The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1905-07-07

a double lrreIIed conscience, one fo
business use and another for the IndiVid
uGl life. This is fraud.
II say that the man who attempts Il
do business upon one basis of morals
and live as an individual upon another
basis is a fraud
IF any man attempts to pluck his
heart out of his living body, hoping &c
replace 1t without becoming a corpse
i ana stay'ng corpse, be makes physi.
Cal mistake. The mla who attempts
4 to take his conscience out of his body
as he enters his banking house, or bis
business house, or who, when he at
tends directors meetings, or a syndicate
conference, attempts to leave his con
| science on the door step, like half
burned cigar, while he attends to bust
ness, will find nothing but cold rem
nant when he returns-a dead con.
science.
Tine practice of doing things, or per-
hitting things to be dore hy men in
syndicates or as members of corporate
aggregation which the individual would
not DO ~ his private life, upon the theory
that syndicate and corporate morality is
ole thing, and individual morality Is
another results 10 the total suppression
OF lndlVldu 81 honesty and morality.
In short, the man who inserts the
plank IN tl5 theological belief that his
corporate acts Will be judged by one
standard and his individual acts by
another, here or hereafter, makes a mis-
take,
NO man can have two standards of
morals, one for his individual life, and
Jhe oJher for his business life without
the inevitable result, that the baser
standard will prevail As man is in
his business life SO will he become ia
his private life
~ be man who attempts to play DR..
JekylI and Mr.. Hyde invariably suffers
the Doctors fate mentally and morally
TIE CONSEQUENCES TO Us.
The direct result, the inevitable re-
suit, the logical conclusion of false
standard OF morality IN business Is the
corruption OF our laws and their inter-
probation.
The man who in his business life
shields himself under the fact that he Is
but one of an aggregation, member of
syndicate, an officer of corporation,
a director Of trust, the man who takes
as his code of morals that which has
been publicly announced by many men,
viz, that certain things were done be-
cause they were not forbidden by the
statutes-that man is sowing the seeds
of socialism, anarchy and despotism.
The man who makes the only metes
and bounds of right and wrong the
enactments of the Legislature and the in
depreciation thereof by the courts, has
for his God, his religion, his conscience
and his guide movable standard and
the tendency of the movement is down
ward.
Man is always keen to invent a new
way of perpetuating profitable wrong,
and If the wrong to him is a wrong only
when, if and after it has been so defined
by the Legislature, he endeavors to ueal
with the Legislature.
The impairment of our legislature
follows
''lf might is right so long as it is not
by statute, then if the statute
IS IN the way the next step is to get it
out of the way.
Statutes are man made foundations.
ana men are human;the majority of the m
are influenced by their environment ana
their concomitants, hence power and
capital supply the cohcomitants which
result in the removal by legislatures and
bodies of the offensive re-
strlcuons.
II vail not pass by the responsibility
Of the lawyer in these matters.
1T Is said that wheE man retains a
lawy err he retains the la yer s conscience
as we'll
MANY lawyer has sunk his individ- !
ualsm under his retainer. Less fire.
luently we hear OF the lawyer who says |
10 his client, That may be legal but it !
IS wrong anu L viii rot approve of &c or |
4ld you in the dong of it.. The lawyer
TOO often advises his client, his corpora
ion and the directors how far they may
90 without subjecting the mselves to d
;lvil or criminal liability. Less fre-
Iuently be raises the question of right
md wrong He says he is not here for
hat purpose
In SO doing the lawyer commits his
LIENS to the doing of things against
bind party for which, if the lawyer
limseii were the third party, he wOut d
eel Justly resentfu.
Too many lawyers aye forgetting to-
lay thu high stanoaId set for tht m in
lie doctrine that the attorney 10 the
leepe- Of bis clients couscieLce. And
h, Sc iawy efs are plosT rfUu-, some OF
he m are tne leaders OF the Bar and az
uch they are admired by tie most of
IS.
CONCLUSION.
j cannot here and now lead you
bIough all the ralnIhcatIons Ut the
els which are burning back of the
moke of moGeIn criticism. l have
hown, think that these evils which
1e undermining the foundation of
American business and the institution
1 American government, a:e I'M
OnndeO IN the weakness OF American