Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-06

is In today. The business man of the past was
in very much the same position the pioneer
who could afford to be recklessly wasteful in
virgin land. Business, until now, has been on
what might be called pioneering spree Only
lately have economy and the wisest possible
handling Of and material become abso-
lutte essentials to business success.
AS H. G. Wells makes a character in one
of his later novels say: I'm the days before
the war it was different little grabbing or
cornering all to the good. All to the good.
1t prevented things being used up too fast And
the world was running by habit; the inertia
was tremendous. You could take all sorts of
liberties. But all this is altered. We're living
in different world
We indeed living in different world.
In place of abundance we have shortage in
most nations. Instead of simple world with
lots of showroom, we have a world compli-
Gated and crowded. In place of dominant cap
tains of industry and doce laborers we have
captains of industries in insecure seats and
labor mass become articulate and conscious of
its political and economic power. In short, we
are now living in world in which the reck-
less and wasteful methods of the exploiter are
a social menace and the creative methods of
the scientific, socially minded business man a
social necessity. The business man of yester-
day could get along very well with the pioneer
virtues and pioneer practices. The business
man of tomorrow must have the engineer mind
and be guided by a vision of economic states
manship.
WastefuI ExplOiter.
The pioneer although a wasteful exploiter,
is more than worth his bed and board because
of the new territories he opens up. But unless
he keeps moving on into newer and newer ter
ritories his virtues soon become obsolete and
heavy charge on society. AS society develops.
the pioneer must always be succeeded by the
engineer and the statesman.
In the pioneer conquest of this continent
the pioneer did not use fertilizer, because it
was cheaper to move to new acreage when the
old soil depleted. He did not pick a tree
clean of its fruits or it's nuts; it was simpler
to move to the next tree and pick from the
easily accessible lower branches only. He did
not conserve the buffalo and other game: the
game supply seemed inexhaustibe. Exploita-
ton was actually cheaper than conservation.
The paradox of pioneering is that, for the in
dividual pioneer, waste is economical
But when the last frontier was reached the
pioneer had to change his methods or become
personal failure and social liability. When
there were no more new lands to preempt, the
old had to be fertilized.. When fruits and nuts
We're no longer to be had just for the picking,
orchards had to be planted and protected, and
every tree had to be carefully picked When
the end of the game supply was in sight game
laws had to be drafted for its conservation,
and cattle herds created and maintained
All this holds lesson that we business men
will do well to heed before we are compelled
by costly experience to heed it. American
business has reached it's last frontier. I am
referring not to the size of American business
but to the sort of policies it must follow We
are entering a period in which policies of ex-
ploitation that smack of the antisocial waste.
fulness of the pioneer will not be profitable
Only broader and more scientific approach
will epable the business man of the future to
survive. to say nothing of succeeding in any
large sense.