Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-12-03
HAVE DONE GOOD.

| The captains of industry who have
driven the railway systems across this
continent who have built up our COM
merce, who have developed our manu-
factures, have on the whole done great
good to our people. Without them the
material development ofiwhich we are
so justly proud could never have TAX
en- place. Moreover, we should recog-
nize the immense Importance to this
material development of leaving as
unhampered as is compatible with the
public good the strong and forceful
men upon whom the success of busi-
ness operations inevitably rests. The
slightest study of business conditions
will satify anyone capable of form
ing a judgment that the personal equa-
tion Is the most important factor In
| business operation; that the business
ability of the man at the head of any
business concern, big or little, is us
ually the factor which fixes the gulf
between striking success and hope
| IL ss failure.
An additional reason for caution in
dealing with corporations is to be
| found in the international commercial
conditions of today. The same busi-
ness conditions which have produced
the great aggregations of corporate
rand individual wealth have made them
very potent factors in international
commercial competition. Business
concerns which have the largest means
at their disposal and are managed by
the ablest men are naturally those
which take the lead in the strife for
commercial supremacy among the ma
tions Of the world. America has only
Just begun 70 assume that command
ing position in theinternationalb business
world which we believe will more and
more be hers. 1t Is of the utmost i'm
portance that this position be not Jeo-
parded, especially at time when the
Overlooking abundance Of our own nat
ural resources and the skill, business
energy, and mechanical aptitude of our
people make foreign markets essential
Under such conditions 1t would be most
unwise to cramp OF to fetter the YOUTH
ful strength of our nation.
Moreover, it cannot too often bepoint-
ed out that to strike with ignorant
violence at the interests of one set OF
men almost inevitably endangers the
interests of ALL The fundamental rule
in our national life-the rule when
underles all others-is that, on the
whole, and in the long run, we shall
20 UP OF down together. There are
EXCEPTIONS; and in times of prosperity
some will prosper far more, and in
times of adversely some will suffer
far more, than others; but speaking
generally, period Of good times means
that all share more or less in them, and
in a period of hard times all feel the
stress to greater or less degree. 1t
surely ought not to be necessary to
enter into any proof of this statement;
the memory of the lean years which
began in 1893, is still vivid, and we
can contrast them with the conditions
in this very year which is now clos
ing. Disaster to great business enter
prises can never have its effect limit
cd to the men at the top. 1t spreads
throughout, and while 1t Is bad Tor
everybody, it is worst for those farth-
est down. The capitalist may be shorn
of his luxuries; but the wage-worker ,
may be deprived Of even bare neces-
stiles.
The mechanism of modern business
is so delicate that extreme care must
be taken not to interfere with it in a
spirit of rashness or ignorance. Many
of those who have made it their vo-
cation to denounce the great industrial
combinations which are popularly, al
though with technical inaccuracy,
known as trusts appeal especially
to hatred and fear These are precise
ly the two emotions, particularly when
combined with ignorance, which unfit
men for the exercise OF cool and steady