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

am not singing mud at the bush
ness men of the past. | am not in
duleing in the conventional fault
finding with the ruthless business
exploitation that marked the past
years of our national development.
The rape of the continent" has been
analysed and reanalyzed until there
Is no need to go over that ground
again. The old business man may
have blackjacked the public into ex-
CeSsivA concessions as q reward for
his services in building the Nations
railroads and establishing its basic
Industries. From the current point
OF view II is the easiest thing in the
world to indict him for a sort of eco
nefnio blackmail of the Nation, but he
was only playing the eternal role of
the ruthless and waRteful pioneer
There is always a little injustice,
little lack of sympathetic understand
&nE. in the criticism one generation
passes upon the practices of aits pred
ecessor. But we must remember that,
for good or for i'll, we are the children
of our own generation and none other.
We shall be judged more by the viz
tues we achieve for ourselves than by
the criticisms we launch against the
sins of our fathers. There is nothing
TO be gained by wasting tears over
the business exploitation OF the past.
We would better turn our energies to
the urgent job of substituting the en-
gtneer mind for the pioneer mind in
the American business of the future.
Study Scientific Plans.
The wise business man, seeing
that we have passed the time when
reckless, wasteful. eXploitative and
anti-social methods could he made
profitable, WILL as have suggested,
turn TO the SCIENTIFIC development of
business. He will do this not merely
beca use a new social conscience con5
strains him. but. primarily because
sound business intelligence and COM
petition force him TO doait. When the
character in Mr.. Weftis novel said
that we We're living in a new world.
he went on to say. Its q new public.
5t's-wild. tn smash up the show
If we go too far.s Now,-I am not sug-
costing that the business man will or
should base All his.pOlicies on'the. fear
of social revolution. am saying
only that. the new economic and social
conditions that have come as q result
OF the increasing industrialism, the in+
creasing compleXitY and the IN
Creasis1g interdependence1 or society,
that 'sEo EsrticiAnr economic muddle
of transition intS which the war
plunged "he world, and especially theg
newly awakened mind of labor, all
mean that the business of the future
cannot be commercially successful dn-s
less it is socially sound.
All this NAV sound theoretical and
a bit out of character, coming from
shopkeeper. but | am convinced that
nothing will so quickly fit business
man to survive and TO succeed in the
difficult years ahead as a thorough
nj OF off pal Lar
successful business and social prog
ress. They are not two problems, but
two aspects of the same problem. Let
the business man begin his study with
either conceptinn--that of successful
business or that, of social progress
aud if he thinks straight he will come
oIls with the other.
Bring Business Success.
That is to say, he will find that a
scientific application of the policies
needed for social progress will bring
business success, and conversely that
the scientific application of the poll
cies needed for successful business
will bring social progress
But the5 business man who tries
to- establish the right relation be-
tween his business policies and the
requirements of social welfare runs
the. risk of falling into a dangerous
erfor-the error of thinking, even
stlbconsciously, that because he has
done something a little more right
than is customary. he is less likely
TO Succeed and is perhaps a little less
obligated TO succeed.
This may seem a statement born
of unnecessary caution. bur over
and over again l have found that
when men begin to concern them
selves with social justice in their
business they are tempted to use
their good intentions as an alibi
for business shortcomings. Social
progress does not lie that way. And
certainly business success does not.
We must realize that good ethical
sense is no excuse for bad business
sense
+ have a very solid respect for
the much satirized phrase. "Busi-
ness is business" believe it is
better to run a BUSINESS honestly in
the ordinary fashion than to intro
duce into it forward steps In the
direction of social welfare, if their
Introduction carries with it even
cogertly the suggestion of an excuse
for doing business less well. Sin
cerity is no justification for sloppi-
ness.
] do not want to seem to be put
ting the money interest above the
human interest, or to seem to sug
gest that good social policies are valid
only when they do not interfere with
profits The whole idea of this article
Is that good social policies are the
surest recipe for big and continuous
profits. I am speaking only of the
man who dabbles in matters of social
welfare without seeing this. My con-
science is easy, however, even with
the risk of misinterpretation of what
have Just written. for | know from
long experience that straight bust
ness thinking is always, in the end,
sound social thinking.
Straight Business Thinking.
The point I am trying to make is
that there is a lot of merely good I'M
pulse that is mistaken for that sound
suciai thinking which is always
straight business thinking. 1t rs
against this merely good impulse. de-
void either of wide social vision or Of
sound business sense hat the hH@'
ness man must cuH"d II 4s9-f . a,.3
cial prog ess is not helped TX the bus
iness man who carelesSlg introduces
all sorts Of progressive social policies
into his business and then ends in the
bankruptcy court. Such a business
man. despite his good intentions, is
the worst possible enemy of social
nrogress. He gives the cause bad
who, remembering his bankruptcy.
are likely thereafter to think of his
sound social policies as the cause of
his failure.
All of which emphasizes the fact
That the socially minded business man
has a greater obligation to succeed
than any other type OF business man.