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<ANTIMG src="images/cover.png" width-obs="600" height-obs="546" alt="Cover" /></div>
<div id="title_page">
<h1 id="title">Fundamentals of Prosperity</h1>
<p id="book_subtitle">What They Are and<br/>
Whence They Come</p>
<p class="byline">By<br/>
<span class="author">ROGER W. BABSON</span><br/>
<span class="author_detail">President Babson Statistical Organization</span></p>
<div id="publisher_info">
<p class="publisher_cities">NEW YORK CHICAGO</p>
<p class="publisher_name">Fleming H. Revell Company</p>
<p class="publisher_cities">LONDON AND EDINBURGH</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="copyright_page" class="section">
<p class="rights_statement">Copyright, 1920, by<br/>
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</p>
<ul id="publisher_offices">
<li>New York: 158 Fifth Avenue</li>
<li>Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.</li>
<li>London: 21 Paternoster Square</li>
<li>Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street</li>
</ul></div>
<div id="contents" class="section">
<h2 class="section_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page5" title="5"></SPAN>Contents</h2>
<ol title="contents_list" start="0">
<li class="no_number"><SPAN href="#foreward">Foreword</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_i">Honesty or Steel Doors?</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_ii">Faith the Searchlight of Business</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_iii">Opportunity</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_iv">Coöperation—Success by Helping the Other Fellow</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_v">Our Real Resources</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_vi">Study the Human Soul</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_vii">Boost the Other Fellow</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_viii">What Truly Counts</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_ix">What Figures Show</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_x">Where the Church Falls Down</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#chapter_xi">The Future Church</SPAN></li>
</ol>
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<div id="foreward" class="section">
<h2 class="section_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page7" title="7"></SPAN>Foreword</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><span class="first_word">Some</span> 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
prosperity this country has ever witnessed;—the
greatest activity, the greatest
bank clearings, the greatest foreign trade,
the greatest railroad gross earnings, the
highest commodity prices.</p>
<p>We then constructed a ten-story building
on a foundation meant for only a two
or three story building. Hence the problem
confronting us business men is to
strengthen the foundation or else see the
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page8" title="8"></SPAN>structure fall. I am especially glad of the
opportunity to write for business men.
There are two reasons:—first, because I
feel that the business men are largely responsible
for having this ten-story structure
on a foundation made for one of only
two or three stories; secondly, because I
believe such men alone have the vision, the
imagination and the ability to strengthen
the foundation and prevent the structure
from falling.</p>
<p>The fact is, we have become crazy over
material things. We are looking only at
the structure above ground. We are trying
to get more smoke from the chimney.
We are looking at space instead of service,
at profits instead of volume. With our
eyes focused on the structure above
ground, we have lost sight of those human
resources, thrift, imagination, integrity,
vision and faith which make the structure
possible. I feel that only by the business
men can this foundation be strengthened
before the inevitable fall comes.</p>
<p>When steel rails were selling at $55
a ton, compared with only $25 a ton
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page9" title="9"></SPAN>a few years previous, our steel plants
increased their capacity twenty-five per
cent. Increased demand, you say? No,
the figures don’t show it. Only thirty-one
million tons were produced in 1919, compared
with thirty-nine million tons in
1916. People have forgotten the gospel
of service. The producing power per
man has fallen off from fifteen to twenty
per cent. We have all been keen on developing
consumption. We have devoted
nine-tenths of our thought, energy
and effort to developing consumption.
This message is to beg of every reader to
give more thought to developing production,
to the reviving of a desire to produce
and the realization of joy in production.</p>
<p>We are spending millions and millions
in every city to develop the good-will of
customers, to develop in customers a desire
to buy. This is all well and good, but we
can’t continue to go in one direction indefinitely.
We cannot always get steam out
of the boiler without feeding the furnace.
The time has come when in our own interests,
in the interests of our communities,
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page10" title="10"></SPAN>our industry, and of the nation itself, for
a while we must stop adding more stories
to this structure. Instead, we must
strengthen the foundations upon which the
entire structure rests.</p>
<p class="author_sign">R. W. B.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_i" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page11" title="11"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">I</span><br/> Honesty or Steel Doors?</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page12" title="12"></SPAN>While 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. The first fundamental of
prosperity is Integrity.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page13" title="13"></SPAN><span class="first_word">While</span> on a recent visit to Chicago,
I was taken by the president
of one of the largest banks
to see his new safety deposit vaults. He
described these—as bank presidents will—as
the largest and most marvellous vaults
in the city. He expatiated on the heavy
steel doors and the various electrical and
mechanical contrivances which protect the
stocks and bonds deposited in the institution.</p>
<p>While at the bank a person came in to
rent a box. He made the arrangements
for the box, and a box was handed to him.
In it he deposited some stocks and bonds
which he took from his pocket. Then the
clerk who had charge of the vaults went
to a rack on the wall and took out a key
and gave it to the man who had rented the
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page14" title="14"></SPAN>box. The man then put the box into one
of the little steel compartments, shut the
door and turned the key. He then went
away feeling perfectly secure on account
of those steel doors and various mechanical
and electrical contrivances existing to protect
his wealth.</p>
<p>I did not wish to give him a sleepless
night so I said nothing; but I couldn’t
help thinking how easy it would have been
for that poorly-paid, humpbacked clerk
to make a duplicate of that key before he
delivered it to the renter of that box.
With such a duplicate, the clerk could
have made that man penniless within a few
minutes after he had left the building.
The great steel door and the electrical and
mechanical contrivances would have been
absolutely valueless.</p>
<p>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 electrical and mechanical contrivances.
The real strength of that institution
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page15" title="15"></SPAN>rested in the honesty,—the absolute
integrity—of its clerks.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>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 select yourself the
safest bond, you will do better to go to a
reliable banker or bond-house and leave
the decision with him.”</p>
<p>“Why,” he said, “I couldn’t do that.”</p>
<p>“Mr. Jones,” I went on, “tell me the
truth! After you buy a bond or a stock
certificate, do you ever take the trouble to
see if it is signed and countersigned properly?
Moreover, if you find it signed, is
there any way by which you may know
whether the signature is genuine or
forged?”</p>
<p>“No,” he said, “there isn’t. I am absolutely
dependent on the integrity of the
bankers from whom I buy the securities.”</p>
<p>And when you think of it, there is really
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page16" title="16"></SPAN>no value at all in the pieces of paper which
one so carefully locks up in these safety
deposit boxes. There is no value at all in
the bank-book which we so carefully cherish.
There is no value at all in those deeds
and mortgages upon which we depend so
completely. The value rests <em>first</em>, in the
integrity of the lawyers, clerks and stenographers
who draw up the papers; <em>secondly</em>,
in the integrity of the officers who sign the
documents; <em>thirdly</em>, in the integrity of the
courts and judges which would enable us
to enforce our claims; and <em>finally</em>, in the
integrity of the community which would
determine whether or not the orders of the
court will be executed.</p>
<p>These things which we look upon as of
great value:—the stocks, bonds, bank-books,
deeds, mortgages, insurance policies,
etc., are merely nothing. While
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. So
the first fundamental of prosperity is integrity.
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page17" title="17"></SPAN>Without it there is no civilization,
there is no peace, there is no
security, there is no safety. Mind you
also that this applies just as much to the
man who is working for wages as to the
capitalist and every owner of property.</p>
<p>Integrity, however, is very much broader
than the above illustration would indicate.
Integrity applies to many more things
than to money. Integrity requires the
seeking after, as well as the dispensing of,
truth. It was this desire for truth which
founded our educational institutions, our
sciences and our arts. All the great professions,
from medicine to engineering,
rest upon this spirit of integrity. Only as
they so rest, can they prosper or even survive.</p>
<p>Integrity is the mother of knowledge.
The desire for truth is the basis of all
learning, the value of all experience and
the reason for all study and investigation.
Without integrity as a basis, our entire
educational system would fall to the
ground; all newspapers and magazines
would become sources of great danger and
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page18" title="18"></SPAN>the publication of books would have to be
suppressed. Our whole civilization rests
upon the assumption that people are honest.
With this confidence shaken, the
structure falls. And it should fall, for,
unless the truth be taught, the nation
would be much better off without its
schools, newspapers, books and professions.
Better have no gun at all, than one
aimed at yourself. The corner-stone of
prosperity is the stone of Integrity.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_ii" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page19" title="19"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">II</span><br/> Faith the Searchlight of Business</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page20" title="20"></SPAN>This religion which we talk about for 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.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page21" title="21"></SPAN><span class="first_word">About</span> three years ago I was travelling
in South America. When
going from Sao Paulo up across
the tablelands to Rio Janeiro, I passed
through a little poverty-stricken Indian
village. It was some 3,000 feet above sea
level; but it was located at the foot of a
great water-power. This water-power, I
was told, could easily develop 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 broken sticks, bringing
their corn two hundred miles on their
backs from the seacoast, and grinding it
by hand between two stones. Yet,—with
a little faith and vision, they could have
developed that water-power, even though
in a most primitive manner, and with irrigation,
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page22" title="22"></SPAN>could have made that poverty-stricken
valley a veritable Garden of
Eden. They simply lacked <em>faith</em>. They
lacked vision. They were unwilling, or
unable, to look ahead to do something for
the next generation and trust to the Lord
for the results.</p>
<p>I met the head man of the village and
said to him: “Why is it that you don’t do
something to develop this power?”</p>
<p>“Why, if we started to develop this
thing,” he answered, “by the time we got
it done, we would be dead.”</p>
<p>Indians had lived there for the last two
hundred years lacking the vision. No one
in that community had the foresight or
vision to think or see beyond the end of his
day. It was lack of faith which stood between
them and prosperity. Hence, the
second great fundamental of prosperity is
that intangible “something,”—known as
faith, vision, hope, whatever you may
call it.</p>
<p>The writer of the Book of Proverbs
says: “Where there is no vision, the people
perish.” Statistics teach that where
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page23" title="23"></SPAN>there is no vision, civilization never gets
started! The tangible things which we
prize so highly,—buildings, railroads,
steamships, factories, power plants, telephones,
aeroplanes, etc., are but the result
of faith and vision. These things are only
symptoms of conditions, mere barometers
which register the faith and vision of mankind.</p>
<p>This religion which we talk about for an
hour a week, on Sunday, is not only the
vital force which protects our community,
but it is the vital force which <em>makes</em> our
communities. <em>The power of our spiritual
forces has not yet been tapped!</em> 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.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>These statements are not the result of
any special interest as a churchman. I
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page24" title="24"></SPAN>am not a preacher. I am simply a business
man, and my work is almost wholly
for bankers, brokers, manufacturers, merchants
and investors. The concern with
which I am associated has one hundred
and eighty people in a suburb of Boston
who are collecting, compiling and distributing
statistics on business conditions.
We have only one source of income, and
that is from the clients who pay us for an
analysis of the situation. Therefore you
may rest assured that it is impossible for
us to do any propaganda work in the interests
of any one nation, sect, religion or
church. The only thing we can give
clients is a conclusion based on a diagnosis
of a given situation. As probably few of
you readers are clients of ours, may I quote
from a Bulletin which we recently sent to
these bankers and manufacturers?</p>
<p>“The need of the hour is not more legislation.
The need of the hour is more religion.
More religion is needed everywhere,
from the halls of Congress at
Washington, to the factories, the mines,
the fields and the forests. It is one thing
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page25" title="25"></SPAN>to talk about plans or policies, but a plan
or policy without a religious motive is like
a watch without a spring or a body without
the breath of life. The trouble, to-day,
is that we are trying to hatch chickens
from sterile eggs. We may have the finest
incubator in the world and operate it
according to the most improved regulations—moreover,
the eggs may appear
perfect specimens—but unless they have
the germ of life in them all our efforts are
of no avail.”</p>
<p>I have referred to the fact that the security
of our investments is absolutely dependent
upon the faith, the righteousness
and the religion of other people. I have
stated that the real strength of our investments
is due, not to the distinguished
bankers of America, but rather to the poor
preachers. I now go farther than that
and say that the development of the country
as a whole is due to this <em>something</em>, this
indescribable <em>something</em>, this combination
of faith, thrift, industry, initiative, integrity
and vision, which these preachers have
developed in their communities.</p>
<p><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page26" title="26"></SPAN>Faith and vision do not come from the
wealth of a nation. It’s the faith and
vision which produce the wealth. The
wealth of a country does not depend on its
raw materials. Raw materials are to a
certain extent essential and to a great extent
valuable; but the nations which to-day
are richest in raw materials are the poorest
in wealth. Even when considering one
country—the United States—the principle
holds true. The coal and iron and
copper have been here in this country for
thousands of years, but only within the
last fifty years have they been used.
Water-powers exist even to-day absolutely
unharnessed. Look the whole world over
and there has been no increase in raw materials.
There existed one thousand years
ago more raw materials than we have to-day,
but we then lacked men with a vision
and the faith to take that coal out of the
ground, to harness the water-powers, to
build the railroads and to do other things
worth while. So I say, the second great
fundamental of prosperity is Faith.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_iii" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page27" title="27"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">III</span><br/> Industry vs. Opportunity</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page28" title="28"></SPAN>Industry is the mother of invention. Struggle,
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. Some religious
enthusiasts think only of the “lilies of the fields”
and forget the parable of the talents.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page29" title="29"></SPAN><span class="first_word">A few</span> years ago I was employed
by one of the largest publishing
houses in the country to make a
study of America’s captains of industry.
The real purpose of the study was to discover
some industry or some man that
could be helped greatly through national
advertising. In connection with that
study of those captains of industry, I tabulated
their ancestry. These were the
seventy greatest manufacturers, merchants
and railroad builders, the leading
men who have made America by developing
the fields, the forests, the mines and
the industries. What did I find? I found
that only five per cent. of these captains
of industry are the sons of bankers; only
ten per cent. of them are the sons of
manufacturers; fifteen per cent. of them
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page30" title="30"></SPAN>are the sons of merchants, while over thirty
per cent. of them are the sons of poor
preachers and farmers.</p>
<p>Why is it that ministers’ sons hold a
much more important place in the industrial
development of America than the
sons of bankers? The ministers’ sons inherit
no wealth, they have no more than
their share of college education; they are
not especially religious as the world measures
religion. In fact, there is an old saying
about “ministers’ sons and deacons’
daughters.” I would be false to my reputation
as a statistician to hold up these
captains of industry as saintly examples
for young men to follow. But the fact
remains nevertheless that these men are
creating America to-day. Now, what’s
the reason?</p>
<p>The reason is that these men have a
combination of the two traits already mentioned
and a third added thereto;—namely,
the habit of work. They have inherited a
certain rugged integrity from their
mothers and a gift of vision from their
fathers which, when combined with the
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page31" title="31"></SPAN>habit of work—forced upon them by their
family’s meager income—means <em>power</em>.
Integrity is a dry seed until put in the
ground of faith and allowed to grow. But
faith with works is prosperity.</p>
<p>A man may be honest and wonder why
he does not get ahead; a man may have
vision and still remain only a dreamer; but
when integrity and vision are combined
with hard work, the man prospers. It is
the same with classes and nations.</p>
<p>It has been said that genius is the
author of invention. Statistics do not
support this statement. The facts show
that industry is the mother of invention.
Struggle, 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.</p>
<p>Why is it that most of the able men in
our great industries came from the country
districts? The reason is that the
country boy is trained to work. Statistics
indicate that very seldom does a child,
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page32" title="32"></SPAN>brought up in a city apartment house,
amount to much; while the children of
well-to-do city people are seriously handicapped.
The great educator of the previous
generation was not the public school,
but rather the <em>wood box</em>. Those of us
parents who have not a wood box for our
children to keep filled, or chores for them
to do, are unfortunate.</p>
<p>Run through the list of the greatest
captains of industry, as they come to your
mind. How many of the men who are
really directing the country’s business
gained their position through inherited
wealth? You will find them astonishingly
few. There is no “divine right of
kings” in business. In fact, statistics
show us that the very things which most
people think of as advantages, namely,
wealth and “not having to work” are
really obstacles which are rarely surmounted.</p>
<p>Industry and thrift are closely allied.
Economic studies show clearly that ninety-five
per cent. of the employers are employers
because they systematically saved
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page33" title="33"></SPAN>money. Any man who systematically
saves money from early youth automatically
becomes an employer. He may employ
thousands or he may have only two
or three clerks in a country store, but he
nevertheless is an employer. These same
studies show that ninety-five per cent. of
the wage workers are wage workers because
they have systematically spent their
money as fast as they have earned it.
They of necessity remain wage workers.
These are facts which no labour leader can
disprove and which are exceedingly significant.
This is especially striking when
one considers that the employer often
started out at the same wages and in the
same community as his wage workers.
The employer was naturally industrious
and thrifty; while those who remained
wage workers were not.</p>
<p>The development of this nation through
the construction of the transcontinental
railways, the financing of the western
farms, and the building of our cities is
largely due to the old New England doctrine
that laziness and extravagance are
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page34" title="34"></SPAN>sins. In some western communities it is
popular to laugh at these New England
traits; but had it not been for them, these
western communities would never have
existed. The industry and thrift developed
by the old New England religion
were the basis of our national growth.</p>
<p>I especially desire to emphasize this
point because of the position of certain religious
enthusiasts who think only of “the
lilies of the field” and forget the parable
of the talents. It is a fact that the third
fundamental of prosperity is Industry.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_iv" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page35" title="35"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">IV</span><br/> Coöperation—Success by Helping the Other Fellow</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page36" title="36"></SPAN>Our industrial system has resulted in making
many men economic eunuchs. The salvation of
our cities, the salvation of our industries and
the salvation of our nation depend on discovering
something which will revive in man that desire to
produce and joy in production which he had
instinctively when he was a small boy.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page37" title="37"></SPAN><span class="first_word">A few</span> days ago I was present at a
dinner of business men in Boston
who were called together in order
to secure some preferential freight rates
for Massachusetts. The principal theme
of that gathering was to boom Massachusetts
at the expense of the rest of the country.
At the close of the dinner I was
asked to give my opinion and said: “Let
us see how many things there are in this
room that we could have were we dependent
solely on Massachusetts. The
chairs and furniture are from Michigan;
the cotton is from Georgia; the linen from
Ireland; the silver from Mexico; the glassware
from Pennsylvania; the paper from
Maine; the paint from Missouri; the clock
from Connecticut—and so on.” Finally
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page38" title="38"></SPAN>I got the courage to ask if there was a single
thing in the room that did not originate
from some state other than Massachusetts.
Those men were absolutely
helpless in finding a single thing.</p>
<p>The same fact applies in a general way
to every state and every home. Look
about, where you are sitting now. How
many things are there in the room just
where you are,—there is a table, a chair, a
shoe, a coat, a necktie, a cigar, a lampshade,
a piano, a basket—for all of these
you are dependent upon others.</p>
<p>The same fact is true when we analyze
one staple like shoes which, primarily, are
made of leather. Where does the leather
come from? Just follow that leather
from the back of the steer until you buy it
in the form of shoes. Think where that
steer was raised, and where the leather was
tanned. Think of all the men engaged in
the industry from the cow-punchers to the
salesmen in the stores. But there is more
than leather involved in shoes. There is
cotton in the shoe lacing and lining.
There is metal in the nails and eyelets.
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page39" title="39"></SPAN>Not only must different localities coöperate
to produce a shoe; but various industries
must give and take likewise.</p>
<p>Civilization is ultimately dependent on
the ability of men to coöperate. The best
barometer of civilization is the desire and
ability of men to coöperate. 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 coöperation, the willingness
and ability of men to coöperate, to
serve one another, to help one another, to
give and to take.</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page40" title="40"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>By nature man likes to produce. Our
boy, as soon as he can toddle out-of-doors,
starts instinctively to make a mud pie.
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page41" title="41"></SPAN>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page42" title="42"></SPAN>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 <em>feelings</em>,
and “good feeling” is synonymous
with the spirit of coöperation. One cannot
exist without the other and prosperity
cannot continue without both. Hence the
fourth fundamental of prosperity is Coöperation.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_v" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page43" title="43"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">V</span><br/> Our Real Resources</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page44" title="44"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page45" title="45"></SPAN><span class="first_word">Two</span> 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.”</p>
<p>“No. The greatest source of undeveloped
power in America is the soul of
man,” the other replied.</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page46" title="46"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page47" title="47"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The story of the loaves and fishes is still
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page48" title="48"></SPAN>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.”</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page49" title="49"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page50" title="50"></SPAN>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.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_vi" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page51" title="51"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">VI</span><br/> Study the Human Soul</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page52" title="52"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page53" title="53"></SPAN><span class="first_word">I was</span> 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:</p>
<p>“Why, they are all alike to me, Mr.
Babson. I don’t know one from the
other.”</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page54" title="54"></SPAN>party. I didn’t like the looks of the fellow
very well. After they had gone out, I
said to the father:</p>
<p>“Who is that chap?”</p>
<p>The father replied: “I don’t know;
some friend of Mary’s.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page55" title="55"></SPAN>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The masses to-day are getting their real
education from the daily newspapers.
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page56" title="56"></SPAN>Many of these newspapers have much
good material, but the great effort of the
daily press is not to make <em>producers</em>, but
rather to make <em>consumers</em>. 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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_vii" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page57" title="57"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">VII</span><br/> Boost the Other Fellow</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page58" title="58"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page59" title="59"></SPAN><span class="first_word">My</span> 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 <em>dog</em> “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.</p>
<p>Just as our property is safe, only as the
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page60" title="60"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>There is a common belief current to-day
that only people with experience are worth
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page61" title="61"></SPAN>while. But I say: Quit looking for the
experienced salesmen and trying to make
a man out of him; get a <em>man</em>, 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.</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page62" title="62"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>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.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_viii" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page63" title="63"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">VIII</span><br/> What Truly Counts</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page64" title="64"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page65" title="65"></SPAN><span class="first_word">When</span> 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.</p>
<p>We have forgotten the latent power in
the human soul, in the individual, in the
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page66" title="66"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page67" title="67"></SPAN>the nation. As the soul of man needs to
be developed, so also does the soul of the
nation.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>I said to her: “How is it that you are
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page68" title="68"></SPAN>delivering telegrams in a khaki suit and a
soldier cap?”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page69" title="69"></SPAN>went to my desk and took her pen and
scribbled these lines and said:</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<div class="poem">
<p>I gave a beggar from my little store of wealth some gold;<br/>
He spent the shining ore, and came again and yet again,<br/>
Still cold and hungry, as before.</p>
<p>I gave a thought—and through that thought of mine,<br/>
He found himself, the man supreme, divine,<br/>
Fed, clothed and crowned with blessing manifold;<br/>
And now he begs no more.</p>
</div>
<p>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
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page70" title="70"></SPAN>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.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_ix" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page71" title="71"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">IX</span><br/> What Figures Show</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page72" title="72"></SPAN>
Panics are caused by spiritual causes rather
than financial. Prosperity is the result of righteousness
rather than of material things.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page73" title="73"></SPAN><span class="first_word">The</span> 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.)</p>
<p>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,”
<SPAN href="images/composite_plot.png" title="Large version of chart"><ANTIMG class="image" src="images/composite_plot_thumbnail.png" width-obs="200" height-obs="128" alt="Thumbnail version of chart described in text." /></SPAN>
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page74" title="74"></SPAN>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.</p>
<p>It will be seen that each area is divided
into halves by a narrow white line. This
is to emphasize the fact that the first halves
of areas below the X-Y line are really
reactions from the extravagance, inefficiency
and corruption which existed during
the latter half of the preceding
“prosperity” area. Contrariwise, the
first halves of areas above the X-Y line
are really reactions from the economy, industry
and righteousness developed during
the hard times just preceding. The
high points of the stock market have come
in the early part of the prosperity areas
and the low points have come about the
beginning of the depression areas. In
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page75" title="75"></SPAN>1914 the war held down prices of all securities.
The highest prices of bonds have
usually come about the end of the depression
areas and high money rates, and lowest
bond prices at about the end of the
prosperity areas.</p>
<p>But what causes these fluctuations in
business and prices? Statistics show that
panics are caused by spiritual causes,
rather than financial, and that prosperity
is the result of righteousness rather than
of material things. Hence, the importance
to industry and commerce of the
forces already mentioned. These spiritual
forces are the true fundamentals of
prosperity. This in turn leads us to consider
from where they come and upon
what we are to depend for their further
development. The following pages will
give the answer.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>What are the sources of these fundamentals
of prosperity? Where do we get
this faith, integrity, industry, coöperation
and interest in the soul of man upon which
civilization is based?</p>
<p><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page76" title="76"></SPAN>As already explained, we do not get it
from the raw materials. We have always
had the raw materials. We do not get it
from education. From a statistical point
of view Germany is the best educated
country in the world. It has the least
illiteracy. It has the largest percentage
of scientific culture. No, these three fundamentals
do not come from education.
They do not come from the inheritance of
property. I mentioned in the preceding
pages the investigation we made of leading
captains of industry in America, the men
who head the various greatest industries
in this country. Out of this group of
men, only ten per cent. inherited their
business, while only fifteen per cent. received
special education. This shows that
the source of these qualities is from something
more than wealth or education.</p>
<p>We are striving and even slaving to lay
up property for our children, when statistics
clearly show that the more we lay up
for them the worse off they are going to
be. If statistics demonstrate any one
thing, they demonstrate that the less
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page77" title="77"></SPAN>money we leave our children the better off
they will be; not only spiritually and physically,
but also financially. When it
comes to the question of education, we
work and economize to give our children
an education and to send our children to
college. Yet statistics show that only a
small percentage of these leading business
men are college graduates.</p>
<p>The success of individuals, the success
of communities, the success of nations, depends
on these fundamentals,—integrity,
faith, industry, brotherly kindness and an
interest in the soul of man. To what do
we owe these great fundamental qualities?
<em>Statistics show clearly that we owe them
to religion.</em> Yes, and to the old-fashioned
religion of our forefathers. Moreover, I
say this not as a churchman. I would
give the same message if I were speaking
to a group of bankers or a group of engineers.
I was first brought into the Church
through the Christian Endeavour Society,
but I was really converted to the Bible
teachings through a study of statistics.</p>
<p>To religion we owe our civilization and
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page78" title="78"></SPAN>to the Church we owe our religion. All
there is in the world to-day that is worth
while comes from men filled with, and
from groups actuated by, these fundamentals
of integrity, faith, industry,
brotherly love and those other factors
which come only through God. The
Church to-day deserves the credit for
keeping these factors before the world.
Hence, it is evident that the people of
America have not the bankers to thank
for their security and prosperity, but
rather the preachers and the churches.
To these men we are obligated for our
growth and development.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_x" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page79" title="79"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">X</span><br/> Where the Church Falls Down</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page80" title="80"></SPAN>
Become saturated with Christ’s principles, be
clean and upright, coöperate with one another,
have faith, serve, trust the Almighty for the
results, and you will never have to worry about
property. “If you will do these things, all of
the others will be given to you.”</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page81" title="81"></SPAN><span class="first_word">There</span> are two groups of people
who criticize the Church. First,
there are those who claim great
love for their fellow-men, but do not go to
church because it is allied with the property
interests of the community. I believe
that to be the fundamental reason
why the wage workers, labour leaders,
socialists and radicals are not interested in
the Church. They believe that the Church
is too closely allied with property. I have
been severely criticized myself for presenting
the Church as a defender of property
and as a means of making your home, your
business and your securities safer. Such
critics are perfectly conscientious and the
Church suffers much because those people,
in their love for humanity, are antagonistic
to the Church.</p>
<p><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page82" title="82"></SPAN>The second group are those defenders of
property who look upon the Church as impractical;
who consider the Golden Rule
as something all right for the minister to
talk about on Sundays, but something useless
to try to follow during the week.
Those men criticize the Church for preaching
love, for talking the Sermon on the
Mount, and for being what they say is
“impractical.” So the Church suffers to-day
by having both of these groups stand
off alone. Neither of them is interested
in the Church, the most important organization
in America. It is the Church which
has created America, which has developed
our schools, which has created our homes,
which has built our cities, which has developed
our industries, which has made
our hospitals, charities, and which has
done everything that is worth while in
America.</p>
<p>Yet to-day, the Church is the most discarded
industry of all, because it has not
the coöperation of either of the above
groups,—the radical group which claims to
be interested only in humanity and not in
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page83" title="83"></SPAN>property, and the propertied group which
frankly says that it is primarily interested
in property and not humanity. It seems
that we should stop side-stepping this
question. Instead we should face it
squarely and answer both of these criticisms.
My answer is as follows:</p>
<p>Jesus was not interested in property, <em>per
se</em>. There is no question but that Jesus had
no interest in property. These things which
look so important to us,—houses, roads,
taxation, buildings, fields, crops, foreign
trade, ships,—it is very evident were insignificant
to Jesus. When any of Jesus’
disciples came to Him to settle some property
question, He pushed them aside and
said He was too busy to consider it. I am
sure that if Jesus were here to-day, He
would tell us all that we are idiots for
striving so to accumulate things—building
ourselves bigger houses, getting bigger
bank accounts and more automobiles.
Hence, when the socialist or the radical or
the labour leader complains to me, I
frankly admit this fact. Without doubt the
Church should emphasize that property <em>of
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page84" title="84"></SPAN>itself</em> is of no value, and the only things
worth while in life are happiness and the
health and the freedom which come from
living an upright, simple life.</p>
<p>On the other hand, and this point I wish
to emphasize just as strongly, Jesus took
the position throughout His teachings,
that if His disciples would simply get
saturated with His fundamentals, if they
would be clean and upright, if they would
coöperate with one another, if they would
have faith to serve and trust the Almighty
for the results, they would never have to
worry about property. Property would
take care of itself. Jesus emphasized,
first, that they should not think of property;
but He always closed His discourses
by some such statement as this: “If you
will do these things, all of the others will
be given to you.”</p>
<p>It is absolutely impossible for any individual
to develop the above fundamentals
of prosperity,—faith, integrity, industry
and brotherly kindness—without being
successful. I care not whether he is a
doctor, teacher, banker, lawyer, business
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page85" title="85"></SPAN>man or manufacturer. That same thing
is true of groups and of nations. It is
fundamental law, “Whatsoever a man
soweth that shall he also reap.” Those
who serve will be served; those who knock
will be knocked; those who boost will be
boosted. We are paid in the coin that we
give. We are forgiven as we forgive. If
we are friendly, we will make friends.</p>
<p>Statistics show that the Church is the
greatest factor in the worldly success of
men, groups and nations. Some readers
may have seen a book written by Professor
Carver of Harvard entitled, “The Religion
Worth Having.” In that book the
author discusses the various denominations
of Christianity. Then he says most conclusively
that the religion worth having,
the religion that will survive, is the religion
which produces the most. Yet this production
will not come by seeking production
<em>per se</em>, but rather by the development
of these fundamental characteristics which
have been described.</p>
<p>Try as you will you cannot separate the
factor of religion from economic development.
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page86" title="86"></SPAN>In the work conducted by my Organization
at Wellesley Hills we study
the trend of religious interest as closely as
we do the condition of the banks or the
supply of and demand for commodities.
Statistics of church membership form one
of the best barometers of business conditions.
We have these figures charted
back for the past fifty years. Whenever
this line of religious interest turns downward
and reaches a low level, history
shows that it is time to prepare for a reaction
and depression in business conditions.
Every great panic we have ever had has
been foreshadowed by a general decline in
observance of religious principles. On
the other hand, when the line of religious
interest begins to climb and the nation
turns again to the simple mode of living
laid by in the Bible, then it is time to make
ready for a period of business prosperity.</p>
</div>
<div id="chapter_xi" class="chapter">
<h2 class="chapter_title"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page87" title="87"></SPAN><span class="chapter_number">XI</span><br/> The Future Church</h2>
<p class="return_toc"><SPAN href="#contents">Return to Contents</SPAN></p>
<p class="chapter_summary"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page88" title="88"></SPAN>
The time is coming when the Church will
awake to its great opportunities. The greatest
industry in America but the most backward and
inefficiently operated, is still in the stage-coach
class.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page89" title="89"></SPAN><span class="first_word">Of</span> course the Church is very far
from developed. The Church is
in the same position to-day as
were the water-powers fifty years ago.
The Church has great resources; but these
resources are sadly undeveloped. From
an efficiency point of view, from an organization
point of view, from a production
point of view, the Church to-day is in
the stage-coach class. It holds within itself
the keys of prosperity. It holds
within itself the salvation and solution of
our industrial, commercial and international
problems. Yet it is working, or at
least the Protestant branch is open, only
three or four hours a week. The Church
has the greatest opportunity to-day of any
industry. It is the least developed industry,
the most inefficiently operated, and
the most backward in its methods.</p>
<p><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page90" title="90"></SPAN>Let us shut our eyes and look ahead at
what it will be twenty-five years from now.
Let us imagine five churches within a radius
of five miles. All of them now operating
independently. Each one open only
a few hours a week. Twenty-five years
from now these five churches will be linked
up together under a general manager who
will not be a parson, but who will be a
business man.</p>
<p>To-day the preacher of our churches is
a combination of preacher, business manager,
and salesman. He is the service department,
the finance department and
everything but the janitor. The Church
is being operated to-day as a college would
be operated with one professor, who would
be president, treasurer, general manager,
and everything else. The Church is
being operated to-day as a factory with
simply a production man and no one to
tend the finances or the sales. Manufacturers
reading this book know how long
a factory could be run with only a superintendent
and no one to sell or finance the
proposition.</p>
<p><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page91" title="91"></SPAN>Twenty-five years from to-day, instead
of the pastor being at the head of the
church and a few good people doing voluntary
work, there will be four or five
churches of the same denomination united
under one general manager. I do not
mean by this that four of them will be
closed. They will all be open much more
than they are now; but they will all be
under one general manager and will be
taking orders from that general manager.
Twenty-five years from to-day the
churches will be self-supporting. The
days of begging will be over. Religion
has been cheapened by singing about “salvation’s
free for you and me.” When we
have our legal difficulties, we go to a lawyer
and pay him; when we have a pain we
go to a doctor and pay him; if we want our
children taught we pay the price; but if
we want our children instructed in the
fundamentals of prosperity upon which
their future depends, we send them to a
Sunday School for a half-hour a week
with the possibility of having them taught
by a silly girl who doesn’t know her work.
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page92" title="92"></SPAN>In any event the parent seldom takes the
trouble to ascertain the quality of the
teaching.</p>
<p>The time is coming when the Church
will awake to its great principles and opportunities.
The greatest industry in
America is still the most backward and
most inefficiently operated. When these
four or five churches are combined, the
preacher will not have to spend half the
week in preparing a different sermon
every Sunday. He will have two weeks
or a month to prepare that sermon. He
will have time and have the “pep” and
energy to deliver it to you so you won’t go
to sleep while sitting in the pews. The
audience will then hear the same preacher
only once each month, and the preacher
will then have more than one congregation
to appeal to.</p>
<p>The same man is not going to be expected
to preach on Love, Hate, the
League of Nations, How to Settle Labour
Disputes and the Health of the Community
and every other subject. All of these
men will preach the salvation of Jesus, but
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page93" title="93"></SPAN>each one will specialize in one particular
phase of the Christian life, such as Faith,
Integrity, Industry, Coöperation. Then
we will take more stock in our preachers
because they won’t pretend to know every
subject. Then the preacher will not be of
lesser intelligence than the average audience.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago the ablest men in every
community were the preachers, the doctors,
and the lawyers. They were the
only college graduates of the town and
were looked up to. To-day, while we pay
our salesmanagers from $15,000 to
$20,000 a year, and lawyers and doctors
large fees, we pay our preachers
only miserable salaries. It’s a damnable
disgrace to all of us. I often
think that if Jesus were to come back
to us, that He would take for His text
that thought from the Sermon on the
Mount, “If you have aught against your
neighbour, before you enter into your
worship go and square up.” I think that
when He came in to speak to us on Sunday
morning, He would say:</p>
<p><SPAN class="pagenum" id="page94" title="94"></SPAN>“Gentlemen, I suggest that before we
have this service, we raise funds to pay the
preacher a decent salary.”</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>Just before I went to Brazil I was the
guest of the President of the Argentine
Republic. After lunching one day we
sat in his sun parlour looking out over the
river. He was very thoughtful. He
said, “Mr. Babson, I have been wondering
why it is that South America with all
its great natural advantages is so far behind
North America notwithstanding that
South America was settled before North
America.” Then he went on to tell how
the forests of South America had two
hundred and eighty-six trees that can be
found in no book of botany. He told me
about many ranches that had thousands of
acres under alfalfa in one block. He mentioned
the mines of iron, coal, copper, silver,
gold; all those great rivers and water-powers
which rival Niagara. “Why is it,
with all these natural resources, South
America is so far behind North America?”
he asked. Well, those of you who
<SPAN class="pagenum" id="page95" title="95"></SPAN>have been there know the reason. But,
being a guest, I said:</p>
<p>“Mr. President, what do you think is
the reason?”</p>
<p>He replied: “I have come to this conclusion.
South America was settled by
the Spanish who came to South America
in search of <em>gold</em>, but North America was
settled by the Pilgrim Fathers who went
there in search of <em>God</em>.”</p>
<p>Friends, let us as American citizens
never kick down the ladder by which we
climbed up. Let us never forget the
foundation upon which all permanent
prosperity is based.</p>
</div>
<div id="printers_page" class="section">
<p>Printed in the United States of America</p>
</div>
<div id="transcriber_note">
<p>Transcriber’s Note: Chapter titles repeated after the chapter summaries in the original and are omitted here.</p>
</div>
<div id="the_end"> </div>
<SPAN name="endofbook"></SPAN>
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