The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-11-17
HADLEY ON ETHICS OF
 CORPORATE MANAGEMENl 1
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 have become vastly more complex than they were thirty years ago. But the essential fact still remains that. the problem can be settled only by the ex- ercise of common sense and certain amount of unselfishness. Any law which seeks to render these qualities necessary or superduous is foredoomed to failure. The president of a large cor poration is in place of public trust In an obvious sense he is trustee for the stockholders and creditors of his corporation. In a less obvious but equally important sense he is a trustee on behalf of the public. Unfortunately this obligation of the managers of our corporations to the public is not yet as clearly recognized as their obligation to the stockholders I believe that this results from an extremely short-sighted view of the matter and that the con- scientious fulflment of the wider obli- gations which the president of a corpo- ration assumes as a matter of course when his own money is at state is at once wise policy and sound morality when he is acting as trustee for the money and interests of others
 Even from the narrowest standpoint of pecuniary interest, the duty of the corporate president to the investors de- mands that he should by his life and language strive to diminish the danger of legal spoliation which threatens property rights In general and the icrI,4 oF Ia in nqrtiO- ular. This obligation is partly recog- nized, and partly not Our leaders of industry, as a rule, do not spend great sums on ostentatious luxury, and do devote much of what they have receiv- ed for objects of public concern. Both of these are invaluable conservative flores. On the other hand, too many of them insist publicly on an extreme view of their legal rights and claims, which cannot help irritating their op- ponents and which does great deal more harm to the interests of property than most people think.
 The duty of the corporate president to the investors also demands that he use all wise means for the maintenance of continuous public service The more complete the monopoly which he has, and the more vital the public necessity which he provides the greater is the importance of this aspect of his trust for the perrnanence Of the interests he represents.
 I suppose that sometime we shall de- wise systems of arbitration which will avoid large number of our industrial quarrels; but those that have actual ly seen in operation do not appear very promising. Nor do believe very great ly in the efficiency of profit sharing systems as a general means of prevent ing labor troubles Sometimes they work well; oftener they do not For the present it is not to any machinery that we must look for the solution of these difficulties. It is to wider sense of responsibility on the part of direc- tors and general officers. The man who selects his subordinates solely for their fitness in making the results of the years accounts look best and instructs them to work for these results at the sacrifice of all other interests, encour- ages the employees to work for them selves in defiance of the needs either of the corporation or of the public, and does more than almost any professional agitator to foster the spirit which makes labor organizations unreasona- ble in their demands and defiant in their attitude; for the laborers like some of the rest of us are a good deal more influenced by example than by syllogisms.
 One of our very large manufacturing concerns in western Pennsylvania a few years ago made a change in it's op- erating head. Not many months after