Roger Ward Babson

Fundamentals of Prosperity Roger Ward Babson

Book Excerpt: ...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 are the sons of merchants, while over thirty per cent. of them are the sons of poor preachers and farmers. 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, t...