Evening star., 1923-08-15
Business Coming
OF Age
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

A man may be said to come of age
when he has reached the point where
| ne realizes his responsibilities and
| adjusts his life to the claims that his
| fellow men have upon him.
In other words real coming of age
means the development of conscience.
Until this era of the world business
may be said to have been in it's nom
age. That Is, business was supposed
| 10 De strictly cold blooded and un-
| scrupulous. its sole object being to
acquire property and make profits
Men in all other walks of life were
supposed to have civic duties and a
| certain sense Of honor. Doctors had
| tnelr code of ethics. Lawyers were
| supposed to have a certain RESPONSE
pliIty 10 the state. Preachers, of
| course, were presumed to be highly
endowed with public conscience. And
gentlemen (by which term was usual
/ ~ meant endowed loafers), were COM
monty understood to be the most hon
| orable of all men. Even soldiers.
whose business was organized may
hem and murder. had their strict
coueS or honor, as, for instance, 1t
was deemed honorable to thrust a
lance through a gentleman's stomac ch,
put entirely reprehensible to insert d
Va poiSOll lHtO SdlQ stomach.
me business man, however, was
| not supposed to have any scruDles. He
was to get morey. by fair means IL
possible. but-to get money.
Now ethics In the long run merely
means the rules of the game. BY and
there isF no general or permanent
means of success except through
Righteousness. Cheating. misrepre-
sentation and all forms Of skull
II 4, Il
mindedness.
This rs the era of business. The
business man is slowly taking prec-
edence over all other types of man.
i. Is becoming recognized that the
government Of this world is not to be
managed from the standpoint of the
priest, or Of the soldier, or of the poll
tician. We are not going to get any
satisfactory government anywhere
until we recognize that government
is strictly business and until the
whole matter Is turned over to the
business man with the engineer as his
chief of staff.
The other day at the Retail Mer-
chants Association at kamloops IN
Canada. Joseph It. Crowder. vice pres
fdent of the executive council, spoke
on Ideals and Business"
1T Is not question OF whether
, we can or cannot conduct our buSi-
ness along right lines" said he. 1T
simply means that sooner or lateF We
are going to do II because some one is
going to see that we do. We must
have some consideration for the COM
fort and happiness of the other fell
low. Business must not be and is not
simply the accumulation of net profit
IF the world deems us inefficient we
shall be removed and replaced by
those capable of giving better serv-
ice"
Here is a clear recognition on the
part of business that 1t feels the
ethical claim of the community. 1t
Is going to take a long while to get
over the delusion that business is
soiling and that ii is not a worthy
object in life to make money. This
de.usion is one of those old heathen-
ish obsessions which still linger.
To make money honestly means to
render service to the human race. for
people in the long PUN are not going
to continue to pay for what Is OF no
value to them.
The business man, that Is the MOD
ern business man, the business man
with a conscience, with sene or his
civic duties and OF his responsibility
10 the community, Is the last ana
finest product of evolution.
The physician is better physician,
the lawyer Is a better lawyer, the
preacher is better preacher and
the ruler is a better ruler, eacn IN
proportion as he is a better business
man and gets his honest days wage
for his honest days work.