560
T h e
K i n g ’ s
December 1930
B u s i n e s s
G W * s 4-\A*3 rv' c K 7 r s A t - M i _ § re f e v t e 6
The W ay Up* B y W illiam H. R idgway ( Coatesville, Pa.)
a man has decided to go to college and ire an education—oftentimes at the cost reat sacrifices and self-deniafe-he does order that he may make a place in the or, as is said in everyday parlance, “ in • that he may get on.”
ectady, New York, had me up there to speak to the men of that city. When a friend, who is connected with the General Electric Company, heard I was going to Schen ectady to speak, he said to me, “ Ridgway, when you get to Schenectady, you want to lay off that hobby of yours about big business being in the hands of godly men.” “ Why?” I asked. “ Simply because the General Electric Company is an exception to you contention.” “ All right,” I replied. “ W e’ll see about that. Perhaps it is the exception that will prove the rule.” Here is what I found when I got to Schenectady : Dr. Edwin W . Rice, Jr., then president, is the son of the Rev. Edwin W . Rice who for over seventy-one years has been at the head of the American Sunday School Union in Philadelphia. While I was there, I got a copy of the speech which President Rice made at the sixty-fifth anniversary of his father in that Sunday-school connec tion. A vice-president of the company, Mr. Burchard, is the son of that Rev. Dr. Burchard who spilled James G. Blaine’s beans when he said in a speech that the Demo cratic party stood for “ rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” Another vice-president of the company is Mr. Charles Patterson who, when I was in Schnectady the time be fore, was a teacher in the Methodist Sunday-school. He is now located in New York City. The treasurer, Mr. Darling, taught a Bible class in the Presbyterian Church. The general manager, Mr. Dalton, had just been made president of the local Y. M. C. A. Mr. Emmons, the general superintendent who has just retired, sent me word that he was in sympathy with everything for which I stood. Mr. Bliss, the head chemist, cross-questioned me like a Philadelphia lawyer as to the best way of con ducting a men’s Bible class. This is the kind of “ exception to prove the rule” that the General Electric-Company at Schenectady happens to be ! SPECIAL CLUB OFFER THE KING'S BUSINESS is increasingly at tractive to Sunday-school classes and young peo ple’ s socities. Try it next year, at the following low price: Ten copies will be sent to one address (in U. S .), for $10 .00 ; in Canada and foreign coun tries, $12.00. In addition, two books, worth $3.00 at regu lar prices, will be sent postpaid: "WINNING CHILDREN FOR CHRIST” By W. P. Thomson “ THIS IS THE W A Y ” By An Unknown Christian Other and more valuable book premiums are offered with larger orders. Samples will be sent on request. /
This magazine has asked me if I would tell through the printed page just how a young man with his life be fore him should go about it to make good. This is an attempt to do so. This article is an exhibit and not the presentation of an argument. That is to say, it is a statement of facts. The things stated either are so or they are not so. If they are so, there is only one conclusion to be drawn, and he who runs may read. T he B oys F rom the W est During the war, the writer offered his services to the Government, along with other good citizens. He was too old to sleep in the mud and fight cooties, so the Govern ment used him in the military camps and navy yards to talk to the boys gathered there from all over the country. At the League Island Navy Yard, where was gathered a great company of young men, mostly from the Middle West where they never see any salt water, something like this was said: “ When you fellows get out on that big man-of-war lying there at the dock, it will make no difference where you are employed, whether handling ashes, down in the hold, or up in the engine room, oiling the bearings and wiping up the brasses, or on the deck with the gups, keep ing them in order, or in the galley with the cook, or up in the chart room with the officers. You know, and I know, and every sane man knows that you will never get anywhere so far as advancement is concerned, and you will not have a particularly comfortable time on the cruise, unless you stand in with the captain.” These were bright young men, and I did not have to elaborate by calling to their attention that this old world o f ours, after all, is nothing but a big boat sailing through the Milky Way and swinging around the sun, and no one ever gets very far to stay, so far as advancement is concerned, nor does he have a particularly joyful time on the voyage, if he does not stand in with the Captain up yonder.. T he B ig A dvertisers For some thirteen years, I have been investigating big business. Up to the present time, I have not found a single big business o f long standing or of any permanent success, that has not somewhere in it, and responsible for its success, a godly man. He is a man who stands for high things, and who has that “ trust” which is stamped on all our gold and silver coins. »' W ith the G eneral E lectric C ompany Some time ago, a professor in Union College at Schen- *The substance o f Mr. Ridgway’s address at the World’s Funda mental conference, held in Los Angeles in June, 1930, is contained in this article, reprinted-from “ The Tech Engineering News.”
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