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Show j . ., I TheTe -might to be no ' iSI"Tl c:::; 1 ivk a half-way policy between bome. recpi-2 WfiO Are honesty and dishonesty. If Honestly Dishonest every one were honest aa By NATHAN HASKELL DOLE j I6 I' j m the Holy. City business '' , , , J would be a "cinch." If ail people were frankly and honestly dishonest it would, tie corn- paratively easy for everyone to get along. The trouble is that people pretend to be honest and we dishonest 88 fr as they daro to be. This unsettles both the buyers and the sellers of coounoditiea. One does not know where one is at, to use the expressive1 slsrig of the day. All is fair in hate and war. Business, aa usnally conducted, is war.; , I would propose that lessons be given in our high schools and busi- L, 11 . : c. ,t 1 t:.i u. T ti IU K mmt uncertainty would be organized into a definite understanding that every; dealer is what now he may or may not be a foeman worthy of your j well, your steal. 1 Coincident with this form of education there should in all fairness j be a corresponding education in detecting dishonesty; for instance, there should be, by law in every household scales on which all pieces of meab and other articles bought by weight must be tested. Of course the law should protect the public against adulterations deleterious to health. This introduces another problem, and as it concerns all the community, the defense must be also kept uniform, so that there may be no uncertainty. Certainty, assurance, whether positive or negative, is the great thing. ' The sting in the title of this symposium, as expressed in its question, come on the word "still." Historically it may be said that honesty has never been recognized in the diplomatic relations of the nations. Read ilachiavelli and y? u discover that he seriously argues that the worst and .most treacherous acts of "The Prince5' are justified by the badness and treachery of hia subjects. War has always taken as its chief bases the most diabolical forms of 'dishonesty. "vVliat the church ha3 taught to be crimes the advocates of 'war, however good churchmen they were, have upheld and praised and rewarded as the highest virtues. If business is a kind of war, then, if war is justifiable between nations, the same principles, however immoral when tested by the Golden Rule, :ought to be made the recognized principles in business. There is no half-way between. Let us follow the esample of the oppo-. ."nents of peace principles declare that aa long as human nature is what ;it is there can be no possible cessation of war on earth, and as long aa human nature is what it is there can be no universal practice of the .foolish-wise dictum that "Honesty is the best policy.".. But in heaven's name let us go one step farther end leave off from wir coins and other public utterances the sickly sentimental cant, "In !6od we trust." Let us cease boasting that we are a Christian nation; let us he what "we are at heart frankly, honestly, brutally barbarian. Let the ministers cease preaching righteousness on Sundays to men who are proposing on Monday to do the bsst they can to do their fellow-men in every possible way. Men who are dishonest often declare that they would prefer to ba lonest if only their rivals were honest ; but they must meet them on their own ground. The plan that I propose puts us all on the same level a very low level, I am willing to ad 1 aWfiifL or wall be alike. |