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From B. C. Forbes and O. D. Foster, Automotive Giants of America: Men Who Are Making Our Motor Industry. New York: B. C. Forbes Publishing Company, 1926, pp. 211-224. Unlike most American youths, this farm-boy knew what he wanted. He wanted, first, to become a mechanic. He became a mechanic, master mechanic, so skilled a mechanic and so skilled in business that he rose to be a president. Again he knew what he wanted. He wanted to establish an enterprise of his own. He knew exactly what kind of product he wanted to produce and he knew exactly the kind of men he wanted to draw around him. He hung out his shingle in the Summer of 1916. In nine years he sold $418,761,674 worth of his product. The profits reached $56,769,233. Each single share of the original common stock had attained a market value Of $2,250. There were times when earnings far exceeded 100 per cent. in a year. Before being split up, in 1925, the shares sold on the New York Stock Exchange far above those of any other concern in the industry. The ex-farm-boy is not only one of the very largest income tax payers in the land, but has won a unique reputation for his managerial as well as mechanical ability. That, in brief, is the record of Charles W. Nash, motor manufacturer. Says Mr. Nash: "There is only one sure recipe for success in any field of endeavor: Determination, close application to details, plus hard work and then more hard work. "Years of experience have taught me that there are three highly important factors entering into the success of any large manufacturing organization, and these factors are machinery, methods, and men. And the last is, perhaps, the most important of all. "It is obvious that no organization can become of higher caliber than the men who comprise it and direct its various activities. Therefore, when the Nash Motors Company was about to become a reality this problem of men was the most important I had to face. For I knew that, if I could surround myself with men of broad and successful experience, my success would be practically assured." Experience has also taught Mr. Nash this: "Unproductive labor and waste are two things a manufacturer has to fight. It is not labor costs that cut into profits; it is the cost of unproductive labor – that and waste of material. These two things require constant attention." You continually hear that the biggest problem in industry to-day is not production but selling. How has Mr. Nash achieved such success in selling his product that many times during the last few years orders have far exceeded productive capacity? Here is his answer, in eight words: "Selling is 90 per cent. a production problem." The plant designed by Nash embodied in a degree not excelled by even the Ford plant the principle of "straight-line" production; every material moved in a straight line from the point of delivery to the delivery of the finished product. Young Nash, at a very early age, mapped out a straight line course for himself. Born at DeKalb, Ill., on January 28, 1864, his family moved from their farm there to one near Flint, Michigan, when he was two.

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