Show BABSON'S AUTHENTIC ST STATEMENT npr Ik W Dab Special to THE TU EXPRESS BABSON DISCUSSES DIVERSIFICATION MASS MASS-I MASS I am taking a months month's vaca tion in the fair city in which I was born namely Gloucester Gloucester ter Massachusetts As I sit on my piazza and watch the beautiful but vacant harbor which when I was a boy was full of fishing vessels I te- te reminisce concerning the indus indus- industrial trial changes of the past fifty years The Fishing Business This continues to be a pro pro- prominent Industry but it has gone through great changes Once most of the fish was dried out of doors In the sun and either cut up and sold in mile little wooden boxes or else exported In bulk Fish was also sold throughout the count coun try chiefly by the Frank E Davis Company pickled in tubs and by other concerns cooked in cans Everything from to confection confection- confectionery confectionery ery was tried out by the fish companies Finally Clarence Birdseye invented the quick freeze Industry which result result- resulted ed In the ille employment of a large nun number of people In the filleting and packing of fish for storage in large freezers My guess Js is that someday much of work be eliminated and the entire fish will be ground The Interior Department tells me that whereas the fillet now sold contains only 60 ot of the food value of a fish the tho rest going to the tho chickens this ground fish would contain of the goodness In this connection it is interesting to note nole that doctors are ing fish diets for fol those with heart trouble I believe In the future of the fish fish industry but feel that great revolution ary changes are ahead Al- Al Already Al ready many ot of the leading fish concerns of my boyhood have gone through bankrupt bankrupt- bankruptcy cy for refusing to adapt them selves quickly to future chan chan- changes changes of Gloucester and Rockport- Rockport and even the banks Merchandising and Trading Another branch of the Bab- Bab Babson Babson son family was engaged in the sailing of three three-masted ships around the Horn to China and or across the Atlantic Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope to India and the East Indies Those were great days before there were I any lighthouses or radios or weather reports TIle The story of my a book entitled The Sea Made Men They would anchor their ves- ves vessels vessels sels at certain points and row ashore and trade for all kinds of natural resources After establishing a reputation with the natives for honesty my Gloucester ancestors had sort of a monopoly of the business and it was very profitable It makes me feel bad to see that China has temporarily gone Communist and with the ex ex- ex exception of Hung Hong Kong we have no connection with her million industrious pea peo- people pie When steamships were us- us used used ed the China trade moved to our larger American cities such as New York Philadel- Philadel Philadelphia phia hia and New Orleans How ever the Dabson Babson family con con- continued continued In the merchandising business My father Nathan lel iel Babson was the leading storekeeper in Gloucester and at his suggestion the fam ily acquired control of over two hundred variety stores which have now become the profitable McCrory chain The moral of this story is the importance of cation The families who put all their money into the fish ing business have largely gone broke the families who put their money in thE granite business were forced Into bankruptcy the families who refused to change from from the sailing ships for steamships have about held their own So SoI SoI I urge today diversification Do not put all your eggs Into one basket Have them In a afew afew few different baskets but carefully watch each basket and be willing to quickly re- re realize realize alize coming events |