The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-24

business men:
Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the Bust
ness Mems League, Ladies and Gentle
men;
II need not tell you what sense of
qualification it gives me that you should
come bearing this generous message
which have just heard from your chair
man. There is a sense in which the
business men of America represent Amer
lea because America has devoted herself
time out of mind to the arts and achieve
ments of peace and business is the or.
ganization of the energies of peace No
one who looks about upon the field of
American business at the present moment
can fail to realize that new breath
and spirit have come into the business
OF America.
NEW VISION OF BUSINESS
There have been times when it looked
as if America were interested only ir
herself, but in these recent years Amer
lean business men have lifted their eyes
to more distant horizons and have seen
how the markets of the world were wait
ing for their service, and as they have
sought and obtained .entrance into these
markets a new vision has come to them
of what the development of the resources
of America means; of what the organ
ization of American efficiency means; of
why it was that American merchants and
American manufacturers and American
miners and all the multitude of men who
have developed the peaceful industries
of America, were planted under this free
polity in order that they might look out
upon the service of mankind and per-
form it.
There never was time when the pulse
of energy and success beat so strongly
in the veins of American business as
it beats today. And yet I hope that
all business men in America realize that
we are only at the beginning of a new
era. America has not played its pro-
portionate part in the development of the
trade of the world. I mean that it has
not played a part proportionate to the
gifts of Americans and the resources of
America, and that in the time to come,
partly because of the unhappy circum-
stances of recent years, but chiefly be-
cause America is now about to release
her energies, the scope of American bust
ness will be what men have hitherto
not dreamed of, if American men know
how to take advantage of the oppor-
tunity.
WORLD PROBLEMS
1.-THE problems that are before
American business are world problems
rather than American domestic prob
lens. America must understand the
world in order to subject 1t to it's
peaceful service And yet when we
look upon the field of American bust
ness there are some things that dis
turb us. Some men seem to think that
the way to advance American business
is to walk backward and to attempt
again the provincial policies which
have characterized an age when we
shut our doors against the influences
of the world.
"But the chief cloud that is upon
the domestic horizon is the unsatis-
factory relations of capital and labor.
There is only one way, gentlemen, in
which the relations of capital and Ia
Dor can be rendered satisfactory. That
is, in the first place, by regarding la
Dor with human relationship of men !;
and in the second place, to regard
labor as part of the general partner
ship OF energy which is going to make
for the success of business men and
business enterprises in this country.
so long as labor and capital stand
antagonistic the interests of both are
injured and the prosperity of America
is held back from the triumphs which
are legitimately it's own.
TOO MUCH LAW
"You know that we have been a
1egalistic people. / say with all due
respect to some men for whom | have
high esteem that we have been too
much under the guidance of the law
yers and that the lawyer has always
regarded the relations between the
employer and the employee as merely a
contractual relationship, whereas, it
is, while based upon contract very
much more than contractual relation
ship 1t is a relationship between one
set of men and another set of men
with hearts under their Jackets and
with interest that they ought to serve
in common with persons whom they
love and MUST support on the one side
and on the other.
LABOR NOT A COMMODITY
Labor is not a commodity. 1t is a
form of cooperation and If | can make
man believe in me. know that l am
just, know that I want to share the
profits of success with him, can get
ten times as much out of some as il he
thought I were his antagonist And his
labor Is cheap at any price That is
the human side of IT and the human
eide extends to this conception, that
that laboring man Is a partner of his
employer.
IF he is a mere tool of his en-
ployer he is only as serviceable as the
tool. He does not go into 1t. He does
not rian how the work shall be bet
ter DONE He does not look upon the
aspect of the business and enterprise
as whole and wish to cooperate with
advantage of his brains and his inven-
ton TO the success of 1t as whole.
Human relationship. my fellow citi-
zens are governed by the heart, and il
the heart is not in it. nothing is in It,.
SUSPICION AND DISTRUST
Il have recently been through an ex-
perience which distressed. tried to ac-
commodate q difference between some
of the employees of the American rail-
ways and the executives of the American
railways, and the distressing thing dis
covered was that on the one-hand there
was the unlimited suspicion and distrust
of the other side. and that that suspicion
and dstrust was returned by the other
side in full measure.
THE executives did not believe in the
sincerity and fairness of the executives.
and while arbitration was being dis
cussed 1 had this sad thought: Arbitra-
ton is a word associated with the deal
ings of hostile interests. 1t is an alter
native of war. There ought to be no
such thing as the contemplation of hos
tility as between men whose interests are
the same and who should cooperate to-
gether.
THE REAL PROBLEM
"And, therefore, it came upon me with
a force that it had never had before that
the real problem of capital and labor
was to bring the two sides to understand
and believe in one another; that the
problem of the next generation, If Amer
lea were really to release her energy, was
to be this real genuine, fundamental
Aotxv On to