Arizona republican., 1905-01-05
PHOENIX. AR1z.. JANUARY 5, 1905.
The American Business Man.

The American Business Man.
 It is so much the fashin of a certain class in this country to denounce mon cy-getting. "commercialism" and the 'money power' that it Is refreshing 10 note the sane and well balanced ob- servations of a man who takes another point of view. In an address on Mon cyphobia." by James M. Beck. assist ant attorney general of the United States. delivered at the commencement exercises of 9 business college at Phil adeIphia the other day. We find some aimeIy words in defense of tJtc Ameri- can business nan-the man who docs things" and goes on achieving and 'piling up dollars" after he has gain ed a competence.
 MT Beck pointed out that it is a popular miscOncepuOn to suppose that the average man who has become wealthy through his own efforts is an imated by the spirit of avarice and seffishness. He said he was privileged to spend the greater part of his con scious life in the mCCh-abused Wall street. To him it seemed a most inn pressive place because of the eEhibi- tion of human energy which it fur nishes whose ultimate effects are felt throughout the entire world No ac- cusation, he thought. was more un- warranted than that this energy is solely actuated by avarice. Long after the American business man has ac- quired a competence he struggles on generally dying in the harness-nOt for the pleasure of making money but for the joy of achievement. This love of york for works sake, rather thar for its compensation. is the characteristic of the modern American, and is, next to our natural resources, the chief req son for the country's wonderful devel- opIaent. We gre not a mere money loving people. In no country is less value attached to money when earned. The citizen of no country is more prodigal in the expenditure of money than the American. Indeed, his reck- less prodigaiity and not his avarice is his chief fault. He Iabors hard to earn money with no other thought than scattering it with an open hand when earned"
 MT. Beck gave illustrations to show that the gambling spirit is far less prevalent than it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lotteries used to flourish in church and in state. Today, as q mark of the high CT morality of commercial life, lotter- al 5r, in many others. 4 beneficial influence of the present commercial age has been the increased sense of moral re- spOnsibility. He thought there was no Letter demonstration of this than life insurance. At the beginning of the nineteenth century few life insurance companies of any kind existed. A man seemed content to leave wife and chi- dren to the hazard of chance without reckoning what would happen the morrow after his death. So greatly has the sense of moral responsibility for those dependent upon us deepened that today a vast and beneficial sys- tenn of life insurance has been built up. If to this great trust fund there bG diueQ lI-e uilCOunLEu millions or dollars which are deposited i'll banks and savings funds, we see displayed Q hUsbandry of resources unknown in any age, demonstrating the fact of deeper sense of moral responsibility
 Adverting to Lecky's statement in his History of European Morals" that the virtue of veracity attains it's high est development with commercial na- uons, NIT. Beck pointed out that the entire edifce of the commercial world depenGs today upon credit. Without it the marvellous expansion in human activity would have been impossible. The whole fabric of modern business is an extraordinary structure of mu- tual faith and fair dealing. There are, Unquestionably, broken contracts, but their number is infnitesimal in com parlson with the contracts which are carried out with scrupulous fidelity.
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 Judge Parker lost his first case in