The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-08-01
Honesty in Business.

With undiscriminating minds there is
growing disposition to look upon all
tradesmen as dishonest aud untrust-
worthy class, in league together to
cheat and defraud innocent people. We
do not bring so broad and grave a
charge against the vendors of merchan-
disc by any means, for we believe that
many, even the large majority of them,
aim to be fair and honest in their deal
ings but we can understand how a
general cloud of suspicion has come to
rest on their transactions, to the injury
and annoyance OF many guiltless per-
sons. 1t is the natural outcome of q
system of fraud and deception which in
some circles has come to be regarded as
legitimate. Shams and authorizations
have become so wide spread and so
difficult of detection as to create feel
ing of distrust under which the innocent
suffer as we'll as the guilty. The man
who has been deceived again and again
in his purchases, paying three or four
times the real value of articles, as he
afterwards discovers, unless of a very
generous and confiding disposition,
comes to look upon tradesmen gener-
ally as his natural enemies, with whom
he must deal by necessity, but who are
to be narrowly watched, seldom believed
and never trusted. Every offered bar
gain is to be regarded with suspicious
ait as only possible cover to sinister
design upon the buyers purse.
Earnest and weli-meant reservations of
genuineness and fair dealing only
increase the difficulty. If the pur-
chase is finally made, it is often done
with an air that seems to say, Il know
that have been victimized, but there
is no help for it." Such methods of
dealing must be excessively annoying
to upright and honorable men who aim
to do business upon fair and just ba-
sis. To have their word doubted and
their motives constantly impugned is
hard for honest men to bear. But we
know of no help for it as long as the
market is flooded with cheap limitations
and adulterated compounds which are
constantly palmed off upon the public
as genuine. We say it is not strange
that reputable dealers often suffer un-
Justly when 50 many are victimized by
the swindling arts of trade. Their only
protection in this case is to combine
:heir forces in driving out the shams
and frauds from the market. Public
confidence will be restored when it
comes to be understood that the major
ity of business men have set themselves
against the manufacture and sale OF
authorizations and shoddy goods. 1t is
manifestly to the interest of all the bet
ter class of dealers that their methods
should be..considered in every instance
as fair and right. The haggling and
beating down" process. which many
think a necessary part of shopping and
marketing, is disgusting and democrat.
izing practice, and loss in the end OF
both time and money. There should
be no occasion for such ways of doing
business among a really shrewd and
practical people. 1t is not only embar
assiDg and vexatious, but q positive
damage to all concerned. The business
world owes it to itself to purge out the
thieves and swindlers who ply their arts
in its name, for the truth yet stands as
of old. that honesty is the best policy
NJ y. Observer.