HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



Ululated surplus earuiugs of the past are turned into au enormous 

 movable fund, available to the present use of the whole population of 

 the earth? 



The business men of the world have accomplished all this modestly 

 and quietly year by year, generation by generation, in the face of 

 the obstacles of iudividual rascality, wars, pestilence and casualty, 

 governmental tyranny and general stupidity; by a careful daily and 

 hourly study of facts and of the laws of nature; by conformity 

 thereto, and by practicing those virtues of honesty, industry, fru- 

 gality, econniony, prudence and self-denial which are the foundation 

 of all the material good in this world, added to a courage and 

 enterprise which has never received its due meed of praise, and 

 nexer will. Xor is this all that business men have given the world. 

 For as I count as business men the practical inventors of all ages, 

 all those who have applied inventions to the practical benefit of 

 mankind. Therefore, 1 claim for the business world credit for the 

 great inventions of the printing press, spinning jenny, sewing 

 machine, steam carriages, Bessemer steel, harvesting machines, elec- 

 tric telegraphs, telephones, motor cars, and all the countless minor 

 inventions which have made our present civilization possible. 



The spirit which has brought about these glorious results is the 

 spirit ivhich 1 long to see m control of our governmental aff.iirs. 



BUSINESS SPIRIT' vs. POLITICAL SPIRIT 



It will not be enough to give us business men in office as the 

 result of political bargains and by nomination of political parties. 

 Such are often as bad ns pure politicians, or worse, because they 

 are apt to be business degenerates — men who, to get office, adopt 

 political methods and are filled with the political spirit. Xo. The 

 whole tone of public affairs should be changed and the political 

 spirit which now pervades public life should be replaced by the 

 business spirit. 



What is the business spirit, and wherein docs it differ essentisUy 

 from the political spirit? In many respects, but notably these: 

 The business spiiit is scientific and exact; it seeks to aseertair the ■ 

 actual law, whatever it may be, and to follow it. It seeks justice, 

 it understands the principles of exchanges, wherein both sides alwa3's 

 benefit, and which is the foundation of civilization; whereas the 

 political spirit is one that seeks to satisfy the ignorant demand of 

 the hour and foolishly tries to force nature, human and otherwise, 

 by arbitrary laws. 



What this spirit of business enterprise can accomplish v.ticn 

 infused into government service we have already seen partly illus- 

 trated in the digging of the Panama canal, and to some extent 

 in the postoffiee service. The business idea is to abolish arbitrary 

 statutes and restrictions on human endeavor and to replace them 

 by its own mild and beneficial rules and maxims, which are merely 

 the natural creation of human activity. Such are those establishing 

 the mutual relation of supply and demand and enacting that labor, 

 thrift, enterprise and invention are beneficial to the community, and 

 that if you want them you must encourage and reward them, not 

 tax them and penalize them or the fruits of them; that authority 

 is to the competent and experienced, and that therefore neither a 

 factory, bank, ship or other enterprise can be properly managed 

 by the votes of the workmen, clerks or passengers. In a word, the 

 business method is to ascertain the natural law, and to follow ii. 

 The business man will not make the mistake of saying that the 

 Tight of inheritance or disposal of property is created by a stature 

 and can be taken away by law; and he knows what to think of the 

 man who says so. He knows that the desires for marriage, for the 

 family, to acquire and accumulate property and to protect and 

 nourish one's children in life and after death, all spring from natural 

 law; that soeietj' can not exist without such desires and instincts. 

 You might as well say that the child is the result of a statute as 

 that its parents ' right to care for it is created by statute. 



Lastly, it will be objected that my scheme involves class legisla- 

 tion; that it gives too much power to the trading class. Theie is 

 nothing in this objection. The wealth, the property of the country 

 is mostly in the hands of American business men, and nine-tenths 

 ■of the legislation and administration affects their interests directly 

 and other interests only indirectly. Nations no longer exist for 



war purposes; at any rate, this nation does not. It exists for 

 business purposes, and should be administered accordingly. The 

 object of interior government is only to keep order while the com- 

 munity transacts business, and the principal purpose of the depart- 

 ments of foreign affairs, the army and the navy is the protection 

 and extension of foreign commerce. The Postoffiee, Interior and 

 Treasury departments are business institutions. As to labor, that 

 has its own problems and its own battles, and so far as it is in 

 the right it has all our sympathy; but it is learning, and must 

 learn, that it is only an inferior department of business and that 

 its prosperity depends entirely on that of the business man. 



You will be met by a deal of absurd chatter about the ru^c of 

 the people. The cry of the demagogue is, "Let the people rule.'" 

 In fact, the people never rule, do not know how to rule, and don't 

 want to rule. The only American rule is a rule of law; what is 

 called personal rule is merely the administration of public affairs, 

 and that is always in the bands of a class. It is now in the hands 

 of a class of small politicians and newspaper men, largely au 

 incompetent and unscrupulous class. It ought to be in the hands 

 of the business class for the same reason that the navigation of a 

 ship should be in the hands of experienced mariners. I am not 

 afraid, therefore, to say frankly that I would like to see this nation 

 opeidy and avowedly a business nation and its government a business 

 government shaping its policy on business principles. If that day 

 comes it will be because business men have seen the light and have 

 gone forward and boldly seized the helm of state. 



The time is ripe for action in this direction. A blow has been 

 struck already, and I am glad to be able to say it was by a lumber- 

 man. I understand that within a few weeks Governor Hodges of 

 Kansas sent a message to fhe state legislature advocating the sub- 

 stitution of a state government by a single body of nine to seventeen 

 members, 1o hold office for four or six years, to sit as often as 

 public business requires, and to be paid salaries large enough to 

 enable them to devote their entire time to public affairs. 



We hear a lot of talk about social unrest; and timid, excitable 

 or sensational people, among whom I regret to see the vice president 

 of the United States, are running about hinting dark hints that 

 the country is in danger of some fool revolution or other. They 

 pick up this talk from labor leaders and out of yellow journals. 

 It is all rubbish. There is dissatisfaction, of course, and always 

 will be, but there is no more unrest than there always was. We 

 are dissatisfied ourselves, but we only want to improve matters, 

 and so do the other agitators. The great majority of families in 

 the United States have some property, and every member of a 

 family with property wants property rights protected. What the 

 people see is that the present governmental system is behind the 

 times, and they want it to catch up. To fetch it up to the time 

 is a business man's job; it is your job. And you must arouse 

 yourselves to take hold of it or suffer the consequences. 



You must develop and foster a class conscientiousness; a feeling 

 that the iuterests of business men are one in all matters affecting 

 business in general, and business men as a class; a realization 

 that business men of all varieties, bankers, manufacturers, wholesale 

 and retail merchants, insurance men, etc., and all their clerks and 

 subordinates, and all the large number who are connected with 

 business in various ways, such as commercial lawyers, surveyors, 

 civil engineers, etc., constitute one body and one set of interests 

 and' activities. This will take time, but it can be done, and it is 

 well worth while. That feeling once created, the rest will follow. 



We once claimed to have the best government on the face of the 

 earth. We no longer make that boast. But we can have it yet. 

 We can have the best government that exists, or that ever did 

 exist on the planet, but we must earn it as our fathers earned what 

 they got. As they earned their freedom from the domination of 

 the mother country, we must earn our enfranchisement from the 

 control of ignorance and corruption; they went to the root of the 

 matter once and twice by abolishing old institutions which had 

 become offensive. Then, as now, common sense said do it ; custom 

 and laziness alone forbade. No doubt they hated to make a start 

 as much as you do, but you should make it as they did. 



