{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29276/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29276","id":"gutenberg_29276","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29276","summary":null,"tags":["Business ethics","Category: Business/Management","Category: Philosophy & Ethics"],"text":"Produced by adhere and the Online Distributed Proofreading\nTeam at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from\nimages generously made available by The Internet\nArchive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMORALS IN TRADE AND COMMERCE\n\n\nA LECTURE BY\nFRANK B. ANDERSON\n\nPresident of\nThe Bank of California\nNational Association\n\n\nDELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF\nTHE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA\nBERKELEY\nFebruary 15th, 1911\n\n\nUnder the \"Barbara Weinstock\" Foundation\n\n\n\n\nMORALS IN TRADE AND COMMERCE\n\n\nThe most beautiful thing about youth is its power and eagerness to make\nideals, and he is unfortunate who goes out into the world without some\npicture of services to be rendered, or of a goal to be attained. There\nare very few of us who, at some time or another, have not cherished\nthese ideals, perhaps secretly and half ashamed as though to us alone\nhad come an inspiration of a career that should touch the pulses of\nthe world and leave it better than we found it. And in the making of\nyouthful ideals we have changed very little with the passage of the\ncenturies. The character of the ideals has changed with changing needs,\nbut not we ourselves. Our young men still see visions; they still fill\nthe future with conflict and with struggle and prospectively live out\ntheir lives with the crown of achievement in the distance. It is well\nthat it should be so. The ideals of our youth are the motive-power of\nour lives, and even those of us who have lived far into the eras of\ndisappointment would not willingly wipe from our memories even the most\nextravagant day dreams from which we drew energy and hope and fortitude\nand self-reliance.\n\nIf ideals have such a power over our lives, if they energize and direct\nour first entry into the world of affairs--as unquestionably they\ndo--they must be counted among the real forces of the day and as such\nthey are as much a matter for our scrutiny and control as educational\ndevelopment or physical perfection. Not, perhaps, in the same way, for\nour ideals belong to that private domain wherein we rightly resent\neither dictation or authority from the outside. But we can apply both\ndictation and authority for ourselves. With a firm determination to be\nupon the right side of the great issues of the day, to uphold honor and\njustice in public affairs, to uproot the tares and to sow the wheat in\nthe domain of national business, we can apply our whole mental strength\nto a proper determination of those issues, to a correct distribution of\npraise and blame, to a careful adjustment of the means to the end and\nto a precise appreciation of the facts. We can satisfy ourselves that we\nhave heard both sides and that enthusiasm has not deadened our ears to\nall appeals but the most noisy. We can see to it that our attitude is\nthe judicial one and that our minds are so fixed upon the truth and upon\nthe whole truth that there is no room for prejudice or for passion. All\nthese things can be reared as a superstructure upon the groundwork of\nlofty ideals, for just as there can be no progress without ideals so\nthere can come nothing but calamity from ideals that are not guided by\nreflection and by knowledge.\n\nNever before has it been so hard to know the facts as it is to-day.\nIf we must give credit to the press for the diffusion of knowledge\nso also must we recognize its equal power to diffuse prejudice and\nbias. The newspaper and the magazine of to-day are vast and intricate\nmachines that supply the great majority of us with practically all the\ndata upon which we base our judgments. The public mind and the popular\npress act and react upon one another, the press setting its sails to\ncatch every wind of public interest and the public upon its part\ndemanding to be supplied with all those departments of news to which\nat the moment it is specially attracted. Commercialism and competition\nhave barred a large part of the press from its rightful office as leader\nand molder of opinion and have reduced it to the position of a clamorous\napplicant for public favor. The press, like everything else, is ruled\nby majorities, and in order to live it must cater to the weaknesses of\npopular majorities, it must reflect their prejudices, it must sustain\ntheir ill-formed judgments, and it must so sift and winnow the news of\nthe day that the whims and the passions of the day shall be sustained.\nThere are some newspapers and magazines that are honorably willing to\nrepresent only ripe thought and unbiased judgments, but they are not in\nthe majority.\n\nWhat verdict would the historian of the future pass upon the\ncivilization of to-day if he were restricted to the files of our\nnewspapers for his material. It must be confessed that we of to-day, in\nthe hurry and tension of modern life, are hardly in a better position.\nWhatever we may suppose to be our attitude toward the press, with\nwhatever scorn we may regard its baser features, it has an effect upon\nour minds far greater than we suppose. It is the steady drip of the\nwater upon the stone that wears it away. It is the steady presentation\nof one aspect of human life, and that the lowest, that slowly jaundices\nour view and that produces either a rank pessimism or else an\nindignation against evil so strong as to efface judgment and to paralyze\nreason. Day after day we see human nature presented in its worst aspects\nand only in its worst aspects. We see fraud, cupidity, tyranny, and\nviolence paraded before us as being almost the only activities worth\nreporting. Dishonesty is offered to us as the prevailing rule of life,\nand we are asked to believe that the spirit of commercial oppression has\nallied itself with the machinery of government for the oppression of a\nnation. It is a dreary picture, a picture that, if faithfully drawn,\nwould justify almost any remedial measures within human power, a picture\nthat by the skill of its presentation arrests attention and almost\ncompels belief.\n\nThat we so seldom compare the picture with the original is one of the\nanomalies of modern life. And yet the original is before us and around\nus all the time, inviting us to notice that it is only the exceptional\nthat is reproduced with attractive skill and that it is only the\nabnormal that is emphasized with adroit arrangements of line and color.\nDay after day we read of the sensational divorce cases, but there is\nnot one line of the tens of thousands of happy marriages upon which no\ncloud of discord ever falls. Day after day we read of the scandals of\nmunicipal government, but how often do we remember the great army of\nmunicipal officials who do their whole duty devotedly, courageously,\nunselfishly? Day after day we hear of corporation tyranny, corporation\nlawlessness, or corporation greed, but what recognition do we give to\ncorporations that obey the laws, whose operations are above censure and\nwho add immeasurably to the wealth of the country and to the prosperity\nof every citizen in it? With this constant presentation of depravity,\nthis incessant harping upon the one string of human dishonesty, what\nwonder that our visions should be distorted or that we should exclude\nfrom our horizon almost everything but the sinister features of modern\nlife. What wonder that the young men and women should look at the career\nbefore them through an all-pervading fog of suspicion or that the days\nahead of them should seem to be filled with the struggle against a\nuniversal dishonesty.\n\nIt is from such illusions as this that we must free our ideals if we\nwould do effective work for the world and for ourselves. There are real\nenemies enough without erecting imaginary windmills to tilt against.\nFrauds, depravities, tragedies surely await us, now as ever, but\nwe shall be doubly armed against them if we look upon them as the\nexceptions and not the rule and if we draw strength from the great\nbackground of human virtue and honesty. And there is such a background,\nunchanging, resistant, resolute, even though the limelight of publicity\nbe persistently directed upon the few sinister figures on the front of\nthe stage. We cannot afford to lose our faith in human nature, we cannot\nafford to shut out the greater and the best part of life or to gaze so\npersistently upon the abnormal that we can no longer see the normal\nand the ordinary. Let us cultivate our sense of ethical values and of\nethical perspective rather than to crouch behind a shrub until it looks\nlike a forest.\n\nWe are indebted to our commercialized newspapers and magazines for our\ndistorted views of human life and for the cynicism that it is the\nmomentary fashion to affect, but that is always disfiguring to the mind\nthat harbors it. Certainly we can get no such views and no such cynicism\nfrom our own experience or from personal knowledge of the men and women\nwho surround us. Honesty is a more familiar sight than dishonesty. All\nthe common and familiar processes of our daily life are based upon an\nexpectation of honesty, and if you will stop to consider for a moment\nyou will see that those processes could not go on without that\nexpectation. And how seldom is it falsified. Sometimes of course there\ncomes the jar of disappointment, but the fact that there is a jar shows\nthat it is the exception and not the rule. However much we may talk of\nguarantees and safeguards and securities, however much we may talk of a\nbusiness method or instinct that takes nothing for granted, it remains\na self-evident fact that we must take human honesty for granted, that\nwe must assume that the man with whom we do business intends to do\nit rightly and honorably, that he is actuated by a settled principle\nof fair conduct that will work automatically, and that without this\nautomatically working standard of behavior all our guarantees and\nsafeguards and securities would really have very little value. It is the\nuniversal expectation of fair dealing that makes business possible and,\nin fact, it is this universal expectation of good behavior that makes\nits breach sufficiently novel to be reported in the newspapers. If fraud\nand chicanery and violence were the order of the day, they would have no\nvalue as news. After twenty-nine years of dealing with human nature in\na business where it is seen at its extremes--at its best and at its\nworst--I believe that the great majority of men and women in business\nare honest and I am certain that if this were not so, it would be\nimpossible to carry on business. Take the statistics of the credit\ninsurance business, a business that may be said to be based upon an\nassumption of human honesty; examine the statistics of the losses made\nin business and you will find that these are but a small fraction of the\ntotal amount involved and even this small proportion is chiefly due to\nerrors of judgment or to causes in which dishonesty plays no part. Ask\nany banker how much he relies upon human honesty as an indispensable\nbackground to the ordinary precautions and safeguards of his business.\nAsk him what is his attitude toward a client whom he detects in a lie or\nin sharp practice, and he will tell you that he has no use for such a\nman. He would rather be without his business and free from all contact\nwith those whose natural and innate sense of honesty is lacking. Go\nwherever you like, and you will find the same expectation, the same\nassumption of honesty. You will find that no business can be carried on\nwithout it. Whatever high and honorable ideals you may have formed you\nneed have no apprehension that they will be scorned in the business\nworld or that you will have to put them away to win success. It is\nin the business world that they will be valued, and even the mental\nequipment that you are now seeking will be less important to you, a\nlesser guarantee of success than your sense of honor and truth and\nprobity. When you reach the business world--and many of you perhaps will\ngo into the great corporations that are now ceaselessly paraded before\nyou as wolves and as public enemies--you will find there the same kind\nof human nature that you find here in college, the same estimation of\nprobity and of fair dealing. If you do mean or underhand things, you\nwill find that they are branded in the same way there as here. You will\nfind that manliness and integrity are the rule and not the exception,\nand I will venture upon the prediction that when the time comes for you\nto look back upon your career you will see that there has been a steady\nimprovement all along the line, just as those who are already able to\nlook backward find that there has been an improvement since their own\ncollege days. But that will rest with yourselves, for the future is in\nyour own hands. It is for you, gentlemen, to see that moral and ethical\nprogress is unbroken.\n\nNow let me say a word about the corporations of which we hear so much in\nthe newspapers and magazines and that are so persistently represented as\nenemies of the community and as vampires that are sucking the\nlife-blood of the nation. I think there may be plenty of room here for\nclarification of our views, and, indeed, we should all be better for it\nif we could give more precision to our thinking and free ourselves from\nthe imputations that have been allowed to cluster around certain terms.\nYou may be sure that I am under no inclination to defend criminality or\nwrong-doing or to deny their existence wherever they are actually to\nbe found. There are criminal corporations just as there are criminal\ndoctors, and lawyers, and clergymen. Wherever men are gathered together\nthere you will find a certain number who are disposed to seek their\npersonal advantage in reprehensible ways, but because some doctors and\nsome lawyers and some clergymen are criminals we do not attach an\nimputation to their respective professions. We are content to say that\nthere are black sheep in every flock and so pass on. But the newspapers\nand the magazines have seen fit to concentrate their attention upon\nthe criminal or the illegal acts of certain individuals who belong to\ncorporations and to explain those acts in a manner which often leads\ntheir readers to assume that the acts are an essential part of\ncorporation business. As a result, the very word \"corporation\" has taken\non a sinister meaning, and we are asked to look upon the corporations\nvery much as the Rhine peasants used to look upon the robber barons who\nwere accustomed to swoop down upon them and carry off their flocks. A\ncorporation is absolutely nothing more than a partnership of individuals\nwho prefer to do business under certain regulations imposed by the\ngovernment. There is no difference between the corporate and the\nindividual ways of doing business except a piece of stamped paper issued\nby the Secretary of State. The corporation is made up of individuals who\nhave just the same ideas of honor as you have yourselves, who have just\nas much integrity, just as great a love of fair play. A man does not\nchange his nature just because he turns his business into a corporation\nany more than he changes his nature because he moves from one street to\nanother or from the first floor to the second. A corporation then is a\ncombination of men that has been formed under the sanction of law to\ncarry out certain projects that it would be difficult or even impossible\nto carry out in any other way. The men forming those corporations are\njust such men as we meet in daily life, no better and no worse, and\ntherefore with all those normal inclinations toward honesty that we are\nconscious of possessing ourselves and that we are in the habit of\nfinding in others. The fact that these men have formed themselves into\na corporation is no more significant of evil than a combination or a\npartnership among doctors or laborers. It is a part of the spirit of the\nage, an age that is called upon to do great things, to develop vast\nnatural resources, to feed and clothe great centers of population, and\nto undertake a hundred other enterprises too large for the strength of\nthe individual. I should like you to think over the real meaning of\nthis term \"corporation\" in order that you may understand that it has\nno sinister significance whatever, that it is nothing more than a\npartnership that has registered itself under certain legal conditions\nfor purposes that are laudable and honest. If you will do this, you will\nunderstand at once how senseless is the outcry against corporations as\nsuch and how absurd it is that any stigma of dishonesty should be placed\nupon a particular form of doing business that is exactly like other\nforms of doing business, with the addition of a legal registration.\nAs I have already said, there are some corporations that break laws,\nor rather certain individuals who are parts of corporations and who\nbreak laws, just as there is a certain small proportion of law-breakers\nin every section of every community. But that fact carries with it\nno reflection upon corporations as such, and when our sensational\npublications and politicians use the word \"corporation\" as though it\nwere an alternative term for brigand or pirate they are simply assuming\na public ignorance that may exist outside, but that certainly ought not\nto be found within a university. They are taking advantage of a nearly\nuniversal disposition to believe one's self injured and are appealing\nnot only to ignorance, but to a low form of cupidity and of mob greed.\nThey would have no success in their crusade against corporations as such\nif there were any general understanding of the meaning of terms or if\nit were generally recognized that there are thousands of corporations\nin this State, and thousands in every State against whom no whisper\nof wrong-doing has ever been raised and who are doing a useful work,\nof which every individual among us is a beneficiary, directly or\nindirectly. Now it is not only in our definitions that we need to be\nprecise and to think clearly. We have already seen the need of a better\ndiscrimination between the very few corporations that are accused of\nbreaking the laws and the vastly greater number that we never hear of at\nall and that do their business as quietly and honestly as the baker or\nthe butcher. If lawbreaking is to be found in the business of some\ncorporations, it is incumbent upon us to determine just in what way the\nlaw is being broken, why it is being broken, what sort of law it is\nthat is being broken, and how much moral turpitude or public wrong is\ninvolved. All these factors would be determined by a judge upon the\nbench before passing sentence upon the meanest malefactor, and yet we\nfind that the public is constantly urged by the newspapers to pass\nsentences of ruin and confiscation upon corporations as a whole, with\ntheir tens of thousands of innocent stockholders, without any kind of\ninquiry and under the influence of uninformed passion.\n\nThere is no department of ethics more disputed than the meaning of\nabstract right and wrong, and as I am not talking either on philosophy\nor ethics I will ask you to accept just such commonsense definitions as\ncan be applied to the business world and that may be usefully employed\nas a working basis. Commercial morality and honesty are determined by\neach community for itself in the light of its own special needs and\npoint of evolution. To-day we hold many things to be wrong that were\ndone by our forefathers with clear consciences, and on the other\nhand we now believe that many things are right that were held by our\nforefathers to be wrong. There was a time when slavery did not offend\nthe most delicate conscience, and if we go still further back, we shall\nreach a time when theft was almost the only crime recognized and when\nwholesale murder was a virtue. Every age had its own standards, and it\nwould be absurd to argue that an act was wrong if it received the\nsanction of the whole community. It was the communal conscience that\ndetermined all problems of right or wrong, and it is still the communal\nconscience that gives us our definitions of morality and honesty. Here,\nin my opinion, is where a great part of our trouble arises. The communal\nconscience has changed, and some things regarded right and proper twenty\nyears ago are frowned upon to-day. But business methods tend to become\nrigid and inelastic, and a sudden evolution of the public conscience\nleaves them in the rear. Then comes a sudden recognition of the\ndisparity, and laws are passed to prevent the practices that formerly\nwent unchallenged. Usually these laws are passed in a hurry and by\npoliticians who have no clear grasp of the problem. As a result the laws\nare ineffective. That is to say, business, clinging conservatively to\nits familiar ways, finds a plan to continue those ways in spite of the\nlaws passed to prevent them and then public opinion, finding no relief,\nis angered,--not at the breaking of a law, but because the law itself\nwas ill-designed and ineffective. In other words, public opinion has\nfailed in its effort to force the individual to set aside his own\ninterests for what public opinion considers to be the interests of the\ncommunity. Public opinion in this country is not a steady and persisting\nforce, as it is in some older communities. It moves spasmodically and\nafter long periods of quiescence and usually under some stress of\nexcitement, which prevents deliberation and therefore effectiveness. Law\nbeing more unwieldy than conditions, naturally lags behind them, and\nwhat we have to recognize is a change in conditions and in laws and not\nan outbreak of lawlessness. Another evil result from the impetuous way\nin which we make laws is that they are not enforced because they are not\nin harmony with the views of the community. The statute books of every\nState are encumbered with laws passed in moments of hysteria and never\nput into operation, or else allowed to lapse after a few months of\nconfusion. Every newspaper in California, for example, breaks the law\nevery day when it prints a news item without appending the name of the\nwriter, and probably we are all of us breaking laws of which we never\nheard. This sort of thing brings a law into contempt and robs it of the\nsacredness that should attach to it. The Sherman anti-trust law, for\nexample, would bring the whole business of the country to a standstill\nif it were strictly enforced, and I believe it is not good to bring\nlarge and innocent sections of the community within the scope of a\ncriminal law simply for the purpose of reaching a minute proportion\nwhose methods are flagrantly bad. If the Sherman anti-trust law were\nenforced, it would have to be repealed at once, and I think honest\ntraders have a right to complain of a law that makes them technical\ncriminals and is enforced only against notorious wrongdoers. The law\nshould be so framed as to reach only wrongdoers and to leave honest\ntraders outside of even its technical scope.\n\nPresident Roosevelt was emphatic in his declaration that he intended to\nenforce the Sherman anti-trust act, and during the four years beginning\nwith 1902 his administration was active in that direction.\n\nIn 1906 he stated: \"Combinations of capital, like combinations of labor,\nare a necessary element in our present industrial system. It is not\npossible completely to prevent them; and, if it were possible, such\ncomplete prevention would do damage to the body politic. It is\nunfortunate that our present laws should forbid all combinations,\ninstead of sharply discriminating between those combinations which do\ngood and those combinations which do evil.\n\nIt is a public evil to have on the statute-books a law incapable of\nfull enforcement, because both judges and juries realize that its full\nenforcement would destroy the business of the country; for the result is\nto make decent men violators of the law against their will and to put a\npremium on the behavior of the willful wrongdoers. Such a result, in\nturn, tends to throw the decent man and willful wrongdoer into close\nassociation, and in the end to drag down the former to the latter's\nlevel; for the man who becomes a law-breaker in one way unhappily tends\nto lose all respect for law and to be willing to break it in many ways.\nThe law as construed by the Supreme Court is such that the business of\nthe country cannot be conducted without breaking it.\"\n\nBut let it be admitted that there are cases where abuses exist and where\nmethods of doing business that were harmless enough and even necessary\nenough a few years ago are now working hardship upon the public as a\nresult of changed conditions. These abuses should be corrected; there is\nno question about that, and they will be corrected either by violent\nmethods that will leave behind them a heritage of bitter resentments and\nwrongs or by the way of a real statesmanship that will recognize only\nfacts and that will do justice by methods that are themselves just. For\na long time to come it must be the greatest of all problems confronting\nthe statesmanship of our day, a problem that must try our patience and\nour capacity for self-government. Do not imagine that America stands\nalone on this perilous path of reform. All the countries of civilization\nstand in the same place. All are confronted with the same conflict\nbetween new ideals and old methods, between the spirit of to-day and the\nmechanism of yesterday. The problems of other countries arise from their\nown peculiar conditions just as our problems arise from our conditions,\nbut their essence, their purport, is the same. And do not imagine that\nthere is any one solution that can be applied or that there is any\nvirtue in the sovereign cure-alls that are clamorously urged upon us\nby demagogues and by reformers who are eager to reform everything and\neverybody but themselves. There is no such panacea. It is to be found\nneither in municipalization, nor nationalization, nor confiscation, nor\nany of the nostrums advocated so wearisomely by sensation mongers. There\nis indeed no hope for us except by laborious study of conditions and by\nan infinitely cautious advance from point to point, so that there may\nbe no injustice, no concessions to prejudice, no incitements of class\nfeeling, no embittering of relations that should be cordial as between\ncitizens of the same republic, whose differences are infinitely small as\ncompared with the well-being of a great nation. Of all the dangers that\nthreaten the path of the reformer that of injustice is the greatest. It\nis better even that abuses should continue for a time longer than that\nthey should be corrected by injustice and by the infliction of hardships\nupon those who are wholly innocent. Two wrongs can never make a right,\nand wherever we find a so-called reform that is based upon injustice be\nassured that we are only substituting one evil for another and that our\nlatter end shall be worse than the first. It would be impossible for one\nnow to indicate the direction in which reforms should lie, and there is\nof course nothing human to which reform is impossible. But it is perhaps\nsuitable that I should indicate some of the ways that can end in nothing\nbut calamity, however alluringly and speciously they may be advocated.\nFor example, there is neither good sense nor honesty in penalizing a\ncorporation because some of its officials have done wrong. Wherever\nwrong has been done, the guilt is with some individual and not with\nthe corporation as a whole. Find out who that individual is and let\nhim answer to the law, but do not visit his misdeeds upon innocent\nstockholders who have had nothing whatever to do with the offense,\nwho knew nothing of its commission and could have done nothing to\nprevent it if they had known. Remember, that a penalty inflicted upon\na corporation is actually inflicted not upon guilty persons but upon\ninnocent investors.\n\nLet me give an illustration of the so-called \"reforms\" that are\nrecklessly urged upon us to-day and that are to be found in operation\nhere and there throughout the country. I refer to the matter of street\nfranchises. Now it may be true, it probably is true, that in many cases\nthese franchises have become of great value and that they ought not to\nbe granted without adequate return. But would it not be just to remember\nthat when these franchises were originally granted they provided a\nservice that was absolutely essential to the growth of the community and\nthat those who obtained the franchises faced a serious risk to their\ncapital and practically threw in their lot with the prospective welfare\nof the city? It is hard to realize how serious that risk sometimes was\nand how problematical were the returns. The shareholders in these street\ntraction corporations are spread over the population and every class of\nthe population is represented in them. They invested their money in good\nfaith at a time when no question had ever been raised as to the\npropriety of these franchises and at a time when these franchises were\nconsidered to be for the public good and indubitably were for the public\ngood. And I will ask you if it is honest to use all the machinery of\nthe government, all the artifices of the politician to depreciate the\nvalue of those franchises, to threaten their holders with confiscation,\nto hamper and harass them by all the ways that are open to a\ndemocratically governed people? I say unhesitatingly that it is\ndishonest to do these things, and I will go so far as to say--believing\nas I do in the good faith of the great majority--that most of those who\nnoisily advocate such measures would be ashamed to do so if they would\nbut face the facts and understand what it is that they are actually\ndoing and the wrong that they are inflicting upon innocent men and\nwomen. If mistakes have been made in granting franchises, then take care\nto avoid such mistakes in the future, but do not enter into a bargain\nthat seemed advantageous to yourselves and then repudiate it when you\nfind that it is not so advantageous as you thought. There is no way\nto reconcile such a thing with common honesty, and it is in no way\nmitigated by the fact that it is done by a community and by means of a\nvote rather than by an individual and in the ordinary small affairs of\nlife. We all know what we should say of the man who acted in this way\ntoward ourselves personally, but in advocating some of the schemes that\nare now recommended to us by sensational politicians, newspapers, and\nmagazines we are making ourselves responsible for a dishonesty far\ngreater than the evils that we are trying to remedy. Let us by all means\nreform whatever needs to be reformed, but let us do it with clean hands.\n\nNow, I think that I have said enough to justify my belief that these\ngreat problems of our social life are not of a kind to be settled\noff-hand by violent or radical legislation. They are not to be settled\nby any one scheme or by any one plan. The only way to approach them is\nby careful and conscientious thought, a minute examination of the facts\nat first hand and a rigid determination to act toward corporations and\nbusiness interests in general in the same spirit of unswerving honesty\nthat you would wish to display to a comrade or to a friend and that you\nwould wish to be displayed toward yourselves. You will find that honesty\nis the royal road to success in commercial life, and it is also the\nroyal road to all reform in our communal life. Do not go out into the\nworld with any expectation that you will be required to surrender the\nideals that you have formed in your youth, or that you will be asked to\nchoose between honor and success. Those ideals will be the greatest\ncapital with which you can be endowed. They will attract to you\neverything that makes life desirable and without them you can have\nneither self-respect nor the respect of others.\n\nAnd as a last word let me recommend you not to be carried away by those\ngusts of prejudice and passion that sweep periodically through the\ncommunity. There is a contagion in these things that it is hard to\nresist, and so much that to-day passes for thought is not thought at\nall, but merely the automatic, unreflecting acceptance of wild theories\nthat are enunciated with so much force that they seem to be almost\naxioms. Your study of history will show you that the world has always\nbeen subject to these waves of emotion, that are sometimes religious,\nsometimes political, and seem for the time to carry everything before\nthem. We are passing through such a period now, a period of intense\nunrest, of revolt against conditions that we ourselves made, against\nmethods that we ourselves created and sanctioned. I advise you to look\naskance upon every movement that in the language of the day is called\npopular. Do not accept a theory or a doctrine because it is popular,\nbut on the other hand do not reject it for that reason. Do not permit\nyourselves to be carried off your intellectual feet by indignation or by\nprotest. Demand of every political theory that it stand and deliver its\ncredentials, and before you allow it to pass into the realm of your\nadoption, see to it that you understand it in all its bearings and that\nyou have traced its results so far as is possible to your foresight; let\nthe final test be one of human justice and of honesty, and then with\ncourage use your power to aid in the formation of public opinion,\nremembering that public opinion is after all the great controlling\nforce.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note.\n\nThe typographical error \"resistent\" has been corrected. Variations of\nhyphenation from the original document have been retained.","title":"Morals in Trade and Commerce","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":5884}