The Washington herald., 1915-01-30
NEW ERA OF ENTERPRISE
AND CONFIDENCE COMING,
SAYS PRESIDENT WILSON

things that are likely to happen.
In the first place, 1 feel that
the mists and miasmic airs of sus-
!, picion that have filled the business
world have now been blown away.
/ believe that We have passed the
era OF suspicion and have come
now into the era Of confidence.
owe Much to Public.
THE conditions Of confidence being
established. nobody need think that il
he is taller than the rest anybody Is
going to throw a stone at him simply
because he is a favorable target-sI-
ways provided there is fair dealing
and real service. Because the char
acteristic OF modern business, gentle
men, is this: The number Of cases in
which men do business on their own
individual private capital is relatively
small in our day Almost all the
greater enterprises are done on what
Is, so far as theS managers of that
business is concerned, other peoples
money. That is whats joint stock
company means. It means, Won't
you lend US your resources to conduct
this business, and trust US. a little
group of managers, to see that you
get honest and proper returns for
youri money! and no man who man
ages joint stocq company can know
for many days together without fresh
inquiry who his partners are, because
the stock is constantly changing
hands and the partners are seldom the
same people for the long periods to-
gether. Which amounts to saying that
inasmuch as you are using the money
OF everybody who chooses to come
in, your responsibility is to every
body who has come in or who may
come in. That is simply another way
of saying that your business is, SO far
for 1t, a public business, and you owe
it TO the public to take them into
your confidence in regard to the way
In which 1t is conducted.
I'VE owe a constant report to the
public. whose money we are constant
ly asking for in order to conduct the
business itself. The oxygen that the
lungs of modern business takes in is
the oxygen of the public confidence.
and IL you have not got that your
business is essentially paraylzed and
asphyxiated."
"a Free Field and No Favor
What we want for business
hereafter is the same kind of lib
erty that we want for the individ-
ual. My liberty consists in a sort
of parole. Society says to me.
You may do what you please until
you do something that is in viola
tion of the common understanding.
of the public interest: then your
parole is forfeited. We will take
you into custody. We will limit
your activities. We will penaliZe
you IL you use this thing that you
call your liberty against our in
terest.' Business does not want,
and ought not to ask for. more
liberty than the individual has;
and = have always summed up for
myself. individual liberty and busi-
ness liberty and every other kind
of liberty. in the phrase that is
common in the sporting world, A
free field and no favor
when We get that understanding.
that we are all sports and that we
are not going to ask for, not only.
but We are not going to condescend to
take advantage of anything that does
not belong to us, why then the atmos-
phere will clear so that it will seem
as IL the sun had never shone as it
does that day. II is the spirit of
into everything. and men who. when
they get Beaten hat way, squeal do
not deserve our pity.
Some men are going to get beaten
because they have not the brains. Now.
liberty does not consist in framing
laws to put such man at the front
and say they have got TO be allowed
to keep pace with the rest: because
that would hold the whole process OF
civilization back. But II does con-
sist in saying no matter how feather
weight the other man is you must
not arbitrarily interfere with him:
that there must be an absolutely free
field and no favor to anybody.
SecretIveness Breeds Suspicion.
There are. therefore. suppose. GER
tain rules of the game. will mem
ton what seem to me some OF them.
] have already mentioned one of them
by way OF illustration.
dFIrst of all Is the rule of publicity
not doing anything under cover. let
ting the public know what you ar
doing and judge of IL according n
II In.
There are a great many businesses
in this country that have fallen un-
der suspicion because they were so
secrete that was dishonorable. There
is no use inviting suspicion by secre-
tiveness. II a business is being hon
orably done and successfully done.
you ought to be pleased to turn 1t in
side out and let the people whom you
are inviting to invest in 1t see exactly
how it is done and with what results.
Let's see how you are running the
gamei
sSThen, in the second place, there I
n full equivalent for the money yO
receive, the full equivalent I'm service
not trying to skImp I'm the service q
order to increase profits above n ren
soaabIe return, but trying to max
the profits proportional to the salts
faction of the people that you serve.
There isn't any more solid founda-
ton for business than that. Is you
thoroughly satisfy the people you are
serving, you are welcame to their
money. They are not going to grudge
it, because they will feel that they
are getting a quid pro quo, they are
getting something such as was prom
ised them when their money was
asked of them.
"Game" Requires Coincidence.
Then, in the third place, this game
requires something more than ordi-
nary sports.
at requires a certain kind of con
science In business, q certain feelin
that we are, after all, in this wOrl
because we are expected to make goo
according TO the standards OF the peO
PIE we live with.
That, after all, gentlemen. is the
chief compulsion that is laid on all
of US. am not aware of being afraid
OF jail; do not feel uneasy when I
pass a penitentiary, but would feel
extremely uneasy IL I knew 1 had