“Old Bill” Suggests—

Nathan B. Swift, representative of the fourth generation of the Swift family in Chicago, is working in the meat-packing business and has been, quietly and without fanfare, for several years. We mention this somewhat reluctantly, as publicity is probably distasteful to him. But the fact is interesting in connection with some of the philosophy of his great-grandfather, Gustavus F. Swift, who told, without mincing words, how he thought a man could achieve success.

“Don’t drink.

“No man, however rich, has enough money to waste on putting on style.

“The richer a man gets, the more careful he should be to keep his head level.

“The man that doesn’t know his business from the top clean down to the bottom isn’t any kind of business man.

“A big head and a big bank account were never found together and never will be.

“Every time a man loses his temper he loses his head, and when he hoses his head he loses several chances.

“No young man is rich enoug to smoke 25-cent cigars.

“The best a man ever did shouldn’t be his standard for the rest of his life.

“You can never make a big success working for anybody else.”

He may have been right, he may have been wrong, but he started out with his own trade of butcher and $20 borrrowed from his father and made $15,000,000. He raised seven sons of whom any father could be proud, five of whom are now living and active in the business. And he founded what is now the biggest meat-packing concern in the United States, with $767,000,000 annual sales, capital stock worth $150,000,000, which has 11,000 employee stockholders, gives it’s hourly employees vacations with pay, and has most of the other features of improved employee relationships that are considered desirable.

In view of the results, even though they might just be coincidence, his suggestions would seem to be worth considering.

ROYAL F. MUNGER.