The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-04-04
MERCANTILE HONOR.
A Quality which still Hsa an Intrinsi
Value.

A Quality which stiii Hss an Intrinsse
Value.
At the recent meeting of the National
Board of Trade, held in Washington,
the speakers very properly took high
stand for mercantile honor and the los
tice which should govern tne laws of
trade. This was righA. From the days
OF tbs merchant princes" of Jerusalem,
OF Tyro and Sidon, of Rome and Car
thage. down to the colonial periods of
American history, the business of traffic
on sea and land has had its advantage
takers, its time-servers, its impostors
and its cheats. But it has also had its
men of enterprise who have always
yoked their speculations to the car of
honesty, and who W ould never consent to
make progress in any other way. In the
perilous times Of the American Revolu-
ton tn ere was the merchant John Han
cock, VIII ose honored name stands out
IN such bold letters on our Declaration
of Independence; there was that other
merchant, Bowdoin, brought up in the
very center of the mercantile life of
Boston; there were those contemporary
merchants, Rutledge, of New York, and
Morris, of Philadelphia.
In the even more perilous times of
the late war of the Rebellion, the mer-
chants OF our country produced many
OF its best and most tried friends. Some
of them poured out their money on its
behalf like water; and others, of the
rank and file, rushing from the count
ing-room and the store, laid down their
lives for the Nation in the forefront of
battle.
All honor, then. to the patriotic mer-
chants of America! The principles of
commercial honor, by which such men
are guided, are credit, not only to
their numerous and influential class,
but to the human race. There are, of
course, exceptions to every rule; but it
is an admitted axiom of ethics that all
such exceptions only strengthen the
rule. The very fact that a rule is ex-
cepted to. proves not only its existence,
but that the rule must be good where
the exceptions are bad.
You might as well object to Christian
ity because there was once Judas Is
CARROT, or to patriotism because there
was Benedict Arnold, as to object to
American commercial honor because
there have been, and still are, scoun-
drels and villains in the ranks Of Ameri-
can merchants. As one swallow does
not make q summer, neither does one
scabby sheep undervalue whole flock
1t is fact, susceptible of the clearest
proof, that American commercial honor
is the peer of any in the world. In these
days of magnetic telegraphs and fast
presses, the misdeeds of commercial
men are rapidly trumpeted abroad. not
only as legitimate matters of news, but
as sensations fitted to feed the cormorant
NAV of the greedy public; capacious
NAV, indeed, that, like the daughter of
the horse-leech, is perpetually crying.
as it gorges itself, "Give! giver' All
the while the modest members of COM
mercial society, acting on the scale of
the level and the square, are passed by
unnoticed; or, if they are commented
on in any way, as likely as not it is to
be judged as no better than they ought
to be, in fact as tarred with the same
brush that has smeared some of their
villainous neighbors.
The duty of the press in all such cases
is to keep constantly in view the invari-
able distinctions between right and
wrong. The good man should be COM
mended while the bad man is censured.
The good man should be rewarded by
the applause of the community while
the bad man is punished by its laws.
Money is not yetthe god of our country.
and we devoutly trust it never will be.
Commercial honor has still an intrinsic
value; value more precious than jew
els, more inestimable than silver or
gold. Philadelphia Call.