THE YOUNG GUVNOR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 57, 1 December 1919, Page 6

THE YOUNG GUVNOR

A CURSE OP BRITISH BUSINESSES.

I havo .just returned from a most depressing interview at the premises of a firm to which (writes Ward Muir in the "Daily Mail"). I must give tho crudely descriptive name of Messrs. Pusher and Son. It is an intensely English firm in two respects: First, its honesty, and, secondly— But f shall explain that regrettable "secondly" in a moment. Mr. Pusher, sen., aa an expert, built up a splendid one-man business. Hβ lias made a comfortable fortune. There are, to my knowledge, only Devon or eight reputable firms in London in Pusher's particular line. Ihe competition among those firms is keen. It was necessary for mo to emp.oy. one of those firms. In the past I had known I'usher, sen., as exactly the man 1 wanted. So I went to the offices of .Messrs. Pusher and Son for an interview. , And by cliance. Pusher sen., was out. I saw the "and Son"—"the yonng Guvnor." And I am off to placo my little commission, such as it is, with some other firm. ~ , Let mo put fholhing quite bluntly. Pusher's son was very well groomed and well spoken; a nice young fellow with a publio school education and accent But, knowing old Pusher, as I <!o. 1 vow that it is absolutely unthinkable that he would have even taken that boy into the business-much less tola him tho secrets and made lira a part-ner--if ho had been anylwdy else s son. That is the "secondly" of the firms Englishness.

The' Englishman has an incorrifible linbit nf trying to create ft "familyconcern"; time and nKiiin I have observed preposterously unsuitable youngsters nitchforlccd into an office appointment "purclv becauw a father or undo was at Ihe'hend of affaivs and the son or nephew must be provided with a position. Tlio idea of hereditary businesses ■weins lo be in our blood. I have seen go-ahead soup effect enormous improvements in the businesses of fathers who were too conservative. But T have seen case after case of sons makin" a mess of the businesses they inherited; which was end for everyone concCTiied-especially for the shareholders. , In America Hip name "So-and-so nnn Son" is much rarer than here. Jlcm are choseii oil their merits—or llxo.V work up from the bottom and aw therefore automatically weeded out. In Aew York I should never have had so hopeless an interview in any business house as T experienced the other day .at Pusher and Son's-wherc T sat Jninlfing of how brightly, eaircrly, and ehrewdly old Pusher would have handled" nic, while younc Pusher, with ii » hcsitulioiw ar.d timidities and P-nlil-ilies, "muffed" the affair and sent mo away lo a rival.