OLD-FASHIONED BUSINESS MAN A VANISHING TYPE
Old-fashioned Business Man a Vanishing Type IN NEARLY every city of importance in the United States there is at least one business men's association. Primarily, the purpose of such organization is...
...Throughout the community is this benumbing dread of personal loss which keeps men quiet and servile.' "We know that, in Illinois and in Chicago, moral and political progress is actually blocked by the inertia of our citizens and by the activity of an unworthy type of men who are permitted to be our political leaders...
...Should he, then, when judging the character of a man in his public relations, affect a judicial attitude requiring absolute proof, and, even so, when a man's political associations are avowedly suspicious...
...This age which is already recognized as a notable era in the world's history has" been characterized by an unprecedented commercial and industrial activity, and the complicated conditions, social, political and economic, growing out of this wonderful development are the weightiest issues in the current movement of human life...
...The future efficiency of our Club is inseparably linked with the attitude which we are to take on these live questions...
...Increased restriction of individual rights and an increasing development of collective rights are everywhere apparent...
...Alfred L. Baker, a prominent Chicago business man, emphasizes the duty of the commercial club in promoting new ideals, both business and civic...
...The almost endless list includes our brilliant and comprehensive city planning, the abatement of the smoke nuisance, suitable arrangements for the temporary supervision of arriving emigrants, safeguards against loss of life and limb, the maintenance of decent conditions of labor, the protection of child-life and of health, the provision of more breathing spaces and playgrounds, specific educational movements, and stricter enforcement of the people's rights...
...These associations may become forces for progress and public welfare or for narrow selfish interest, according to the spirit that animates the membership...
...The times are prolific in opportunities...
...What may be termed the old-fashioned business man is a vanishing type...
...We are all of us entirely too lenient in our attitude toward a certain class of politicians if it happens that they do not personally touch our own business affairs...
...Unrestricted individual competition, which was his first great article of belief, is passing away...
...In an admirable address on "The Future of the Commercial Club," delivered before the Commercial Club of Chicago, November 12, Mr...
...And yet, when the public welfare hangs in the balance, public affairs should demand of us even more decisive opinions than do our own private interests...
...Has it not become dangerously apparent that in many directions there is too close a relationship between politics and the agents of corporate and business interests...
...Had these masters of finance and industry possessed more of the qualities of the statesman, had they not at times lost sight of the fundamental principles on which our attempts for democracy were founded, equal rights and equal justice, their rule and influence would not now be unsettled, nor would they be facing the demand for governmental regulation...
...There is, in the first place, the base feeling of fear...
...He said: "It is in this outside field, in the promotion of the PUBLIC WELFARE, where lie the future opportunities of The Commercial Club...
...our future importance depends upon our ability to keep step with the march of modern progress...
...In the field of our more general endeavor many measures of progress call for our earnest interest and vigorous support...
...I have always noticed that the man of affairs, the credit man of our large institutions, approves or disapproves of customers by an instinctive knowledge of human nature...
...The real rulers of our land during the last forty years have not been the politicians but the financiers...
...Lawyers are afraid that they will lose clients, banks that will lose deposits, ministers that important pew-holders will withdraw their support, those who manage public service corporations that they will suffer retaliation...
...There is no greatness possible for us, aside from our steady growth as a power for good in the community...
...Our new Justice of the Supreme Court, Ex-Governor Hughes of New York, in his address to the Yale students on the 'Conditions of Progress in Democratic Government,' in defining the obstacles in the way of progress, says, 'There are some that are not flattering to our citizens...
...The people demand—public morality itself demands-—and we should demand, that corporations as such, and business interests as such, should keep cleer of politics...
...Primarily, the purpose of such organization is to foster the business and industrial interests of the city, but there is invariably the secondary purpose of promoting the welfare of the city as a whole...
...He does not stand out for absolute proof before deciding a man's desirability in a business matter...
...The instinctive knowledge of human nature which is exercised in business is equally capable of arriving at a conclusion in the world of politics and of enforcing it in some practical way...
...More than ever before is it necessary to form higher standards of citizenship, more and more are we forced to consider collective rights and to ask the question, What is the highest good of the community as a whole...
Vol. 2 • December 1910 • No. 49
