The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-15
BUSINESS IN UNITED STATES
STUDIED By An ENGLISH Oh
SERVER.
How Much Truth Is There in HIS
sOrdid DepiettOn.!

gov Herald has been making studies n
this country, and some of his intere.
ling conclusions were embodied III tbs
following letter:
! In America, as l roam about from
one industrial center to another, l have
not spoken to half a dozen men who
have not had their arms up to the ell
bows in dOllar-making. And l find the
business man carries all his personal
goods in his shop window; that is,
within the first ten minutes you see all
his best point s-unlike the Engiishman,
whose ice Of reserve you can only thaW
by cautious, gradual warmth. There is
something of the goOd-natured big boy
about the American mOney-maker. A
man of fifty will talk to you on bust
ness in the Dragging way q Yorkshire
| lad of twenty will talk about county
| cricket. He is first, and the rest no
where. Jolly him-stroke him and
scratch his head-and he will purr with
appreciation. Josh him-chaf him
about his characteristics, and let him
imagine you are giggling in your sleeve
and his fur rises. He IS as sensitive
about his shortcomings as a schoolgirl
3 10 dbUuL iLEl lIGChlGSs 14C lltAS a '7OAS
heart, and is sentiment personified in
breeches. At the theater, in the maud
lin parts of a poor play, the English
man becomes cynical and grins. The
| American cries.
OF the sweetness of the home life,
such as Englishmen have, the Ameri-
can knows little. Yet he loves his fam
lily. His women folk he places on a
PEDESTAL and they are worthy of it.
He would rather have a family of girls
than of boys. Girls give him a peep
into the paradise of refinement. His
personal idea of comfort is a garish no.
tel, with a marble hall and an express
elevator. That it is possible to be more
comfortable in a small hotel than in a
big one is beyond his range of compre-
hension. If he could load his wife and
daughters with peWels, give them what
is called "a cottage at Newport, let
them outshine everybody else in burn
ing dollars, to adopt the current phrase
by giving entertainments which cost
most money. by having the price of his
wines mentioned in the newspapers-he
is not far from the acme Of his ambi-
ton. Newport is the most vulgar spot
OIl cal ILL., IL blAC <AAAASAA~h'AA 'A'0-'NS
maker it is Eden.
In no country in the world is there
SO much talk about freedom, the broth
erhood of man, the rights of the indi-
vidual; yet in no other country is per-
sonal honor at a lower level Such a
thing as a man doing anything from a
disinterested public motive the money
maker cannot believe in. To tell him
there is any man in the British Parlia-
ment, or on a county council, or in
town council, for other than private
ends. lining his own pockets, is to talk
outside his comprehension. His own
politicians are place-hunters, and most
of his municipalities are rotten.
He is distrustful. When I entered
the United States I had to sign
declaration that l was not going there
under contract--tfat is, to work for an
American paper. If that had been my
object l would have been turned back
1t is difficult for a German musician
hired possible to play in some theatei
orchestra, to enter the States, A while
back some Nottingham lace-makers
were taken over to start a lace-making
industry near Chicago, and to instruct
; entered after much bother. Nobody in
American puts his boots outside his
bedroom door in hotel. He would
have the guilelessness of the young
man from the country II he expected
them there in the morning. We al
know the sixpencein- the slot scheme
whereby We can get a pair of opera
glasses at the theater. They have the
, same arrangement in America. But
, the opera glasses are chained.
To the British mind the American
money-maker is rather appalling. Once
when [ was listening to a Chicago
mans narration of his trade methods
remarked, But that was rather un
scrupulousr" He took it as a British
acknowledgment Of smartness. Ole
fashioned business morality is quite
our date. The creed of the American
money-maker runs: My object or
earth is to get dollars; if the other fell
low isn't cute enough to prevent me
getting his, then he is son of gur
and worth only 80 cents How mar
gets money does not count so much as
=, whether he gets it.
Disrobing him of his various ques-
tionable qualities, the fact nevertheless
; remains that the American money
maker is the most assiduous business
: man on the face of the earth. You can
not shatter that fact by six Hansard
; volumes of talk about his faults. ET'
, cry ounce of him he puts into work
Precedents and usages he elbows Of
one side as he casts on one side al
! employee the instant that employc slips
below high-level mark.
Nearly all the heads of great work:
! have in their time been ordinary work
men themselves-and they are Away:
the hardest masters. The breakfas
> hour in America is 7, and by 8 a mar
has dictated all his answers to letters
If you have an appointment with hin
, for 10 o'clock, he is engaged with some
body else if you turn up at 10 minutes
past Go into an average English Of
flee with a proposition, and you will bt
told the firm will think about it, anC
you may get definite order in week
Go into an average American office; gel
straight down to business, and in three
minutes you get NO" or Yes" Il
a thing strikes an American as good
he will plunge at it for all it is worth
He will spend 10000 on new machin-
cry. Three months later, when the ma.
chinery has hardly got into working
order show him something better, that