Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1919 — BUSINESS MEN IN HISTORY [ARTICLE]

BUSINESS MEN IN HISTORY

interesting Question as to Whether It la Better to Be Owner or Employee. —-r-L—_ The main object of life is doubtless to get something out of it besides trouble, and so any critical comparison of rival methods of earning a living cannot fall to be interesting to all men. The only ones not affected are the carefree hobo flitting from place to place and the wise lad who early in life took the precaution to marry the lovely daughter of the capitalist. Now, about the matter of running your own business or working for some one else on salary and commission. If we go into history the testimony is somewhat conflicting, writes J. R. Sprague in Sunset. Moses was a salaried man for the Pharaoh corporation and did very well for himself. On the other hand, our old friend Bismarck. also a salaried man, built up a wonderful business for his firm, but, as so often happens, was thrown out of a Job when he got along in years, and the young fellow stepped in and took over the business. Among those who went into business for themselves, Mark Antony did well and would probably have become head of the "world’s greatest corporation if he had not got into fast company and wasted his time on wine suppers, houseboat parties, and so on. Alexander the Great, strictly a business man with no foolishness about him, in ten years built up such a tremendous organization he fretted because there were no more goodsized towns where he could establish branch houses. Napoleon, who was in business for himself, prospered exceedingly for a number of years and probably would have died rich except for an unwise second marriage and the fact that he tried to spread out too much for his capital. We all know the outcome of the business owned and managed by William Hohenzollern. Interested creditors would do well to compare a Dun or Bradstreet report on his affairs made in the spring of 1914 with his rating at the present time.