ACCURATE THINKING 683Mr. Rockefeller has one quality that stands out, like a shining star,
above all of his other qualities. It is his habit of dealing only with the
relevant facts pertaining to his lifework. As a very young man (and a
very poor young man, at that) Mr. Rockefeller adopted, as his Definite
Chief Aim, the accumulation of great wealth. It is not my purpose,
nor is it of any particular advantage, to look into Mr. Rockefeller's
method of accumulating his fortune, other than to observe that his
most pronounced quality was that of insisting on facts as the basis of
his business philosophy.
There are some who say that John D. Rockefeller was not always
fair with his competitors. That mayor may not be true (as accurate
thinkers we will leave the point undisturbed), but no one, not even his
competitors, ever accused Mr. Rockefeller of forming snap judgments
or of underestimating the strength of his competitors. He not only
recognized facts that affected his business, wherever and whenever he
found them, but he also made it his business to search for them until
he was sure he had found them.
Thomas A. Edison is another example of a man who has attained
to greatness through the organization, classification, and use of rele-
vant facts. Mr. Edison works with natural laws as his chief aids, so he
must be sure of his facts before he can harness those laws. Every time
you switch on an electric light, remember that it was Mr. Edison's
capacity for organizing relevant facts that made this possible.
In the field of science, relevant facts are the tools with which men
and women work. Mere information, or hearsay evidence, is of no
value to Mr. Edison. Yet he might have wasted his life working with it,
as millions of other people are doing.
Hearsay evidence could never have produced the incandescent
electric light, the phonograph, or the moving picture, and if it had,
the phenomenon would have been" an accident:' In this lesson we are
trying to prepare the student to avoid "accidents:'
The question now arises as to what constitutes an important and
relevant fact.