What They Are and Whence They Come By ROGER W. BABSON President Babson Statistical Organization NEW YORK CHICAGO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH...

Return to Contents Some 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 greate

Return to Contents 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. While 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 c

Return to Contents 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. About 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

Return to Contents 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. A few years ago I was employed by one of the largest publishing houses in the country to make a stu

Return to Contents 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. A few 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.

Return to Contents 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

Return to Contents 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

Return to Contents 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 “be

Return to Contents 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

Return to Contents 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 repor

Return to Contents 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.” There 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.

Return to Contents 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. Of 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 prod