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diff --git a/29641.txt b/29641.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b941c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/29641.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1494 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The business career in its public relations, by +Albert Shaw + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The business career in its public relations + +Author: Albert Shaw + +Release Date: August 9, 2009 [EBook #29641] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUSINESS CAREER--PUBLIC RELATIONS *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + + + + + +THE BUSINESS CAREER + +Barbara Weinstock +Lectures on the Morals +of Trade. + +This series will contain essays by +representative scholars and men of +affairs dealing with the various phases +of the moral law in its bearing on +business life under the new economic +order, first delivered at the University +of California on the Weinstock foundation. +The first volume to appear in +this series is: + +THE BUSINESS CAREER. By +Albert Shaw, Ph.D. + +Paul Elder and Company +San Francisco + + + + + +THE +BUSINESS CAREER +IN ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS + + + +BY + +ALBERT SHAW, PH.D. + +EDITOR OF THE +AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS + + +It is the positive and aggressive +attitude toward life, the ethics of +action, rather than the ethics of +negation, that must control the +modern business world, and that +may make our modern business +man the most potent factor for good +in this, his own, industrial period. + + + +PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY +PUBLISHERS, SAN FRANCISCO + +Copyright, 1904 +by PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY +San Francisco + +The Tomoye Press + + + + +The cultivation of public spirit, in the broad sense, and the +determination to be an all-round good and efficient citizen and member +of the community, will often help a man amazingly to discern the +opportunities for usefulness that lie in the direct line of his +business life. + + + + +THE FOUNDER'S PREFACE + + +Despite all that can still be said against trade practices, against the +business lies that are told, the false weights and measures that are +used, the trade frauds to which the public is subjected, we are nearer +a high commercial standard than ever before in the world's history. + +Man's confidence in man is greater than ever before, the commercial +loss through fraud and dishonesty is constantly diminishing and +standards are slowly but surely moving upward. The honest man's chances +for success in business are better than ever before, and the dishonest +man's chances for lasting commercial success are less than ever before. +To grow rich by failing in business is no longer regarded as an act of +cleverness. The professional bankrupt finds it more and more difficult +to get credit. He soon discovers that even his cash will not win for +him the attention that his poorer neighbor commands simply by his +character. + +Education has done splendid service in raising commercial standards. As +a rule, the high-toned business man is enlightened, and, as a rule, the +dishonest, unscrupulous man in business is ignorant. Great aid in the +direction of raising commercial standards may be rendered by the +further spreading of knowledge and enlightenment. There are still many +misguided men in business who imagine that there can be no success +without false weights and measures, without lies and deceit. It is the +duty of every man in business, who loves the work in which he is +engaged, to do whatever he can to correct this mistaken notion, and to +arouse the same sense of honor in the circles of commerce that, as a +rule, is found in professional life. + +In the decades to come men will take as much pride in being engaged in +trade as men always have taken in being members of a liberal +profession. + +It seemed to me that a step toward hastening such a day might be taken +by inviting the best thoughts of some of the country's best minds on +the subject of "The Morals of Trade." + +What better platform for the expression of such ideas than that +furnished by the College of Commerce of the University of California? +What better way to spread such thoughts than by means of their +distribution in printed form? What better way to train to higher +commercial standards the minds, not only of the youths who are seeking +a university education and who have in view a business career, but also +of the many already engaged in business who have not had the benefit of +a college training? + +It seemed to me that such a step might set in motion a commercially +educational force which would prove far-reaching in its influence and +most helpful in raising business character. + +Thoughts such as these prompted the recent establishing of the +lectureship on "The Morals of Trade" in connection with the College of +Commerce of the University of California. + +Let the hope be expressed that this is but the beginning of a movement +which may be taken up by abler and wealthier men in business and +broadened in many ways. A growing literature on "The Morals of Trade," +representing the best thoughts of our best minds, is likely to live and +to do splendid service in elevating commerce and in raising its +standards. + +H. WEINSTOCK. + + + + +The purpose of this discourse is to set forth some of the social and +public aspects of trade and commerce in our modern life. We have heard +much in these recent times concerning the State in its relation to +trade, industry, and the economic concerns of individuals and groups. +Rapidly changing conditions, however, make it fitting that more should +be said from the opposite standpoint;--that is to say, regarding the +responsibilities of the business community as such toward the State in +particular and toward the whole social organism in general. + +Some of the thoughts to which I should like to give expression might +perhaps too readily fall into abstract or philosophical terms. They +might, on the other hand, only too readily clothe themselves in cant +phrases and assume the hortatory tone. I shall try to avoid dialectic +or theory on the one hand, and preaching on the other. I take it that +what I am to say is addressed chiefly to young men, and that it ought +to serve a practical object. + +In the universities the spirit of idealism dominates. The academic +point of view is not merely an intellectual one, but it is also ethical +and altruistic. In the business world, on the other hand, we are told +that no success is possible except that which is based upon the motive +of money-getting by any means, however ruthless. We are told that the +standards of business life are in conflict irreconcilable with true +idealistic aims. It is this situation that I wish to analyze and +discuss; for it concerns the student in a very direct way. + +Our moralists point out the dangerous prevalence of those low standards +of personal life and conduct summed up in the term "commercialism." We +are warned by some of our foremost teachers and ethical leaders against +commercialism in politics and commercialism in society. So bitterly +reprobated indeed is the influence of commercialism that it might be +inferred that commerce itself is at best a necessary evil and a thing +to be apologized for. But if we are to accept this point of view +without careful discrimination, we may well be alarmed; for we live in +a world given over as never before to the whirl of industry and the +rush and excitement of the market-place. + +This, of all ages, is the age of the business man. The heroic times +when warfare was the chief concern of nations, have long since passed +by. So too the ages of faith,--when theology was the mainspring of +action, when whole peoples went on long crusades, and when building +cathedrals and burning heretics were typical of men's efforts and +convictions--have fallen far into the historic background. Further, we +would seem in the main to have left behind us that period of which the +French Revolution is the most conspicuous landmark, when the gaining of +political liberty for the individual seemed the one supreme good, and +the object for which nations and communities were ready to sacrifice +all else. + +Through these and other periods characterized by their own especial +aims and ideals, we have come to an age when commercialism is the +all-absorbing thing; and we are told by pessimists that these dominant +conditions are hopelessly incompatible with academic idealism or with +the maintenance of high ethical standards, whether for the guidance of +the individual himself or for the acceptance and control of the +community. It is precisely this state of affairs, then, that I desire +briefly to consider. And I shall keep in mind those bearings of it that +might seem to have some relation to the views and aims of students who +are soon to go out from the sheltered life of the university,--under +the necessity, whether they shrink from it or not, of becoming part and +parcel of this organism of business and trade that has invaded almost +every sphere of modern activity. + +I have only recently heard a great and eloquent teacher of morals, +himself an exponent of the highest and finest culture to which we have +attained, speak in terms of the utmost doubt and anxiety regarding the +drift of the times. To his mind, the evils and dangers accompanying the +stupendous developments of our day are such as to set what he called +commercialism in direct antagonism to all that in his mind represented +the higher good, which he termed idealism. The impression that he left +upon his audience was that the forces of our present-day business life +are inherently opposed to the achievement of the best results in +statecraft and in the general life of the community. He could propose +no remedy for the evils he deplored except education, and the saving of +the old ideals through the remnant of the faithful who had not bowed +the knee in the temple of Mammon. But he pointed out no way by which to +protect the tender blossoms of academic idealism, when they meet their +inevitable exposure in due time to the blighting and withering blasts +of the commercialism that to him seemed so little reconcilable with the +good, the true, and the beautiful. + +To all this the practical man can only reply, that if, indeed, +commercialism itself cannot be made to furnish a soil and an atmosphere +in which idealism can grow, bud, blossom, and bear glorious +fruit,--then idealism is hopelessly a lost cause. If it be not possible +to promote things ideally good through these very forces of commercial +and industrial life, then the outlook is a gloomy one for the social +moralist and the political purist. + +It is not a defensive position that I propose to take. I should not +think it needful at this time even so much as briefly to reflect any of +those timorous and painful arguments _pro_ and _con_ that one finds at +times running through the columns of the press, particularly of the +religious weeklies, on such a question as, for example, whether +nowadays a man can at the same time be a true Christian and a +successful business man; or whether the observance of the principles of +common honesty is at all compatible with a winning effort to make a +decent living. + +I am well aware that the thoughtful and intellectual founder of this +lectureship, under which I have been invited to speak, takes no such +narrow view either of morality on the one hand or of the function of +business life on the other. His definition of morality in business +would demand something very different from the mere avoidance of +certain obvious transgressions of the accepted rules of conduct, +particularly of that commandment which says: "Thou shalt not steal." +Nor, on the other hand, would his definition of the functions of +business life be in any manner bounded by the notion that business is a +pursuit having for its sole object the getting of the largest possible +amount of money. + +Those people who are content to apply negative moral standards to the +carrying on of business life remind one of the little boy's familiar +definition of salt: "Salt," said he, "is what makes potatoes taste bad +when you don't put any on." According to that sort of definition, +morality in business would be defined as that quality which makes the +grocer good and respectable when he resists temptation and does not put +sand in the sugar. The smug maxim that honesty is the best policy, +while doubtless true enough as a verdict of human experience under +normal conditions, is not fitted to arouse much enthusiasm as a +statement of ultimate ethical aims and ideals. + +If it were admitted that the sole or guiding motive in a business +career must needs be the accumulation of money, I should certainly not +think it worth while, in the name of trade morals, to urge young men +who are to enter business life that they play the game according to +safe and well-recognized rules. I would not take the trouble to advise +them to study the penal code and to familiarize themselves with the +legal definitions of grand and petit larceny, of embezzlement, or +fraud, or arson, in order that they might escape certain hazards that +beset a too narrow kind of devotion to business success. It is true, +doubtless, that a business career affords peculiar opportunities, and +is therefore subject to its own characteristic temptations, as respects +the purely private and personal standards of conduct. + +The magnitude of our economic movement, the very splendor of the +opportunities that the swift development of a vast young country like +ours affords, must inevitably in some cases upset at once the sober +business judgment of men, and in some cases the standard of personal +honor and good faith, in the temptation to get rich quickly; so that +wrong is done thereby to a man's associates or to those whose interests +are in his hands, while still greater wrong is done to his own +character. + +But, even against this dangerous greed for wealth and the +unscrupulousness and ruthlessness which it engenders, it is no part of +my present object to warn any young man. I take it that the negative +standards of private conduct are usually not much affected by a man's +choice of a pursuit in life. If any man's honor could be filched from +him by a merely pecuniary reward, whether greater or less, I should not +think it likely that he would be much safer in the long run if he chose +the clerical profession, for example, than if he went into business. + +Sooner or later his character would disclose itself. It is not, then, +of the private and negative standards of conduct that I wish to +speak,--except by way of such allusions as these. And even these +allusions are only for the sake of making more distinct the positive +and active phases of business ethics that I should like to present in +such a way as to fasten them upon the attention. + +Many young men, to whom these views are addressed, will doubtless +choose, or have already chosen, what is commonly known as a +professional career. The ministry, law, and medicine are the oldest and +best recognized of the so-called liberal or learned professions. Now +what are the distinctive marks of professional life? Are the men who +practice these professions not also business men? And if so, how are +they different from those business men who are considered laymen, or +non-professional? Obviously the distinctions that are to be drawn, if +any, are in the nature of marked tendencies. We shall not expect to +find any hard and fast lines. Many lawyers, some doctors, and a few +clergymen are clearly enough business men, in the sense that they +attach more importance to the economic bearings of the part they play +in the social organism than to the higher ethical or intellectual +aspects of their work. + +I have read and heard many definitions of what really constitutes a +professional man. Whatever else, however, may characterize the nature +of his calling, it seems to me plain that no man can be thought a true +or worthy member of a profession who does not admit, both in theory and +in the rules and practices of his life, that he has a public function +to serve, and that he must frequently be at some discomfort or +disadvantage because of the calls of professional duty. The laborer is +worthy of his hire; and the professional man is entitled to obtain, if +he can, a competence for himself and his family from the useful and +productive service he is rendering to his fellow men. He may even, +through genius or through the great confidence his character and skill +inspire, gain considerable wealth in the practice of his profession. +But if he is a true professional man he does not derive his incentive +to effort solely or chiefly from the pecuniary gains that his +profession brings him. Nor is the amount of his income regarded among +the fellow members of his profession as the true test or measure of his +success. + +Thus the lawyer, in the theory of his profession, bears an important +public relation to the dispensing of justice and to the protection of +the innocent and the feeble. He is not a private person, but a part of +the system for supporting the reign of law and of right in the +community. Historically, in this country, the lawyer has also borne a +great part in the making and administering of our institutions of +government. If, as some of us think, the ethical code of that +profession needs to be somewhat revised in view of present-day +conditions, and needs also to be more sternly applied to some of the +members of the profession, it is true, none the less, that there +clearly belongs to this great calling a series of duties of a public +nature, some of them imposed by the laws of the land, and others +inherent in the very nature of the occupation itself. + +It is true in an even more marked and undeniable fashion that the +profession of medicine, by virtue of its public and social aspects, is +distinguished in a marked way from a calling in life in which a man +might feel that what he did was strictly his own business, subject to +nobody's scrutiny, or inquiry, or interference. The physician's public +obligation is in part prescribed by the laws of the State which +regulate medical practice, and in very large part by the professional +codes which have been evolved by the profession itself for its own +guidance. It is not the amount of his fee that the overworked doctor is +thinking about when he risks his own health in response to night calls, +or when he devotes himself to some especially painful or difficult +case. Nor is it a mere consideration of his possible earnings that +would deter him from seeking comfort and safety by taking his family to +Europe at a time when an epidemic had broken out in his own +neighborhood. + +I need not allude to the unselfish devotion to the good of the +community that in so high a degree marks the lives of most of the +members of the clerical profession, for this is evident to all +observant persons. + +On the other hand, it cannot be too clearly perceived that there is +nothing in the disinterestedness, and in the obligation to render +public service characterizing professional life that amounts to +unnatural self-denial or painful renunciation,--unless in some extreme +and individual cases. On the contrary, professional life at its best +offers a great advantage in so far as it permits a man to think first +of the work he is doing and the social service he is rendering, rather +than of pecuniary reward. I have myself on more than one occasion +pointed out to young men the greater prospect for happiness in life +that comes with the choice of a calling in which the work itself +primarily focuses the attention, and in which the pecuniary reward +comes as an incident rather than as the conscious and direct result of +a given effort. + +The greatest pleasure in work is that which comes from the trained and +regulated exercise of the faculty of imagination. In the conduct of +every law case this faculty has abundant opportunity, as it also has in +the efforts of the physician to aid nature in the restoration of health +and vigor in the individual, or in the sanitary protection of the +community. I hope I have made clear this point: that pecuniary success, +even in large measure, in the work of a professional man, may be +entirely compatible with disinterested devotion to a kind of work that +makes for the public weal, while it is also worthy of pursuit for its +own sake, and brings content and even happiness in the doing. And it is +clear enough, in the case of a professional man, that he is false to +his profession and to his plain obligations if he shows himself to be +ruled by the anti-social spirit; that is to say, if he considers +himself absolved from any duties towards the community about him; +thinks that the practice of his profession is a private affair for his +own profit and advantage, and holds that he has done his whole duty +when he has escaped liability for malpractice or disbarment. + +But the three oldest and best recognized professions no longer stand +alone, in the estimation of our higher educational authorities and of +the intelligent public. In a democracy like ours, with a constantly +advancing conception of what is involved in education for citizenship +and for participation in every individual function of the social and +economic life, the work of the teacher comes to be recognized as +professional in the highest sense. Teaching, indeed, seems destined in +the near future to become the very foremost of all the professions. +This recognition will come when the idea takes full possession of the +public mind that the chief task of each generation is to train the next +one, and to transmit such stores of knowledge and useful experience as +it has received from its predecessors or has evolved for itself. + +It is obvious enough that the work of the teacher gives room for the +play of the loftiest ideals, and that its functions are essentially +public and disinterested. But there are other callings, such as those +of the architect and engineer, which have also come to be spoken of as +professional in their nature. Their kinship to the older professions +has been more readily recognized by the men of conservative university +traditions, because much of the preparation for these callings can +advantageously be of an academic sort. Architecture in its historical +aspects is closely associated with the study of classical periods; +while the profession of the engineer relates itself to the immemorial +university devotion to mathematics. And in like manner the man who for +practical purposes becomes a chemist or an electrician would be easily +admitted by President Eliot, for example, to the favored fellowship of +the professional classes for the reason, first, of the disciplinary and +liberalizing nature of the studies that underlie his calling, and, in +the second place, of the public and social aspects of the functions he +fulfils in the pursuit of his vocation. + +The architect, the civil or mechanical or electrical engineer, and the +chemist, as well as the professional teacher, the trained librarian, or +the journalist who carries on his work with due sense of its almost +unequaled public duties and responsibilities,--all these are now +admitted by dicta of our foremost authorities to a place equal with the +law, medicine, and the ministry in the list of the professions; that is +to say, in the group of callings which, under my definition, are +distinguished especially by their public character. And in this group, +of course, should be included politicians, legislators, and public +administrators in so far as they serve the public interests reputably +and in a professional spirit. Nor should we forget such special classes +of public servants as the officers of the army and navy; while nobody +will deny public character and professional rank to men of letters, +artists, musicians and actors. + +In all these callings it is demanded not merely that men shall be +subject to the private rules of conduct,--that they must not cheat, or +lie, or steal, or bear false witness, or be bad neighbors or +undesirable citizens,--but in addition and in the most important sense +that they shall be subject to positive ethical standards that relate to +the welfare of the whole community, and that require of them the +exercise of a true public spirit. + +The man of public spirit is he who is able at a given moment, under +certain conditions, to set the public welfare before his own. +Furthermore, he is a man who is trained and habituated to that point of +view, so that he is not aware of any pangs of martyrdom or even of any +exercise of self-denial when he is concerning himself about the public +good even to his own momentary inconvenience or disadvantage. Public +spirit is that state or habit of mind which leads a man to care greatly +for the general welfare. It is this ethical quality that to my mind +should be the great aim and object of training. + +On its best side, what we term the professional spirit is, then, very +closely related to this commendable quality in men of a right +intellectual and moral development that we call public spirit. The +chief difference lies in this: that whereas all professional men may be +public-spirited in a general sense, each professional man should, in +addition, manifest a special and technical sort of public spirit that +pertains to the nature of his calling. The lawyer should have a +particularly keen regard for the equitable administration of justice. +The doctor should truly care for the physical wholesomeness and +well-being of the community. The clergyman should be alive to those +things that concern the rectitude and purity of life. The journalist +should be willing to make sacrifices for the sake of the enlightenment +of public opinion; and so on. Without either the general or the +technical manifestations of public spirit, in short, the so-called +professional man is a reproach to his guild and a failure in his +neighborhood. + +Now, what has all this to do with the moral standards that belong to +the business career as distinguished from the professional life? My +answer must be very clear and very direct if I am to justify so long an +analysis of the ethical characteristics of the professions themselves. +I have merely used the time-honored method of trying to lead you by way +of familiar, admitted points of view to certain points of view that, if +not wholly new, are at least less familiar and less widely recognized. +The whole thesis that I wish to develop is simply this: that however it +may have been in business life in times past and gone, there has been +such a tremendous change in the organization and methods of the +business world and also in the relative importance of the functions of +the business man in the community, that the distinctions which have +hitherto set apart the professional classes have become obsolete for +all practical purposes in many branches and departments of the business +world. + +At least, the work of the responsible leaders is no longer to be +regarded as essentially a thing of private concern and free from public +responsibility. If the business world is not characterized, first, by +public spirit and a sense of public duty in general, and, second, by +the special and technical sense of public obligation that pertains to +particular kinds or departments of business activity, then it is +falling short of its best opportunities and evading its providential +tasks. It is for the modern business world to recognize the conditions +that have in the fulness of time given it so great a power and so +dominant a position; and it must not shirk the responsibilities that +belong to it as fully and truly as they belong to any of the +professions. + +I hold, then, that the young man of education and opportunity who +proposes to go into a business career enters it not merely with a low +and unworthy standard if his sole motive and object be to acquire +wealth, but he also enters it in disregard of the ideas that fill the +minds of the best modern business leaders. He shows a pitiable lack of +appreciation of the elements that are to constitute real business +success in the period within which his own career must fall. + +Let us consider, briefly, the evolution of our present-day economic or +business life, and then take note of the necessary place that +particular classes of business men must hold in the structure of our +society. I, for my part, look upon this last century of economic +progress,--under the sway of what is often called "capitalism" as a +term of reproach,--as an immeasurable boon to mankind. It began with +the practical utilization of several great inventions, notably that of +steam power, which broke up the old household and village industries, +gave us the modern factory system, and along with the development of +railroads gave us the modern industrial city. This new and +revolutionizing system of industry and business forced its way into a +world of poverty, of disease, of depraved public life, of low morals in +the main pervading the community,--a world for the most part of class +distinctions in which the lot even of the privileged few was not a very +noble or enviable one, while the state of the vast majority was little +better than that of serfs. + +Many writers have sought to throw a charm and a glamour over that old +condition of economic life and society that followed the break-up of +feudalism and that preceded the creation of our new political and +industrial institutions. But with some mitigations it was for most +people a period, as I have said, of squalor, disease, and degradation. +The fundamental trouble could be summed up in the one word, _poverty_. +The mission of the new industrial system, for the most part unconscious +and unrecognized, was to transform the world by abolishing the reign of +poverty. Doubtless it would be desirable if the improvement of +conditions, material and spiritual, could make progress with exactly +even pace on some perfectly symmetrical plan. But history shows us that +the forward social movement has proceeded first in one aspect, then in +another, on lines so tangential, often so zigzag, that it is difficult +until one gets distance enough for perspective, to see that any true +progress has been made at all. + +Thus, the modern industrial system, which found the conditions of +poverty, disease, and hardship prevalent, seemed for quite a long time, +in its rude breaking up of old relations and its ruthless adherence to +certain newly proclaimed principles, to have brought matters from bad +to worse. The squalor and poverty of the village of hand-loom weavers +seemed only intensified in the new industrial towns to which the +weavers flocked from their deserted hamlets. Manufacturers were doing +business under the fiercest and most unregulated competition. +Economists were demonstrating their "law of supply and demand" and +their "iron law of wages" as capable in themselves of regulating all +the conditions and relations of business life. Epidemics raged and +depravity prevailed in the new factory centers. + +But things were not, in reality, going from bad to worse. The +beginnings of a better order had to be based upon two things: first and +foremost, the sheer creation of capital; second, the discipline and +training of workers. In the first phases, the new modern business +period had to be a period of production. There had got to be developed +the instrumentalities for the creation of wealth. Until the industrial +system had raised up its class of efficient workers and had created its +great mass of capital for productive purposes, there could be no supply +of cheap goods; and without an abundant and cheap output there could be +no possible diffusion of economic benefits; in other words, no marked +amelioration of the prevailing poverty. + +It required some development of wealth to lift our modern peoples out +of a poverty too grinding and too debasing for intellectual or moral +progress. It is true that the factory towns, created as they have all +been by modern industrial conditions during the past century, brought +their distinctive evils. There was overcrowding in ill-built tenement +houses; and long hours for women and children in the factories. Yet +with these and many other disadvantages, the new industrial system made +for discipline and for intelligence, and above all for a new kind of +solidarity and for a sense of brotherhood among workers. + +In due time the worst evils began to be mitigated, largely through the +application of those very methods of organization which had +characterized the new kind of industry itself. Thus for men who had +applied steam power to manufacturing and had begun to build railroads, +it was soon perceived to be a matter not only of sanitary and social +service, but of pecuniary profit, to provide water supplies, public +illumination, and other conveniences to the crowded city dwellers. +Moreover, with the progress of industry and the development of +railroads and steam navigation, production and trade took on an +ever-increasing volume. + +Then the world began to be less poor. There had been no rich men in the +modern sense, and of course no such thing as capitalized corporations +for production. The richest man in the United States at the time of his +death, a little more than a hundred years ago, was George Washington, +with his land and his slaves; and so in England and France there were +no rich men in the modern sense--that is to say, no men who controlled +great masses of productive capital. The men of wealth were those who +held landed estates. The chief business of all countries was +agriculture. The capitalistic system in industry and trade existed in +its rudiments and in limited measure; but all its great achievements +were yet to be wrought. + +All modern business life, then, is the result of this growth of +productive capital, and its application and constant reapplication to +the production of wealth. It made its way by virtue of an intense +individual initiative and a fierce competitive struggle. But unlovely +as were these things, many of their phases were necessary at a certain +stage. It was this fierce competition that compelled capital to pay the +lowest possible wages in order to market cheap goods. But the same +situation stimulated the use, one after another, of new labor-saving +inventions in order to increase the per capita productivity. This +process was attended by the higher efficiency of the worker and an +increase in his earning capacity. As his position began to improve, the +worker gained some hope and cheer; and he and his fellows began to +organize, with the result that both wages and conditions of labor were +steadily improved, and the workman began to attain approximately his +share of benefits. + +All this is a familiar story, although the depth of its significance is +beyond the compass of any living human intelligence. It is easy to say +in a glib sentence that the amount of wealth produced every few years +nowadays is equal to all the accumulated wealth of all the centuries +down to the early part of the nineteenth; but the social meaning of so +great a change baffles all attempt at full comprehension. + +The competitive system, which had been essential to the launching of +this modern period of production, and which had given to it so much of +its irresistible momentum, at length brought the economic organization +to a point of development where, in some fields of production, it was +no longer a benefit. The accumulation of capital had become so +large,--and with new inventions the possible output had become so +abundant, that it was well nigh impossible to trust to the blind +working of demand and supply to regulate things in a beneficial way. It +began to dawn on men's minds that a successful period of competitive +economic life might lead to a period largely dominated by +non-competitive and cooperative principles. + +The superior possibilities of this newest regime, along with its many +difficulties and perplexities, began to captivate the minds, not merely +of theoretical students and onlookers, but, even more, of great masters +of industry and productive capital. It began to be seen that in place +of blind and fierce competition as a regulator of prices and as an +equalizer of supply and demand, there might come to be gradually +substituted some more consciously scientific methods of business +administration and of the adjustment of production to the needs of the +market. + +Furthermore, with the development of business on the great scale, +capital had become relatively abundant and cheap, while, on the other +hand, labor was becoming relatively expensive and exacting. It was +evident that the modern system of industry had passed through its +earlier period to one of comparative maturity; and that the problem of +wealth production was no longer so exclusively the pressing one, but +that the problems of distribution were demanding more attention. + +How to organize business life on a basis at once stable and efficient; +how to see that capital was assured of a normal even though a declining +percentage of dividends; while labor should be rewarded according to +its capacity and desert,--were problems which took on public rather +than private aspects. And when the business world began to face these +problems with the consciousness that they were to be met, it had +virtually passed over from the lower plane of moral and social +responsibility to the higher plane where what the directing minds do or +decide is not measured solely by immediate results in money-getting, +but also by the test of larger social and public utilities. + +Although these conditions are not novel ones, and are therefore not +difficult to grasp even when stated in general terms, it is still true +that the concrete often helps to make the point appear more pertinent. +Take then the railroad business as it is now shaping itself, in +comparison with its conditions and methods twenty or thirty years ago. +The railroads have always existed by virtue of charters which gave them +a quasi-public character, and have always been theoretically subject to +certain old principles of English common law under which the public or +common carrier, like the innkeeper, performs a function not wholly +private in its nature. Nevertheless, in its earlier stages the railroad +system of this country was in large part constructed and operated by +its projectors with no sense whatever of responsibility for their +performance of public functions, but with the idea that they were +carrying on their own private business in which interference on the +part of the public was to be avoided and resented. They fought the +railroad codes of State legislatures in the federal courts; they made +oppressive rates to give value to new issues of watered stock; they +discriminated in favor of one city and against another; by a system of +secret rebates they made different terms with every shipper, thus +enabling one merchant or manufacturer to destroy his competitor; and +they pursued in general a career at least anti-social in its spirit and +false and short-sighted in its principles. + +A profound change--would that it were already complete!--is coming +about in this great field of transportation business. It is perceived +that many of the evils to which I have alluded were incident to the +speculative periods of construction and development in a new country. +The better leaders in the business of railway administration now see +clearly that it is the duty of the railroads to work with and for the +public and not against it. The railroads are gradually passing out of +the hands of the stockjobbers and speculators, into the control of +trained administrators. It is to be remembered that in a country like +ours, the largest single branch of organized administration is that of +the railroads. We have reached a point where their relations to all the +elaborate interests of the community are such that their public +character becomes more and more pronounced and evident. It was only the +other day that a brilliant railway administrator, Mr. Charles S. +Mellen, recently president of the Northern Pacific, and now president +of the New York, New Haven & Hartford system, made some statements in +an address to the business men of Hartford at a Board of Trade meeting. +With much else of the same import, he made the following significant +remarks: + +"If corporations are to continue to do their work as they are best +fitted to, those qualities in their representatives that have resulted +in the present prejudice against them must be relegated to the +background. + +"They must come out into the open and see and be seen. They must take +the public into their confidence and ask for what they want and no +more, and then be prepared to explain satisfactorily what advantage +will accrue to the public if they are given their desires, for they are +permitted to exist not that they may make money solely, but that they +may effectively serve those from whom they derive their power. +Publicity should rule now. Publicity, and not secrecy, will win +hereafter, and laws will be construed by their intent and not killed by +their letter; otherwise public utilities will be owned and operated by +the public which created them, even though the service be less +efficient and the result less satisfactory from a financial +standpoint." + +Mr. Mellen's state of mind is that which ought to prevail among all the +managers of corporations which enjoy public franchises and perform +functions fundamental to the welfare of the community. There will at +times be prejudice and passion on the part of the public, and unfair +demands will be made. We shall not see the attainment of ideal +conditions in the management or the public relations of any great +business corporations in our day. But the time has come when any +intelligent and capable young man who chooses to enter the service of a +railroad or of some other great corporation may rightly feel that he +becomes part of a system whose operation is vital to the public +welfare. He may further feel that there is room in such a calling for +all his intelligence and for the exercise and growth of all the best +sentiments of his moral nature. + +In the vast mechanism of modern business the constructive imagination +may find its full play; and the desire to be of service to one's fellow +men in a spirit reasonably disinterested may find opportunity to +satisfy itself every day. Under these circumstances there is no reason +why railway administration should not take on the same ethical +standards as belong rightly to governmental administration, to +educational administration, or to the best professional life. + +The same thing is clearly true when one considers nowadays the delicate +and important functions of the world of banking and finance. The +old-fashioned money-changer and the usurer of earlier periods were +regarded as the very antithesis of men engaged in honorable mercantile +life, and especially of those who possess a social spirit and the +desire to be useful members of the community. But in these days the +banks are not merely private money-making institutions, but have public +functions that admittedly affect the whole social organism, from the +government itself down to the humblest laborer. They must concern +themselves about the soundness and the sufficiency of the monetary +circulation; they must protect the credit and foster the welfare of +honest merchants and manufacturers; they must cooperate in critical +times to help one another, and thus to sustain the public and private +credit and avert commercial disaster; they must at all hazards protect +the savings of the poor. Thus the banks, like the railroads and many +other corporate enterprises, are quasi-public affairs, in the conduct +of which the public obligation grows ever clearer and stronger. + +We are not at heart--in this splendid country of ours--engaged in a mad +struggle and race for wealth. We are engaged rather in the greatest +effort ever made in the world for the upbuilding of a higher +civilization. To avow that this civilization must rest upon a physical +and material basis,--that is to say, upon a high development of our +productive capacity and upon a constant improvement in our processes of +distribution and exchange,--is not, on the other hand, to confess that +our civilization is materialistic in its nature or in its aims. I was +very glad, the other day, to read the wholesome and understanding words +of a distinguished Boston clergyman who is just now coming to New York +to take charge of an important parish. He declared that this nation was +founded on an ideal, and that the most powerful influences in its life +today are working toward noble ideals. The moral and spiritual tone of +the country, he asserted, is higher than ever, in spite of the +accidents of wealth and poverty. He declared that the great host of men +and women who cherish our ideals will continue to stamp idealism upon +the minds and hearts of our youth, and that they in turn "will convert +wealth to the service of ideals." + +Such views are not merely the expressions of a comfortable optimist. +They are true to the facts of our current progress. There are vast +portions of this country today in which the enterprising business man +who can succeed in selling to the farmers an honest and effective +commercial fertilizer is the best possible missionary of idealism,--is, +in fact, a veritable angel for the spread of sweetness and light. There +are regions where the capitalist or the company that will build a +cotton mill or some other kind of factory is rescuing whole communities +from degradation. It is poverty that has kept the South so backward, +and it is poverty alone that explains the illiteracy and the +lawlessness not merely of the Kentucky mountains, but of great areas in +other States as well. Good schools cannot be supported in regions like +those, for the palpable reason that the taxable wealth of an entire +school district cannot yield enough to pay the salary of a teacher. But +when modern business invades those uplands, utilizes the water-power +now wasted, opens the mines, builds cotton factories or foundries, the +situation changes almost as if by magic. + +There will, indeed, ensue a brief period of disturbance due to changed +social conditions,--to women and children in factories, and other +things of incidental or serious disadvantage. But, as against a +survival of the sort of life that was widely prevalent a century or two +ago, all the phenomena of our modern industrial life make their +appearance, in full development. The one-room cabin gives place to the +little house of several rooms. There is rapid diffusion of those minor +comforts and agencies which make for self-respect and personal and +family advancement. The advent of capital, that is to say, of taxable +property, is speedily followed by the good schoolhouse and the good +teacher. + +It is instructive to note the transformation that is thus taking place +in one county after another of the Carolinas, or Georgia, or others of +the Southern States, because the conditions make it possible to witness +within a single decade the triumph of those business forces which, +while they have even more truly and completely transformed the +prosperous parts of America and Europe, have operated more gradually +through longer periods, and therefore in a less easily perceived and +dramatic fashion. + +Our modern ideals have required, not the refinement and the culture of +the select few, but the uplifting and progress of the multitude. This +could only be possible through a general development of wealth, so vast +in comparison with what had previously existed as to constitute the +most highly revolutionary fact in the history of human civilization and +progress. The man, therefore, who has a clear perception of those laws +of mind and of society under which modern economic forces have been set +at work, cannot for a moment think that the end and outcome of this +modern business system is a new kind of human bondage, "the rich +growing richer and the poor growing poorer"; or that it can mean any +such thing as the elevation of property at the expense of manhood. + +Even if it were a part of my subject to discuss the growth of vast +individual fortunes as an incident of this modern development of +wealth, which it is not, there would be no time for more than a passing +allusion. And in making such an allusion, I might be content to call +attention to my earlier dictum, that progress is not upon direct lines, +but tangential or zigzag. When the factory appears on the Piedmont +slopes of the Appalachian country, it may indeed make a fortune for the +missionary of civilization who planted it there. But meanwhile it has +given the whole neighborhood its first chance to relate itself to the +civilized world. I am content for the present to leave that +neighborhood in possession of its opportunities, serenely confident +that it will in due time work out its own completer destiny. + +When the capitalist has retired from the scene of his exploitation, +will the day arrive when the regenerated neighborhood will own that +factory, and others, too, for itself? Very likely. In any case, the +neighborhood has been emancipated from its worst disadvantages. + +In short, I have little doubt but that the further progress of our +civilization will give effect to certain economic laws and tendencies, +and to certain social rules and principles, that will make for a higher +measure of equality in the distribution of realized wealth. Meanwhile +wherever a practical step can be taken to remedy an evil, let us do +what we can to promote that step. Let us recognize the already great +possibilities for useful participation in the social and public life +that belong to an honorable business career. + +From the standpoint of the intellectual interest of the young man going +into business, let it be borne in mind that there are scientific +principles underlying every branch of trade or commerce or industry, +and that there is almost, if not quite, as much room for the delightful +play of the faculty of imagination in the successful conduct of a soap +business as in writing poetry or in making statuary groups for world's +fairs. The cultivation of public spirit in the broad sense, and the +determination to be an all-round good and efficient citizen and member +of the community, will often help a man amazingly to discern the +opportunities for usefulness that lie in the direct line of his +business work. The more thoroughly he studies underlying +principles--whether of a technical sort as related to his own trade, or +of a general sort having to do with the organization and general +methods of commerce--the less likely he will be to take narrow and +anti-social views of business life. The high development of his +intelligence in relation to his own work will show him the value in his +business--as in all else in life--of the standard thing, the genuine +thing, the thing that will bear the test as contrasted with the shoddy, +or the inferior, or the spurious. + +Our technological schools, our colleges of mechanic arts, our +institutes of agriculture and their related experiment stations,--these +are all teaching us many valuable object-lessons regarding the way in +which the wealth of the individual and that of the community can both, +at the same time, be advanced by scientific methods. Thus it is coming +about that business life is ever more ready to welcome the most highly +trained kinds of intelligence, inasmuch as it is perceived that +specialized knowledge is henceforth to be the most valuable commodity +that a man can possess. + +I have already said that the delicate problems of distribution must be +faced ever more frankly and liberally by the modern business world. +Thus, those who control capital, or administer capitalized enterprises, +cannot afford any longer to be without a knowledge of the history and +significance of the labor movement. We should not have had the +desperate struggle between anthracite coal corporations and the miners +in Pennsylvania, a year or so ago, if there had been a full +understanding on the part of the capitalists of the honorable and +valuable nature of trade agreements, and particularly of the history of +the relations of capital and labor in the bituminous coal districts of +the United States. I am speaking now from the standpoint of the +business man. There is much to be said, doubtless, in respect to the +shortcomings and the sometimes fatuous and even suicidal methods of the +labor organizations. But for the modern business man who cares to take +his place influentially in commerce, in social life, and as a man among +men in his city or his commonwealth, it is no longer justifiable to be +unfamiliar with the labor question in its economics and its history. + +Herein lies one great service that the university can perform (and our +best colleges and universities are today performing it with marked +intelligence and ability), the service, namely, of providing very +liberal courses for young men who expect to go into business, in the +general science of economics, in the history of modern economic +progress, in the development of the wage system, in the history and +methods of organized labor, and in very much else that helps to place +the life of a practical man of business affairs upon a broad and +liberal basis. In the early days of our history it was the especial +function of the college to train young men for the ministry. In a +somewhat later period it was notably true of institutions like Yale and +Princeton that their training seemed to fit many men for the law and +for statecraft. We had, you see, passed from that theocratic phase of +colonial New England life to the political constructive period of our +young republic. + +But we have been passing on until we have emerged in a great and +transcendent period of commercial expansion and scientific discovery +and application. It is a hopeful sign, therefore, that our universities +are finding out and admitting the demand that present-day conditions +impose, and are training many men in the pursuit of modern science, +while they are training many others in the understanding of the +application of social and economic principles to modern life. All this +they are doing and can well do without ignoring the value of the older +forms of scholarship and culture. + +But I have a few remarks to make also upon the ethical relations of the +business world of today toward the political world; that is to say, +toward organized government, whether in its sovereign or in its +subordinate forms. We cannot take too high a ground in proclaiming the +value, for the present, at least, of the political organization of +society. I should like to dwell upon this point, but I must merely +state it. If the State: _i.e._, the political form of social +organization, is valuable,--it stands to reason that it must be +respected and maintained at its best. It is also obvious that it will +have a higher or a lower character and efficiency, according to the +attitude toward it taken by one or another of the dominant factors that +make up the complex body politic. + +Thus, for example, it is the feeling of men in control of the political +organization in France today that the Church, as a great factor in the +social structure of the nation, is essentially hostile to the spirit +and purposes of a liberal republic. Hence a great disturbance of +various relationships. I do not cite that instance to express even the +shade of an opinion. My point is that if the political organization of +society is desirable and to be maintained, it is a fortunate thing when +one finds the dominant forces of society rendering loyal and faithful +support to the laws and institutions of government and recognizing +without reserve the sovereignty of the State. Yet in our own country +there is a widespread feeling that many of the most potent forces and +agencies in our business life are not wholly patriotic, in that they +are not willing in practice to recognize the necessity of the +domination of government and of law. I do not believe that this is +permanently and generally true. It would constitute a great danger if +it were a fixed or a growing tendency. + +As matters stand, however, every one must admit that there is an +element of danger that lies in the very fact that as a nation we are in +a condition of peace, content, and prosperity, and do not find our +political institutions irksome. The danger consists in this: that under +such circumstances the rewards of business and professional life are +for the most part so much more certain and satisfactory than those +which come from the precarious pursuit of politics, that public +interests have a tendency to suffer from being in weak hands, while +private interests have a tendency to assert themselves unduly, from +being in the hands of men of superior force. Thus it happens that it is +often difficult for the State to maintain that dignity, that mastery, +that high position, as the impartial arbiter and dispenser of justice, +which it is now even more necessary than ever that it should maintain, +in order that the whole social organization should keep a true harmony +and a safe balance. + +At present, the State is largely concerned with the maintenance of +conditions under which the economic and business life may operate +equally and prosperously. The State in one sense is the master of the +people. In another sense it is merely their creature and their agent +for such purposes as they choose to assign it. Is the State, then, to +absorb the industrial functions, and are we to develop into a +socialistic commonwealth? Or, shall the political democracy and the +cooperative organization of business life go on side by side, related +at many points but in the main distinct from each other? Whatever the +relation of the State to industry may be destined to become in the +distant future, we may be sure that there will be no rash upheavals, no +harmful socialistic experiments, if the potent business world clearly +sees how necessary to its own salvation it is that the State shall be +maintained upon a high plane of dignity and honor, and that the +official dispensation of justice, as well as the official +administration of the laws, shall be prompt, just and impartial. + +There is no higher duty, therefore, incumbent upon the business man of +today than to bear his part in promoting and maintaining the purity of +political life. The modern business man should regard good government +as one of the vital conditions of the best economic progress. Yet +scores of instances are at hand that show to what a painful extent +certain business interests again and again, for purposes of immediate +advantage,--to secure a franchise, to escape a tax, or to procure some +improper favor or advantage at the hands of those in political +authority,--have employed corrupt methods and thus stained the fair +escutcheon of American business honor, while breaking down the one most +indispensable condition of general business progress,--namely, honest +and efficient free government. + +I will not dwell upon these things. It is enough to say that they are +things the modern business man must have upon his conscience. For, if +such offenses come by way of the business world, their remedies must +also come, and indeed can only come, by that same path. In our +municipal life, for example, it is the aroused interest and zeal of the +best business community for better government and better conditions +that can alone produce important results. Happily, all over the country +we find chambers of commerce, boards of trade, merchants' associations, +and other bodies of men of practical business affairs, taking their +stand for the transaction of public business upon high standards of +character and efficiency. I have no doubt or fears as to what the +result will be. All of our large cities are themselves purely the +creations of modern industrial, commercial, and transportation +conditions. And I hold that these very forces of industrial and +commercial life that have created the problems by bringing together +great masses of people in crowded communities, must and can in turn +solve the problems by the application to municipal government of the +scientific and intelligent principles which belong to the best phases +of business life. + +All of this relates to my subject; but I must pass it by with a mere +statement or two. It belongs to the developed constructive imagination +and to the trained ethical sense of the modern business man to perfect +the transit systems, to improve the housing conditions, to assure cheap +sanitary water supplies, cheap illumination, and, above all, due +provision for universal education, parks, museums, and opportunities +for recreation,--in short, all possible improvements of environment +that can make life in our cities not merely endurable but beneficial +for the people. Here, then, is furnished a great field for the definite +and conscious aspirations of the successful man of business. Here lies +a great many-sided work for social and moral as well as physical and +material progress which the business man, in the quality of good +citizen and man of public spirit, is fitted better than any one else to +accomplish. + +The intelligent young man who holds before himself ideals of usefulness +that extend to such projects as these, may be sure that the modern +conditions of life will bring him great opportunities, and he may feel +that he is thus lifting his business career up to the plane of idealism +that has, in the past, been reserved for a few exclusive professions. +Partly through his own endeavors,--largely through association in +commercial or other organizations with his neighbors,--he may help to +accomplish for the benefit of all his fellow men of a great community +one step after another in the direction of public works that will meet +the needs of a high civilization. + +Some of the most useful men, as well as the most unselfish and devoted, +with whom I come in contact are successful business men of large +affairs. They are modest and unassuming; simple and direct in their +methods; wide as the world in their sympathies; lofty as the stars in +their aspirations for human progress; sagacious beyond other classes of +men, and respected to the point of veneration by those who know them +well, because they are men of deeds rather than of words, who make good +their professions from day to day. Business has not so narrowed them, +nor has devotion to philanthropic ends or public reforms so distorted +their mental visions, that they are not able to enjoy what is good in +life, whether books, music, pictures, the companionship of friends, or +the restful contact with nature in field or forest. + +The lives of such men are dominated by certain fixed ethical standards. +Given such moral landmarks, the remarkable conditions and unequaled +opportunities of modern business life will promote the frequent +development of men of this kind, with their breadth of view and +strength of mind and character. It is the positive and aggressive +attitude toward life, the ethics of action, rather than the ethics of +negation, that must control the modern business world, and that may +make our modern business man the most potent factor for good in this, +his own, industrial period. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The business career in its public +relations, by Albert Shaw + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUSINESS CAREER--PUBLIC RELATIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 29641.txt or 29641.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/6/4/29641/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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