Chapter 3 Think And Grow Rich

CHAPTER 3
FAITH
VISUALIZATION OF, AND BELIEF IN ATTAINMENT OF DESIRE
The Second Step toward Riches
FAITH is the head chemist of the mind. When FAITH is blended with the
vibration of thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration,
translates it into its spiritual equivalent, and transmits it to Infinite
Intelligence, as in the case of prayer.
The emotions of FAITH, LOVE, and SEX are the most powerful of all the
major positive emotions. When the three are blended, they have the effect of
“coloring” the vibration of thought in such a way that it instantly reaches the
subconscious mind, where it is changed into its spiritual equivalent, the only
form that induces a response from Infinite Intelligence.
Love and faith are psychic; related to the spiritual side of man. Sex is purely
biological, and related only to the physical. The mixing, or blending, of these
three emotions has the effect of opening a direct line of communication
between the finite, thinking mind of man, and Infinite Intelligence.
How To Develop Faith
There comes, now, a statement which will give a better understanding of the
importance the principle of auto-suggestion assumes in the transmutation of
desire into its physical, or monetary equivalent; namely: FAITH is a state of
mind which may be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated
instructions to the subconscious mind, through the principle of autosuggestion.
As an illustration, consider the purpose for which you are,
presumably, reading this book. The object is, naturally, to acquire
the ability to transmute the intangib le thought impulse of DESIRE
into its physical counterpart, money. By following the instructions
laid down in the chapters on auto-suggestion, and the
subconscious mind, as summarized in the chapter on auto- suggestion, you
may CONVINCE the subconscious mind that you believe you will receive
that for which you ask, and it will act upon that belief, which your
subconscious mind passes back to you in the form of “FAITH,” followed by
definite plans for procuring that which you desire.
The method by which one develops FAITH, where it does not already exist, is
extremely difficult to describe, almost as difficult, in fact, as it would be to
describe the color of red to a blind man who has never seen color, and has
nothing with which to compare what you describe to him. Faith is a state of
mind which you may develop at will, after you have mastered the thirteen
principles, because it is a state of mind which develops voluntarily, through
application and use of these principles.
Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind i5 the only
known method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith.
Perhaps the meaning may be made clearer through the following explanation
as to the way men sometimes become criminals. Stated in the words of a
famous criminologist, “When men first come into contact with crime, they
abhor it. If they remain in contact with crime for a time, they become
accustomed to it, and endure it. If they remain in contact with it long enough,
they finally embrace it, and become influenced by it.”
This is the equivalent of saying that any impulse of thought which is
repeatedly passed on to the subconscious mind is, finally, accepted and acted
upon by the subconscious mind, which proceeds to translate that impulse into
its physical equiva lent, by the most practical procedure available.
In connection with this, consider again the statement, ALL
THOUGHTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EMOTIONALIZED, (given feeling)
AND MIXED WITH FAITH, begin immediately to translate themselves into
their physical equivalent or counterpart. The emotions, or the “feeling”
portion of thoughts, are the factors which give thoughts vitality, life, and
action. The emotions of Faith, Love, and Sex, when mixed with any thought
impulse, give it greater action than any of these emotions can do singly. Not
only thought impulses which have been mixed with FAITH, but those which
have been mixed with any of the positive emotions, or any of the negative
emotions, may reach, and influence the subconscious mind. From this
statement, you will understand that the subconscious mind will translate into
its physical equivalent, a thought impulse of a negative or destructive nature,
just as readily as it will act upon thought impulses of a positive or constructive
nature. This accounts for the strange phenomenon which so many millions of
people experience, referred to as “misfortune,” or “bad luck.”
There are millions of people who BELIEVE themselves “doomed” to poverty
and failure, because of some strange force over which they BELIEVE they
have no control. They are the creators of their own “misfortunes,” because of
this negative BELIEF, which is picked up by the subconscious mind, and
translated into its physical equivalent.
This is an appropriate place at which to suggest again that you may benefit, by
passing on to your subconscious mind, any DESIRE which you wish
translated into its physical, or monetary equivalent, in a state of expectancy or
BELIEF that the transmutation will actually take place. Your BELIEF, or
FAITH, is the element which determines the action of your subconscious
mind. There is nothing to hinder you from “deceiving” your subconscious
mind when giving it instructions through autosuggestion, as I deceived my
son’s subconscious mind.
To make this “deceit” more realistic, conduct yourself just as you would, if
you were ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MATERIAL THING
WHICH YOU ARE DEMANDING, when you call upon your subconscious
mind.
The subconscious mind will transmute into its physical equivalent, by the
most direct and practical media available, any order which is given to it in a
state of BELIEF, or FAITH that the order will be carried out.
Surely, enough has been stated to give a starting point from which one may,
through experiment and practice, acquire the ability to mix FAITH with any
order given to the subconscious mind. Perfection will come through practice.
It cannot come by merely reading instructions.
If it be true that one may become a criminal by association
with crime, (and this is a known fact), it is equally true tha t one
may develop faith by voluntarily suggesting to the subconscious
mind that one has faith. The mind comes, finally, to take on the
nature of the influences which dominate it. Understand this truth, and you will
know why it is essential for you to encourage the positive emotions as
dominating forces of your mind, and discourage — and eliminate negative
emotions.
A mind dominated by positive emotions, becomes a favorable abode for the
state of mind known as faith. A mind so dominated may, at will, give the
subconscious mind instructions, which it will accept and act upon
immediately.
FAITH IS A STATE OF MIND WHICH MAY BE
INDUCED BY AUTO-SUGGESTION
All down the ages, the religionists have admonished struggling humanity to
“have faith” in this, that, and the other dogma or creed, but they have failed to
tell people HOW to have faith. They have not stated that “faith is a state of
mind, and that it may be induced by self-suggestion.”
In language which any normal human being can understand, we will describe
all that is known about the principle through which FAITH may be developed,
where it does not already exist. Have Faith in yourself; Faith in the Infinite.
Before we begin, you should be reminded again that:
FAITH is the “eternal elixir” which gives life, power, and action to the
impulse of thought!
The foregoing sentence is worth reading a second time, and a third, and a
fourth. It is worth reading aloud!
FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches! FAITH is the basis
of all “miracles,” and all mysteries which cannot be analyzed by the rules of
science!
FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE! FAITH is the element, the
“chemical” which, when mixed with prayer, gives one direct communication
with Infinite Intelligence. FAITH is the element which transforms the
ordinary vibration of thought, created by the finite mind of man, into the
spiritual equivalent.
FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of Infinite
Intelligence can be harnessed and used by man. EVERY ONE OF THE
FOREGOING STATEMENTS IS CAPABLE OF PROOF!
The proof is simple and easily demonstrated. It is wrapped up
in the principle of auto-suggestion. Let us center our attention, therefore, upon
the subject of self-suggestion, and find out what it is, and what it is capable of
achieving.
It is a well known fact that one comes, finally, to BELIEVE whatever one
repeats to one’s self, whether the statement be true or false. If a man repeats a
lie over and over, he will eventually accept the lie as truth. Moreover, he will
BELIEVE it to be the truth. Every man is what he is, because of the
DOMINATING THOUGHTS which he permits to occupy his mind. Thoughts
which a man deliberately places in his own mind, and encourages with
sympathy, and with which he mixes any one or more of the emotions,
constitute the motivating forces, which direct and control his every movement,
act, and deed!
Comes, now, a very significant statement of truth:
THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE FEELINGS OF
EMOTIONS, CONSTITUTE A “MAGNETIC” FORCE WHICH
ATTRACTS, FROM THE VIBRATIONS OF THE ETHER, OTHER
SIMILAR, OR RELATED THOUGHTS. A thought thus “magnetized” with
emotion may be compared to a seed which, when planted in fertile soil,
germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again, until that which
was originally one small seed, becomes countless millions of seeds of the
SAME BRAND! The ether is a great cosmic mass of eternal forces of
vibration. It is made up of both destructive vibrations and constructive
vibrations. It carries, at all times, vibrations of fear, poverty, disease, failure,
misery; and vibrations of prosperity, health, success, and happiness, just as
surely as it carries the sound of hundreds of orchestrations of music, and
hundreds of human voices, all of which maintain their own individuality, and
means of identification, through the medium of radio.
From the great storehouse of the ether, the human mind is constantly
attracting vibrations which harmonize with that which DOMINATES the
human mind. Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose which one holds in one’s
mind attracts, from the vibrations of the ether, a host of its relatives, adds
these “relatives” to its own force, and grows until it becomes the dominating,
MOTIVATING MASTER of the individual in whose mind it has been
housed.
Now, let us go back to the starting point, and become informed
as to how the original seed of an idea, plan, or purpose may be
planted in the mind. The information is easily conveyed: any idea,
plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought. This
is why you are asked to write out a statement of your major purpose, or
Definite Chief Aim, commit it to memory, and repeat it, in audible words, day
after day, until these vibrations of sound have reached your subconscious
mind.
We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up
and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment.
Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to
build your own life to ORDER. Taking inventory of mental assets and
liabilities, you will discover that your greatest weakness is lack of selfconfidence.
This handicap can be surmounted, and timidity translated into
courage, through the aid of the principle of autosuggestion. The application of
this principle may be made through a simple arrangement of positive thought
impulses stated in writing, memorized, and repeated, until they become a part
of the working equipment of the subconscious faculty of your mind.
SELF-CONFIDENCE FORMULA
First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite
Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action
toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.
Second. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually
reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform
themselves into physical reality, therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for
thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to
become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person.
Third. I know through the principle of auto-suggestion, any desire that I
persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some
practical means of attaining the object back of it, therefore, I will devote ten
minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of SELFCONFIDENCE.
Fourth. I have clearly written down a description of my DEFINITE CHIEF
AIM in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient
self-confidence for its attainment. Fifth. I fully realize that no wealth or
position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I will
engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will
succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of
other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to
serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism,
by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude
toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me,
because I will believe in them, and in myself.
I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud
once a day, with full FAITH that it will gradually influence my THOUGHTS
and ACTIONS so that I will become a self- reliant, and successful person.
Back of this formula is a law of Nature which no man has yet been able to
explain. It has baffled the scientists of all ages. The psychologists have named
this law “auto-suggestion,” and let it go at that.
The name by which one calls this law is of little importance. The important
fact about it is—it WORKS for the glory and success of mankind, IF it is used
constructively. On the other hand, if used destructively, it will destroy just as
readily. In this statement may be found a very significant truth, namely; that
those who go down in defeat, and end their lives in poverty, misery, and
distress, do so because of negative application of the principle of autosuggestion.
The cause may be found in the fact that ALL IMPULSES OF
THOUGHT HAVE A TENDENCY TO CLOTHE THEMSELVES IN THEIR
PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT.
The subconscious mind, (the chemical laboratory in which all thought
impulses are combined, and made ready for translation into physical reality),
makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses.
It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses. The
subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by FEAR just as
readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by COURAGE, or
FAITH. The pages of medical history are rich with illustrations of cases of
“suggestive suicide.” A man may commit suicide through negative
suggestion, just as effectively as by any other means. In a midwestern city, a
man by the name of Joseph Grant, a bank official, “borrowed” a large sum of
the bank’s money, without the consent of the directors. He lost the money
through gambling. One afternoon, the Bank Examiner came and began to
check the accounts. Grant left the bank, took a room in a local hotel, and when
they found him, three days later, he was lying in bed, wailing and moaning,
repeating over and over these words, “My God, this will kill me! I cannot
stand the disgrace.” In a short time he was dead. The doctors pronounced the
case one of “mental suicide.” Just as electricity will turn the wheels of
industry, and render useful service if used constructively; or snuff out life if
wrongly used, so will the law of auto-suggestion lead you to peace and
prosperity. or down into the valley of misery, failure, and death, according to
your degree of understanding and application of it. If you fill your mind with
FEAR, doubt and unbelief in your ability to connect with, and use the forces
of Infinite Intelligence, the law of auto—suggestion will take this spirit of
unbelief and use it as a pattern by which your subconscious mind will
translate it into its physical equivalent.
THIS STATEMENT IS AS TRUE AS THE STATEMENT THAT TWO
AND TWO ARE FOUR!
Like the wind which carries one ship East, and another West, the law of autosuggestion
will lift you up or pull you down, according to the way you set
your sails of THOUGHT. The law of auto-suggestion, through which any
person may rise to altitudes of achievement which stagger the imagination, is
well described in the following verse:
“If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.
“If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will—
It’s all in the state of mind. “If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
“Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”
Observe the words which have been emphasized, and you will catch the deep
meaning which the poet had in mind. Somewhere in your make-up (perhaps
in the cells of your brain) there lies sleeping, the seed of achievement which,
if aroused and put into action, would carry you to heights, such as you may
never have hoped to attain.
Just as a master musician may cause the most beautiful strains of music to
pour forth from the strings of a violin, so may you arouse the genius which
lies asleep in your brain, and cause it to drive you upward to whatever goal
you may wish to achieve. Abraham Lincoln was a failure at everything he
tried, until he was well past the age of forty. He was a Mr. Nobody from
Nowhere, until a great experience came into his life, aroused the sleeping
genius within his heart and brain, and gave the world one of its really great
men. That “experience” was mixed with the emotions of sorrow and LOVE. It
came to him through Anne Rutledge, the only woman whom he ever truly
loved.
It is a known fact that the emotion of LOVE is closely akin to the state of
mind known as FAITH, and this for the reason that Love comes very near to
translating one’s thought impulses into their spiritual equivalent. During his
work of research, the author discovered, from the analysis of the life-work and
achievements of hundreds of men of outstanding accomplishment, that there
was the influence of a woman’s love back of nearly EVERY ONE OF THEM.
The emotion of love, in the human heart and brain, creates a favorable field of
magnetic attraction, which causes an influx of the higher and finer vibrations
which are afloat in the ether.
If you wish evidence of the power of FAITH, study the
achievements of men and women who have employed it. At the head of the
list comes the Nazarene. Christianity is the greatest single force which
influences the minds of men. The basis of Christianity is FAITH, no matter
how many people may have perverted, or misinterpreted the meaning of this
great force, and no matter how many dogmas and creeds have been created in
its name, which do not reflect its tenets.
The sum and substance of the teachings and the achievements of Christ, which
may have been interpreted as “miracles,” were nothing more nor less than
FAITH. If there are any such phenomena as “miracles” they are produced
only through the state of mind known as FAITH! Some teachers of religion,
and many who call themselves Christians, neither understand nor practice
FAITH.
Let us consider the power of FAITH, as it is now being demonstrated, by a
man who is well known to all of civilization, Mahatma Gandhi, of India. In
this man the world has one of the most astounding examples known to
civilization, of the possibilities of FAITH. Gandhi wields more potential
power than any man living at this time, and this, despite the fact that he has
none of the orthodox tools of power, such as money, battle ships, soldiers, and
materials of warfare. Gandhi has no money, he has no home, he does not own
a suit of clothes, but HE DOES HAVE POWER. How does he come by that
power?
HE CREATED IT OUT OF HIS UNDERSTANDING OF THE
PRINCIPLE OF FAITH, AND THROUGH HIS ABILITY TO
TRANSPLANT
THAT FAITH INTO THE MINDS OF TWO HUNDRED MILLION
PEOPLE.
Gandhi has accomplished, through the influence of FAITH, that which the
strongest military power on earth could not, and never will accomplish
through soldiers and military equipment. He has accomplished the astounding
feat of INFLUENCING two hundred million minds to COALESCE AND
MOVE IN UNISON, AS A SINGLE MIND.
What other force on earth, except FAITH could do as much? There will come
a day when employees as well as employers will discover the possibilities of
FAITH. That day is dawning. The whole world has had ample opportunity,
during the recent business depression, to witness what the LACK OF FAITH
will do to business.
Surely, civilization has produced a sufficient number of
intelligent human beings to make use of this great lesson which the depression
has taught the world. During this depression, the world had evidence in
abundance that widespread FEAR will paralyze the wheels of industry and
business. Out of this experience will arise leaders in business and industry
who will profit by the example which Gandhi has set for the world, and they
will apply to business the same tactics which he has used in building the
greatest following known in the history of the world. These leaders will come
from the rank and file of the unknown men, who now labor in the steel plants,
the coal mines, the automobile factories, and in the small towns and cities of
America.
Business is due for a reform, make no mistake about this! The
methods of the past, based upon economic combinations of FORCE
and FEAR, will be supplanted by the better principles of FAITH and
cooperation. Men who labor will receive more than daily wages; they
will receive dividends from the business, the same as those who
supply the capital for business; but, first they must GIVE MORE TO
THEIR EMPLOYERS, and stop this bickering and bargaining by
force, at the expense of the public. They must earn the right to
dividends!
Moreover, and this is the most important thing of all—THEY
WILL BE LED BY LEADERS WHO WILL UNDERSTAND AND APPLY
THE PRINCIPLES EMPLOYED BY MAHATMA GANDHI. Only in this
way may leaders get from their followers the spirit of FULL cooperation
which constitutes power in its highest and most enduring form.
This stupendous machine age in which we live, and from which we are just
emerging, has taken the soul out of men. Its leaders have driven men as
though they were pieces of cold machinery; they were forced to do so by the
employees who have bargained, at the expense of all concerned, to get and not
to give. The watchword of the future will be HUMAN HAPPINESS AND
CONTENTMENT, and when this state of mind shall have been attained, the
production will take care of itself, more effectively than anything that has ever
been accomplished where men did not, and could not mix FAITH and
individual interest with their labor. Because of the need for faith and
cooperation in operating business and industry, it will be both interesting and
profitable to analyze an event which provides an excellent understanding of
the method by which industrialists and business men accumulate great
fortunes, by giving before they try to get. The event chosen for this illustration
dates back to 1900, when the United States Steel Corporation was being
formed. As you read the story, keep in mind these fundamental facts and you
will understand how IDEAS have been converted into huge fortunes. First,
the huge United States Steel Corporation was born in the mind of Charles M.
Schwab, in the form of an IDEA he created through his IMAGINATION!
Second, he mixed FAITH with his IDEA. Third, he formulated a PLAN for
the transformation of his IDEA into physical and financial reality. Fourth, he
put his plan into action with his famous speech at the University Club. Fifth,
he applied, and followed-through on his PLAN with PERSISTENCE, and
backed it with firm DECISION until it had been fully carried out. Sixth, he
prepared the way for success by a BURNING DESIRE for success. If yo u are
one of those who have often wondered how great fortunes are accumulated,
this story of the creation of the United States Steel Corporation will be
enlightening. If you have any doubt that men can THINK AND GROW
RICH, this story should dispel that doubt, because you can plainly see in the
story of the United States Steel, the application of a major portion of the
thirteen principles described in this book.
This astounding description of the power of an IDEA was dramatically told by
John Lowell, in the New York World-Telegram, with whose courtesy it is
here reprinted.
“A PRETTY AFTER-DINNER SPEECH FOR A
BILLION DOLLARS
“When, on the evening of December 12, 1900, some eighty of the nation’s
financial nobility gathered in the banquet hail of the University Club on Fifth
Avenue to do honor to a young man from out of the West, not half a dozen of
the guests realized they were to witness the most significant episode in
American industrial history.
“J. Edward Simmons and Charles Stewart Smith, their hearts
full of gratitude for the lavish hospitality bestowed on them by
Charles M. Schwab during a recent visit to Pittsburgh, had
arranged the dinner to introduce the thirty-eight-year-old steel man
to eastern banking society. But they didn’t expect him to stampede
the convention. They warned him, in fact, that the bosoms within
New York’s stuffed shirts would not be responsive to oratory, and
that, if he didn’t want to bore the Stilhnans and Harrimans and Vanderbilts, he
had better limit himself to fifteen or twenty minutes of polite vaporings and let
it go at that.
“Even John Pierpont Morgan, sitting on the right hand of Schwab as became
his imperial dignity, intended to grace the banquet table with his presence
only briefly. And so far as the press and public were concerned, the whole
affair was of so little moment that no mention of it found its way into print the
next day. “So the two hosts and their distinguished guests ate their way
through the usual seven or eight courses. There was little conversation and
what there was of it was restrained. Few of the bankers and brokers had met
Schwab, whose career had flowered along the banks of the Monongahela, and
none knew him well. But before the evening was over, they—and with them
Money Master Morgan — were to be swept off their feet, and a billion dollar
baby, the United States Steel Corporation, was to be conceived. “It is perhaps
unfortunate, for the sake of history, that no record of Charlie Schwab’s speech
at the dinner ever was made. He repeated some parts of it at a later date during
a similar meeting of Chicago bankers. And still later, when the Government
brought suit to dissolve the Steel Trust, he gave his own version, from the
witness stand, of the remarks that stimulated Morgan into a frenzy of financial
activity.
“It is probable, however, that it was a ‘homely’ speech, somewhat
ungrammatical (for the niceties of language never bothered Schwab), full of
epigram and threaded with wit. But aside from that it had a galvanic force and
effect upon the five billions of estimated capital that was represented by the
diners. After it was over and the gathering was still under its spell, although
Schwab had talked for ninety minutes, Morgan led the orator to a recessed
window where, dangling their legs from the high, uncomfortable seat, they
talked for an hour more.
“The magic of the Schwab personality had been turned on, full force, but what
was more important and lasting was the fullfledged, clear-cut program he laid
down for the aggrandizement of Steel. Many other men had tried to interest
Morgan in slapping together a steel trust after the pattern of the biscuit, wire
and hoop, sugar, rubber, whisky, oil or chewing gum combinations. John W.
Gates, the gambler, had urged it, but Morgan distrusted him. The
Moore boys, Bill and Jim, Chicago stock jobbers who had glued
together a match trust and a cracker corporation, had urged it and failed.
Elbert H. Gary, the sanctimonious country lawyer, wanted to foster it, but he
wasn’t big enough to be impressive. Until Schwab’s eloquence took J. P.
Morgan to the heights from which he could visualize the solid results of the
most daring financial undertaking ever conceived, the project was regarded as
a delirious dream of easy-money crackpots.
“The financial magnetism that began, a generation ago, to attract thousands of
small and sometimes inefficiently managed companies into large and
competition-crushing combinations, had become operative in the steel world
through the devices of that jovial business pirate, John W. Gates. Gates
already had formed the American Steel and Wire Company out of a chain of
small concerns, and together with Morgan had created the Federal Steel
Company. The National Tube and American Bridge companies were two
more Morgan concerns, and the Moore Brothers had forsaken the match and
cookie business to form the ‘American’ group— Tin Plate, Steel Hoop, Sheet
Steel—and the National Steel Company. “But by the side of Andrew
Carnegie’s gigantic vertical trust, a trust owned and operated by fifty-three
partners, those other combinations were picayune. They might combine to
their heart’s content but the whole lot of them couldn’t make a dent in the
Carnegie organization, and Morgan knew it.
“The eccentric old Scot knew it, too. From the magnificent heights of Skibo
Castle he had viewed, first with amusement and then with resentment, the
attempts of Morgan’s smaller companies to cut into his business. When the
attempts became too bold, Carnegie’s temper was translated into anger and
retaliation. He decided to duplicate every mill owned by his rivals. Hitherto,
he hadn’t been interested in wire, pipe, hoops, or sheet. Instead, he was
content to sell such companies the raw steel and let them work it into
whatever shape they wanted. Now, with Schwab as his chief and able
lieutenant, he planned to drive his enemies to the wall. “So it was that in the
speech of Charles M. Schwab, Morgan saw the answer to his problem of
combination. A trust without Carnegie-giant of them all—would be no trust at
all, a plum pudding, as one writer said, without the plums. “Schwab’s speech
on the night of December 12, 1900, undoubtedly carried the inference, though
not the pledge, that the vast Carnegie enterprise could be brought under the
Morgan tent.
He talked of the world future for steel, of reorganization for efficiency, of
specialization, of the scrapping of unsuccessful mills and concentration of
effort on the flourishing properties, of economies in the ore traffic, of
economies in overhead and administrative departments, of capturing foreign
markets. “More than that, he told the buccaneers among them wherein lay the
errors of their customary piracy. Their purposes, he inferred, bad been to
create monopolies, raise prices, and pay themselves fat dividends out of
privilege. Schwab condemned the system in his heartiest manner. The
shortsightedness of such a policy, he told his hearers, lay in the fact that it
restricted the market in an era when everything cried for expansion. By
cheapening the cost of steel, he argued, an ever-expanding market would be
created; more uses for steel would be devised, and a goodly portion of the
world trade could be captured. Actually, though he did not know it, Schwab
was an apostle of modern mass production.
“So the dinner at the University Club came to an end. Morgan went home, to
think about Schwab’s rosy predictions. Schwab went back to Pittsburgh to run
the steel business for ‘Wee Andra Carnegie,’ while Gary and the rest went
back to their stock tickers, to fiddle around in anticipation of the next move.
“It was not long coming. It took Morgan about one week to digest the feast of
reason Schwab had placed before him. When he had assured himself that no
financial indigestion was to result, he sent for Schwab-and found that young
man rather coy. Mr. Carnegie, Schwab indicated, might not like it if he found
his trusted company president had been flirting with the Emperor of Wall
Street, the Street upon which Carnegie was resolved never to tread. Then it
was suggested by John W. Gates the go-between, that if Schwab ‘happened’
to be in the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, J. P. Morgan might also ‘happen’
to be there. When Schwab arrived, however, Morgan was inconveniently ill at
his New York home, and so, on the elder man’s pressing invitation, Schwab
went to New York and presented himself at the door of the financier’s library.
“Now certain economic historians have professed the belief
that from the beginning to the end of the drama, the stage was set
by Andrew Carnegie—that the dinner to Schwab, the famous
speech, the Sunday night conference between Schwab and the
Money King, were events arranged by the canny Scot. The truth is
exactly the opposite. When Schwab was called in to consummate
the deal, he didn’t even know whether ‘the little boss,’ as Andrew was called,
would so much as listen to an offer to sell, particularly to a group of men
whom Andrew regarded as being endowed with something less than holiness.
But Schwab did take into the conference with him, in his own handwriting, six
sheets of copperplate figures, representing to his mind the physical worth and
the potential earning capacity of every steel company he regarded as an
essential star in the new metal firmament.
“Four men pondered over these figures all night. The chief, of course, was
Morgan, steadfast in his belief in the Divine Right of Money. With him was
his aristocratic partner, Robert Bacon, a scholar and a gentleman. The third
was John W. Gates whom Morgan scorned as a gambler and used as a tool.
The fourth was Schwab, who knew more about the processes of making and
selling steel than any whole group of men then living. Throughout that
conference, the Pittsburgher’s figures were never questioned. If he said a
company was worth so much, then it was worth that much and no more. He
was insistent, too, upon including in the combination only those concerns he
nominated. He had conceived a corporation in which there would be no
duplication, not even to satisfy the greed of friends who wanted to unload
their companies upon the broad Morgan shoulders. Thus he left out, by
design, a number of the larger concerns upon which the Walruses and
Carpenters of Wall Street had cast hungry eyes. “When dawn came, Morgan
rose and straightened his back.
Only one question remained.
“‘Do you think you can persuade Andrew Carnegie to sell?’ he asked.
“‘I can try,’ said Schwab.
“‘If you can get him to sell, I will undertake the matter,’ said Morgan.
“So far so good. But would Carnegie sell? How much would he demand?
(Schwab thought about $320,000,000). What would he take payment in?
Common or preferred stocks? Bonds? Cash? Nobody could raise a third of a
billion dollars in cash.
“There was a golf game in January on the frost-cracking heath
of the St. Andrews links in Westchester, with Andrew bundled up in
sweaters against the cold, and Charlie talking volubly, as usual, to
keep his spirits up. But no word of business was mentioned until
the pair sat down in the cozy warmth of the Carnegie cottage hard
by. Then, with the same persuasiveness that had hypnotized eighty
millionaires at the University Club, Schwab poured out the glittering promises
of retirement in comfort, of untold millions to satisfy the old man’s social
caprices. Carnegie capitulated, wrote a figure on a slip of paper, handed it to
Schwab and said, ‘all right, that’s what we’ll sell for.’
“The figure was approximately $400,000,000, and was reached by taking the
$320,000,000 mentioned by Schwab as a basic figure, and adding to it
$80,000,000 to represent the increased capital value over the previous two
years.
“Later, on the deck of a trans-Atlantic liner, the Scotsman said ruefully to
Morgan, ‘I wish I had asked you for $100,000,000 more.’ “‘If you had asked
for it, you’d have gotten it,’ Morgan told him cheerfully.
* * * * * * *
“There was an uproar, of course. A British correspondent cabled that the
foreign steel world was ‘appalled’ by the gigantic combination. President
Hadley, of Yale, declared that unless trusts were regulated the country might
expect ‘an emperor in Washington within the next twenty- five years.’ But that
able stock manipulator, Keene, went at his work of shoving the new stock at
the public so vigorously that all the excess water—estimated by some at
nearly $600,000,000—was absorbed in a twinkling. So Carnegie had his
millions, and the Morgan syndicate had $62,000,000 for all its ‘trouble,’ and
all the ‘boys,’ from Gates to Gary, had their millions.
* * * * * * *
“The thirty-eight-year-old Schwab had his reward. He was made president of
the new corporation and remained in control until 1930.”
The dramatic story of “Big Business” which you have just
finished, was included in this book, because it is a perfect
illustration of the method by which DESIRE CAN BE TRANSMUTED
INTO ITS PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT!
I imagine some readers will question the statement that a
mere, intangible DESIRE can be converted into its physical
equivalent. Doubtless some will say, “You cannot convert NOTHING
into SOMETHING!” The answer is in the story of United States Steel. T hat
giant organization was created in the mind of one man. The plan by which the
organization was provided with the steel mills that gave it financial stability
was created in the mind of the same man. His FAITH, his DESIRE, his
IMAGINATION, his PERSISTENCE were the real ingredients that went into
United States Steel. The steel mills and mechanical equipment acquired by the
corporation, AFTER IT HAD BEEN BROUGHT INTO LEGAL
EXISTENCE, were incidental, but careful analysis will disclose the fact that
the appraised value of the properties acquired by the corporation increased in
value by an estimated SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, by the mere
transaction which consolidated them under one management.
In other words, Charles M. Schwab’s IDEA, plus the FAITH with which he
conveyed it to the minds of J. P. Morgan and the others, was marketed for a
profit of approximately $600,000,000. Not an insignificant sum for a single
IDEA!
What happened to some of the men who took their share of the millions of
dollars of profit made by this transaction, is a matter with which we are not
now concerned. The important feature of the astounding achievement is that it
serves as unquestionable evidence of the soundness of the philosophy
described in this book, because this philosophy was the warp and the woof of
the entire transaction. Moreover, the practicability of the philosophy has been
established by the fact that the United States Steel Corporation prospered, and
became one of the richest and most powerful corporations in America,
employing thousands of people, developing new uses for steel, and opening
new markets; thus proving that the $600,000,000 in profit which the Schwab
IDEA produced was earned.
RICHES begin in the form of THOUGHT!
The amount is limited only by the person in whose mind the THOUGHT is
put into motion. FAITH removes limitations! Remember this when you are
ready to bargain with Life for whatever it is that you ask as your price for
having passed this way. Remember, also, that the man who created the United
States Steel Corporation was practically unknown at the time. He was merely
Andrew Carnegie’s “Man Friday” until he gave birth to his famous IDEA.
After that he quickly rose to a position of power, fame, and riches. THERE
ARE NO LIMITATIONS
TO THE MIND EXCEPT THOSE
WE ACKNOWLEDGE
BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES ARE THE
OFFSPRING OF THOUGHT