--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Babson, Roger W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 26 number: 10 published: 1923-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Roger W. Babson, "Fundamentals of Prosperity", *Improvement Era* 26, no. 10 (August 1923): 871–876.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera26010unse start_page: 871 end_page: 876 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1923-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26010unse publication_year: 1923 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1923, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Fundamentals of Prosperity Fundamentals of Prosperity" What They Are and Whence They Come By Roger W. Babson, President Babsort Statistical Organization IV Cooperation — Success by Helping the Other Felloiv 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 prefer- ential 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 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 Con- necticut — and so on." Finally I get the courage to ask if there was a single thing in the room that did not originate from some other state than Massachusetts. Those men were absolutely helpless in finding a single thing. 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. 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 cowpunchers ♦Copyright by Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. Reprinted by permission, from Fundamentals of Prosperity, by Roger W. Babson. 872 IMPROVEMENT ERA to the salesmen in the stores. There is cotton in the shoe lacing and lining." There is metal in the nails and eyelets. Not only must different localities cooperate to produce a shoe; but var- ious industries must give and take likewise. Civilization is ultimately dependent on the ability of men to cooperate. The best barometer of civilization is the desire and ability of men to cooperate. 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 labor has directly contributed toward these things. Now this clearly shows that the fourth great funda- mental of prosperity is cooperation, the willingness and ability of men to cooperate, to serve 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 resourses, — 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. When in Washington, during the war, I had a wonderful opportunity of meeting the representatives of both labor and capital. I had some preconceived ideas on the labor question when I went to Washington; but now they are all gone. I am perfectly willing, now, to agree with the wage earner, 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- FUNDAMENTALS OF PROSPERITY 873 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 earner 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 what they agree. Men act according to their feelings, and "good feeling" is synonymous with the spirit of cooperation. One cannot exist without the other and prosperity cannot continue without both. Hence the fourth fundamental of prosperity is Cooperation. 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 orig- inate. 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 Amer- ica." | I I : ■! 4 "No, the greatest source of undeveloped power in America is in 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 uni- versities 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 labor, and only twenty per cent goes for materials. He is en- dowing 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, 874 IMPROVEMENT ERA 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 pro- duced, 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 enterprize 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 hun- dred 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 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 im- mediately filled with so many fishes that they could hardly pull it up. If we, today, would give more thought to the spiritual and less to the material, we would have more in health, happi- ness, and prosperity. The business man today 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 move moun- tains. Have mountains ever been removed and tunnelled with- out 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 capital and labor in the current discussions of today. The real credit for most of the things which we have is due to some human soul which supplied the faith that was the main- spring of every enterprise. Furthermore, in most instances this human soul owes this genii of faith to some little country FUNDAMENTALS OF PROSPERITY 875 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 today. What they lacked in many other ways was more than compensated by their faith in God. They got, through faith, "that something" which men today are trying to get through other means. All the educators, all the psycholo- gists, all the inspirational writers cannot put into a man the vision and will to do things which are gained by a clear faith. Most of us today 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 today is to develop the human soul, to develop this wonderful machine which each one of ushas between his ears. Only as this is developed can we solve our other prob- lems. 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 labor 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 es- tablish 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 a 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 to talk of the labor 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 876 IMPROVEMENT ERA didn't know the name of the man who came to get his daughter and who did not 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 re- sources— the great spiritual resource, upon which everything de- pends. 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 today the purpose for which our schools were started has been almost entirely lost. In some states it is now a criminal offense for a school superintendent to ask a prospective 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 spirit- ual 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 today are gettingf 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 today 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. (To be continued)