Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-04-29
Business Morality.

It can hardly be doubted tina, the opin-
Ion prevails very extensively among bust
ness men that business has nothing at all
to do with morality. In other words, that
man in the conduct of his business has
only to consider: What is politic-what
steps will lead to the greatest success?
And the prevailing creed with such per
sons is: Whatever is successful is right.
A man may make fortune by keeping
a faro bank. This fact does not prevent
him from being elected to Congress, nor
from taking his seat after election. If he
had done the same amount of gambling
without making money, and had tried to
retrieve his fortune by running for Con-
gress, he would probably be held up to
scorn, and might have failed to secure an
election. But he made money, he is
succesJM man therefore he is fit for law
maker, though he may have been an habit
ual Lop-bredher for years. Religion is
good thing in its place for those who like
it," is the inward thought of too many of
our influential men; it is doubtless the
best thing to prepare man for happiness
in the world to come; but in the conduct
of the affairs of the present life we must
look out fox the present hour and follow
the paths indicated by human experience
as leading to temporal prosperity. Bust
ness Is businessE' According to this theo-
~ business man must understand and
practice the rules of business, but he need
not know anything about the moral law,
or pay any heed to its requirements.
We believe that this notion is equally
erroneous in theory and damaging in prac-
tice. Such is the weakness and seltishness
of human nature that whenever q man
comes to regard what the world calls sue
cess as his highest and noblest aim, and to
consider that vague and uncertain code OF
honor and Of policy established by the
general consent Of business men as his
highest and only authoritative rule of &C
ton, he has taken the first step in that
downward road which, unless he receives
some wholesome check, will land him in a
total disregard of all interests but his own
and lead him to trample without remorse
on the most cherished rights of his neigh
bors.
If the men to whom we refer were to
write out their confession of faith fully
and truthfully it would be found to con-
tain at least these two cardinal articles:
First, that every man should be left to
look out for his own interests and second,
that the unsuccessful have no rights that
the successful are bound to respect. We do
not assert that all business men who ig-
more the moral law rs q rule for business
transactions, live up to the above cardinal
articles of belief, but only that their ten
dency is naturally in that direction. The
influence Of early training and the opera
tons OF q higher law written on their
hearts, enforced by a sensitive conscience,
may and often do restrain men from sink
ing into the slough of supreme selfshncsS
that swallows up so many unresisting vic
Tins; but there is no good philosophical
reason why man who really believes
that religion has nothing to do with
business" should not become the con-
tented and consistent advocate of the prin-
ciples above mentioned.
We know Of nothing more emphatically
true than that code of laws designed for
the government of human beings in the
affairs of life, whether individual, domes-
tic, political, ecclesiastical, or social, in
order to exert really controlling influence
and produce stability of character, must
descend, or at least be supposed to descend,
from higher f,oaoer. That man who is
"a law to himself'-whose own will is
his only or highest rule Of action, is nee
essarily, like wave Of the sea, driven
by the wind and tossed" Changeable
himself, what wonder if he should to-day
approve what he condemned yesterday.
A simple and selfevident maxim OF
honest trade is that the seller should be
satisfied to receive fair and honest re-
Enumeration for the money, labor time and
talent he may have contributed to the pro-
duction of the article sold and the buyer
should be willing to pay this reasonable
price. Especially should both buyer and
seller carefully avoid pocketing the avails
of another mans labor Whenever any
man, whether forcibly, or through cum
ming, or in consequence of occupying
more favorable position than his cola
borer, appropriates to himself the value
which that co.laborer has given TO piece
of merchandise, he simply violates that
commandment of the Decalogue which
says: Thou shall not steal"
Never aim TO obtain the avails of an
other mans labor without paying an
equivalent for them" This is principle
that we may safely follow at all times,
though there may be some cases in which
its application does not appear very clear
on the surface. When il is violated there
may be eXtenuating circumstances, or an
ingeniously woven web of sophistry may
be thrown over the transaction that will
hide It's moral deformity. But the de-
iormity is there, nevertheless
For example, tailor agrees to furnish
a coat at a certain price; he then gives out
the garment to a tailOreSs TO be made, and
pays her one, two or three dollars for the
job. When he makes out his bill he
charges his customer from seven to ten
dollars for making the garment; now this
man has robbed either the tailoress or his
customer, or both, by his extortionate
profit, and he cannot possibly evade the
charge.