14 ADDRESS. 



aside anytMng for profits. But you will say, what is the use of 

 all lids ? why not let it all go right in, and call it all profit ? Be- 

 cause the anxiety and risk and responsibility of a business life is 

 too great to be undergone, without a chance of corresponding 

 gain,and any business which does not yield a profit, over and above 

 interest on the capital, and fair compensation for the services of 

 him who conducts it, is not wortli following, and should be closed 

 up as soon as possible. 



But to return to the matter of capital. The absence of difier- 

 ence between owning and borrowing capital is theoretical, and 

 exists only in the matter of reckoning profits. Practically, of 

 course, it is a very good thing to own capital ; so good, indeed, 

 that the practice ought to be encouraged. The man who owns 

 his capital, merely loses what he might have had, if he fails to so 

 conduct his business that it pays the interest, while, if he owes 

 for it, the interest has actuall}^ to be paid, let the embarrassment 

 be what it may, or whether he earns it or not. Still, the neces- 

 sity of absolute control of adequate capital is an overruUng one, 

 an essential to success, and if it is not owned, it had better be 

 borrowed ; I mean, of course, borrowed permanently, that is, 

 with no necessity of paying the principal so long as the interest 

 is dul^^ cared for. Possession of it gives the business man control 

 of circumstances. The want of it gives circumstances the control 

 of him. There was more than wit, there was sound financial 

 philosophy in the remark of the late Artemus Ward : " I mean 

 to keep square with the world, and pay my debts, if I have to 

 borrow money to do it with." 



I have not time, nor is it necessary to dwell upon the neces- 

 sity of a correct knowledge of the details of the particular busi- 

 ness to be followed, general economy of management, shrewdness 

 in buying and selling, industry, careful attention to business and 

 the like. These are all essential to success, but so universally 

 acknowledged to be so, that to urge them upon your considera- 

 tion would be a work of supererogation. 



Thus, then, I have endeavored to give you, in a hurried man- 

 ner, my idea of the main essentials to success in business, and so 

 much faith have I in the general soundness of the suggestions, 

 that I should not fear the result, were I to guarantee satisfac- 

 tion to all who would put them in practice. Let us set up an 

 imaginary business man, stuffed with the rules and maxims I 

 have sketched. lie is acquainted with his business, shrewd and 

 economical in its management, systematic and exact, so that he 

 can estimate as near as may be, the cost of his productions ; has 



