Charles Richmond Henderson

“ Why should men of affairs permit them, undisputed, unanswered, unchallenged, to arrogate to themselves the right to teach the world how we shall conduct our business?"
This speaker gives his reason for thinking that business men carry in their own bosoms and interests the guarantees of social welfare: "The purposes of business, the sense of responsibility to others, the danger of personal loss and possible failure, and the hope of reward are the surest guarantees for the conduct of affairs in the mutual interests of employer and employed." ”

“ In this country the great prizes are not found in Congress, in literature, in law, in medicine, but in industry. The successful man is praised and honored for his success. The social reward of business prosperity, in power praise and luxury, are so great as to entice men of the highest intellectual faculties. Men of splendid abilities find in the career of a manufacturer or merchant an opportunity for the most intense energy. ”

“ However it may be in some ideal heaven, it is the fact that in this world it is not from motives of generosity or philanthropy that the master hires labor, and the laborer seeks service. And the sooner the whole matter is taken out of the realm of sentimental philosophy and placed on the bed rock of simple, practical business common sense the better. ”

“ What is urged against our discipline and our method?
It would be strange if the "captain of industry" did not sometimes manifest a militant spirit, for he has risen from the ranks largely because he was a better fighter than most of us. Competitive commercial life is not a flowery bed of ease, but a battle field where the "struggle for existence" is defining the industrially "fittest to survive." ”

“ It leads directly to the means by which the lower classes may raise themselves to a higher position —the actual details of which, of course, are difficult, but, as they are not included in political economy, they must be left to sociology—and forms the essential basis of hope for any proper extension of productive coöperation." This definition of the limits of economics and of the duty of sociology, made by a master, we accept; but find ourselves resolutely opposed at the very point where our discussion begins to have a real living human interest. ”

“ It must be admitted that this rigorous protest against impertinent and ignorant intrusion of dilettanti upon the preserves of capitalist managers is not without justification. Social theorists need to be meek men, and should stand with head uncovered before the special gifts and services of the men of genius who are working the latter-day miracles of industry and commerce. ”

“ In this sense science is eminently "practical," because it measures by the most exact methods and instruments of investigation the available forces for attaining an end which seems desirable. The scientific ideal is an exact balance between the debits and credits, the causes and results of human action. There is an undetermined remainder, bad debts and losses, as in financial settlements, but the ideal is accuracy.
The social position of the "social theorist" is an advantage. The nature of his studies compels him to come into touch with persons of all classes and interests. ”

“ The corrective of this attitude of some practical men is not abuse but facts, just such facts as the studies of social history supply in abundance. It is the duty and function of the theorist to confront this automatic and fatalistic class theory of business with the history of factory legislation. There are few facts so pathetic as the opposition of John Bright, the pious manufacturer, to the movement by which ethical sentiment redeemed the laboring population of England from utter degradation. ”

“ It is the duty of the scholar, if he is a living member of contemporary society and something beside an archaeologist, to secure a public recognition of all the elements of welfare. Such a scholar will give due place to what Carlyle calls the "preliminary item," bread, but he will help his fellows to see and realize that "man cannot live by bread alone." For this purpose is the scholar supported by society, in order that he may be its mentor and seer. ”

“ No man ever stated the difficulties in Darwinism more clearly than Darwin himself. There is no class of men who so fully realize the meaning of the oath to state "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." The methods of science have much in common with the methods of business. ”

“ By extending this study of the psychical processes of typical business men we might be enabled to regard some social phenomena in a new and stronger light. Great business men, like some distinguished generals, let their deeds speak for them. They say, with some touch of contemptuous sarcasm and cynicism, they can hire talkers and buy books. So that to interpret their inner life we must seize the rare occasions when they venture upon speech. As the number of college men among merchants increases, the points of contact with academic men are likely to increase. ”

“ He accounts for the fact that many employers have refused to accept the plan by saying: "The proverbial slowness of employers to know a good thing when they see it and their proneness to let matters drift until they get almost hopelessly entangled, in preference to taking a little trouble in advance," is a sufficient explanation.
There are always business men who are not only sagacious managers, with a gift for amassing riches, but who are broad enough to go to the margin of ability in making experiments. ”

“ They imply that there is at least one class of the community who have no interest in the issue of social Strifes, and no right to be heard on their own behalf. They imply that economic forces are automatic, natural and not human and ethical. The influences which fix the rate of wages are treated as if they belonged to the same category as the law of gravitation. Human intelligence, will and aspiration are excluded from consideration by such logic. Economics is put on the same level as biology, or even chemistry. ”

“ The only person who can possibly decide in practical affairs is the responsible manager of the affairs concerned. When sincere fanatics vent their ravings under the titles of "sociological science," it is not to be wondered at that suspicion should extend to those who are really trying to "mount to the summit round by round." ”

“ But his professional pursuits compel him to weigh the claims of the entire community. The recent introduction of the "laboratory method" in sociology is a guaranty that no department of human life will be neglected. Apart from the bitterness of competitive strife, interested in public welfare as others are but not directly interested in rich or poor alone, the student of social phenomena may be reasonably expected to bring to light and present for consideration elements of social well-being which hot contestants for immediate and class advantage are sure to overlook. ”

“ So far from trusting merely competitive forces and the will of employers alone he reasoned that special organization of laborers and managers is necessary. "It is essential to have organizations of employers, who together shall control and direct the general principles and policies governing the common interest, so that there may be no overreaching by selfish and reckless individuals on either side." ”

“ But it cannot really be impertinent for a scholar to deal with those practical affairs which touch every interest of his life as a citizen, a father, a patriot and an idealist. It may not be pleasant work to fight petty robbers in defense of his little property, the school of his children, the supply of light and protection, and the essential conditions of health. ”

“ In this concluding sentence the cultivated, generous, successful Christian business man opens a wider door than his opening sentences promised; and it is a pleasure to add that his life was better than his inherited economic creed. ”

“ A very common conviction of employers is expressed clearly and bluntly in the words of an able and upright manufacturer, recently deceased. "The relation between capital and labor is one of the many questions in the comprehensive science of political economy, and as such is a purely business matter. ”

“ While the working girl is despised for kitchen labor; while the occupations open to women are overcrowded because the prejudices of both men and women close others; so long will women suffer from removable causes. So Professor Walker says: "What is the remedy? Agitation and the diffusion of correct ideas. Let gifted women continue to appeal for public respect and sympathy for their sisters in work; let the schools teach that public opinion may powerfully affect wages, and that nothing which depends on human volition is inexorable! ”

“ BUSINESS MEN AND SOCIAL THEORISTS.
Representatives of two very respectable classes of the community are apt to find themselves in hostile attitudes in the discussion of contemporary social questions—the scientific student of social phenomena and the "captain of industry." Has the student of sociology a right to discuss the central theme of his field of research? ”

“ If he says anything which by any chance tends to affect prices or nominations, he should not look for reverence. That is an obsolete virtue in American practical life. Nothing thinner than rhinoceros hide will do for an overcoat where conflicting interests are at stake, and arrows are flying in all directions.
And yet the scientific method is needed along with the practical method. The general interest can be served only by the union of science and art. ”

“ It is perfectly legitimate for the scholar to collect and use the testimony of great captains of industry to correct the unsupported assertions of other captains of industry. For example, in respect to the usefulness of trades unions, Mr. Dyer quotes the language of an employer: "As an employer in one of the great staple trades, I have always held that we owe much of our prosperity in the manufacturing industries to trade combinations." ”

“ The best service of college professors when the wind blows worst is to stay in bed and set an example of quietness and confidence. And yet the educated captain knows that the mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, physicists and biologists have all contributed to his art. The more thoroughly he knows the history of navigation the more he respects the scholars who have made his craft possible. ”

“ When the scholar enters the sphere of practice, he must prepare himself for the treatment given a man with a silk hat in the bull-and-bear pit on a board of trade holiday; he becomes the target for the wildest boys. ”

“ They are of interest here only because they drew the fire and showed the attitude of a typical business man toward theoretical students of society. Indeed the speaker himself turns from propositions to personalities. "Who are the men engaged in promulgating these so-called reforms, ostensibly for the benefit of workingmen? Are they not for the most part theorists with unbalanced minds, who have adopted unsound principles and are pushing them to the extreme? Are they not men without the knowledge and experience necessary to deal successfully with men or affairs? ”

“ Now it is the turn of the scholar to find himself in company with the merchant, and both of them classed by politicians as "laymen." The local leaders of intrigue give both to understand that they are out of place and that they may as well let the machine alone,—it is too complicated and mysterious for gentlemen to manage. ”

“ If the character is further analyzed we discover, along with some apparent heedlessness of pain and many compromises with conscience, an integrity about contracts which makes it possible to build the business of the world on credit. Those who live in retirement and simplicity are apt to find the swift, brusque, imperious and impatient manners of the successful man somewhat severe and offensively dictatorial. ”

“ The more college graduates we have in the counting rooms the more cordial and fruitful will be the relations between practical men and scholars. As "scholarship" comes to mean social service, and is freed from mediævalism and dialectics, it will be recognized and respected by the men who are driving the machinery of production. ”

“ The laborer, if he would become something more than a receiver of wages, in the ordinary sense, must move himself up in the scale of laborers until he reaches the skill and power also to command manager's wages. ”

“ We may discover in the very arguments by which the gentlemen of affairs warn ethical theorists out of the manufactory a need of theorists. It is assumed by both gentlemen quoted in the beginning, that the class motives of employers and the laws of nature are the sufficient guaranty of social welfare. ”

“ In this fierce though voiceless contest a peculiar type of manhood is developed, characterized by vitality, energy, concentration, skill in combining numerous forces for an end, and great foresight into the consequences of social events. ”

“ It is true the idealist does not see intuitively how far or by what means these higher factors of good may be secured, but he can remind men by his own life and works that wealth is only a preliminary item, a means but not an end of life. ”

“ If inhuman greed, or routine habit, or vested interests oppose his suggestions on the ground that they are chimerical and millennial, he can set ingenious philanthropy over against obstructive avarice. ”