PERSONAL ENTERPRISE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 20 September 1932, Page 7

PERSONAL ENTERPRISE

THE SPIRIT OF OUR FORE* FATHERS “I would like to invoke the enterprising spirit of our forefathers and I would like to say that at no period of the world’s history have rewards been greater than they are to-day,” writes Sir Edwin Stockton in the “Merchant Adventurer.” “To be sure the unexplored territories of the world are virtually eliminated, but this by no means reduces opportunity, for the world is developing at a great rate. Better transport opens an ever-growing field to trade and industry. There is another charge laid at the door of opportunity to-day, and that is that great amalgamations and combines, great world ramifications of business interests under unified control, offer small opportunity for the personal outlay of individualism. This charge will not bear scrutiny, -for behind every enterprise, no matter how impersonal it may appear on the surface, lies a directing mind, a Leverhulme, a Ford or a Marconi. It may be true that so far as the world is concerned, those who hold in their hands the fortunes of these great schemes may not achieve such personal distinction as the forcer of the NorthWest Passage, or those who extend the territory of the British Empire; their service to humanity, their influence upon our daily life and well being, is not ono whit the less. We need constantly to remind ourselves that the future prosperity of our Empire depends on our maintaining a virile spirit of enterprise. It is the only policy which will insure success.’