The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-05-30
The Ethics
OF Corporation
MANAGEMENT

IL the people in this country are fully persuaded that the
MOST EFFECTIVE TEACHERS OF ETHICS to-
day are the righteous men who are active in all the secular
\ - affairs of the world-that is, in farming, manufacturing,
trade, the professions and politics.
These are the men who, BEING RIGHTEOUS, can best indu-
ence the people to piety, justice and righteousness. These are the
men who, being themselves %unrighteous, may DRAG THE PEG
PIE DOWN toward depravty and sin.
The recluse and the religionist who separates his religion from
conduct are losing their hold on civilized men, and the only ethics that
command respect n the ethics that GUIDE AND CONTROL
men in the intensest labors and struggles of the actual world.
1t is no wonder that the ethics of corporation management are in
some respects indeterminate and are, therefore, an urgent subject of
public discussion, for the invention Of the business corporation itself
is hardly more than fifty years old, and this new creation deals with
FORMS OF PROPERTY which are highly novel.
Is it any wonder that the ethics of modern business ARE NOT
YET FORMALLY SETTLED? The ethical conventions gradually
agreed upon during centuries concerning transactions in the ancient
form of property have had to be extended and adapted to immense
new forms Of property and new processes Of production AND DIS
TRIBUTION.
1t is also true that directors and managers Of corporations need to
be convinced that corporations have souls which may be lost by just
such conduct as would cause the loss Of one mans soul and that the
question, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose
his own soul APPLIES TO CORPORATIONS.
At any stage Of any corporate business the questions Of capitalism
ton and overcapitalzation may come up, and if new capital is sought
at a period when industries ae active and the public is sanguine
directors 0 managers WILL BE TEMPTED to overcapitahzaion.
SECRECY As REGARDS EARNING POWER MAY GIVE oPPoR.
TuN'r'Es FOR DECEPTION AND SUBSEQUENT DISASTER.
There are two aspects Of overcapitalizaton which demand the at
tenuon IT the public. In the hrst place, the several states OF IN Union
have power to prevent the issue of stock not fully paid for if they see
fit to exercise that power.
As a fact legislation on this subject is not uniform, and THE
STATES REALLY COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER for the
taxes which may be derived from corporations established within their
respective borders. The looser states compete with the stricter by
making their laws as little restrictive for the corporations as possible
and leaving the investing public to take care of itself.
This demoralizng competition is, to say the least, an abandon
ment by some states'oftheir true position AS MORAL TEACHERS.
Again, overcapitalization is an evil because of its effect on the
state of mind of wage earners. RE~ASO ABLE wage earners are
content to have ingenuity, skill and knowledge in discovering re-
sources and organizing industries reap a considerable immediate e
ward in the case of new undertakings, because they realize that the
laboring classes, in common with the entire community, reap advan'
tages from all successful industrial undertakings.
But they are never willing that established industries should issue
either bonds or stocfswhich are not fully paid for, because they believe
that the wage earners can in that way be compelled for all time to
earn NOT ONLY THEIR w WAGES, but dividends on a
stock, part Of which represents neither money invested nor any contri-
button of human skill and labor.
THE ALLEGED DISQUALIFICATION OF A LARGE PRoPoR'
TON OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES MANAGED ev CORPORATIONS Is
ONE OF THE MAIN CAUSES or THE EXISTING INDUSTRIAL uN'
REST