The Glenwood post., 1916-01-01
WORK TOGETHER s1'5
FOR COMMON GOOD
Continued from page one)

than In the color of their eyes and hair.
When all men grow six feet tall, all
men may develop the same brain pow
er, but not before.
Some Of the timber that is floated
down from the forests of Maine is
made into masts of sea-going vessels;
some into chairs and tables; some into
lead pencils and toothpicks. You can
not make seaworthy masts out of tooth
pick timber. "All ye are brethren,''
said the Great Teacher; but brothers
are never duplicates. Any scheme to
uplift the world which ignores essen
tial difference in men is scheme on
which we need not waste much of our
time.
The second article in my creed is the
eternal brotherhood of man These un-
equal units are by their very inequality
bound together in abiding mutual SER
vice. Business is war, we are some
times told. The law of nature, many
men have said, is simply the law Of
battle. Ruthless conflict and no quar-
ter is the cosmic order; but this is an
utterly false Interpretation of the
world of nature.
Survival of the Fittest
They say that the fish in the sea
prey on one another; the beasts in the
jungle devour each other; the flowers
and the weeds are engaged in strug-
gle. There is no escape. The strong
usually survive and the weak must go
to the wall. If we accept that inter.
probation, of course each one of us must
strive to be the strong, and let the
other man go to the wall, but the man
who says that ruthless battle is the
fundamental law of nature has never
looked into bird's nest, for there he
would see strength protecting weak
ness. In the tigers den there the
question is of cooperation and mutual
service; in the hyena's lair the strong
help the weak any flock of birds that
will not fly together as they turn south
ward shall all lose the way; any flock
of sheep that will not stand together in
the winters storm shall all perish.
God has so made the world that any
utterly selfish species would have died
out long ago. Only creatures that aid
one another can survive. Any city in
which each man Ives for himself and
let's the devil take the hindmost, is a
city that will speedily disintegrate and
decay, and it deserves its fate. Unless
ment learn to conform to natures law
of mutual aid-constant cooperation
their scheme will come to naught and
they themselves will perish.
If we believe in this philosophy we
shall constantly seek to exchange ideas.
Indeed, we must exchange goods. How
can we trade with men whom we de-
spise and, consequently, misunderstood? !?
How can we send our goods to any
man until we gain his point of view
standerds? The open door is useless
unless through that door we send our
ideas and get those of the man on the
other side.
In my recent visit to the Orient
was amazed to see the amount of mis-.
understanding and misinformation that
separate East and West. We are after
to trade with those peoples, but very
slow to study their desires. In Singa.
pore 1 met an agent of one of the larg-
est American firms, who told me that
for twelve years he had been dealing
with Chinese merchants of the highest
class; never had he had written con,
tract with any Of them, and never had
he lost dollar through dealing with
them. But he said, "I cannot get
American manufacturers to understaad
these people, or even to desire to do so.
Again and again / have written to the
makers in America begging them not
to send out their product in flimsy
pasteboard boxes that quickly melt and
dissolve in the moisture of tropical
climate"
"And what was the answer"
said, "of those American manufactur-
ersg" "Always the same" he an
swered. They replied, 'That's tina
way to pack cereals, and if the men in
your heather country do not see it
that way, they will come to do SO a
little later. Americans do not un-
derstand that white is the Chinese color
for mourning, and that they may be
deeply offended by finding goods
wrapped in that color. Americans do
not inquire into whether the labels on
tin can may picture objects that are