Self Help

Had this not been so, the present status of the United States as a power among the nations of the world would be far different from what it is. It was this same principle of co-operative effort that Woodrow Wilson had in mind when he created his plan for a League of Nations.

He foresaw the need of such a plan as a medium for preventing war between nations; just as Lincoln foresaw it as a medium for harmonizing the efforts of the people of the United States, thereby preserving the Union.

Thus it is seen that the principle of organized, co-operative effort through the aid of which the individual may develop personal power, is the selfsame principle that must be employed in developing group power.

Andrew Carnegie easily dominated the steel business during his active connection with that industry, for the reason that he took advantage of the principle of organized, co-operative effort by surrounding himself with highly specialized financial men, chemists, sales managers, buyers of raw materials, transportation experts and others whose services were essential to that industry. He organized this group of co-operators into what he called a "Master Mind."

Any great university affords an excellent example of the necessity of organized, co-operative effort. The professorate is made up of men and women of highly specialized, though vastly different, ability.

• One department is presided over by experts in literature;
• another department by expert mathematicians;
• another department by experts in chemistry;
• another department by experts in economic philosophy;
• another department by experts in medicine;
• another, by experts in law, etc.

The university, as a whole, is the equivalent of a group of colleges each of which is directed by experts in its own line, whose efficiency is greatly increased through allied or co-operative effort that is directed by a single head. Analyze power, no matter where, or in what form, it may be found, and you will find organization and co-operation as the chief factors back of it.

You will find these two principles in evidence in the lowest form of vegetation no less than in the highest form of animal, which is man. Off the coast of Norway is the most famous and irresistible maelstrom in the world.