The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1916-10-26
BY li. T. Kingsley
Continued from last weekD
PROFIT

PROFIT
The purpose lying behind every
business venture is to get more out OF
it than was put into it, If for every
dollar vcntured upon any undertaking,
there is brought back in the way of
returns, something in excess Of that
sum. the venture is said to have been
a profitable one. No matter what the
circumstances may be that make 1T
possible for this very desirable result
to be attained, it is strictly in con
formity with all the moral and ethical
conceptions of Christian civilization
that the recipient of such gains should
flaunt his good fortune in the face
of all the world and even proclaim
himself as moulded from superior
brand of clay to that which has been
Incorporated into the corporeal sub
stance of his fellow mortals. And he
who is successful in gathering much
substance in this manner, is looked up
to and reverenced by the gaping null
titude just as though his pretensions
were based upon the undisputable
fact Individuals and concerns gath
err to themselves through the schemes
of profit, wealth running into such
fabulous sums as to be beyond human
conception, while the average man in
the street, ragged though he may be,
between these masses of wealth and
his own shabby circumstances. Wage
slaves sweat bleed and die in the
SHAMELESS of capitalist industry, and
few of them ever realize that their
agony is the price they pay for the
magnifieenee and display of aceumu~
lated wealth. Farmers drift into the
cities and stand in speechless awe in
the presence of such vast wealth, lit
at the expense of their narrow and
stunted lives. And what is this thing
called profit that all the world Wor-
ships and which brings such a pie
thora of wealth and magnificence to
its favored devotees? By what
strange alchemy can such splendid
results be brought about? Possibly
there is nothing mysterious about it,
once it is closely examined.
To Il To 4,o al
as the saying goes, profit is merely
something gotten for nothing. Away
back in those primitive days when
man was a savage, having not yet ac-
quired that moral and ethical excel
Ience and superior culture that is so
peculiarly characteristic Of our pres
ent civilization, an occasional individ-
ual no doubt, in obedience to his ac-
quisitive promptings, went forth with
a club or other weapon and obtained
that which he required by the easiest
and simplest method known at that
time, that is by knocking some other
savage on the head and taking his
goods. What he thus obtained, how
ever, could not be termed profit, be-
cause he did not obtain it for nothing.
He at least had to expend some ener-
gy and assume some physical risk.
What he got might more properly be
termed a reward for his initiative and
enterprise, and a reasonable compen-
sation for the risks he was compelled
to assume in his venture. 1t has re-
manned for the civilized man to not
only discover and develop the art of
absolutely getting something for
nothing, but to clothe it with an i'm
portance and dignity that commands
the admiration and worship of all,
including even those to whom all 9TH
er fine arts are as pearls before
swine.
Something cannot be gotten for
nothing, without some one getting the
worst of the deal. What one gets for
nothing, some one else must lose. AS
profit deals with material things only,
and those things converted into profit
can only be so expressed in terms of
money, then every dollar of profit