164 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



but a very infinitesimal part. In fact, there is very little of anybody's 

 individuality in the management of the business. Some Wall Street 

 individual may make his influence felt in the price of the stocks of the 

 concern, but the business methods are not those of any stockholder. 

 They are the methods of an artificial person — the corporation, and this 

 person has but one sentiment, viz., to make money. The directors select 

 a manager to carry on the business. He is hired to make the business 

 pay; in other words, to earn dividends for the stockholders. This he 

 knows and feels. He dares not undertake any venture that tends in the 

 slightest degree to imperil the earning capacity of the organization that 

 employs him. Under the old system, when the owner was his own 

 manager, it has often happened that he has done things in business that 

 have injured his profits, but he has done these things knowing exactly 

 what the result would be but doing so for the sake of principle. It has 

 seemed to him a duty he owed to society to imperil his profits for the sake 

 of reforms in which he believed. 



Here is a good illustration of the case. In the year 1900 Gustavus 

 Meyers wrote a history of Tammany Hall. In this book he exposed, as 

 much as the evidence warranted, the corruption that had been practiced 

 in the long history of this powerful political organization. The book is 

 written with a good deal of care, and the statements are verified by refer- 

 ences to the testimony of witnesses in the investigations that have been 

 made by the State of New York to inquire into the workings of this 

 society. The book is a real contribution to political literature, and is 

 proving a good seller. The curious thing about it was the difficulty 

 of its publication. He submitted the manuscript to nine different pub- 

 lishing corporations, but it was declined by the manager in each case. 

 It was not rejected because it was an inferior work or one that would 

 not sell, but as several of these firms replied, it was considered inad- 

 visable to publish such a work. One firm, whose readers recommended 

 the book, said that they did not consider themselves warranted in locking 

 horns with Tammany Hall. The work was finally published by private 

 subscription. It is now on sale at the author's home. 



It seems strange that in a great city no publishing house could be found 

 to publish a work of so great interest and one whose statements were not 



