Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-10

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after mean some sort of unchristian prin
| ciple in business.
The Temptations of Competition.
The nine deadly sins of competitive bid
ding make a strong illustration of the pres
ence of unchristian elements in business
The fundamental principle Of Christianity
| as one of my correspondents said, Is that
we should love our neighbor as ourself, and
that whole matter of secret competitive bid
ding, as it has been explained to me, with It's
principle of different prices to different
people, is constant and persuasive invita-
tion into iniquity. The buyer makes use o
| it to beat down the seller, to keep him i'll the
dark as to the real conditions of the bargain
and to practice extortion upon him. have
had commercial travellers tell ME that they
could not possibly join the Christian Church
because they could not live in their business
according to its spirit.
Now know what that means. No man
has a greater provocation to distrust the
Christianity of the business world than the
commercial traveller. On the other hand
this evil of secret competitive bidding
tempts the seller to furnish goods of lower
quality than the specifications. These bids
which L have i'll mind are not those tina { are
made for the erection of buildings or of pub
lie works; they are the every day transac-
tions between the buyer of every CONNER
cial establishment and the men who come to
get his orders.
Evil of the Love of Money.
And here comes in my second question.
Agreeing that the ideals, say of a majority
of business men, are Christians, but confess
ing that there are nevertheless unchristian
practices in business: what are these un-
christian practices? This ques ton is asked
again and again, trying to get definite e1-
amples. got good many.
Gas a nail sticketh fast between the join
ings of the stones, so doth sin stick close be-
tween buying and selling" That is as true
t<,ft = Nxuon urpitf
ing and selling are transactions for the max
ing OF money. Behind them lies the love OF
money. And the love of money, the wise
Scriptures tell US, is the fertile SOL IN Whlon
ing, it is incredible, what men will do Tor
love of money.
People think sometimes 1 suppose, that
we have no further need in these days for
the second commandments of the ten. we
do not worship craven images. Is that trueT
Did any pagan worship his fetish ever more
reverently, pray to it ever more connoentty,
put more trust in its power to help or harm,
than some men worship, implore and be-
lieve in the omnipotence of the minted DOL
lar?
No man who makes even an honest busi-
ness the whole of his lite, so that even Sum
day is only a chance to get rested IOr the
sake Of working harder Monday morning,
and the heaping up of treasure down here,
leaves no time for the gathering OF treasure
up above, and the mans heart, his real
heart, is all of it in his business, where his
treasure is-no such man can possibly be
said, except in q superficial way. to be con-
Quoting his business on principles that
would be approved by the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Effect of Unchristian Business.
When we think, however, of unchristian
practices in business we think more readily
OF such business methods as harm, not so
much the soul of the man OF business as
no in ntprp nf be W
deals. Unfortunately there seem to be peo-
pie in this world who care more for
money than they do for men, who
will rob their own brothers, so it be
within the letter of the law, and
look on at their pain, their privation, their
satisfaction, rejoicing in the addition of so
many dollars to their store. There are men
who actually oppose themselves to the up
lifting of their brother men, and who having
the power, do persistently keep down whole
attitudes of men, and women, and little
children in conditions unspeakably degrad-
ing. l mean such men, for example, to go
away safe distance, as those two in Lon
don who own all that horrible district of
Whitcchapel, and are responsible for the
black shadow of that hideous corner of
darkest England, and refuse to sell at q fair
price to buyers who would transform that
place OF torment into something nearer par
adise. 1 mean the tenement house owners
in New York who have to be compelled by
who even then appeal from court TO court
putting it or as long as they can, letting
their tenants in the meantime die like flies.
! mean the owner of any tenement house
thank God know OF none such
in Pfttsburg-where for the sake of money
our brothers and our sisters are suffered to
live in conditions that inevitably poison
body and soul.
Something is AwfuIIy Wrong.
Somehow there seems TO be a great deal of
trouble in the world of industry. 1 have
read about it ut considerable length, and for
a good while, and On both sides. 1 confess
that do not know enough about 1T yet to
give advice. Evidently there is something
wrong. Evidently there is something fear
fully unchristian somewhere in q business
world in which a common cab-horse is bet
ter cared for than common man. Some
thing is the matter where men want work
and there is no work for them to do, and Tor
want of work they starve.
Something is out of joint where men work,
and work, and work, and work, from the
dark of morning to the dark OF evening, and
have absolutely nothing in their lives but
work; and yet, with all that, have hardly
enough to keep the life in their bodies. And
the whole family has TO work, the mother
and the little children, and yet with all that,
sits every day beside the door.
1t seems to me that there must De something
somewhere between buying and
selling, when man sells his whole life and
twentieth part of what is daily wasted in
many wealthy home.
A Problem m for Every Man to Study.
And believe that it is the duty of every
nan who is an employer of labor to study
.his problem as he studies his account book
,r his prayer book, and try to find the Chris
ian solution. The art of gathering a great
ortune has been discovered. Now we need
% know the art of perfectly just and Chris
Jan distribution.
am more concerned. however, in this
,ermon with the unchristian practices of
business. And here 1 find, as al
most everywhere else in modern life, that
he love of money is snarpened by keen COM
petition. Whether Il man loves money or |
lot he hates poverty. Every man in a small |
business fears to be poor. Business is a race.
And in this race Ii Is every man for himself. |
leal of steel made here in PittSburg. Some |
II it is made by the Bessemer process some |
" the open-hearth process, some by the cru !
ible process. Very much the same stock is |
lsed in all these processes, but the quality |
If the result is very different. Now we are |!
say OF hatchets. And We |
make two grades of hatchets, one out of /
pen hearth, and the better out of crucible |
teel. These hatchets look exactly alike.
a Concrete Case of Stealing.
They look as much alike as iron rails look |
Ike steel rails. And iron rails, 1 am in |
ormed, look SO much like steel rails that, in |
he days before the Interstate commerce
aw made it criminal offense, reputable |
merchants men OF standing in the commu- |
ity billed steel as iron, and SO got lower |
reisht price from the railroad company; |
nd by telling an absolute lie, stole just SO |
much money from the railroad corpora ton. |
Why, might as well go into a book store |
nd put 50 so book into my overcoat pocket |
nd tell the clerk had taken a 50 o. book.
hat false bidding nothing but COM
ination of lying and stealing.
But to return to the hatchets. The open |