I told him that I would still be a customer of his,
and that I cherished no ill-feeling because of the
incident—that would remain green in my
memory.
The alumni of Eastman College
gave their annual banquet, March 30, 1901,
at the Y. M. C. A. Building. Mr. James G. Cannon,
of the Fourth National Bank, made the first speech
of the evening, after which Mr. Clemens
was introduced by Mr. Bailey as the personal
friend of Tom Sawyer, who was one of the types
of successful business men.
Mr. Cannon has furnished me with texts enough to last
as slow a speaker as myself all the rest of the night.
I took exception to the introducing of Mr. Cannon
as a great financier, as if he were the only great
financier present. I am a financier. But
my methods are not the same as Mr. Cannon’s.
I cannot say that I have turned out the great business
man that I thought I was when I began life.
But I am comparatively young yet, and may learn.
I am rather inclined to believe that what troubled
me was that I got the big-head early in the game.
I want to explain to you a few points of difference
between the principles of business as I see them and
those that Mr. Cannon believes in.
He says that the primary rule of business success
is loyalty to your employer. That’s all
right—as a theory. What is the matter
with loyalty to yourself? As nearly as I can
understand Mr. Cannon’s methods, there is one
great drawback to them. He wants you to work
a great deal. Diligence is a good thing, but
taking things easy is much more-restful. My
idea is that the employer should be the busy man, and
the employee the idle one. The employer should
be the worried man, and the employee the happy one.
And why not? He gets the salary. My plan
is to get another man to do the work for me.
In that there’s more repose. What I want
is repose first, last, and all the time.
Mr. Cannon says that there are three cardinal rules
of business success; they are diligence, honesty,
and truthfulness. Well, diligence is all right.
Let it go as a theory. Honesty is the best policy—when
there is money in it. But truthfulness is one
of the most dangerous—why, this man is
misleading you.
I had an experience to-day with my wife which illustrates
this. I was acknowledging a belated invitation
to another dinner for this evening, which seemed to
have been sent about ten days ago. It only reached
me this morning. I was mortified at the discourtesy
into which I had been brought by this delay, and wondered
what was being thought of me by my hosts. As
I had accepted your invitation, of course I had to
send regrets to my other friends.
When I started to write this note my wife came up
and stood looking over my shoulder. Women always
want to know what is going on. Said she “Should
not that read in the third person?” I conceded
that it should, put aside what I was writing, and
commenced over again. That seemed to satisfy
her, and so she sat down and let me proceed.
I then—finished my first note—and
so sent what I intended. I never could have done
this if I had let my wife know the truth about it.
Here is what I wrote:
