AMERICAN

PHARMACEUTICAL
ASSOCIATION 997

E T H I C S OF BUSINESS.*

iVith the rapid mode of transportation, with the advanced system of com-
munication, with the improved methods of manufacture, with the many labor-
saving inventions, business is making head.
By keeping pace with the scientific achievements of the times, business has
demonstrated that it is not a theory. I t is a reality built upon efficiency, intelli-
gence and enthusiasm.
In former years, the young man who was not fitted for a profession was usually
placed in business. Today this has changed, for this is an age of method and
concentrated energy. And unless he is especially trained for the work, he is
doomed to disappointment and failure. H e must know one thing and know it
absolutely, if he is to meet with material success and commercial supremacy
H e must have the faculty of concentration. He must give prompt, active and
constant service. H e must handle his day’s complex work on a schedule as
exact as a railroad time-table. Enthusiasm and initiative are essential to success.
Initiative requires alertness and originality. It is creative and constructive. En-
thusiasm is the inspiration, the force, the propelling motor that pumps life into
every successful business.
Ijusiness must have facts instead of fiction, figures instead of guesses, informa-
tion instead of experiments, results instead of speculations. Rig business is run
and financed upon positive information, by detailed records, by charts and
statistics. It is governed entirely from tabulated sheets; its judgments are
formed by the rule of percentage; its opinions are based upon figures and facts;
operations are planned by units and volumes. Commercial leaders think and act
in dollars and cents. Nothing is left to luck or chance.
The most successful careers are those that are shaped by their own hands, that
are run on conservative lines, and maintained by cautious and prudent principles.
This is the method most highly regarded by the business world today. Business
cannot be negative. It must be either a sLlccess or a failure.
All of us are more or less dependent upon our neighbors for existence. I n
the beginning inen with rudely-formed weapons issued from their caves to kill
the wild beasts of the forest. These were to supply them with food and cloth-
ing. But as time went on, certain people were able to kill more than others,
Lvhile some became more proficient in curing skins and pelts. Thus eschange
became necessary, and trade was born.
IZITERDEI’EKDENCT.
Today i t i q not possible for a nation or even an individual to be independent,
because the inaterials from which the necessaries of life are made, come from
widely separated sections and countries. Hence came the necessity of railroads
and steamships. These are the agencies of commerce. Through these channels
\ve Secure food, clothing and shelter. These are the primal wants of man. As
civilization advances, nations become more and more dependent upon one another.
Consequently, commerce becomes one of the greatest factors in modern business.
* Parts of an article by Isaac. Schnewind in The Fra. March. 1915.
 THEJOURNAL
OF THE

The one great curse of business is overproduction. The tendencies are to

push busines.s to its utmost limit and then try to find a market for the increased
production. Manufacturers have gone on expanding until the markets have be-
come overstocked. Then comes the unloading-the bottom falls out, and the
crash is heard in all parts of the industrial world. Long ago business men
recognized that the world is a large community, and causes and effects in one
country will find their reflex in all others. Thus we see that those who till the
soil find that the price of their product is fixed in the world markets.
ORGANIZATION.

The tendency of modern business is towards organization and economy. In

hundreds of industries the profits of today are wrung from the waste and the
refuse of former days.
Business to be successful must have normal profits. Continuous sacrificing
of profits ultimately means failure. When the supply and demand are equalized,
then business will be done at a profit. The safe and sound method shows that
decreased business with normal profits is better than increased business with no
profits. The foreigner realizes this. H e first looks to profit. If he cannot
obtain it in one market he seeks it in another. This is the qhief reason why
English and German manufacturers have done business in every market of the
world. But most of our concerns go on wondering and blundering.
Competition, which is the desire to excel, is universal. In every sphere of
human activity, competition is essential for securing the best results. Formerly
competition was the life of trade-today competition is the death of trade. Com-
petition solely of price and not quality is “cut-throat” competition. But in the
public mind the fierce price competition is still the basis of industrial progress.
In many branches of trade it has been war to the knife, until some of the
biggest and strongest concerns have fallen by the wayside. By unfair competi-
tion an irreparable damage is done to the textile industry, by the so-called “world-
beaters.” This is an article sold so cheaply that no competitor is supposed t o
meet the price. But this very act forces other houses to make unwarranted
concessions, and in the end shows a loss to all concerned. When competition
forces the price below the cost of production, it becomes destructive. Competi-
tion became fatal when machines were invented whereby production exceeded
ihe immediate demand. We need look only into the large number of retirements
from business to understand what such competition means.
CO-OPERATIVE COMPETITION.

Business transactions should be profitable to both buyer and seller. And this.
condition would exist if we cease this unfair competition which prevails in.
-4merica.
Co-operative competition should be the motto of every business man. Co-
operation on the “live and let live” plan will be the sensible policy of the future.
Foolish men compete-wise men co-operate.
T o be successful one must be his own chemist and analyze his own case. He
must eliminate negative factors; he must sift, sort and strengthen his men and
methods. For when business dies the nations perish. Greece started her down-
 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
PHARMACEUTICAL 999
ward course when she began giving her subjects something for nothing. A
pension was devised for every citizen, but the nation became bankrupt. Rome
had the same policy. She gave free shows, free entertainment,s and finally free
bread. Then Rome fell.
“Profit-sharing limited to the sharing of profits of successful years, without
any responsibilities for the losses of unsuccessful years, is certainly unfair.”
The system that couples responsibilities with liabilities is more equitable. Unrest
in industry ia worldwide and is caused by a desire for better conditions. The
progressive h a n constantly works, for human betterment. H e is always build-
ing, extending, improving. Unrest is the sign of progress. Better food, better
health, better clothing, better housing and better education is the cry of civiliza-
tion.
Plato says, “The origin of wars is the pursuit of wealth, and we are forced
to pursue wealth because we live in slavery of what wealth buyb.”Money is only
the measure of power. Money for its own sake is not worth the struggle.
When money minimizes brains, when.it makes men feel that they can buy their
way through, when money is the beginning and end of everything, then it nullifies
the human element, and sooner or later the stoutest ship must go under.

A NEW IbTMUNIZATION T H E O R Y .
According to a new theory of immunization against bacterial disease evolved
by Drs. IIenry Smith Vl’illiams and James Wallace Beveridge, two New York
physicians, the red and white corpuscles of the blood are the chief agents that
protect human organisms against the ravages of bacteria, and this they have
termed the proteomorphic theory. These investigators believe that the white
corpuscles deal with the unbroken proteins that they may come in contact with,
whether they be of bacterial or dietetic origin, and that the red corpuscles deal
with the partially cleaved molecules of protein. In other words, the business of
the white corpuscle is to break down o r cleave this protein molecule, not synthe-
size it. And in summing up Amtcrican Medicitie condenses their statement : “In
this view, then, the red blood corpuscles have an immunizing function strictly
complementary to that of the white blood corpuscles, and no less important. One
legion of cells co-operates with the other, each having its own special field. The
white corpuscle deals with all formed bodies and full-sized protein molecules of
foreign type that make their way into the blood stream. T h e red blood corpuscle
deals with the latter cleavage products of protoplasmic activity. I n carrying out
their respective tasks, the leucocyte supplements the work of the ferments of the
digestive tract; the red corpuscle supplments the work of the leucocyte and re-
lieves the ultimate tissues in considerable measure of the task of protecting them-
selves against small-moleculed nitrogen products that might prove harmful.”-
Joiivnul A. M . A.