St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-03-21
LOAVES And FISHES.
Business and Religion
Touched Upon by Rev.
w. S. Vail.
Competition Undermines the
Principles Of the Class
Leader.
Laws Of Business Lead Him
to Make the Best Bar
gain.
Cooperation the Goal
Which Will Aid the Chris
tain Merchants.

Rev. W. 5. Vail took up the question,
"Can Business Man be Christian"
in his sermon yesterday morning be-
fore the Universalist society in the
Grand opera house. He said: "All
business at present is organized on the
principle of competition. The one thing
that any man must do is to buy at the
lowest figure and sell at a profit. If he
is a thorough business man he will do
this by instinct, though one never
thought of the law in his life. And it
will strangely conflict with his theories
of philosophy. was intimately
acquainted with a man whose whole
political and social philosophy was
summed up in the words. Protect
home industry" He would paint a
most pathetic picture of the condition
of men i'll foreign lands. He would
pray that such conditions might not
prevail in this land. And yet
he had an agent securing Swift
zerland and the British islands
to get line of goods that would enable
him to stand practically without COM
losophy, but by instinct he was more
earnest in following the law: Buy
cheap, and sell at profit" Another
law says: keep the price down and
the appearance of the goods TO high
Point Of Beauty"
That admits of all kinds of adultera-
ton. And when it is common method
those of you who have practical expert
ence know that there is strong tempta-
ton to do as other men do. 1t is easy
enough to say: "You must stand on
high plane: you must take a straight
mt - IN uI1n ,
And you tell him the truth if condi-
tons were right, but closely watch the
ways of successful men, and you will
see that they as a rule follow laws that
competition has smade, and that in do
ing so they unconSciOusly contradict
their own theories. | recall the advice
that person once gave me in regard to
a deeper feeling OF plety on my
part in my pulpit miniStratlonS-advl
which probably needed-and while we
we're talking man came in and told
of a certain change in the source OF
supply in the goods which formed his
business, and my pious friend, without
one moments hesitation, advised him to
make Il special sale by calling attention
to conditions, and then pointed out how
the dealer would get as much as he
originally expected from such sale.
remember that had less confidence
ReverentiaI Piety
the next Sunday than had the Sunday
before; but afterwards, when l had
looked the ground over from another
point of view, it occurred to me that
this man was only uncOnSciouSly fol-
lowing a law of trade. That law says
when conditions are against US, when
the storm suddenly destroys favorable
hopes, when wars change the en-
tire value of an article. when
new invention threatens a market, when
a new fashion is set, and the goods you
thought staple are about to be lost on
, your hands, then the law of trade
comes in and says man must protect
himself; his competitors do not care for
him; the general public has no care for
men, and will seek its own advantage;
therefore, success means the grasping
of conditions and the defense of self,
which in business as i'll life is conSld-
cred the first law OF nature. | need not
carry out the logical results that are
often seen and we'll known. L need not
stop here to show how often the man
following his instinct of business, and
his instinct of worship, will be one
thing in worship and quite another in
trade; how he can be trusted IN prayer,
but has to be watched in deal. We
can easily see how man can follow out
these laws Of business, and believe that
he needs Savior when he
Goes TO Prayer Meeting,
especially if he has Just peeled some
body in a heavy trade. But if we make
religion life of humanity, that looks to
the interests of all classes and condi-
tons of men, with the laws of business
established as they are, it seems to me
that a man is in eminent danger of be-
ing ground between the lower milestone
of humane feeling and the upper mill
stone business custom. And l think
that there is nothing that wears on the
conscientious man more than the two
laws. one selfish by nature aud the other
unselfish. Therefore, | do not agree
with those men who so eloquently and
easily dispose Of this question. And my
first conclusion is that to conscientious
man there is a serious obstacle. the OBJ
stacle of control by law of business
that is imperfect.
/ believe, however, that single-handed
men can do much towards changing the
methods of business so as to bring in
the prime requisites, division of profits,
excellence of quality, and fairness of
principle of cooperation, which is the
Christian principle, will supplant the
theory of competition; but while based
as we are, see no other way for the
business to succeed than to keep near
the established
Laws of Trade,
gradually changing, and constantly
striving to elevate the standard of life
and business to an ideal. And | claim
further that the ferments of the present
time are indications not of failure, but
Of success.
The best institutions are often
wrecked by that class of men who have
more blood than brains. But there is in
all this business question great moral
problem to solve. 1t forms itself some
thing like this: In the world are the
weak and the strong, and the strong
are under an eternal obligation to use
their strength for the development of
the weak. All the pathos in the story
of the three fishers who went sailing
out into the West, who sailed out as the
sun went downward, were caught in
the squat and felt the solid craft go
down beneath them, and whose bodies
drifted ashore in the morning sun to
be found by the three wives who had
Trimmed the Light
and waited with minglet hopes and
fears. All the pathos came because
such suffering was rec .sSary. And
there is pathOs in the refrain that
sings of little to get aid many to keep.
And, when age grows tired under the
weary burdens of life. and. lettering
along with feeble step o ard the grave,