Eeview of Errjcirs, 113/13. 



77 



THE DIGNITY OF BUSINESS. 



BY H. E. MORGAN, MANAGER OF THE GREAT BOOKSTALL AND 

 DISTRIBUTING FIRM OF W. H. SMITH & SOX, LONDON. 



" At the time of the restoratiou, the industry and comnieixe of Japan was very low in public 

 opinion and in the social scale, the military and political classes only being considered honour- 

 able I began the new era with tiie same idea, and for five or sis. years pursued a political 

 career, rising- to the position of Vice-Minister of Finance. Then I realised that the real force of 

 progress lay in the actual business, not in politics, and that the business elements were really 

 most influential for the advancement of the country. So I gave up my political position and 

 devoted my life to business."— Baron Shibusawa. 



There is no more startling fact in the 

 actual condition of Great Britain than 

 that a ]:)eople whose greatness was made 

 by business, and whose position in this 

 world depends solely upon business, 

 should deliberatel)- and traditionally 

 teach boys and }oung men of those 

 classes, from which we may expect 

 higher intelligence and inherited ability, 

 to despise business. Year by year the 

 public schools and the universities re- 

 ceive those of the growing youth of 

 England who start life with ever\' ad- 

 vantage of surroundings and with every 

 incentive to carry on worthily the tradi- 

 tions of their family and their class 

 and of their country. Every year also 

 the schools and the universities launch 

 an equal number of educated products 

 upon the world, who, in many cases, are 

 then forced to seek a vocation which 

 will enable them to support themselves 

 and work out their destin)-. In very 

 many cases the sending of a boy to a 

 public school and university practically 

 e.xhausts the available resources of his 

 parents, and they are not able to do 

 much further in the wa)- of supporting 

 him later. 



A F.AT.AL LURE. 



Those who have passed through the 

 public schools or universities emerge 

 from these educational institutions more 

 or less successfully educated ; but 

 nearly all, with a few brilliant excep- 

 tions, have thoroughl)- learned to look 

 down upon business. Unconsciousl)'. 

 perhaDS, this seems to be the common 

 denominator of the modern education 

 of the higher classes quite irre?^pective 

 of whether thev study classics or mathe- 



matics. The material is of the best and 

 much that is taught in the universities 

 is excellent from a business standpoint ; 

 but the fact remains that instead of the 

 average university graduate coming into 

 the world fitted to help his country on 

 to greatness, he becomes a free agent, 

 onl\' to despise what should be his pride 

 — the business world. Having man\' 

 talents, these young men, who should be 

 of the greatest service to the nation as 

 leaders in the world of business, too fre- 

 quentl)' find themselves condemned to 

 the mechanical posts of Government De- 

 partments or financial houses. The 

 fatal lure of so-called respectable call- 

 ings has been, and is to-day, responsible 

 for many dwarfed careers and broken 

 hearts amongst men who have given the 

 most brilliant promise in school and col- 

 lege. Minor Government posts with 

 their monotony, counterbalanced with 

 their safety and lack of adventure, at- 

 tract many. To be paid to work and 

 to be paid for stopping work sums up 

 the ideal of many who enter Govern- 

 ment service. But e\er)- good man who 

 is absorbed into one or other of the 

 mechanical sections of national 

 machiner)- is a distinct loss to the future 

 prosperity of the country, since, if he 

 had embraced a business career, he 

 would have participated possibly to a 

 extent in the ever-growing 



ver\' 



large 



trade and industry of this country. 



15USINESS — S0C1.\L SUiriDE. 



W hat we need to realise is what the 



old Samurai Shibusawa did when Japan 



was still a military feudal country. 



Here we see a man descended from a 



