The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-01-30
WE ARE UPON EVE
OF A NEW ERA OF
ENTERPRISE AND
OF PROSPERITY
Continued from Page ose)

being removed, common understanding
are possible and a universal co-opera-
ton.
In the first place, I feel that the mists
and miasmic airs of suspicion that have
filed the business world have now been
blown away I believe that we have
passed the era of suspicion and have come
now into an era of confidence. Knowing
the elements we have to deal with, We
can deal with them, and with that con-
fidence of knowledge we can have con-
fidence of enterprise. And that enterprise
is going to mean this: Nobody is hence
forth going to be afraid or suspicious of
|any business merely because it is big.
IF my Judgment is correct nobody has
roeen suspicious of any business merely
because it was big, but they have been
suspicious whenever they thought that
| the bigness was being used to take an
unfair advantage. We all have to admit
that it is easier for a big fellow to take
advantage of you than for a little fellow
to take advantage of you; therefore, we
3iustinctively watch the big fellow with
a little closer scrutiny than we watch
! the little fellow. But bond having been
|given for the big fellow, we can sleep
o nights.
Era Passed
1.-THE era of private business in the
sense of business being conducted with
IlHt lHoney Ol tnt pdTlnefS-l mean OF
lrhe managing partners-is practically
Epassed, not only in this country, but al
most everywhere. Therefore, almost all
business has this direct responsibility to
the public in general: We owe a constant
report to the public, whose money we
are constantly asking for in order to con-
duct the business itself. Therefore, we
have got to trade not only on our eff
cheney, not only on the service that we
FENDER but on the confidence that We
cultivate There is a new atmosphere for
business. The oxygen that the lungs of
modern business takes I'm rs sthe oxygen
fof the public confidence and If you have
mot got that your business is essentially
Lparalyzed and asphyxiated tt
i Il take 1t that We are in a position now
TO come to a common understanding
knowing that only common understand
king will be the stable basis of business
|Snd that what we want for business here
after is the same kind of liberty that we
want for the individual
THE liberty of the individual is linn
&ted with the greatest sharpness where
Wis actions come into collision with the
| interests of the community he lives in.
N There have been times-I will not
.fpecify them, but there have been times
1-when the field looked free, but when
There were favors received from the man
Ipgers of the course, when there were adj
IkdltdSeS given, lISlQe Tracks ACCORDED
practices which would block the other
Hummer, rules which would exclude the
fmateur who wanted to get In. That may
HE free field, but there is favor, there
US Partially, there is preference, there is
Novert advantage taken of somebody. and
Fyhile it looks very well from the grand
btand, there are men who you can find
1vho were not allowed to get into the track
END test their powers against the other
linen who were racing for the honors of
he day.
Serviceable Figure
u 81 think it is a serviceable figure 1t
tfneans this, that you are not going to be
barred from the contest because you are
+big and strong and you are not going to
he penalized because you are big and
ttrong, but you are going to be made to
Observe the rules of the track and not
ftet in anybodys way except as you can
| keep out of his way by having more
Xfigor and skill than he has. 1t is the
|kpirit of true craftsmanship that ought
20 get into everything, and men who when
}hey get beaten that way squeal do not
Il eserve our pity.
n Some men are going to get beaten be-
|iause they have not the brains; they have
81 OF the initiative; they have not the skill /;
fhey have not the kno wledge;- they have
fot the same capacity that other men
Have. They will have to be employees;
lie used. We do not need to conceal. from
ourselves that there are varieties of ca
kaeity in the world. Some men have