The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-02-15

with bonds and mortgages; that ne
whose death is unregretted and who is
borne to the grave unloved, unwept and
unmourned, however high the heaps of
gold left behind, must have found life
filled with naught but vanity--empty,
idle vanity. There are those who, feel
ing all this, strive to follow that con-
duct in life which will help them to use
! wisely and well, whatever gains a sue
cesSful business career may bring, who
| strive to follow a conduct in life such as
Will lead them to aid all works that tend
to alleviate suffering, to educate the
| ignorant, to feed the hungry, to clothe
the naked, to uplift the degraded, and to
make the world brighter, happier, purer,
nobler for their having lived in it. To
such as these who are members of the
! business world nothing need be said.
| They need neither your words nor
mine. They know the duties and re-
sponsibilities which society places upon
them and, knowing them, strive earnest
| ly and conscientiously to fulfill them.
! But between the extremes which l
have just pictured; between the purely
selfish and hardened money getter and
the wise and just and helpful man of
| business, stands vast army engaged in
various branches of affairs who are
neither saints nor sinners, who are
neither vicious nor wilfully selfish, who
mean to do what is right, when the right
! is made plain to them, but who are
wofully Indifferent to things which do
not happen to Immediately concern
/ them. There are those whose lives are
a continual plod. who do not seem to
realize that they have duties beyond
their immediate business affairs or their
immediate family circle, and to whom
| it seemingly has never been made plain,
that real success in life means to
broaden and to widen our horizon of use
fulness, to spread among the widest
number whatever rays of sunshine may
come to us.
1t is TO such as these that we should
be able to appeal with profit. 1t is from
| the ranks of these that we can hope to
win the additional recruits who are to
enlist under tRe banner followed by
those who strive to aid good works,
and TO make themselves of the highest
use TO their fellow men.
! Let US, then, address ourselves to this
middle element, which includes by far
the grea test number in the business
world
Let us begin our plea by first ap-
| pealing to their self interest. In do
/ ing 50, let us point out that the man of
| business ranks among the largest en-
plOyerS of labor. As the tradesman
| the merchant, the manufactures, the
| banker, he employs a vast army of
men and women who move the finan-
clad, the industrial and the commercial
machinery of the nation. No little of
| his success depends upon the intelli-
genca, the fidelity and the moral worth
| of this vast industrial and commercial
| army. Let his store, his bank, or his
| workshop be filled with dishonest, I'M
| faithful, unintelligent workers and his
enterprise must soon be brought to an
unhappy close. 1t becomes, then, a
matter to him of the highest impor-
| lance that every agency should be aid
| ed which tends to encourage sobriety,
| thrift, uprightness and purity of char
| acter among those in his employ or
who are likely to enter his service.
Every penny, therefore, wisely ex-
pended by the man of business in aid
ing education moral and religious
J cS Cllt4CS 10 pldtEu NHSIt ulfeCiIy anu
indirectly, it is almost certain to bring
a splendid return on the investment in
the direction of higher morality and
| better character among those upon
| whose aid he must so largely depend
| for success.
| The man of business who remains in
| different to the moral character and
| the private habits of those in his en-
| ploy is placing a premium upon dis
| honesty and unfaHhfulness. Sooner or
| later he must pay-and pay dearly-for
| his Willful or careless Indifference.
Sooner or later he will discover that the
| loose, the immoral, the dissipated en-
| ploye, like the one rotten apple in the
| barrel which speedily affects the rest,
| not alone soon destroys himself, but
! most seriously poisons the tendencies,
| the disposition and the character of his
| fellow employees. And so, the successful
| man of business must not alone be alive
| to the character and habits Of his en-
ployes, but it becomes with him a mat
ter of self interest to surround them
| with the highest and purast moral IN
! fluences.
| Thus, the man of affairs who has
no interest in his fellow creatures other
| than purely selfish one; whose central
thought in life is not What can / do
| to profit my fellow men?" but What
! can my fellow being do to profit me? %
/ even such as he viii find it profitable
as a matter of pure business policy, to
| encourage all institutions which have
| for their object the spreading of knowl-
| edge and of morality.
| The second plea to this great middle
| element in the business world is on d
! higher plane than that Of gain-pure
| bers within it's ranks a vast army of
fathers who have sons and daughters
upon whom they look with love, affec-
ton and pride. They have sons
whom they hope to make per-
| h2ps partners and successors in
| their enterprises; sons who are
TO share their undertakings in mid
die life: who later on are to relieve
| them of heavy burdens. and tighten the
| pressing cares Of business as years OF
usefulness draw to a close and who
| are to be TO them a staff in old age.
They have daughters who are to be a
| Joy and comfort: who are TO make the
hcme one of sunshine and gladness,
| who are to aid the wife and mother in
making 1t an earthly paradise; a place
/ where all business cares and anxieties
are TO cease and to be forgotten; where
d. M /. A.