The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-12-26
principles OF the employer become the

pflllClplcS vi Vic c11IpiOyCl OCSOi!Ao o.S
principles of the employee. l ask the
old merchants to bear me out IN these
statements. If, when you were just
starting in life, in commercial life, you
we're told that honesty was not mar
ketable, that though you might sell
all the goods in the shop, you must
not sell your conscience, that while
YOU were to exercise all industry and
tact, you were not to sell your con-
science-it you were taught that gains
gotten by sin were conbustible, and at
the moment of ignition would be
blown on by the breath of God until
all the splendid estate would van
ish into white ashes scattered in the
wh.rlwind-then that instruction has
been to you a precaution and a help
aver since. There are hundreds OF
commercial establishments i n our
great cities which are educating aclass
OF young men who will be the honor
of the land, and there are other es-
Establishments which are educating
young men to be nothing but
sharpers. What chance is there for
a young man who was taught IN an
establishment that if it is right to lie,
if it is smart, and that q French label
is all that is necessary to make a
thing French, and that you ought
always to be honest whenit pays, and
that it is wrong to steal unless you 90
it we'll? Suppose, now, a young man
just starting in life enters a place OF
that kind where there are 10 young
men, all drilled in the infamouspracti-
ces Of the establishment. He is ready
to be taught. The young man has no
theory of commercial ethics. Where
is he to get his theory? He will get
his theory from his employers. One
day he pushes his wit a little beyond
what the establishment demands OF
him, and
HE FLEECEs A CUSTOMER
until the clerk is on the verge OF being
seized by the law. What is done in
the establishment? He isnot arraing-
ed. The head of the establishment
says to him: "Now be careful; be care
full, young man, you might be caught;
but really that was splendidly done;
you will get along in the world, a
rant YOU" Then that man goes up
until he becomes head clerk. He has
found there IS a premium on iniqulty.
One morning the employer
m to the establishment. He
goes into his counting room
and throws up his hands and
shouts "Why, the safe has been rob-
bed!" What is the matter? Nothing,
nothing, only the clerk who has been
practicing a good while on his GUS
toners is practicing a little on his m
ployer. No new principle introduced
into that establishment. It is a poor
rule that will not work both ways.
You must never steal unless you can
do it we'll. He did it we'll. l am not
talking an abstraction; I am talking
q terrible and crushing fact.
Now here is a young man. Look at
him today. Look at him five years
from now, after he has been under
trial in such an establishment. Here
he stands in the shop today, his
cheeks ruddy with the breath of the
hills. He unrolls the goods on the
counter in gentlemanly style. He
commends them to the purchaser.
He points out all the good points in
the fabric.
HE EFFECTS THE SALE.
The goods are wrapped up, and he
dismisses the customer with acheerful
ssgood morning" and the country
merchant departs SO impressed with
the straight-forwardness of that
young man that he will come again
and again, every spring and every au-
tumn unless mterferred. with. The
young man has been now in that es..
t%ablishment five years. He unrolls
the goods on the counter. He saysto
the customer, "now those are the best
goods we have in our establishments"
they have better on the next shelf. He
says: "We are selling these goods less
than COST" they are making 20 per
cent. He says:
o HAD RECORDED EIGHT LIES
-four lies against the young man,
four lies against his employer, for l
undertake to say that the employer
is responsible for all the iniquities of
| his clerks, and all the iniquities of
those who are clerks OF these clerks,
down to the 10th generation, if those
EMPLOYERS inculcated ubiquitous and
damning principles.
stand beioreyoung men this morn
ing who are under this pressure. l
say, come out of it. "Oh, say you, II
have my widowed mother to support,
and if a man loses a situation now ne
don't get another one" say, come
out of it. Go home to your mother
and say to her: "Mother, l can't stay
in that shop and be upright; what
shall Ido?" and if she is worthy of
you she will say, "Come out of it my
son-we will throw ourselves on Him
who promised to be the God of the
widow and the fatherless; he will
take care of u.s." And l tell you no
young man ever permanently suffered
by such a course of conduct. InPhila-
delphia, in a drug shop, ayoung man
said to his employer: II. want to
please you, really, and l am willing to
sell medicines on Sunday; but l can't
sell this patent shoe blacking on Sum
day.""Well," said the head man, "you
will have to do it or else you will have
to go away" The young man said:
81 can't do it; I am willing to sell
medicines, but not shoe backing"
"Well, then go! Go now" The young
man went away. The Lord looked
| after him. The hundreds of thousands
of dollars he had won in this
world the smallest part of
his fortune. God honored him. By
the course he took he saved his soul
as we'll as his fortunes in the future.
Young men, it is safe to do right. There
are