I have never known a concern to make a decided success
that did not do good, honest work, and even in these days of the
fiercest competition, when everything would seem to be matter of
price, there lies still at the root of great business success the very
much more important factor of quality. The effect of attention to
quality, upon every man in the service, from the president of the
concern down to the humblest laborer, cannot be overestimated. And
bearing on the same question, clean, fine workshops and tools,
well-kept yards and surroundings are of much greater importance than
is usually supposed.
I was very much pleased to hear a remark, made by one of the prominent
bankers who visited the Edgar Thomson Works during a Bankers
Convention held at Pittsburgh. He was one of a party of some hundreds
of delegates, and after they had passed through the works he said to
our manager:
"Somebody appears to belong to these works."
He put his finger there upon one of the secrets of success. They did
belong to somebody. The president of an important manufacturing work
once boasted to me that their men had chased away the first inspector
who had ventured to appear among them, and that they had never been
troubled with another since. This was said as a matter of sincere
congratulation, but I thought to myself: "This concern will never
stand the strain of competition; it is bound to fail when hard times
come.
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