability of the highest order is rarely found._ This is
almost a superfluous statement after the foregoing. According to the
theory of chances, such a combination and balancing of qualities is
likely to occur in very few cases. Even where it exists, it may not be
discovered or developed. The man may not find his opportunity, nor the
task the man. There are many misfits in the world. On the occasion of
the visit of Prince Henry of Prussia to America, in 1902, he was
entertained at luncheon in New York with one hundred of the leaders in
invention, finance, and industry, wherein have been the most
characteristic achievements of America. In jocular reference to the
French Academy, whose members are the forty most noted literary men of
France, the newspapers called this the meeting of America's one hundred
immortals. There were J. P. Morgan, the great financier; Vanderbilt,
Hill, and Harriman, the railroad kings; Carnegie, the iron magnate;
Irving Scott, "the man who built the Oregon"--nearly all the company
deserving a place at the table mainly by reason of excellence as
business organizers. Such a gathering has a dramatic interest as
presenting the greatest leaders of industry, but about other tables
might be gathered thousands of other less notable figures worthy to be
accounted captains of industry in their several fields. One may well
ask, How did they come into the important places they occupy?
§ III. THE SELECTION OF ABILITY
[Sidenote: Various roads to industrial leadership]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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