Most men, in the beginning, conduct their growing business with due regard to the rights of others; but when the ambition to become "National distributers" seizes us we enter into fields unknown. Our former trade charts are now useless. We grab at business here, there, everywhere-without due regard to the cost of obtaining it, or the concessions which must be made to wrest it from those more favorably situated.

We thus, by gradual steps, descend into methods which, if carefully explained to us at the outset, would have appeared so contrary to our conceptions of common sense and right conduct that we would have shrunk from entrance upon the programme.

Once in the midst of the game, the excitement blinds our eyes to anything other than the goal of large business, which we obtain as best we can under the prevailing rules. We find ourselves at a point sooner or later in which we seek legal advice for the purpose of ascertaining how near we can steer our course to the line beyond which it would be dangerous to go.

Is it necessary for us to be known as "National distributers" before we can extract complete satisfaction from business? Must we leave the safe, profitable, and useful local life for the uncertainties of the world-wide struggle?

A TRUST OFFICIAL SUGGESTS THE

GOLDEN RULE

In a small gathering of a few of the largest manufacturers in the world, in Europe last spring, the chairman of one of the meetings uttered a remark to the effect that the most successful way of doing business on a large scale consists in the observance by competitors of the Golden Rule.

The first flashes of our mental cameras obtain from this scene little more than caricatures. It seems broadly humorous to hear a man of such wealth and prominence, one who has succeeded in forging his way to the front rank of business generals, say to an assembly of his successful associates that each should think and act towards his rivals, under every circumstance, in exactly the same manner as he would like the others to think and act toward him.

But let us step over there and snap the shutter again from another view-point. We have now a picture taken in a different light. All of the comic has disappeared,

and we see the minds of these princes of trade and commerce seriously groping for some way by which they may rescue business from its present insufficiently profitable turmoils.

All too meager are the details of the idea of him whose tongue launched it forth. But let us see if we cannot fathom the depth of its heart and brain, crediting his utterance with sincerity, and bring to light a working plan for the remodeling of the larger business enterprises.

A NEW KIND OF TRUST

As the most convenient form for the accomplishment of our problem, we will assume the creation of trusts, each one composed of all manufacturers producing similar articles, a Golden Rule Trust" for coal, another for steel, another for flour, all commerce being conducted under the supervision of trusts. The by-laws of each trust will provide that every member must carefully take account of the condition of his business, with special regard to its location and the geographical territory in which reasonably profitable business may be secured by fair means, beyond which zone he would, to secure business, be compelled to adopt ways and means in violation of the principies of the Golden Rule.

Instead of snatching business from our associates, like small children with their toys, each member would seek just as much business as he could properly and profitably handle, and no more. Would this constitute good business?

Instead of reaching out for unprofitable business, we could then devote our energies to increasing the demand for our product in our own territory. We may find many places in which the trade has not been properly attended. Then there are many new ways of using old products, and new demands are springing up constantly. Would this be good business?

We all know how easy it is to fall from the sublime into the ridiculous. Some incident, insignificant in itself, transforms our expressed attempt toward the ideal into low comedy. Popular idols. seemingly secure on their pedestals of public favor, may be toppled over by one false move or by the trivial exhibition of some personal idiosyncrasy. It seems strange that the sublime and the fame of heroes may be ruined by the insertion of

one poisoned drop in the otherwise sweet compound.

CONSPIRACY TO REFRAIN FROM CUTTHROAT METHODS NOT ILLEGAL

But let us accept the Golden Rule idea at face value.

If a group of manufacturers assembled together and entered into agreements to maintain prices and restrain trade, such agreement would constitute, in the eyes of the law, conspiracy against the public good.

Suppose, now, that the members of the same group of competitors should each impose upon himself the same restrictions, with different motives. What a different result would be produced! It is no violation of law for a manufacturer to resolve that he will cease doing unprofitable business and will henceforth confine his business to the zone in which he feels competent to supply the wants of the people living in that zore who will pay him a reasonable price for his goods. If his competitor follows the same course of reasoning, or the same motives, at once there is established the practical results aimed at by all trusts organized in violation of law.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD TRUSTS IN THE MOTIVE

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In other words, the Golden Rule Trust produces better business for each of its members through the operation of the Golden Rule than can possibly be obtained by seizure through the form of unlawful and immoral trusts. The difference between a Golden Rule Trust and an unlawful trust is not greater than the difference between many good acts and bad acts, it being possible to perform the same set of acts from different motives and produce widely different results.

If a manufacturer, instead of consuming vast energies in trying to wrest from his competitors a share of their natural business or trying to defend his business from such wresting by plots and counter-plots, would devote his time to the development of new and useful varieties of his product and to the opening of new markets in his own natural distributing territory, he would find greater satisfaction in the result of the year's business.

I know several men at the head of large enterprises who would be glad to adopt such

methods if their competitors could be per- . suaded to do so at the same time.

It must not be supposed that members of the Golden Rule Trust are to be arbitrarily and permanently confined to any geographical territory. The better knowledge a man obtains of his business and his customers, the more carefully he manages his business. With smaller volume and larger profits, he could devote more time to bettering the business condition of his plant, his employees, and his customers. By gradually increasing the quality of his product and lowering the cost of production, the business would naturally expand into enlarging territories, but only in a healthy way.

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If the law should declare that no sales should be made at a price lower than the standard set, competition would not be restrained, because it would be a question of how near the bottom price a manufacturer could go. The great advantage which would accrue to all would be that with a minimum price we should all be protected from those men who, not knowing anything about what their goods cost them to manufacture, sell for any price that will bring them the business."

Under present conditions, it cannot well be imagined that our Government could or would undertake the colossal task, even if it were found to be within its proper purview; but I see no reason why each manufacturer should not carefully ascertain the cost of his product and refuse to sell goods, in any event, below cost.

Many of our business troubles would undoubtedly be wiped away if we were to refrain from operating our factories at a loss. It would be better for manufacturers who are so doing to acknowledge manfully their inability to manufacture goods and sell them at market prices with profit, take the loss that would result from a sale of the business, and go into some other field.

"What! Go out of business? Absurd!" I hear some say. Would you think it wise or foolish for a doctor who could not gain a living to try something else? You would commend his good sense in abandoning the

N the struggle which has been going on for the control of European Turkey my sympathies are not altogether with the Serbs and Bulgarians. Some of my classmates from school days in Constantinople are now captains and majors in the Bulgarian army. But I have many personal friends among the officers of the Turkish cavalry and artillery, and I know their ability and manliness. The fact remains, however, that the misgovernment of the Turks, especially during

endurance. The Slavic peoples of the Balkan Mountains have risen up in their indignation and the shock of battle has already startled Europe.

I can imagine the intense excitement which prevails these days in Robert College in Constantinople, where Turks, Russians, Greeks, and Bulgarians meet in the same class-room and upon the same athletic field. Even in the uneventful years there was a suppressed excitement, a profoundly strong racial and re

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remember very well how, when the Turkish Government was sending four transports full of troops to defend the frontier in the Caucasus, the Slavic students secretly made an enormous Russian flag, and just as the transports were. passing up the Bosphorus in front of the College this immense Russian flag was unfurled from the roof of the building and flaunted in their faces. A Turkish general arrived upon the scene within a few hours, and the President had to apologize for the reckless behavior of the students.

Certainly the reconquest of those beautiful mountain provinces for Christian control appeals to the sentiment and chivalry of Christendom. Five centuries have passed since the allied armies of the Bosnians, Serbs, and Magyars met the advancing hosts of Turks upon the fatal field of Kosovo. The battle raged from dawn till evening, and at length the Turks prevailed. They were led in one final, furious attack by Bayezid, the Sultan's son, who rode into the midst of the enemy brandishing a mighty iron mace. This defeat broke the back of Servian freedom and left the Mohammedans the masters of the land. The Christian nations of Europe sought to retrieve the loss by joining in a great crusade. But the stout squires of France under the gallant Count of Nevers, the flower of German chivalry, and the knights of Hungary suffered an overwhelming defeat, in which thousands were slain and over ten thousand taken prisoners. Somewhat more than a century later, in 1529, the Ottoman armies under Suleiman the Magnificent swept to the gates of Vienna, humiliating bishops and princes alike, as town after town capitulated.