St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-07-17
HIGH STANDARDS OF HONOR IN
THE BUSINESS WORLD.
A Chapel Talk by Pres. George A. Gate
of Iowa COLLEGE.

profound sense of the high grade OF
business honor that prevails among
the best business men. While there
is something of truth in the slur that
at is easy to see the Al1nighty's es-
innate of money by the sort of people
He mostly gives it to-" vet it is also,
and believe increasingly, true that
the merchant princes of the modern
commercial world have in their ranks
some of the finest specimens of stall
wart manhood that haveever walked
around on this planet. There is
nothing that perhaps more striking
" illustrates the change that has
come over the face of the world than
the fact that if YOU would nowadays
find the coStlieSt, most deliberately
convenient, and most elegantly deco
rated and furnished monuments of
architectural skill, you must seek
them not among the palaces of kings,
but i'll the more truly 'palat1al
business and office blocks of our mod
ern cities The kings of trade, more
than the nominal kings of nations,
are the real kings of the earth today.
There can be nothing permanent in
mere plutocracy, but that wealth IS
power is fact that cannot be disre-
garded with impunity. Is it not just
ascasv for God to use the power that,
peculiarly in America, is accumulat-
ing in the hands of these modern
kings of commerce, for glorious ends,
as it is or ever has been in history to
use for his ends of righteousness any
other sort of power? l cannot be-
lieve that this mighty development
of material wealth is ultimately to
be relegated to the hands Of the
powers of evil only to be used to
curse mankind with.
To the highest grades of business
men such expressions as sharp
man." "shrewd fellow" keen in a
business transaction, lone must
get up early in the morning to get
ahead of him. seem out of place.
There are many men of that sort in
business, but they are mostly in the
lower walks OF that great world A
man is foolish to believe word any
small tradesman in continental Eu-
rope tells him. 1t is perfectly well
understood that they do not pretend
| to tell the truth OF course we know
| that there are many such IN this
| country. But it is also true that
| that is not the rule III America.
| knew q man once who boosted that
| he had never yet been beaten in a
| horse trade But he was always q
poor man nevertheless. That whole
realm stands for mean sort OF
riches, what riches there are in it,
and a meaner sort OF man. The
great business firms are of an entire
w different order They live and
move on quite another plane.
One of the largest and strongest
| firms engaged in importing dry goods
| in Boston sold q lady silk for q dress
once for about three hundred dollars
| A few days later she entered the store
and came sailing down on the clerk
asserting that the silk was not OF 4
quality corresponding to the price
showing him how it ''pulled'' at the
seams. The poor clerk called the
manager who looked at the dress
began making figures on memoran
dunn, asked the lady how much she
had paid for trimmings and for max
ing, and finally how much she est
mated her time worth which she hao
spent on the whole matter. She
grew indignant at the questions, but
was pacified when she learned that
the manager was adding all the
items together for the bOOk-keeper tC
make out a check for the whole
amount to hand her with the apOl
ogy of the firm for having caused hel
so much trouble, because of the fact
that they themselves had been de
ceived in the quality of the material
After the lady went out with hel
check the clerk was commissioning
the manager on the serious loss. He
was answered by the remark: "YOr
do not seem to understand this.
would not take 5000 for that ad
vertisement. That lady will be bacl
for another dress, and bring all he
friends with her and her friends
friends as far as the story can spread.
His prediction proved correct. ha6
the pleasure of carrying the story
with its advertisement back to {
member of that firm in Boston, from
my home in New Jersey whittier i
had Travelled to me through many
strangers. Solar, 300 miles at least
in one direction had the advertise
ment spread. People like to trad
with that firm, for the goods Dough
at their store are as good as insured
They never compete in prices, for tn
wise are willing to pay little NOR
for the sake of such insurance. Their
are thousands of such business firms
Not only is it the honorable way
it pays most richly in the end.
There is much said of the gambling
on the great exchanges, grain, prod
uce and stock Much of it is wei
said There is vast amount of pur
gambling done there. But there /
another side If one chooses to loo
at it in that way there is an elemen
of gambling in many lines of legiti
mate business. l get my life insured
That process consists of the CON
panv's betting that l will not di
right away and my betting that
will Il sincerely hope that the CON
pany will win the wager.) There
as legitimate business done on thes
great exchanges as is done anywher
on earth. How would this part {
our domain ever have been developed
if there had been no place where tn
stocks and bonds of the great raj
roads could find a common market
There is no place where stricte
standard of technical integrity /
business methods prevails than i
the n. y. Stock Exchange. No shaC
ow of crookedness is allowed in an
member. A dishonest or even di:
honorable business transaction Their,
and the one guilty of it is irrevocabl
expelled from all rights to the floor
There are two or three of the grea1
est operators in r. r. stocks in tn
country who could not be elected t