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Show "THE PUBLIC BE 4 SERVED" By Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (Editor's Note: Dr. Peale is minister of historic Marble Collegiate Col-legiate Church on Fifth Avenue, New York City.) The other clay I got a pleasant shock. Registering at a hotel, I followed the bellboy to my room. As he handed me the key, he also put a folder In my hand which read: "We give service and lots of courtesy." Back in the dim, dark ages, I recall that these amenities were taken for granted as basic characteristics charac-teristics of American business procedure. pro-cedure. Everyone vied wth everybody every-body else to be the nicest to the customer and to do the best Job for him. Every manufacturer, merchant and saleman competed to give the buyer better things at the lowest possible prices. This competition raised the volume of production by lifting the buying power of an ever-increasing number of people. Volume and quality stimulated wide-spread wealth and created a standard of living that became the wonder of the world. Thus, courtesy cour-tesy and service were important factors in developing our astounding astound-ing industrial and commercial greatness. Give the most and receive re-ceive the most was the principle that proved itself by working to the advantage of both producer and consumer. But the war disrupted this. There was too much money to spend and too little merchandise to buy with it. Instead of stimulating stimu-lating sales, merchants hid their goods under the counter. To get these goods the customer had "to stand in." He took what he got and tried to like it. Also he was supposed to like the callous, rough way he was treated. The Ameri- can buyer became a cringing, pa- j thetic underling, cowed and in- suited by "high-hat" little clerks, who for the first time had a chance to "push people around." Couresy and service went out of the window. That conditions were difficult was not a valid excuse for crass and crude treatment of people. peo-ple. Also, there were unions that got the whip hand and especially in public service companies. They took it out on the public. One city bus system comes to mind where discourtesy dis-courtesy became a byword and bus riders considered the drivers and conductors to be the meanest men in town. The offending employees em-ployees could not be disciplined or discharged by the company. The union was master. When the company com-pany asked the union to help teach the men to be courteous to the public, it refused. Some union leaders have not yet learned the importance of service and courtesy courte-sy in developing and expanding an industry from which their members mem-bers draw their livelihood. "Milk the business, get all you can out of it, wreck it if necessary. What is it to us?" so their selfish and shortsighted reasoning seems to run. Long have I maintained that unions should perfect their public relations. Political pressure won't work forever. The honeymoon with paternalistic government is about over. Unionism must win its own way with the public just as business busi-ness found it had to do. Years ago bumptious businessmen, conscious of their expanding power, lorded it over the public and their slogan was, "The Public Be Damned." But the public is the final power, pow-er, slow to wrath but irresistible when aroused. Labor must learn what business finally discovered, that "The Public Be Served" is the way to achive success. The public refuses to "be damned." An era of discourtesy definitely is over; ov-er; a new day is dawning; once again the public is aroused. |
