The employee is responsible to his employer for the very best work he can do, for the employer is depending on him to help in producing the best possible article for the use of the community. The employer, The responsibility of the citizen in business the other hand, is responsible for the welfare of those who work for him. A constantly increasing number of employers are coming to realize that this means more than merely giving fair wages to the employees and are providing them with better places in which to work, with healthful and pleasant surroundings, and with arrangements for their comfort and convenience. In some cases employers are even aiding their workmen to secure pleasant and comfortable homes, knowing that the better their workmen are cared for by them, the more earnestly will they work for the success of the business. Every citizen in his business life is under obligations to the community as a whole. No man's business belongs to himself alone; it belongs also to the community. The community enters into a sort of agreement with him in regard to his business, to the effect that if he will perform a certain service for the community, the community will support him. If he is a merchant or a manufacturer, the community has a right to expect from him honest goods and full measure. If he is a mechanic, it has the right to expect from him good workmanship. If he is engaged in the management of a railroad, it has a right to demand safety, comfort, and reasonable rates. No matter what his occupation may be, nor how large or how small his business, he is sure to show the character of his citizenship in the character of the product of his labor. A citizen's business is also the commu nity's business But the citizen in business has a greater responsibility than for the quality of the product of his work. Business The respon the citizen life, and in fact the whole life of the community, could not be successfully carried on if it were not for the confidence that men have in each other. Think for a moment what confusion and unhappiness there sibility of would be if it were not for this confidence. for conWhen we ride on the railroad, we need confidence fidence in the excellence of the work of those who made the locomotive, of those who laid the rails and built the bridges, of those who run the train, and of those who arrange the schedule and give the signals. When we buy food, or clothing, or any other product of human labor, we must have confidence in the merchant and in the manufacturer before we willingly part with the money that we have earned by our own efforts. When we receive money for our work, we must have confidence in the government that stamps the bills with its promise to pay a certain sum. By far the greater part of the business dealings between individuals, between communities, and between nations, is carried on by a system of credit, which is based on the confidence that men feel in one another and in the arrangements of the business world. Men would never deposit their money in banks if it were not for the confidence they feel in the banks, and in the government and laws that are behind them. Every accident on the railroads causes men to lose confidence, not only in the man who was guilty of carelessness, but also in the management of railroads in general. When an employer finds that he cannot trust one of his employees, it tends to destroy confidence in all employees. Every failure on the part of an individual to meet his business obligations tends to destroy the confidence of men in one another's business integrity. In short, every exhibition of dishonesty or inefficiency on the part of a citizen in his business relations helps to undermine the confidence of the community, and to shake the foundation upon which the community rests. Patriotism in business life It is one of the best marks of good citizenship to perform the most efficient work possible, whatever one's calling. We call it patriotism when a man gives all that he has, even his life if necessary, for the good of his country, without stopping to consider whether he will receive an equal benefit in return. There is no higher type of patriotism than that which leads a citizen to perform his best service for the community in his daily calling, not for what he can get for it, but for what he can give. FOR INVESTIGATION I. Find out what the early settlers in your community had to pay for the land. What is the same land worth now? What has produced the change in value? 2. Compare the extent to which a farmer's family is dependent on others in making a living, with that to which a city family is dependent. 3. Make a list of twelve or fifteen different occupations in your community. How many of these did each family have to carry on for itself in the early days of your community? 4. What advantages can you see in a division of tasks or occupations? What disadvantages? 5. Visit a factory in your community and report on the division of labor that you find there. 6. Take the list of occupations mentioned in the paragraph on geographical division of occupations (page 84) and locate on a map of the United States a region characterized by each. Show how geographical conditions determine this division of occupations. 7. Is there a geographical division of occupations in your state? Draw a map of your state and locate characteristic industries. 8. Make a list of the different kinds of workmen that have been engaged in producing the different objects in your schoolroom. What different parts of the United States have contributed to the equipment of your schoolroom? 9. Show how a strike of workmen against their employers injures the employers; the workmen themselves; the whole community. (Use for illustration a strike that has occurred in your own community.) 10. Is it true, in your community, that the most useful citizens are those who care more about the excellence of their work than about what they receive for it? Illustrate. 11. So far as your experience goes, what boys have been most successful in business - those who make it a practice to do all they can for their employers, or those who have tried to do the least possible? 12. Who have been some of the builders of your own community by reason of their business life? Explain. 13. Show how a few dishonest pupils in a school will tend to destroy confidence throughout the whole school. What are some of the results of this loss of confidence on the life of the school? 14. Do you know of any case in your community in which the failure of some individual to do his whole duty in business has shaken the confidence of the entire community? 15. Are there any business establishments in your community in which special efforts are made to provide for the welfare and comfort of the employees? What is the effect upon the employees? Upon the business? Upon the community? REFERENCES Forman, "Advanced Civics," chapters XLVII, XLVIII. Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations," Book I, chapters I-III (division of labor). Meakin, Budgett, "Model Factories and Villages." Gives an excellent account of what employers are doing for their employees in this country and in Europe. Earle, Alice Morse, "Colonial Dames and Good Wives," chapter XII, "Fireside Industries." THE WELL-KEPT HOME OF AN EMPLOYEE OF A MINING COMPANY. CHAPTER XII HOW THE GOVERNMENT AIDS THE CITIZEN IN HIS ness of property rights BUSINESS LIFE SECURITY in one's material possessions has always been one of the most sacred rights of Americans. The RevoluThe sacred- tionary War was brought on because the English government persistently refused to recognize this right of the colonists. It took away a part of their property by taxation without asking their consent. It passed laws interfering with their commerce and manufactures. It quartered troops in their houses without their permission. It gave its officers unlimited power to search their houses and ships without 'duly protecting the rights of innocent and law-abiding citizens. When independence had been won and a constitution was to be adopted, the people demanded a sure protection of this right to their property. They refused to ratify the Constitution until amendments guaranteeing security in their possessions had been promised. The desire for selfgovernment in business matters The colonists recognized the necessity of some regulation of their property rights and of their business relations by government. Nowhere else do individuals come into conflict with each other so often as in their business relations. Most of the disputes brought before the courts for settlement are over busior property matters. Such matters concern the individual so closely that the colonists believed that their regulation should be under their own control ness |