The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1921-09-21

world. It is impossible to point out
any business which can or does sur
vive indefinitely without performing a
useful function.
Bearing constantly in mind the
truth that business is service, and
that if a. business ceases to serve it
4 must more or less quickly cease to ex-
ist-bearing this truth in mind, it is
easy to see, that all service of every
kind and description, is interrelated
j The whole business structure is an in
dissoluble entity. Nothing can hap
pen to one kind Of business that does
not affect in major or minor degree
all business. Failure properly to
function by one unit inevitably throws
a greater burden on all the other
units
The American business man will do
well to get away from the old, narrow
conception of his business. He should
endeavor to hold before his minds
eye the clear conception that it is but
a unit in one vast integral machine
without which society would not only
cease to advance but cease to exist. =
| The modern business man must full
ly comprehend the fact that any fail
ure upon his part to serve the COM
munity with wisdom, honesty, and eff
| ficiency will not only react upon him
self, but will weaken the whole fabric
of which he is part and by which,
indeed, he is supported.
We must recognize that the vicious
attacks made by radicalism in all its
forms and political DISCUSSES are not
directed against any one business, but
against all business. It should be
plain that any attempt to overthrow
business is an attempt to destroy that
whole system of social order and econ
omics under which the human race
has made its greatest progress. 1t
has always been easy to gather dis
contented minority. The unscrupul-
Gus but cunning agitator can always
find numbers of people possessing a
subconscious sense of unftness, and it
is upon the fertile soil of despair that
the demagogue, under whatever name
he may for the moment disguise him
self, sows his seed of unrest and re-
volution.
But the incapables of themselves
are not sufficiently numerous in rela-
ton to whole people to form a fol-
lowing of such magnitude as to gain
attention for their chimerical schemes.
And so the adroit leaders, with speci-
Gus reasoning, bring into their camp
great multitudes of normally right
thinking. and well-meaning persons
whose only misfortune is the inability
to think deeply.
The soap-box orator usually has
that "little learning which is danger
Gus thing Many of his HYPOTHESIS
are true. There is poverty in the
world, and sickness, crime, injustice
and inequality. There is misfortune.
Taking these facts of common
knowledge as starting point, the in
sincere agitator leads vast numbers of
perfectly lacy. He need not draw up
on his imagination for a list of the ills
to which the flesh really is heir. The
truth is dramatic enough. It is in his
differences and conclusions that the ,,
agitator deceives and misleads. 1t is
in his hair-brained schemes that he
works the mischief.
To reduce the cost of living he pro-
poses to raise the price of the labor
or work by which the necessaries of
life are produced. To compensate the
shirker he would penalize the worker.
Following his reasoning, the way for !,
everyone to have more is for everyone !,
to produce less. He would substitute |
for private enterprise, honorable am
bition, and individual initiative the /
paralyzed and paralyzing hand of
government in the work Of the world.
He pictures to his credulous audience ,
a state Of society wherein a people !
may lie back amidst the perfume of !
flowers and pleasant harmonies from
some divine, invisible orchestra, and
regale themselves with milk and
honey seven days a week-While the !,
government does all the work.
He promises to eliminate all the
sickness, sorrow, misfortune, heart
ache, sadness, poverty, misery, and
danger from life by the simple process
of passing few laws. By his rea-
soning the man who works eight hours
is entitled to as great reward as the
one who works ten. The man who
works six hours should be paid as
much as the man who works eight, and j
so on down the line until his logic j
leads us to the conclusion that true
equality consists of the release of ev-
cry man from any obligation to work
at all.
The point is, however, that if bust
ness men hold to the old-time concep- |
ton of business as an institution isol-
ated from the world of politics and
economics, and remain oblivious to the
significance Of these movements of
the moment, they leave the citadel of
society open to enemies that will de-
stroy if once they enter, and when
they destroy the destruction will be
complete. And though the enemy
himself perish in the catclysm, the
common fate will not be less dread
full.
Instead Of less organization in bust
ness we should have more. 1t is time
for us to wipe out the fiction that
there is something vicious about bust
ness in general or a business in parti-
cular simply because it is ''big bust
ness" If BUSINESS in the last analysis
is service. and if it is true that no