ends of highest value. 



Just at the prrsrnt juiuturc in its history tiic world is in the 

 throes of a marvelous metaniorphasis in its forms of j^overnmenl. 



The old and unscientific regime, where the will of one or of a 

 favored few controlled the wills and destinies of the many is crumb- 

 ling into merited dust, while the inherent equality of all men before 

 the law, and the law the product of the united wisdom of the whole 

 people, expressed directly or by proxy, is being recognized as the fun- 

 damental principle of human government the world over. 



This principle once accepted and made the corner stone of hu- 

 man government, the problem of its scientific application so as to 

 secure the highest good to the greatest number becomes one of the 

 most profound and far-reaching problems that ever challenged the 

 human intellect and has tested the highest faculties of mind and 

 spirit of the most erudite scholarship and the most far seeing states- 

 monship. It appeals to the noblest attributes of the soul no less 

 than to the greatest powers of mental discernment, and is thought by 

 a large proportion of the world's population to have attained its 

 nearest approach to perfection in- the constitution of our own beloved 

 country. 



The recognition of the inherent rights of man and the establish- 

 ment of institutions of government designed to conserve, to regulate 

 and to perpeuate those rights has been the greatest gift of man to 

 men in modern times, and grateful should we be that this exalted 

 honor has been conferred upon the founders of the American govern- 

 ment. 



Its merits have endured the test of a hundred and forty-four years 

 of varied history, and the world has accepted its claim to superiority 

 over all other forms of human government in securing the maximum 

 of libert}' with the minimum of restraint. 



Why should not the same principles of justice, co-operation, 

 economy, energy and service be applied in similar form to smaller 

 groups of men engaged in mercantile enterprises, the back-bone of 

 the community, the vital source of its business prosperity and of its 

 social peace and happiness? 



If the plan works well in the great body politic and makes a 

 happy and prosperous nation out of a hundred millions of humaa 

 beings of varied ancestry, why should it not work even more effec- 

 tively in a group of less proportions, of greater congeniality of senti- 

 ment and less diversity of character and purpose? 



The manifest answer is that it would so work, and the selfishness 

 of man has been the basic reason why this fact has not long ago been 

 recognized and put into practice. 



One of the happy omens of the future is that this principle of 

 altruism, founded upon simple justice and mutual co-operation and 

 profit is now being studied, advocated and even practiced by mer- 

 cantile organizations which have come to recognize the fact that 

 money making is not the only end in view in business enterprises; 



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