The Golden Ru le in

B u sine ss

By ARTHUR NASH

Cinc innati, Ohio

Therefore a ll things whatsoever ye would that l o d men shou d do t o y u , o y e even so to them: f or ” —M th s h l w a the o t TT . v i 1 2 . is i t e a nd pr p he s. A i :

CONTENTS

HOOSIER DAYS

A T T H E CROSS-ROAD S

B ITTER YEARS

H OW I T A LL B EGAN

T H E GREAT DISCOV ERY

AN EARLY TRIB UTE

ALIAS HATTIE CLAR"

AN INSIDE V IEW

"ESU S A s A B U SINESS MAN

SERV ICE—H U MAN AND DIV INE

“ SOM ETH ING A T T E M P T E D ” SOMETH ING DONE AC"NOW LED GMENT

P I r c hilip I . Roberts , desi e to a cord full credit for the invaluable assistance rendered me in the collation and prep ar ation of the contents of the following a W Wh hi p ges , and ithout ich , t s l never have been pub ished .

. N A .

Cinc in na ti, Ohio . H OO SIE R DAYS

HE T H ER the purpose of a writer be to set forth a record of actual happenings or to present a purely

w a imaginative creation , the easiest possible y to relate a story "as it is to read one", is to begin at the beginning and tell it . I need scarcely to remind my readers that I am not

lit erat u s a novelist or , but a plain business man , totally unversed in the art of weaving the fabrics of fancy and romance . My sole purpose in the presentation of what follows in these pages , is to bring together the salient

a f cts of a career which , though marred by much failure, has been marked, undeniably, by a measure of honourable achievement . I propose , therefore , to start this story at ’ the point where I , myself, started on life s m journey, and in so far as ability per its , to recite the facts without equivocation .

I am proud to reckon myself a Hoosier . 1 0 T HE GO LDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

n three years ago , in a little log cabin in Tipto

County, Indiana . My father and mother S D Ad were , and still are , strict eventh ay i B v ent st s. oth are still living in a green old

age , near to the town of Cicero , Indiana , not

fin el - far from the y equipped school , which the denomination to which they have given life

long allegiance has built , for the purpose of incul cating in the minds of its childr en the tenets of its faith . I — n that faith stern , rigid , uncompromis — ing I was reared and grew to manhood ; and I a although have long ago re ched , and

a su bscri passed , the pl ce where personal p tion to its claims and teachings are at all pos I sible to me , yet am quite persuaded , that from much that was set before me in child I hood, have never been able to wholly de part . Leaving the question of credal validity I entirely to one side for a moment, have no choice but t o pay tribute to the utter sincerity and unswerving loyalty of what they believed , which my parents and those associated with HOOSIER DAYS 1 l the people among whom my early years were

an d spent, possessed exemplified them in an

w a altogether extraordinary y . Then there w as the great and sterling char acter of my parents . No story of my early years can possess any meaning u n accom pan ie d by a full acknowledgment of it ; nor has the influence it exerted perished from my u life . To be s re , there were years when it appeared to be lost—years when sin and degradation closed in about me ; but it w as only hidden, covered for the time being, with the increment of wrong living and wrong N w doing . o that these impedimenta have been cleared away , the seed has borne fruit , and li my fe has become , at least , something r t of wo h , not only to myself, but to my

- fellow men . Especially to my mother do I desire to pay I nk tribute . cannot thi of her without a deep sense of reverence During my entire life I time never once knew her to tell a lie, nor w even to equivocate in any ay . To believe a e t thing to be right, moreover, m an with her the doing of it, regardless of the character of d " the consequences . Had she live in the days i of rel gious persecution, she , doubtless, would as a have been a martyr , for any such thing denial or betrayal of her belief never so much as crossed her mind . It is a God-given privilege possessed by woman—that of being in a position to mold

. M the lives of husband and children enfolk , at best, are wayward creatures and prone to err . None of us is without room for such m t t enhancement and enrich en of charac er, as only the influence of a good woman can im

M o w n part . y recollection of early days is , i that such proved to be the case in our fam ly . s With marvelou , unwearying patience , my mother strove to wean us from all sorts of weaknesses and shortcomings , to foster in us

a high regard for honour, truth , and right e ou s i deal ng, and the desire to aim, at least in

ul and part , to em ate her own fine resolves high spiritual achievements . With her , duty t n and her legitimate relation there o , religio

and her acceptance and profession thereof, meant something more than mere acqu ain o f tance with , or mental subscription to, a set

ru les or a code of ethics . It meant the living

of a life . u t Unq es ionably , my mother was a striking

w ho in example of one was indubitably right , HOOSIER DAYS 1 3 precisely the same sense in which nine out of S every ten of us are wrong . he was entirely free from making the initial mistak e of treat ing religion as just one avenue or side of her — S n . bei g With her it was everything. he furnished a continual reproof to all w ho al t di low habi , obe ence , conventionality, occa sion al S - prayer and unday church going, to become the substitute for an out -and-out pro i l fess on of faith . It wou d be a great boon to i t human ty, if the freedom which marks almos every other phase of modern life , that is set ting men and women free from all sorts of - t hoary, time worn convic ions , would set them k free in these regards also . For the ind of religious practice I have just described is s m mi i ply a rage of the real thing, and not t even a rue mirage ; for that, at least, is a t s his representa ion of omething, whereas t formality has no correspondence with reality a t all . If Christianity be simply reckoned as ’ one among the world s many religiou s sys

- tems, then, maybe, such make believe might pass muster ; for the other systems recognize religion as something appealing to one side ’ h of man s manifold activities . But C ris If these be religions—I write in no spirit of —i bigotry or exclusiveness , mind you f these be religions , if this is what religion really means , then Christianity is no religion at all .

We must abandon the old , mistaken , useless I r l i n word . f the word e ig o belongs to any attitude which can , for example , separate a ’ man s political actions or business methods from the creed he is supposed to confess , then, i n n . i no sense , is Christia ty a religion at all M y mother made no such foolish , untenable profession . For her , earth was no stronghold of materialism in which the things of the spirit found no place . For her it was a place in which God dwelt ; and she lived her life as all- A t under His seeing eye . place of s rug w r gle , to be sure , here cou age and zest and ’ rt ul hope are pa of the so s daily need, yet a place in which one knew something of the

and sat isfac urge passion of service , of the tion of tasks honourably and steadfas tly u m dert ak en , of duty bravely and nobly done . Grim days these were for her at times—d ays l when the toil of ife seemed utterly barren, and n those about her, u comprehending as the he st o nes of t road ; but she never swerved, HOOSI ER DAYS 1 5

as she lived and moved among the common

experiences of daily life , is the memory of a

- true and beautiful mother soul .

Moreover, it is my deep , unalterable con v ict io n a nfl m th t the i uence of my other , not only shaped my father ’ s life and made him

a bu t the grand old patriarch he is tod y, formed and furnished the foundation upon I which have been able to rear , in these later

years , the structure of my life of well

intentioned service .

l S w ho May Cornel toiber , some time ago V isited my mother, says in an article she after “ ward wrote concerning her : I noted this ’ S woman s firmness and tenderness . he feels t that her belief in religion being tru h , every thing else must give precedence to this , and as she devotes herself to her religion so her

son devotes himself to his business . Each has G found od, the mother in her Church , the son

in the religion of business and humanity . I asked the mother what were the chief ’ characteristics she remembered in her son s childhood " ‘ ’ ‘ ’ l w as ul . Wel , she said, he always truthf ‘ ’ Here she paused and smiled, Except once .

Mrs . Nash laughed girlishly and happily . 1 6 THE GO LDE N RULE IN BUSI NE SS

‘ Yes, he always told the truth except w as once , and that when he bought a pocket I him d ’ knife . told he coul n t have one and i t he first th ng I knew I saw him using one . He made no effort to hide it ; he never hid t m any hing, he always told on hi self . “ ‘ did t I said , Where you get that pocke "” knife “ ’ I an t haven t y , he said , slowly pu ting it in his pocket . “ "” Yes , you have . Where did you get it “ ”

O . h , you know I bought it “ ” H o w much did you give for it " “ ” A qu arter . “ You gave seventy- fiv e cent s for ” ni A k fe, rthur . “ ’ Yes , that s what it cost . “ ’ l w h d Wel , y idn t you say so “ ’ ’ O s ou d an h, cau e I knew y know, y ” ho w I a a way, much g ve for th t knife . ‘ ’ a Well, that w sn t quite like Geor ge t Washing on, but it came as close to it as a. ’ real youngster ever comes . HOOSIER DAYS 1 7

u t acter and such an influence , should fail t erly in bringing something of real worth to u un fr ition in the lives of her children, is thinkable . That it has done so in my case , I humbly and gratefully acknowledge . The ” and l power pul of those dear, old Indiana days are with me still . I pray God they may never depart from out of my life . That "as Ad already stated"I do not , today, regard v e nt ism as a creed to which I can give my allegiance is , in this connection, entirely by w a the y . The chief thing which out of my early training I have been able to retain is this : The first essential of a man who de serves to make a success of his religion is the moral straightforwardness that takes it seri o u sl y , that realizes that it is not a thing to be — t rifle d with and played at a hobby to be taken up because it happens to agree with ’ one s temperament , or is bound up with his Of family history, but a mode and a method life, which is absolutely meaningless unless it b arin on t he whole o li e is given a e g f f , and a significance for its every part ; something that has to be t ranslated into everyday terms of 1 8 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

r t I hea t toward the things of the spiri , still retain a hold on this principle of which I was given a first glimpse in early Hoosier days . honest ood If the heart is to be , it must be g . I am employing that word here in a special sense . It does not mean the same thing as honesty , but rather a quality of character t without which religious honesty is of en , if It not always , quite impossible . is a word of which the evangelist Luke appears t o have l been especia ly fond, and it indicates a cer tain robust and courageous quality which stands out finely in contrast to the rather academic sort of piety that often monopolizes I the name . t is the goodness that has the run pluck to risks , to endure hardne—ss like a good soldier , to venture a good deal every — thing else if necess ary for the sake of loy L u v t . s alty and con ic ion When uke tells , for s A i ae in tance , that Joseph of r math a was a ” m an h e good and a just, when tells us that “ Barnabas w as a good man and full of the

II

r AT THE CRO SS-ROAD S

UT SID E of the fact of its represent ing some sort of a religious system or ul Seven t h D a Adven t c t, the term y i sm can mean little or nothing to many who be will scan these pages . They regard it as ing merely a combination of vowels and con sonants . The charact er and content of what i its leaders teach and its adherents bel eve , is as far beyond the frontier of their interest as it is beyond that of their knowledge . Yet in i view of the —statement conta ned in the previ o u s ch apter that as a S eventh Day Adv en t ist I r n o and was rea ed and grew to ma ho d ,

t he a e of further f ct that , as a fully accredit d member of that Church I became a preacher of its doctrines , it can scarcely be deemed ir if I h s relevant outline , briefly, the i tory and belief of t he people among whom I was raised . AT THE CROSS - ROADS 2 1

Pitt sfield a 1 5 1 78 2 , Massachusetts , Febru ry , , di Low New D and ed at Hampton, York , e

cembe r 20 1 8 49 . A , farmer by occupation and possessing very limited educational ad m vantages , he beca e deeply interested in the 1 833 study of prophecy . In he began to S lecture on the econd Coming of Christ , and predicted the destruction of the world in 1 843 . He made many converts to his views , G in this country, in Canada, and in reat l Britain . They were called Mil erites . The ’ r prophet s p ediction of doom having failed , he made other dates for its consummation .

These failing also , the faith of many of his

followers weakened and numbers fell away. Yet he still remained regarded as a man of r deep sincerity , g eat intellectual ability, and

a devoted Christian , by a large body of

people . 1 846 di In , James White and his wife, ad ng certain tenets to the creed of the original S D Millerites , founded the eventh ay branch e of Adventists . At various times they mad

their headquarters at Paris , Maine , and S O aratoga, swego , and Rochester, in the S 1 855 tate of New York. In the year they B settled at attle Creek , Michigan, which, ac 1 Ie s. The main point s of doct rine t au ght by S D A et rt eventh ay dventists , as s fo h in their

: In literature , are as follows They believe the divine S onship of Jesu s Christ ; that the sev e nt h S S day, aturday , is the abbath of the Lord God ; that the keeping of Sunday is the a S m rk of the beast, the abbath having been iniquitously changed by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church ; that the beasts of the Apocalypse are to be identified with the s aid Catholic Church, and that by changing the day set apart for the observance of the S abbath they established the mark of their power ; that the observance of Sunday is that against which the terrible pronouncement is “ made In Revelation xiv : 9 -1 1 : An d the third angel followed them, saying with a loud I an voice, f y man worship the beast and his i mage , and receive his mark in his forehead , his t he or in hand, the same shall drink of o u t wine of the wrath of God, which is poured without mixture into the cup of his indigna t ion ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimst one in the presence of the L amb : and t he smoke of their t orment ascendeth up for AT THE CROSS - ROADS 2 3 ever and ever : and they have no rest day nor ni w ho ght worship the beast and his image , and whosoever receiveth the mark of his ” name . S D In addition to these things , eventh ay A dventists believe that their late leader, G w as Ellen . White , inspired in precisely the same w ay as were the writers of Holy Scrip ture ; that the Bible must be so interpreted as to harmonize absolutely with her writings ; S that all the great prophecies of cripture, except those relating to the end of the world, have already been fulfilled ; that all should pay tithes ; that all churches , save only the S D B eventh ay Adventist , constitute abylon and are spurned of God ; that they, and they alone, are called to give the last warning of approaching doom to mankind ; that this is ’ the very last hour of the world s history ; that the dead are unconscious , body and soul alike, hidin a g the great awakening ; th t the wicked, S nn together with atan, will be a ihilated ; that when Christ comes , for whose advent they are hourly waiting, only one hundred and forty four thousand of all people then living on this — planet will be saved and , of course , all these 24 THE GO LDE N RULE IN BUSIN E SS

in in These people believe , moreover, the S spiration of Holy cripture , in definite con in version , absolute temperance , in continence an d purity of life , and in other uplifting ideals common to all right -minded members

of society . There are a great number of excellent men

an d am women ong them , and while they have no fellowship with other religious commu n

ions , as far as possible , proselytize from all .

They are zealous and utterly sincere , both n i precept and practice , to the doctrine to

which they adhere .

Holding to the beliefs they do , it is not sur prising to find that S eventh D ay Adventists regard it as being contrary to their principles

i s to send their ch ldren to the public chools . as i In this , in other matters , they exh bit a I spirit of unbending cons istency . have per sonal knowledge of little groups of Advent ist s c , dotted up and down the ountry , so poor

as to be j ust about touching the poverty line , w ho in c , some way or other , ontrive to raise money to maintain what they describe as a AT THE CROSS - ROADS 2 5 other people would regard as an ordinary u man al of physical geography is not used, becau se it is looked upon as teaching infidel ity . Yet knowledge of the Bible "of its lit al er text, I mean", among the Adventists is simply extra ordinary . I have no hesi t an cy in stating that no body of Christians to be found anywhere in the whole , wide world can even begin to compare with them in this respect . Even the young children are more familiarized with the Holy S cripture

- than most grown ups of other sects . I have k nown more than one youngster, of twelve

a w ho ye rs or so , could have put the majority of preachers I have ever been privileged to meet, to complete confusion in a knowledge of the contents of the Bible .

In the days of my youth, the theological schoo l of the Seventh D ay Adventists was located at Battle Creek , Michigan . To that sc t hool I was sen , and when I had finished my study-course it w as said of me by some of t h en e elders that, in their judgment , if the tire te xt o f the New Testament shoul d be c . ome lost , I could replace it from memory e That, of course , is a pretty tall stat ment, and I must be permitted to deny ever having 2 6 THE GO LDEN RULE IN BUSINESS claimed the qualifications such an e xt rao rdi e n ary feat would entail . But this much I hav : D no hesitancy in saying id anyone , in those " n days , misquote a passage from the i g James Version of the New Testament in ul my hearing, I wo d detect it instantly . i s l Th s is no idle boa t , no hyperbo ic asser tion ; it is a statement of plain, indisputable — fact one of which I am justly proud . For if a man never learns another thing in his life , he should learn the New Testament ; and this I had been doing from my very earliest days . At the time when I completed my course at B S D A attle Creek , the eventh ay dventists had a school for ministers and missionaries in

D t . the city of etroi To this school , in which there were about twenty-fiv e young people “ prep aring to become be arers of the Third ’ ” M I w as in Angel s essage, sent as an ru t or A r t I st c . sho while after had entered he on my duties , t elder, who resided at the school in order t o keep a watchful eye on

2 8 THE GO LDE N RULE IN B USINESS

ds a great work , and scores , possibly hundre , had of men who , else , gone down into irre t riev able ruin, were by her Christly spirit and practical assistance saved to society and years di of better living . When she ed, the whole of i D — the rel gious world of etroit Protestant , e w ish— Catholic , J paid homage to the work and worth of a real friend of the fallen , to a great servant of God . To resu me : The young student and my self went to the service we had been invited

u to cond ct . After it had been concluded , ’ d A r amba : c l . Mother said to me Mr Nash ,

e ad this appears to be a dr q y busy world . e For some time , as you may know , I have b en an invalid ; and although many good and worthy people unite in supporting o u r insti ’ t u t ion they don t come in to see me very ’ et often , and I g awfully lonesome . Won t you try to arrange to come here , once in a r S while , and ead the criptures and talk "” with me ’ To this dear soul s request I very gladl y a h cceded , and for the next two or t ree months AT TH E CROSS - ROADS 2 9 passed t o a higher and larger sphere of

service . A few days after the death of this good w as woman, I engaged in class instruction in “ ’ the school , expounding the Third Angel s ” Message contained in Revelation xiv, de

scribing to the students what , according to the Adventist interpretation, the mark of the w as G beast , and what the seal of od , and how

- the one hundred and forty four thousand , w ho were to stand secu re from the otherwise

general condemnation upon the sea of glass , must be observers of the seventh day as the S L h abbath of the ord . W en I had finished t h hi s my lesson , e supervising elder rose in “ : place and said Brother Nash , I want to ask

you a question . In view of the exposition

you have just given the class , do you believe ’ ” d A rc a b a " that Mrs . m l can be saved The question hit me as would a blow

planted squarely between the eyes . Up to

a th t moment , possibly, I had never ventured on a really independent thou ght in the whole

course of my life . I had accepted and taken t n the question , put to me by that s er elder , t I into some sort of genuine mental ac ion . knew something of the worth of this woman ’ s rt life of service , of her great hea of sympathy I and love . knew of the hand of helpfulness she had stretched out to those w ho had ’ stumbled along life s j ourney, and had lost

t he w a . I y knew of her faith in God , and ,

s what is more , of her faith in the possibilitie for good surviving somewhere in the deeps of ’ even the worst of mankind . Mother d Ar a " cambal not s ved The thing was absurd , nk utterly unthi able . Every feeling within me “ revolted at the idea. S o I blurted out : I

want to ask you a question . Do you think "” Jesus Christ can be saved Now I suppose that w as a sho cking thing

to say in an Adventist school . It would be a not startling, if shocking, thing to say any ust where . Yet it m be remembered that I w as and but a youngster at the time , the phrase w as born out of the heartfelt indigna tion that swept over me at the suggestion of a soul like that which I knew had dwelt in ’ Mother d A rcamb al being consigned to per

dition , simply because of a question which , nl a in essence , relates o y to a weekly c lendar . AT THE CROSS - ROADS 3 1

But I had most cert ainl y flung a bombshell in our class that morning . The elder straightened himself up , and fixing me with “ his eye , replied , Young man, probably you ’ d A r a b a are not aware that Mrs . c m l once went down to Battle Creek , listened to the great truths of the Third Angel ’ s Message S from Elder White , Elder Uriah mith , and

ou r . other of great leaders , and rej ected them

IVIo re ov e r a in e x e ri , wh t right has a young, p e n ce d upstart like you to liken this woman to Jesus Christ " My immediate reply w as that I did know h a S . e had been to Battle Creek I knew, lso, that she had listened to expositions of Sev e nt h Day Adventist doctrine by the great n o t leaders of the Church , but did know she w as had rejected them . However , I so aroused that I did not even state that fact . I merely informed the elder that I did know w as that she had been to B attle Creek . I not looking for a w ay to dodge the issue I had raised . ’ e x eri Well, the upshot of that morning s p ence was , that the Conference Committee of 32 THE GO LDE N RULE IN BUSINESS w ho composed it were scat tered all ove r t he S e M n t w o o r tat of ichiga , and it required ’ n thre e days time to bri g them togethe r. During that period I kn ew not what sleep and un meant . I pondered pondered , til my B brain practically refused to function . ut I a e I before reached this mental imp ss , had ni u arr ived at a defi te ir revocable concl sion. i When the Committee finally met , its del ber

at io n s . I o were short, if not sweet went int the ro om where its members were gathered “ and sai d : Before you enter on a consider as I ation of my c e , have j ust a dozen words to say which will clear the atmosphere in bet ter fashion than t w o hours of cross : e xamin ation . They are these If people like ’ M b al o other d Ar cam are d omed to go to hell, ” - " I wan t to go with them. Good bye III

B IT T E R YE AR S

W O NDER ho w many of my readers have been called upon to pass through

an d an experience, as bitter as searching, as that I have endeavoured to describe in the " previous chapter Those w ho have will find themselves able to ex t end me a larger meas ure of symp athy and find themselves possess ing a clearer understanding of its character

w ho . e than those have not I beli ve , however ,

all e that most , if not , will in some m asure , at least , be able to appreciate the tremendous crisis it represented for me . The very ground on w hich I stood hitherto crumbled beneath my feet . Remember , that from my earliest infancy I had never heard or learned anyt hing of a r eligious character except the tenets and teachings of Advent O ism . n their validity, and my acceptance

S . of them , the authority of Holy cripture the verities of the Christian faith , the very fact G of od Himself, had turned . As I let go of I them, seemed, at the same time , to be let — ting go of every other thing human and M divine . y soul became a rifled chamber, robbed ruthlessly of its every treasure . E i u u - very laudable mp lse , an—d p reaching desire , died away in my heart died swiftly, as a soldier might die in the heat of battle , as a bullet crashes through his brain . The light in my spiritual firmame nt faded suddenly “ ” into the blackness of darkness ; my sun went down at high noon . The experience through which I passed is now but a memory , yet a memory which has never ceased to exert an influence on my atti

- l . O in tude toward my fel ow man nce a while , I come into contact with a man who is tread ing the same difficult and darkened pathways that were mine in the days with which I am w no deal ing . To such an one my heart goes how out , because I know utterly lost a man can feel when he finds himself suddenly be reft of everything on which his soul was

M I en there are , of whom have met thous

ands , who are making their way through life u ntrouble d by a single problem or quest ion

relating to spiritual things , or with anything

l t — wi l s ill hear the voice the warning, plead “ in — : T his g, condemning voice crying is the ” “ w a . c y, walk thou in it This is no all to the ” “ un converted I am now making no appeal ” t o sinners , but a plain statement of plain An d a . I f ct so , again say, my heart always in man beats sympathy with any who , having — —once had a vision no matter how misleading o f a s cred things , finds himself compelled to nl find—c n turn his face away, o y to onfusio ’ a t and chaos . That is s retch of life s j ourney, along which a man makes his way with bowed a head and bleeding feet . It is stretch I n I k ow well, for have trodden it with heavy hear t and bitter tears . To t hat Conference Committ ee appointed I d to investigate my heresy, talked rea ily a e no ugh bout being willing to go to hell . ll in a We , the days following my breakaw y h h dh d I t from t e beliefs of my c il oo , pre ty n nearly su ceeded in ge tting there . In a y a I had c se , a fairly good realistic rehearsal of be what its experiences are going to , for any it s soul that may eventually find way there . I left t he Adventist school in Detroit and ’ a I i n went b ck to my father s home in nd a a, re alizing that I had flung away every vestige BI TTER YEARS 37

e n of my faith and had b come an i fidel or, at

c . any rate , an agnosti I did my lev el best to run away from — a duty , faith , God and myself . My f ther strove earnestly with me to recant my

c u e heresy, to a knowledge my having t rn d T w o traitor to the faith of my childhood . prominent elders of the Adventist Chu rch added their pleading and argument to those I of my father , but turned a deaf ear to them all . For me , the lamp of faith had d spluttere out . I left my home in Indiana and took to the I w road. For four or five years andered o dd about the Middle West , doing jobs here O I and there . ften did go ragged and D s I hungry . uring tho e years , never cared t w o straws which w ay a freight train was I - headed when climbed into a box car, or what it was I did to keep body and soul to I gether. In a Michigan city carried a brick ’ ’ layer s labourer s hod ; in several Indiana towns I worked as a plasterer ; in a broom factory in southern Illinois ; now and again

- with a bridge construction gang. Seeking rest and finding none ; roaming hither and 38 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

s a t n I set nd ab ent from ny hi g to which my ha ,

I became veritably lost . All the while I endeavoured t o foster my t I hatred and re"ee ion of all religious belief. a P B I a re d Tom aine , ob ngersoll , and host of n other writers , i order to bolster up my con i t o a tempt for rel gion , and keep live within me the conviction that Christian belief of e y e r a n y kind was sheer imagin tive no sense , a possessing neither foundation , reason bleness A I l nor logic . s to what extent real y suc ceeded ul in fooling myself in these partic ars , I - i P cannot , to day, really determ ne . rob

. I see ably, not at all Looking backward, myself as I woul d see a drunkard or a dope r fiend, st iving to drown some incident of his past in whiskey or cocaine . I strove to lay a ghost which refused to be laid ; to blot o ut a memory that baffled all my efforts to climi die —I had r l nate it ; to , who an immo tal sou

- t o i . all good th ngs The mockery , the pain , all " the bitterness , the futility of it P I a w a D t resently m de my y back to etroi . n - The vast i dustries which , to day, form the a ct ivities of the Michigan city were then un BI TTE R YEARS 39 e rt y and suffering among the poor were very

a . D s cute istres prevailed on every hand . ’ My mind reverted to Agnes d Arcambal : I began to think of the good she would strive to be doing, were she still alive , and out of the thought grew a desire to do something to re lieve the misery which surrounded me on every side . how in Here, again, was evidence of the flu ence of a life given over to the service of

t o humanity continues exert its power, long after its owner has passed from the sphere of

. w as mundane things Here I , a man who for years had striven to drive out of my ken and remembrance the last recollection of every body and everyt hing of a worthy or enn obling nature , finding myself drawn back to the viewpoint of a servant of Jesus , looking with eyes of pity on the distressed and possessed —in by a desire to help the needy short , doub ling bac k on the unworthy motives I had striven desperately to foster, through a " stretch of arid, wasted years Yet so it was ; and thus spru—ng again into activity the—first humanitarian shall I say Christly im 40 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSI NE SS

With th e aid of some of the residents of the I city , was enabled to open a laundry which found employment for quite a number of the poor people who were without work , and almost without bread . The church people began to send us their business , and the con cern soon began to get under way . I was also able to get them to donate a carload of provisions for distribution among the neediest ’ n i of the city s residents . It was , I thi k , wh le engaged in this work , that I once more found Am myself . ong the shadows , I once more

. I caught a glimpse of light Here was , who for years had been railing against God and goodness , simply forced to the conclusion D that whether the eity existed or not , there — were good people in the world people who were not ashamed to confess that they fou nd their in ce ntive to aid their fellows in love for r t in Ch is , and in a belief the principles He

Looking back to this particular period in my life , I see myself in something of the same sit uation as the infidel of whom Mark Ruth erford tells . Rutherford relates how he once BITTER YEARS 4 1

h t h e in whic , if he had had making of it, he and could , would have made it better . He would have eliminated the shadows " Mark

Rutherford left the lecturer and his lecture , in order that he might think the matter H a through . e came to the conclusion th t the “ speaker w as on an utterly false track Per

fe ct l i i y un nterrupted, infinite l ght , uncrossed ” “ ah by any shadow , he mused , is a physical

surdity . I see a thing because it is lighted, —in because also of the differences in light ,

other words , because of the shade . Without un e ct le ss—in shade , the iverse would be obj i ” fact, inv sible . The great truth was wonderfull y illus t rat ed in my life du ring the experiences with w S o . which I am n dealing hadows , aplenty,

were all about me . To begin with , there was the shadow which enwrapped my own soul . s s To be ure , a few stray ray of light had un beg to creep in on the inner darkness , but ,

at the time , they were only rays . Then, there were the shadows which physical distress and

- short commons were flinging all over the city.

And there were others . Yet the truth of the old proverb that st rat ed w as hi in hi , for it w le engaged t s relief work that I met what I am in the habit of n calling my Third A gel . The first was my ’ mother ; t h e sec ond w as Agnes d Arcamb al ;

w s the third as my wife . "It will be een that I w as destined never to escape the Third Angel o f " S w as part my early teaching " he , at this Y a . . . A. time , superintendent of W C board ing scho ol. We were married in the follow ‘ ing spring . The woman I chose for my life -partner was s posse sed by a strong, robust faith . Her w as w as spiritual vision not impaired , as my own , by the glare an—d glitter of sordid things . The pure in heart and onl the pure in — y heart do see God. My association with her began to have an altogether uplifting and enheartening influen ce on my earth -wearied ffi t . spiri The work was slow and di cult , yet it w as always headed in the right direction . n c Eventually, she convi ed me that all my n l - an d a I fi e y spun theories , wh t deemed - in sledge hammer arguments , were , reality, t n a not again st Chr is ia ity itself, but against d misapprehension an misinterpretation of it .

had t chin men n . I been wa g , and ignori g Jesus The frailties and failures of humanit y had

. I I my life The active ministry left , sup — a t . e pose, for the l s time Yet to anticipat —I events am , today, addressing larger audi e nce s and filling more church appointments “ by ten- fold than in the days when I was one

t he . B of cloth ut that time had not , as yet , arrived . Nor had the vision of the work I w as one day to take up as yet been vouchs afed I me . turned back to commercial life , but O without an y bitterness in my heart . ne n a h s —I e y, two t ing learned during my s cond “ min t hi um is erial term, w ch I have never st r l learn ed . They ill form part of my u e of h e the in life . T first is realization that the spiration for effective Christ ian servic e is a n — real , livi g, vibrant love for Jesus His i s i a H s . ide ls , companion h p , His purposes “ The second is to always remember that o u r ” one j ob and ourselves are . Some of my readers may recall the st ory of the workman employed on the building of c d one of the great English athe rals . Day

- after day, during his dinner hour, his fellow ‘ workmen found him seated close to the o flice of works , gazing at a coloured sketch hung be on one of its walls . When some of them rated him for not bein g sociable and mixing BI TTE R YEARS 45

in, during the noon recess , the old man with a “ u i : curio s l ght in his eyes , replied No , fel ’ lows, you are wrong about that . That s not ’ a the re son I ve got for sitting here day after . ’ o nl - day. I m y an old mortar mixer on this mix job , as you all know ; but it helps me to my mortar better when I see what a beau t ifu l ’ ” bu ilding I m w o rking ou f That should be the spirit of every man w h o is engaged in any sort of work that is worth the doing

Fo r n o t e w he n e v e n in s h u t s , g , A c e rt ain mo me n t c u t s

Th e d e ed o calls t he lo r rom t he re fi, g y f g y A w hisp e r fro m t h e w e st h d he re s t S oo t s A d t his t o t , Take it a n d t ry it s w o rt h : he re die s a no t he r " da y . IV HOW IT ALL B E GAN

N a 1 909 I the ye r , took up my residence m O in Colu bus , hio , and started to manu ’ l facture men s clothing, to sel to the

u public direct . My business flo rished right from the start . Pret ty soon I had a dozen s I alesmen out on the road, and began to

. B 1 91 3 make money y the year , my concern was standing pretty solidly on its feet . Then c a me the disastrous flood and I , together with many another man , found myself practically wiped out. A I t t fter this setback , resolved to se le in

Cin cinn ati . I was pretty close to the wall in s —so n I had t o those day close , i deed, that obtain permission from my merchandise cred it o rs t c fin d to move my s o k , and to security for a note of seven hundred dollars I owed I in d ank . my b However , got started , cont ue to make steady progress for three years , and

1 91 6 . in June , , The A Nash Company was n had orga ized , with a capital of We HOW IT ALL BEGAN 4 7

oflice an , cutting rooms , and a stock of goods . W e cut the garments and farmed them out to be made u p . Meanwhile the World War continued its frightful work of devastation, and , as any reasoning human being could see , this coun u n w e try was s rely, if slowly, drifting i to it , f made no e fort to develop the plant , electing to wait until the great stru ggle should be ended .

At this time The A . Nash Company was one of the smallest concerns in Cincinnati . w e As I have just intimated , had no factory of our own . We had our place of business in

“ flo or the Power Building, and furnished h space to a man w o had j oined up with us , and who made our garments under contract . A short while after the Armistice was con “

. cluded, this man came to me and said , Mr N ash , I have heard nothing of my mother and sisters since the outbreak of the w ar . I want to go back to Europe . Will you buy my shop "” ” “ u i Yes , I replied , nder those cond tions I for the first time his pay-roll came into my a - hands . Concerning this s me pay roll I want e r c tain facts borne in mind . During the time A merica was engaged in the World War , bu siness conditions in the clothing line in the city of Cincinnati were decidedl y poor . Very few large government contracts were o b t ained by any of the firms located there , and no civilian clothes in any quantity were being l bought , simply because all our young fel ows t a were expec ing, almost daily , to be c lled upon to don the uniform of Uncle S am . So W low orkers were on the old , wage scale , when

I took over this business. An ul i other fact sho d be borne in m nd ,

w e namely, that the shop bought was literally a - - al sweat shop , and that sweat shops are ways made up of inefficient workers who can n ot get a j ob in a high grade shop . Wages ns run in what are known as i ide shops , by

s r r the factorie themselves , always sta t whe e the sweat - shop wages leave o ff thus the wages that were being paid in this shop at the w b e c o n fu sed time e took it over, must not with the wages paid in the inside sho ps of the large clothing manufacturers of Cincinnati . In t his shop were two workers that part icu HOW IT ALL BEGAN 49

larl . O w as y attracted my attention ne a tall, f digni ied old lady, close on to eighty years of age, who pulled out bastings and sewed on

r w as buttons. The othe a little hunchback a who ran a m chine . Both were on this pay r oll at a week . Workers possessing a little more ability than they were supposed to

an d possess , were receiving The highest- paid woman in the shop w as drawing “ ” The presser s and skilled men were S w as getting a week . uch the char acter of the wage - scale handed to me when n The A . Nash Company became ow ers of their o w n factory . I looked at that pay-roll and saw instantly that something stood between it and myself . It was the Golden Rule that recently I had been doing a good deal of talking about . I called my eldest son into conference and said “ ” - No w u L . to him, ook at that pay roll it m st be remembered t hat the boy w as just back from a soul -racking experience on the battle

o w as fields f Europe ; that , as a result, he in

wretched health, and had not, as yet, begun to

look at these matters as I had myself . “ ” " he Well , what of it he asked, as scanned 50 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

I n w . Y n Just this , a s ered ou have bee with me in some of the meetings where I have r talked recently, in behalf of Libe ty Loans , and you know something of the firm convic tion that has spru ng up in my heart concern ing what this world can become if we really live out the Golden Rule . Do you think that holding such a conviction that I can go into t S that shop nex aturday , and hand these people pay-envelopes with any such wages in t hem as that sheet indicates "” “ What else can you do my son retorted . I ’ f you don t, you knock yourself clean out . Your s is the same scale of wages that is being paid in all similar shops , and if you want to u keep your end p, there is nothing you can do ” e —a but st ick to it . Nor was ther t least it looked that way just then . I went home an d discussed the situation M ’ i . w th my wife y boy s argument , taken at

it s . face value , was sound enough We were closing our fis cal year showing a loss of Our original investment of w as shown by a recently taken invent ory to

52 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINE SS

racy . Now I am going to do a bit of talking ou to y . First, I want you to know that B rotherhood is a reality with me . You are all my brothers and my sisters , children of the same great Father that I am , and entitled to all the j ustice and fair treatment that I wan t for myself . And so long as we run thi s u shop , [which to me meant three or fo r in I am months longer"God be g my helper , going to treat you as my brothers and sisters , and the Golden Rule is going to be our onl y

l aw . h governing W ich means , that whatever I ul in wo d like to have you do to me , were I ” I No w your place , am going to do to you . , I went on , not knowing any of you person I as ally , would like you to raise your hands

I call you r names .

I a w as re d the first name . Under it writ te n : Se win ou bu t t ons er w e k g p e . I o a l oked str ight before me at the little group , but saw no hand . Then I looked to my right , saw t o and there the old lady I have referred , HOW IT ALL BEGAN 53

n in the circumsta ces , I would want someone

her a b e to do for . I h rdly knew what to say , cause I w as aware that when I went into the s hop , that after agreeing to stand all of the loss entailed by the liquidation of the com a p ny, I could not go too far in raising wages . It seemed to be my obvious duty to salvage something for the boys w ho were coming s home from military ervice, and for the B u t daughter just entering the university .

a saw nl as I looked at that old l dy, and o y my “ ’ : I mother, I finally blurted out don t know ’ what it s worth to se w on buttons ; I never

s . ewed a button on But your wages , to begin ”

l . w as with , wi l be per week That a

3 0 0 0 7 raise . The next name on the list was l that of the ittle hunchback , whose wages were the same as those of the aged worker . But I had established a precedent and so had

0 d to give her a 3007 increase also . An so I r - went on , th ough my entire wage sheet, right

- - up to the a week pressers , whose sal aries I increased to Let it be borne in mind that I was not 54 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSI NESS

S i I meant , that every aturday n ght , would be taking just so many dollars as the increased - off pay roll demanded , the value of the farm I w as B I proposing to buy . ut had reached n in I u n a poi t in my think g where felt , that less I w as prepared to sacrifice every bit of I had in l laudable idealism my sou , the thing be o u had got to g ne t hro gh with . Having so far settled matters with my conscience and

I u fo r sense of equity , began to look aro nd m B r my far . eyond exercising some so t of I a at general oversight , ce sed to pay much be tention to the clothing business . Yet I m i ca e aware that, unm stakably, sales were w as a picking up . This bec use our soldier z an d boys were being demobili ed , a demand i for civilian clothing accompan ed the proc ess . t t I a Jus at his time , received news that very dear friend of mine w as in serious finan a diffi w as ci l cul ties . He a man on whom I

e s t the highest value . He had a noble wife and t w o lovely daught ers about the age of ow n w as c my girl , and he fa ing bankruptcy . HOW IT ALL BEGAN 5 5

— bookkeeper to find out how mu ch re ady

a money I could comm nd . What the book keeper told me held me in absolu te aston

e t w as n o u t ishm n . I simply astou ded to find “ ’ a ‘ V h at s how much money w e had on h nd . v "” “ going on here I asked . Are you selling "” goods by the yard “ ” ’ o u No , she answered , but don t y know w e are doing almost three times the amount of business w e were doing at this time last year "” “ — a No , I do not never dre med such a " H ow thing . is it being done Where are you getting the garments made "” “ I think they are making them in the “ ’ shop , my bookkeeper answered . I ve had no bills sent to me for outside work . ‘ “ That shop w as running to full capacity ” “

w . when e bought it , I said Have you " bought a lot of extra machin es No ; she had seen no bills for machines “B either . ut we are doing the business just m the same, she returned, and the oney is coming here , and we are depositing it in the k ” ban .

After the help had gone , I went down into 56 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSI NE SS

’ "” I What s going on here asked . ” W h — n c y nothing, she a swered , ex ept ’ that we re making a lot of clothes . “ The bookkeeper tells me you are making thr ee times as many clothes as when we took ” the shop over . Is that a fact " “ ’

I . I t is don t know the figures , she went n w e on, but I do k ow are actually producing merchandise at less cost than before you in

o f . creased the wages the help Take , for a e s in stance , that old l dy whose we kly alary you increased 30070 You should come in

. S sometime and take a peep at her omehow, her poor , old, crippled fingers have got lim e d o b re up , a l ok of youth has come into her o f eyes , and she is doing twice the amount work she ever did before . “ B hin in ut the biggest t g of all this shop , “ c n she onti ued , is the case of the skilled help , ti e e i lo afin who , at one m , wer s mply g on the ’ e and j ob . They ve got busy lat ly are show n ing u s all how t o get work do e . The gar HOW IT ALL BEGAN 57

I hardly think I can , she replied . "” W hy t Well, for one thing, the s ory would have to include some talk that possibly you ’ wouldn t care to hear . “ ’ e Don t mind m . Please go right on and tell me . I have heard some rather peculiar talk at one time and another . Just relate ” what has happened . “ w as : A Well, it something like this fter you left the shop on the day you announced

w e all your intention of raising wages , stood around for a few moments looking rather lit helplessly at each other . Presently the — — tle Italian presser you know hinb blurt ed ‘ ’ ’ o ut : n " Well, I ll be dam ed

We all looked at him, and after a min ’ ‘ ute s silence he went on : Whatever this G h ’ olden Rule t ing is I don t know, but what

Mr . Nash told us was that all he wanted us to do was to work just as w e woul d want him to work if we were up in the office paying wages , and he was back here doing the work . n w as Now I k ow, if I the boss and would come in and talk to the workers as he did, and ’ r I d aise wages like he has, want every one to 58 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSIN ESS

’ There " said the forelady. That s about

t e al l there is to it . Our people just caught h drift of Tony ’ s idea and went ahead in the ’ ’ o spirit of it . That s why we ve trebled ur ’

. I l output If I talked for a week , cou dn t ” tell you any more . I Nor can I . That is how it all began . n a very short time we found ourselves unable to handle the volume of business which began to

all pour in. I soon lost interest in the pur chase o f that farm and begun to have a vision of the possibility of becoming a genuinely Christian man in the world of comm erce and I industry . desire to be implicitly believed I when state , that were it not for this vision , li I ul this possibi ty , co d never have brought B myself to remain in the business world . ut the foregleams of coming day had shone in t i upon me, and I de erm ned to utilize every means compatible with an adoption an d oper ation of the Golden Rule to demonstrate the fact that , in the twentieth century of the

h era C ristian , the principles laid down by

z u Jesus of Na areth in the first , co ld be made

60 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

e t hat would say, and t ll me , if you think is Christianity " Those nations w ho are at each ’ o r t wo e xce ther s th oats are , with one or p

all n . tions , , nominally, Christia nations Can n ot the religion they profess , and which you a a do a n t o pre ch and te c—h , nythi g put an end to this tragedy t he most awful thing the — world has ever known while almost the e n t ire heathen world plays the part of spec " ’ tator What s wrong with Christianity that renders it powerless in this awful hour of "” world- wide need N dl e ee ess to say, none of them ver gave an n e t a me a swer that amount d o nything . I e t t o The men put my qu s ion were worried, ’ sim l didn t kno w at perplexed, and p y wh fi er A e—a reply to o . nd what is mor lthough I a , in my arrogance, ssumed the role of ques

t io ner I n r l . Yet , had no a swe myse f , as the facts alread y set down in this n arrative indi at I ou h t as c e , g t to have known j us well as a had I a n nybody else . For not been st ude t o f he B an d i o f a t ible , of the writ ngs its ant g onist s all " , virtually my days THE GR EAT DISCOVERY 6 1

n ow diversion , as I see it . But there was one minister in Cincinn ati w ho appeared to be lli quite wi ng to face the situation, grave and r w as bewilde ing as it . Evening after even ul ing, he wo d come and sit with me on my i w ar . porch, and d scuss the terrible Orf s : e day he urprised me by saying Mr . t Nash, I have a boy abou to be graduated from the university, and I have been asked to t t ake some part in he exercises . Which means I shall be compelled to be away from my pulpit on a Sunday about t w o months " hence . Will you take my place “Wh at on earth are you talking about "” I replied . “ I mean just exactly what I am saying, “ he rej oined . I want you to occupy my pul

r . pit, and I will select you subject for you G an d o over tell my people what, in—your opinion, is the matter with religion with

Christianity . “ Well, if I do, I answered sarcastically, — ’ you c an depend on one thing you ll have ” no congregation to meet you on your return . “ ’ “ I ll risk that , my friend returned Will you consent to do it "” LN " 62 THE GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS o f a a challenge , more th n for any other rea I I son , agreed to do what had been asked . Just as I began to prepare what in my pride of spirit I imagined woul d be a t remeu dous assault on the citadel of the Christian faith , I received word that my eldest boy , who had gone over to Europe with the

a C an dians , had been seriously wounded at m in Vi y Ridge , and was lying unconscious a hospital in England. In addition , my young

u est lad , caught p by the spirit of the time , S had j oined the United tates Marines . The reading of that cablegram acted as a sort of solar plexus blow on my pride and self

ffi I e su cie ncy . had accepted this challeng ll it —in we , to say the least of no spirit of An d - l . humi ity yet , here was I , heart broken t r at the fa e which had ove taken my boy, and think ing of hundreds of thousands of other gallant fellows who were pouring out their “ - life blood in France and Flanders . This is no fittin g time to get up in a chu rch pul pit ” o ff and shoot a lot of nonsense , I said to THE GREAT DISCOVE RY 63

So I started to find out . I went down to the library—any amount of articles were cur at r t rent that time purpo ing to show—that Christianity w as an arrant failure and began to read up . And my reading soon brought me to see one great, stark , outstand

: who ing fact That what all the writers , were so eagerly rushing into print were attacking and finding fault with w as not Christianity at " “ all , but the lack of it Christianity had not failed, simply because Christianity had not t yet been tried . "uite a number of smar phrase - makers sought to annex credit for t he invention of that phrase during the World

War, each of whom had stolen it . Yet there was a tremendous proportion and element of truth in it , just as there had been away back in the early years of the eighteenth century, flin when the sco g atheists of those worthless , godless days , flung it in the teeth of the pro fessed followers of Jesus . In the individual had life of many a saint of God it been tried, s and never once , when earnestly and incerely tried , been found to fail .

But of adoption in any national, or, so far u ni asthe Christian Church was concerned, 64 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS st at e ment is as u nchallengably t ru e at the ver hou r in which I am ennin hese lines y p g t , as in the days when the epigram w as regarded as being quite the proper thing to lisp and “ ” n s icker, by the wits and the witless of the

c f - salons London o fee houses and Paris , as t f - hey snapped their snu f boxes , and strutted t heir way down to a well - deserved and u nlift ing oblivion . To be sure , the voice of the

P a a rophet of N zareth is he rd , today , above a the b bble and clamour of men and markets , with more distinctness than in any previous

Y u bst an h . s era of the C ristian centuries et , t iall ul i l y, the shamef ndictment sti l stands ,

and to it the Church , together with the world , “ ” must ent er a plea of Guilty " But to get back to my o w n case : As a man a an A s I M a ine d I re red dventi t, g knew somet hing about the S criptures ; so I went b ack to the old Book an d began to acquaint myself afre sh with t h e teachings of the Gali a o I e l ean . Very s on realiz d that I was read n had I i g in a fashion I never read before . n

other days I read to prove a theory, searching THE GR EAT DISCOVE RY 65

l w as t real y that Jesus sough to establish, what o t teach , what , if anything , to condemn . There were quite a fe w surprises in store m i for me . A ong other things , I d scovered my hitherto preconceived notion that Jesus uttered words of sharp censure and bold con demn at io n concerning the religion of His ac r e , to be utterly unfounded . What He did

r t condemn , what did call fo h His scathing w as denunciation, the atmosphere of formal ity which permeated the nation ’ s worship of

Jehovah , and the note of insincerity which made discord of what shou ld have been a note i saw of praise . Time and aga n, I how He was continually pointing out the claims of the law and the precepts of the prophets , and how appallingly those about Him were violating the one , and turning a deaf ear to the other . “ i ” I have not come to destroy your rel gion, ff “ He said in e ect , but to teach you how to l fulfil its requirements , and to conform to ” w as its demands . That the substance of Christ ’ s message to the people of His own

day . An d then, just as naturally as the action nl of su ight , I began to ponder the question lads who were daily laying down their lives " on the reddened battlefields of Eur ope I turned to see what Jesus had to say about a question like that , and found that He had e v ry little to say . I found that His chief con cern was the establishment of the principles of t he "ingdom of God on eart h . Yet I — came upon this one great solacin g word a word He gave to those who were striving to follow Him when Calvary was already fling n i i g its cr mson shadows about Him, when He W ho h ad done no wrong was about to endure “ the poignant agonies of the Cross : Let not : Go d your heart be troubled ye believe in , ’ believe also in me . In my Father s house are many mansions : if it were not so I woul d have told you . I go to prepare a place for

o An d I y u . if go and prepare a place for I you , will come again, and receive you unto I be myself ; that where am , there ye may ’ also . That was Jesus message , and the I I more read of His teaching, the longer h I be searc ed His sayings , the more surely

ract i came convinced that it represented , p r cally , all the revelation He ever gave conce n ing the life that stretches away beyond the one that is bounded by earth and Time.

68 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

and His righteousness , and all these things [temporal blessings of every sort"shal l be ” “ added unto you . The kingdom of God cometh not by observation : Neither shall they " 10 say, Lo , here or , there , for behold the ” kingdom of God is within [among"you . And as a climax to His teaching in which He pictured the great kingdom , He enj oined men to pray for it , to work for its establish “ and — ment in the earth, therefore because it is what I stand for ; because of the beatitudes I m proclai , because i—t is imperative for the k t here ore all t hin s welfare of man ind f , g what soever ye w ou ld t hat men shou ld do t o

ou do e e ven so t o t hem : or t his is t he law y , y f ” n h ro het a d t e p p s. As I read that twelfth verse of the seventh

M t u chapter of at hew, the light of its tr e meaning broke in upon my soul for the first time in my life . I laid down my Bible and “ s l aid , The on y thing that is wrong with Christianity is that we are not giving it a i trial . We are using it as someth ng to talk a S S in bout , unday after unday , as someth g to

s sing and to pray about , to listen to minister THE GREAT DISCOVE RY 69

mm nl tions , co unities , individuals , were o y living by the great principle which, glibly G enough , has come to be called the olden ul Rule , what a different world this earth wo d " ul be Then , indeed , wo d the glorious con summation be realized—Heaven would veri ’ l tably come to earth, and the Father s wi l be done among men, even as it is done in ” Heaven . I Well, that is what discovered during the hardest W eeks of study I ever put in in my ’ I an d life . went occupied my friend s pulpit, as I had promised to do . But the address I w as made , bore no resemblance to the one it in my mind and intention to deliver when I w as f consented to do so . It a very di ferent — kind of thing o f that everybody may rest —a assured . It contained but one plea plea for the establishment of the "ingdom of God accom in the hearts of men . With that

lished p , the work of their hands would take care of itself, resolving itself, simply and naturally , into an outward expression of the indwelling spirit of the blameless Christ, W hose work and mission was to uplift and save mankind . V I'

A' N EARLY TRIBUTE

HE adoption and application of the principles of the Golden Rule in busi n li ess, which adoption and app cation are shown in these pages to be not only alt ru ist icall a m y and idealistic lly, but co mercially n an d ul t at sou d successf , have attrac ed the tention of people in every avenue of our na t i o n al life . Not only has it earn ed the respect of co mmercial men and institu tions but of the c i hurches and church organizat ons . I 1 921— n the year The A . Nash Company has made some tremendous strides since then — ns S Rev. F . Ernest Joh on , ecretary of the Commission on the Church and S oc ial S er ic o f he al t h e v e , t Feder Council of Churches o f in A l Christ merica , wrote the fo lowing unsolicited article regarding our aims and a I ull ct ivities . very gratef y appreciate the worth of such testimony and signify my AN EARLY TRIB UTE 7 1

i i n of i Mr beginn ngs ; the days wh ch . Johnson

w e e x eri writes were in the elementary, p

. still mental stage We are experimenting . B u t our most severe crit icg w ho ev er he be —is h may bound to confess t at, in the ul spirit of the Golden R e , The A . Nash Company has done quite a little bit of fo rg ing ahead .

A concern which celebrates a period of nation-Wide depression and a tumbling mar

o u t ket by expanding its quarters , increasing put and raising wages comm ands the interest of everybody . And when it is learned that the owner of that bu siness attribut es this suc cess to his acceptance of th e Christian doctrine of the brotherhood of man the matter becomes all the more arresting. I once heard a Chr istian employer say t hat while he w as satisfied a man coul d be a Chris b tian and su cceed in usiness , he doubted if he could make as much money as if he discarded O t his religion. f similar impor was the state ment of a T ammany official in New York w ho City, , when asked how he squared his a i a 1s a seri ous an c p . On the whole probably the Golden Rul e do es not produce the biggest profits in com

et i iv e p t business or professional life . The colossal fortunes in this country were not am assed by strict regard for the S ermon on the Mount . But when a man is not engaged in mere commerce , but in the business of pro duction, where his success depends on the will ing co - operation of a host of wage f earners , being a Christian has quite a di fer A A ent significance . t least the story of The .

Nash Company, clothing manufacturers of

n i . Cincin ati , so ind cates ’ Ar thur Nash s prime interest in business is that of a man w ho is seeking first the "ing I dom of God . t must be granted , therefore , that his establishment is not typical . He has not the ordinary concern of a manufacturer r for profits . Yet the impo tant thing about h ad his enterprise is , that if he set out to make the most money possible in manufact uring

ul hit clothes , he co d scarcely have upon a more profitable method than his Christianity led M him to . r . Nash believes that there is a law of business and of indus try which is j ust as AN EARLY TR IBUTE 73

l aw — inexorable as the moral which , in fact , is law the moral . In other words , he regards the hu man factors in life and work as p ara mount and the economic factors subordinate thereto . In a competitive market he believes brotherly co - operation will w in out in c o mpe t ition wit h co m e tit ion p . As over against the

u I economic determinists , so numero s today,

would call Mr . Nash a moral determinist . To him the chief actual requirement of success is G to keep the olden Rule . “ There is really very little to this concern ” r t a at all , one of the depa ment he ds told me , “except the fact that the workers all know ” they are getting a square deal . The plant has thus far been small enough for direct democratic government—like that Mr of the New England town meeting . [ . Johnson is writing of the year When

Mr . Nash wants the workers to decide a mat ter of concern to them he calls a meeting as a a father woul d assemble a family . A bit p — t e rn alist ic perhaps the whole plant is in that

stage . But there is nothing in his theory or his attitude toward the workers that shoul d that labour unions are indispensable as a a he guar ntee of rights to the workers , but thinks that ideally these rights should be as f sured in a di ferent way. He has stated the matter thus : “ I am opposed to the open shop movement , although The A Nash Company is not u m So ionized . long as the present avaricious organizations of capital continue I can con ceiv e of no worse condition of abj ect servitude i A than for labour to be unorgan zed . t the I ff n last meeting of my help o ered a resolutio ,

w as a n which p ssed u animously, that we would make no clothes for the firm fighting the u nion and that w e woul d look with dis favour on the employee taking the place of a union striker . This shows the attitude of our

company . “ An N a open shop , as the ation l Chamber o f c Commer e sees it , or a closed shop as the i rt n un ons see it , is no pa of the solution of i du st rial in t problems, and heir fight they trample under foot the principles that would ” solve their problems . Three things stand out as of first impor ’

n . N . t ta ce in Mr ash s enterprise Firs , the w ay in which he approached it and assumed

- new wage scale Mr . Nash told the employees that he proposed to follow the Golden Rule and asked of them onl y that they should gov m ern themselves by the same standard . Fro that moment the entire establishment w as on I a new basis . nstead of failing, the concern began to succeed as never before The em ploye e s were apparently actuated by motives w entirely ne . They were getting a square deal and the industry meant something t o them personally for the first time . With it

w he had their n e fortunes were bound up . T v something at stake ; they had , like the own ers , a vested interest in the concern . Then, u ns too , they experienced a very h man respo e

o t a human appeal . They began to enj oy the

h -o t rill of c o peration . Production increased D one thousand per cent . in one year . uring al 1 920 - the first h f of , with the post war de v u i pression falling hea ily pon the ndustry, A did The . Nash Company more business than in all the previous year . Even in those — N 1 920 terrific months July to ovember, ’ the Nash Company s production st eadily in u creased . The cons mer was safeguarded in t as respect to price and quali y, were the em ’ l ee s M o . s s p y in respect to wages , and r Na h AN E AR LY TR IBUTE 7 7

customers kept on buying . He took larger

a quarters , turning to ccount an abandoned whiskey distillery and increasing his working force six hundred per cent . from among his ’ employees friends , without advertising for

n o w a . help . Just he is expanding gain This

- time , it is the bottling works of a one time famous brewery that is being transformed into a Golden Rule factory . Of course there is no general agreement among Christian business men as to j u st what the Golden Rule means in terms of wages and S profits . hould the return of capital be six , seven or eight per cent " What is the govern " ing principle H o w shall profits beyond this “fair return” be disposed of " Should they be divided equally between employer and um workers , or should the cons er receive a " part in reduced price Perhaps any part icu lar arrangement is arbitrary and possibly the Nash plan should be regarded as an explora tion into the uncharted areas of industrial u n ethics . But the spirit and purpose of his de rt aking are of deepest import and the re su lt s seem to be quite u nprecedented . business . When first he proposed the sharing his i of profits employees repl ed , with not a little wisdom , that they would take theirs in B a a wages . ut the w g e dvance did not keep

M . N up with profits , and r ash was troubled “ by the money he w as making out of other ’ ” men s labour . He approached the workers again and they agreed to take fifty per cent . of the profits afte r capital had been allowed i seven per cent . Even th s arrangement in a highly successful business may easily make a

. B M fortune for the owners ut r . Nash takes the stewardship idea very seriously . He puts his profits into expansion of the business and continues to live simply and to get his satis faction in constantly increasing the range of u his application of the Golden R le . He be liev es that profits on the goods he manu fac m e tures should be li it d , and his prices are calcul ated to yield but one dollar on a suit of i clothes. Thus he feels that he is socializ ng st the indu ry , by paying more than usual

a his wages , making business p rtners of work ers , keeping down prices to the consumer , and applying the surplus to the most useful ends possible—the progressive extension of the AN EAR LY TR IBUTE 79

The third outstanding feature of this e n

;t erprise has to do with the attitu de and mutual relations of the workers , following the

adoption of the Golden Rule . When pro fit s w as haring adopted, the plan proposed by

Mr . Nash provided for distributing the prof

w a its o u the basis of wages paid . He s aston ishe d t o , therefore , receive presently a peti tion signed by the employes receiving more

e than sixty dollars a we k , asking that the division be on the basis of time worked rather

than wages drawn .

- t The higher paid workers , herefore, on their o w n motion thus relinquished their claim to a considerable sum of money in

- order that the lower paid workers , whose

w as need greater, could be better provided

for . Moreover, Mr . Nash thought that no one should be allowed to participate in the pro fit - sharing w ho had not been em ployed in the factory for six months . He pointed out that an employe had been known ew to remain only a f weeks , leaving soon

after the bonus w as paid . This he considered unfair to the others . But his employes con l n "eepi ng W 1 e pr1n 0 1p e Rule to assum e the most genuine and above board motives of every person employed in the factory. When the salesmen in the field began to u rge that the prices of suits of clothes should M be advanced , r . Nash called his fellow workers together to determine the part the Golden Rule was to play in the matter o f - xin w as price fi g. It agreed that the con sumer should be a party to its operation , and the prices at which goods were to be sold fixed

. m in view of this conclusion Thus , at a ti e when suits of clothes were selling at anywhere from fifty to one hundred dollars a suit , The Nash Company was selling direct to the con sumer at prices ranging from sixteen dollars

-ni M e and fifty cents to twenty ne dollars . or a recently, after a special w ge adj ustment to absorb existing profits had been made , it was found there was still a substantial su rplus on every suit of clothes sold . The workers thereupon decided that half of this profit should be given to the consumer in the shape i s — i of ncreased value in good tr mmings , and

When u nemployment reached serious pro t h portions las autumn , the Nas employes AN EARLY TR IBUTE 8 1 placed before their president a most unusual

request . They asked that the company , if it e were possibl , secure enough business to fur nish employment to the j obless clothing work

ers of Cincinnati . They even volunteered t o c ac ept a wage cut if necessary, and, if that ’ would not meet the case, to take a four weeks vacation so that needy workers might be em

ployed in their places . There can only be one valid opinion about any system that liberates generous im pul ses — in this fashion that it represents an epochal d achievement in in ustry and proves , more

G . over, the workableness of the olden Rule

It is more than t w o years ago since this a article was written , and the dat on which it is based were brou ght together some time

previously. It is , therefore , a quite early wi co account of what I , together th my I workers, set out to do . As intimated at the

w e commencement of this chapter, have made 1 great advan ces since the year 1 92 . But our development is precisely alon g the lines de VII ALIAS HATTI E CLAR" HE following story of her experience of a two weeks stay in the Nash Clothing Fact ory was written by Ruth e Su ccess Whit Colton , and appeared in

M S 1 922 . s agazine for eptember , It appear here by permission of t he publishers of that magazine . It is a genuine picture of condi M n tions as rs . Colton fou d them and not a mere piece of impressioni stic j ournalism . Its lies recisel in t his act value p y f , and earns for it its place in this story of t he Golden Rule

O C ' S n board the ati pecial, M 1 7 1 922 . ay , Twenty odd years of

a on human f mily has be en strugglin g. This c v ict io n w as and is based upon the premise that ’ o u s t God s law given to man thr ugh Jes Chris , is alone the et e rn all y sur e foun dation upon “ which to build . Do unto ot her s as ye would t hat they should do unto yo u . For this is the ” l aw and the prophets . This law is as potent today as it w as when Jesus gave it to man and is as applicable to industrial problems as t o any social or religious question ; an d t o his determination to conduct this little t ailoring w M la . shop upon the , r Nash alone ascribes the extraordinary growth of his organization . For during these three and one~ half ye ars admittedl y t he most turbulent in the histo ry of one of the most t roublesome industries in

— - - the world the one time shop of twenty nine workers is now employing over 2000 people and is occu pying what u sed to be one of the

n t he c u no w largest breweries i o ntry, con vert ed into a c lothing fact ory . All t his with out strikes o r dist u rban ces of any sort but with incr easingly improved c onditions for both employer and employed , and inciden t ally a growing confidence and sat isfaction

upon the par t of the consumer . An d now at last here I am going as fast as ALIAS HATTIE CLAR " 8 5

extra fare trains can carry me , to find out if “ possible , what the Company thinks and feels about it all ; and the only w ay I know how to do this , is to be one of the Company. Ruth White Colton of more or less acquire L 5 63 ments , is going to bed in ower , Car ,

bound for Cincinnati , but it will be Hattie — Clark unknown, jobless , with twenty dol

lars in her pocket , who will beg a job at the G ul olden R e Factory tomorrow morning. What answer will she find " m That answer, whatever it is , she eans to set down fa—irly and honestly as fast as it comes to her the truth and the whole truth .

1 41 9 S 1 8 . Elm treet , May Look long and humbly upon the above ad dress for it represents my first and perhaps — ’ greatest triumph a ho me " And don t im ag — Y . . ine that it w as easily achieved . W C . A “all full ” —miles upon miles of imposing

m i fiau n t in roo ng houses , g inviting signs , only to dampen one ’ s enthusiasm with “all taken”

when one makes inquiry . And then, at last t n So t n and his proprie or, a you g u her boy, “ ” litt le Wife who call s me Honey - are host h s o f a . I I c e and ho tess the bode may, if oos , I do light housekeeping. have bought me a re d and white tablecloth and go now to the ten cent store for a coffee pot , cup and saucer . W hat more could heart desire " And all of this time I haven ’ t told you that I have a "OB "

A n e- e ic looking boy, swe ping the sidewalk , direct ed me to the forelady of the vest de partme nt where he felt sur e I could get a j ob ’ and if I hadn t gotten one it would have been worth the price of the trip to have had the ’ r t a on l half hou s lk gir s , work and life with o that little lady . Her questions were s a k n l and so — hum n , so i d y keen and her desire

o me w as n n . t help so sincere, it was i spiri g “ ” Had I ever sewed " “Y ” es , at home . “D id I understand power machines "” “ ” I I ul N . o , but knew co d learn “ O I t how h , of course , but j us wondered ’ fast you could go ahead ; isn t much unless you can loo k at it as pay while you ” learn . ALIAS HATTIE CLAR" 8 7

S a start . he asked ha L " work . ord but that I ing of the many times washed floors, “ ” almost said Yes . H I guessed right and said “N “ e 1 Well, I do n ed p with the girls 1 ft . a r themselves I look e their work , their e health and their happinss , or try to , and they are getting so many it ’ s almost beyond

1 me . I gasped at the he alth and happiness and “ : a n said Well , I h ve do e a lot of practical ’ nursing and girls club work . Would that help "” “ Gr n eat . I think we eed you as much as you need us and if you can start tomorrow on I ’ ll t as a learner, ake the other up with

Mr . Nash when he retur ns Would I give her my name and address " One gasp and “ 4 Mrs . Hattie Clar said I ; 1 1 9 Elm Street and with the nicest grasp of my hand

I found myself dismissed . ’ o e Now, for an alarm cl ck and I ll fe l really

. M da . settled y work y, Mrs Rusland tells - me, begins at with three quarters of an " hour for lunch , and"ends at No work S u a on at rday, so t least one of my doubts 8 8 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS — — the reality of the forty hour week is

answered.

May 1 9 . Twenty-four hours ago I thought I had a —i ank home . To n ght , th s to God and the real est proof o f the effects of living and working

kn ow . Al l by the Golden Rule, I I have one

chi a o a ng b ck , the ech es of whirring machines and the still tense nerves from my first day “ in t h e vests , must not keep me from putting into words the experiences of the last twenty four hours . The little home which I had found so j oy o u sl an su r y , despite the cle est and fairest of be faces , proved to infested with vermin and — half an hour after I—had gone to bed home sick and exhausted P I w as out of bed dress ing at top speed and in the most abject terror I have ever to the sheltering

' arms of the A . Heaven al one

n ot o n had a r om to give me , for I did not k ow ALIAS HATTIE CLAR" 8 9 cleanliness of my little room could not quiet my shaken nerves and it w as almost morning before I fell asleep and it seemed but a flash when I was again awakened by my newly acquired alarm clock " Another bath "when and where would I ever have breakfast up near the

a factory and then my day re lly began . And what a day it has been " V V o rd quickly flew through the shop of my hectic first night in Cincinn ati and my homeless and friendless condition , and at lunch time literally dozens f of the girls were o fering me a room, money, w as anything I might need , but it Rose with her t w o rooms and little thirteen- year- old daughter w ho completely w o n my heart when “ No w she said , , Hattie , you come right home ’ with me . We ain t got much but I took a likin ’ to you when I see you yesterday an’ I —‘ sez to Mary here that woman kin hev half ’ ’ of whatever I ve got . Do you imagine I could go anywhere else " An d now w e have had supper and have chat ted a while and I know that the hardest part of this job is going to be leaving these dear The mere j ob ” isn ’ t going to be very diffi u f l cult to master , at least s ficiently wel for my u I purpose , and the q ickness with which was “ ” able to catch on was entirely due to the pa t ie nce of our forelady and the good-natured help of the girls around me . B I efore tumble into bed beside Rose , who is already peacefully sleeping in the next I off room, must admit that I did not walk “ A as with al l the honours at the . N h Com ” - pany to day . During the afternoon a ripple of interest seemed to sweep over the shop and “ ’ "" I said to the girl opposite : What s up “ B ” — The oss , said she and sure enough

M as u there w as r . N h and with him a yo ng woman whom he appeared to be showing over A u the works . bout half an ho r later the

nl Mrs machines sudde y stopped and . Rus land told us that we were all wanted down in - w e the coat room . S o down all piled and there , sitting on the edge of the tables , stand i ab ing and loung ng out , were gathered the whole Company and on a table in o u r midst “ ” nk stood the Company song leader , and ji s , didn ’ t we have a whooping good sing " I said to one of the men standing near me : “I ’m new to this—do we get this often "

92 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS her little daughter are away for t he aft e rn oon I a t w o es and have quiet hour or ahead . Y t e rda i M y, wh le Rose washed and little ary “ ” ma I cleaned up , I explored the city, and y

67 % o t he s e w say right here % of cop , n sies and car conductors kn ow and love Art hu r ’ Nash " H o w do I know " Because I m sure that many have told me so " Every one of these I ’ ve seen in my wanderings I ’ ve asked to direct me to the factory saying I w as a t stranger and had jus got a j ob , and every “ ’ Sa ma single one of them has said , y , m, ’ ” “ ’ r t you e in luck or , That s the grandes place ” “D to work in this city , or id you see the ’ ” “ ’

B . oss , he s a white man That s the feller — ’ ’ we call Golden Rule N ash he s a reg ler fel ” t a ler . I wish I had had a mental s enogr phic An d department to take them all down. — e Rose , Ros who has worked in rooming r t e a s houses , spo y hot ls , f ctorie and stores, and w ho for the past three years has w orked b ni t he A N up from the egin ng with . ash " Company , what does she say n t It is, I think , the best demo stra ion of ALIAS HATTIE CLAR" 93

w as whether you black or white , Jew or i ’ Cathol c or one of them Adventists , he d treat w as o w n an d you just like you his sister, to tell the truth we ain ’ t got the nerve not ter ” try to do the same .

45 May 2 . u n The week , thus far, has been rather “ ” — eventful in the vests work is get ting slack ’ an d the girls say it s hard to keep up their

. a how speed Nevertheless , it is rem rkable fin lo a now . little g on the job there is , even I ” flo o rl ad said so to our nice y and she said, “ ’ ’ w e Well you know , Mis Clark , don t never have much trouble that ways ; w e ladies feel like this bu siness is most as much ours as it is ’ ’ Mr . Nash s and we try to do what s best ” for all . It is more than ever apparent that the

Golden Rule works both ways .

May 25 .

- Four of our lining girls were away to day, so one of the young trimmers was transferred S to the machine next to mine . he is a gay said I t hought we had it very nice in the ‘ ’ S e hop and she said Yes , there is a nic c s here M n la s of girls works and rs . Rusla d is ” grand to us . It w e is very hot in the shop , but work amidst the bangs and rattles of workmen who are putting up roof awnings and inst alling c ool air fans.

M ay 26 . ha n a t A This s bee a thrilling day t he . Nash factory and Hatt ie Clark has had her o w n personal share in the thrills . In t he fir st place it w as pay day and I had never received any money in my life with more satisfact ion e t han I felt when Mrs . Rusland hand d me

— ’ ' my check for three days pay L Then ’ at a c st as w e quarter to four o clo k , ju were “ ” all n o ur ho the speedi g up for last half w , machines stopped and amid t he unexpe cted Mr M s . a silence . Rusland told us that r N sh had some announ cements to make and we w h wer e all to go do n to t he coat sh0 p . T e re — w e all—gathered 600 or more men an d women and sang together while we wait e d M e v a . s for r. N sh When he came he made eral announ cements about the ball game s ALIAS HATTIE CLAR" 95 ou r coming outing and the Cedar Point trip , and then announced that his oldest son w as to be married to the secretary of the company o - and at no n to morrow, in the cutting room, that w e were one and all invited to be there " This thing in itself is so characteristic of the r dl spi it of frien iness that prevails , it makes one wonder how other industries have missed so simple and yet so vital a method of secu r

ing loyalty . And now for the most astonish in a g, the most dram tic appeal I have ever listened to .

It appears that about six months ago , the w as cashier of the A . Nash Company held up

and robbed of the weekly pay roll . The

‘ di Or ban t, one of them , has just been found guilty and is to be sentenced and some of the

workers had come to Mr . Nash and had told him that they had heard that this man has a wife and four little children w ho would be the r — eal sufferers , and they wanted these work ers w ho are also part owners of the company Whose pay roll this man stole—they asked

u w a Mr . Nash to think p some y that those

four children could be helped . And Mr . There were suggestion s of various kinds an d hands went into pockets as men and M u . women rged r Nash to assume , in i the r name , the care of these future citizens .

Finally , one big motherly looking woman climbed up on the table and said she thought the company coul d put the mother on the pay roll at a week , provided the mother would take care of the children and make a h home for them . T is she put in the form of lm a motio—n . And then to my overwhe ing surprise one of the women from the vest shop spoke up and said : “ M w . N e n r ash , if are to give this mo ey, I u be and I hope we do , think there sho ld some one to kind of look after that little fam ily and see to it that the money 1s gi ven them ’ each week and that it s spent right for those ’ ad who children , and I d like to suggest a l y has come into the vest shop just a litt le while ago who has done nursing and has three little gi rls of her ow n and w ho has in this short I ’ time endeared herself to all of us . d like to I say that thin k Mrs . Hattie Clark would be just the one to help that woman get on her feet . u I so Well , I co ld have cried felt happy ALIAS HATT I E C LAR" 97

and so a stonished an d tho se six hu ndred men an d women w h o seven short days ago had

a a a never l id eyes on me , ctu lly voted to do this amazing thin g and to entru st their good will and their mon ey into my keeping " D o a a s o t uring noon hour t d y , I sto d wi h

r a a a some of the gi ls w tching the men pl y b ll . Mf Camme lo n r . they poi ted out to me , the

foreman of the coat shop-w an d I said

“ ’ O al a a n h , he s the one the Am g m ted k ock ’ — t he a t w h he so hard . What s m t er it him ” looks all right . “ all w an an d He is right , said one om , I ’ t guess I o u ght a know . I ve worked wi h him

w a s r h ever since he he e , and he t inks the t o u r world an d all of his girls . We ge s rights ’ as long as Camm e lo s t he boss . Thi s meetin g an d the de cision to make me chairman of the comm ittee to look after these children certainly came as an answer to my

a n a n r a prayers , for I h ve bee r cki g my b ins to find a w ay out of the vest shop and into h an d Mr . the coat shop and to Nash imself , ’ this c ommit tee s work has opened the w ay

to both, for by the best of luck , the other t w o names suggested to aid me were those 9 8 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

D M w ho c shop and r . oor , is very lose to M a r . N sh . A M fter the meeting had disbanded r . Nash asked the committee to meet with him in his office and there repeated to us what he had a a a w as lready said upst irs , th t it the children and the children alone with whom we were w as his concerned , but that it belief that in being given a chance to make a good home for i s ul not those l ttle ones , the mother her elf co d help but be given an incentive to be her best and truest self . How far- reaching the influence of t hese C n s men an d women of The A . Nash ompa y i is almost beyond estimation . They have to a ac a lead them that rarest of things , pr tic l a i and a are ide l st , th t together he and they a all i " co e on ctu y l ving, Thy ingdom m , ” rt as t a Ea h it is in Heaven , is the mos bl z ingly apparent fact to any one who has t he i h privilege of living and work ng wit them .

M 27 1 922 . ay ,

1 00 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

but she unhesitatingly said , Certainly , Hat "” tie , but what is the trouble “ ’ Well , dear Mrs . Rusland , won t you hear my confession first "” It has never before occurred to me that I am much of an actress but the complete and su rprised bewilderment of my dear little fore lady makes me feel that if all else fails there is still another profession open to me . Of course , she had a thousand questions to ask of me and I believe that she was equally divided in her emotions between gratitude that at last so me one was really going to give the truth concerning The A . Nash Company to the public and utter astonishment that such a greenhorn vest-maker should have put one o ver her in her o w n shop . ec I We d ided , she and , that we would also and l take Dr . Moor the much ma igned Cam melo of the coat shop into our confidence and r ul l [that these th ee wo d cal the meeting . I wish that I had power to describe the effect ALIAS HATT IE CLAR " 1 0 1

su ch gro undless criticism as has been leveled

against him . I do believe that it is not enou gh th at these good people here shou ld

a know th t they are right . I believe that earnest m e n an d women all over this land

a a h should h ve their f it fortified . And so the meetin g w as called an d it w as ’ Hattie Clark s tu rn to climb on the coat shop

hIo n a . o r s table Dr . opened the meeti g by y

am n h ing that a spy had been found o g us , t at she had confessed but had a sked to be given a ’ chance to tell her story at a worker s meeting before sentence w as passed upon her and so because w e believe in giving even a spy a t a a w e e s . a squ re de l , let H tie Clark tell us ho w and w hy she has been w orking with us under a name not her o w n and then w e will try to decide w hat is best to do about it . I told them my story just as I have tried to tell it here in the hope that they might se e as they have perhaps never before seen what a w o n de r fu l ho w - f thing, far reaching in its e fects upon millions of workers like themselves , their

steadfastness to their ideal might be . I had not gone far before I began to be interrupted

au by relieved bursts of l ghter, clapping of 1 02 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

. O l all right , Hattie ne man cal ed from the “ ‘ ’ be— floor I move the verdict Not guil ty .

May 31 . A verdict of not guilty and my freedom " a o l in Freedom to w nder, f otru e and notebook a h nd , in true professional investigator style , from one e nd of our factory to the other . Freedom to question even the foremen and so - called ofiicial s whom I have till now relig iou sly avoided lest I be later accused o f “ ” o having g t ten my story from them . It has been a wonderful forty-eight hours an d the notebook is filled with unassailable t proof of the splendi—d physical condi ions ex ist ing in the factory with plans of still fur lm t t—her improvement s in process of fulfil en with st ories of men and women who had started at the bottom of the ladder and who

1 04 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS has come to pass in this small segment of the clothing industry .

As to conclusions , I am not quite so sure , for there is no hint of anything as limited as “ ” ul a conclusion in the Golden R e Factory . The most hopeful feature of this remarkable experiment is its constant process of develop ment , of growth and expansion , both spiritual and material . Every change in economic policy or in social betterment has come at the suggestion of some worker in the factory or as the result of thorough discussion between employer an d employe . Too much cannot possibly be said as to the value of the informal meetings which are called from time to time in the “ Golden Rul e ” S F actory . ometimes these meetings are

l . cal ed by Mr Nash , sometimes by one of the “ t foremen , but mos often by one of the lesser B members of the family . ut from whom ever the call may chance to come , there is but AN IN S IDE VIEW 1 05

d an m a . S wo en is unquestion ble o simple , so sincere is this spirit of brotherhood , that no h problem , owever vexing it might be if one were to ende avour to view it from any other a a ngle , has ever arisen th t has not been hap pily and wisely settled. Chief Justice Marshall of the Ohio Su preme Court said , when speaking before the annual convention of the Intern ational As “ sociation of Speci alty S alesmen : The A . Nash Company is n o t solving t he tragic prob

a u lem of capital and l bo r , it is doing away with it altogether ; and I can not help b eliev ing that if this simple application of the Golden Rule could be introduced into our ’ u ho w t he co ntry s business , it would lessen ’ people s burden of t ax at ion ; ho w the cumber some and extravagant l aw - making machinery

an d ho w could be lessened , the appalling fed eral appropriation of ninety- t w o cents out of

n o w every dollar , necessary to pay for wars that are past and preparing for more wars to u come , could be directed into constr ctive and ” peaceful channels .

Already the question has been asked me , “ " and many times : H o w does he do it How 1 06 THE GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS bridgeable chasm that has existed between worker and boss "” And my answer is t hat he has not had to bridge that chasm because it has never existed . The e arliest arrival at the factory each morning finds Arthur Nash

r n already the e , and somehow this one thi g alone does more to convince his people of his sincerity than any material advantage he has

- made possible for them . Hard working men w as and women , these , there both pride and comr adeship in their voices when they said to “ ’ an me , There ain t y of us works any harder ” than he do es . What are the material resul ts of such a

c o - " and policy of operation First , of course

t l t he r most spec acu ar , is change in the sho t period of three and one - half years from a l - smal sweatshop , with eight old fashioned ma chines and twenty-nine employes working

t f u under the mos di fic lt conditions , to the present immense factory where over two thousand workers are employed and where

1 08 TH E GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS cutting room is even larger and the coat room

a is the biggest and lightest of ll . The plant is heated by a wonderfu l new vapour heating system which experts have in formed me is t he most hygienically ideal method known . If the proces ses involved in the transformation of a brewery into a cloth ing factory seemed slow to some of us , let us not lose sight of one very important and char ac t e rist ic fact. The workers in The A . Nash Company are many of them part of that com r w all pany by vi tue of o ning stock in it , and of them are included in the policy defining meetings that determine how fast or how con S h servatively the changes are made . uc , “ u then , is the home of the Golden R le Fac ” tory . Not an ideal finished product , its most interested and conte nted employe will ad mit ; but assuredly one with an ideal of ma t e rial and - b comfort well eing, as well as a

o r c spiritual vision, t wa ds the a complishment of which every man and woman there is AN IN S IDE VIEW 1 09 into being through a succession of e xpe ri all t he ments , satisfactory at time and under o the c nditions existing when made , but all t e nding towards the present conviction upon the part of the Workers themselves that being co nvinced they are get ting their just share of ’ t he a comp ny s profits , they would rather have that shar e in the form of a weekly wage than in any kind of profit sharing distribution .

o r In each department , therefore , of this

an izat io n g except in the cutting room, which is run on the piecework basis , there is first of all a school for those entirely without e xperi ence where the learn er is paid while being taught and from which he or she is advanced as rapidly as is possible . Indeed , from the many inquiries I made from workers in all departments I could not learn of a single in stance where a worker had to ask for advance ment . Every incentive is given to the work ers to become proficient and the result of their increased productive power is immediately apparent on their pay check . w as The wage scale , which disclosed to me with complete frankness , is all interest ing but I will confine myself to typical in 1 1 0 TH E GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS averages given are computed on a fift y-t w o weeks basis . In the pants shop the school average is $1 7 2 a week and that of a regular worker $ 8 . In the coat shop the school average ranges from 1 0 1 6 $ to $ weekly , while the regular workers din are on a sli g scale, according to the special 1 4 1 8 trades , from $ to $ for padding up to a 5 range of $30 to $ 5 for sleeve hangers . The other branches of the coat-making trade lie r between these ext emes . One of the most positive convictions of Arthur Nash is t hat no man or woman can or shoul d be expected to keep up his normal pro duction for more than forty hours each week in any highly specialized industry , and having already reduced the weekly working hours in a his factory to five days of eight hours e ch , he is at present studying how to reduce st ill further the hours of the women workers who have the additional bu rdens of the home to - -a - carry . There is no time and half pay for

1 1 2 TH E GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS them that if four or five girls were late each i w as t morn ng, there no justice in expec ing S the rest of the shop to be on time . he then showed them what an enormous shortage it woul d make in the day ’ s production were all “

i . the girls late even for five m nutes Now , “ she said , we have had this wonderful New ’ Year s gift , a whole extra day each week for w e our own work or play , cannot make a ’ New Year s Resolution in retu rn that we ’ will all of us give to our work here a fu ll day s measure "”

There was no more deliberate tardiness . No matter from what angle one starts in writing or talking about the A . Nash Com pany one must inevitably return to the human a r element , for however extr o dinary the devel o pm ent in the plant or production the most significant demonstration of the simple appli cation of the Golden Rule to daily living lies in its effect upon the workers themselves . In AN INS IDE VI EW 1 1 3 given even similar work a t any price in an t ordinary fac ory . From my o w n experience I kn ow that the

- — spirit of len d a hand perme ates every nook

n am and cor er of this place , and I definitely con vin ced that ce r t ainly 90 70 of t he entire “ ” personn el of t he G olden Rule F actory work and live with an understanding of and

a sincere desire to live by that rule . The re mai ni ng 1 0 76 work there because experience has taught t hem that they are in the long run

an d paid better work under happier, steadier, more hopeful conditions than they could pos

sibly find elsewher e in the same industry . ‘ vl r The followin g letter received by l . Nash w as w ritten by a you ng Italian with whom I have had several splendid talks and it crystallizes far better than the w ords of any investigator can ever hope to do the les “ sons that I also learned in the Golden Rule ” Factory

O Cincinnati , hio, “

3 1 922 . June ,

t dear Mr . Nash 1 1 4 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

I n feelings , which thi k every employee ought to do when satisfied . “ ’ I began to work for your concern about ’ i n as three months ago at a beg n er s pay, a trimmer in the pants shop . “I had been out of work for several months and was very glad to accept a position for the sake of learning a trade . I must say that I have no t wasted my time in the short period that I have been I I m employed as a trimmer . have ea ed to be one . “ Mr . Fucito tells me that I am producing as much as any average experienced trimmer . Undoubtedl y much credit ought to be given M has to r . Fucito for this , for he patiently t aught me . But much more credit ought to M be given to you , r . Nash , for you have taught me that not all bosses are cold-hearted towards their employees . “ I w as very glad to hear you call the fac ‘ ’ tory Our Chur ch for those few words gave me an inspiration of Christ for I know He

I"

JE S US AS A BU S INE S S MAN

HILE engaged in collating the ma erial a t for this book , I c me across an

article , or a portion of one , which has lain in my portfolio of miscell aneous clippings r for mo e than ten years . It deals with Jesus I as a business man . have not the slightest t clue as to the iden ity of its author , nor the remotest idea as to the name of the periodical B in which it originally appeared . ut , because it reflect s quite closely my own conception of what the great Teacher must have been , prior to His entering on the work of His public mi od nistry , I feel constrained to repr uce it ff here . While the t erminology di ers from the an d original here there , the gist of the article is as follows : "ESUS AS A BUS INESS MAN 1 1 7 We do not hesitate to use the term D it e y when referring to Him . Yet none the

w e n a less truly, may thi k and spe k of Him as a a pprentice , kinsm n, friend , citizen of a com

n u man . mu ity, b siness His place of business w as in one of the nar r ow o f streets Nazareth . Here He had a O workshop . ver the door might well have “ been the inscription : Carpentering of all — ds e S . kin done her Jesus , on of Joseph ’ Here He dealt with a day s work and ex c hanged His capacities for mo netary returns .

u He made contracts with those abo t Him , — either as employer or employed o r both . s an d As a man of ound clear judgment , He would keep account books , having both a debit and credit side . He would know how much men owed Him for His services , and what He Himself owed for material and hired help . ’ s as In a place like Nazareth , Je us skill a s ac workman, Hi honesty, faithfulness , and comm o dat in g spirit , His invariable custom of w o n doing things well , doubtless for Him the favour and good-will of the entire co nun u 1 1 8 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

s creasing patronage . If He made yoke for as i oxen " trad tion says He did ", He would l select the best kind of wood, wou d adj ust His

t he en work to demand of the times , would de av ou r to sell His man ufact ured product t o the mutual benefit of His customer and Him ul s self . He wo d discu s matters relating to the business in han d with the farmers and a - k n ul peas nt fol of the eighbourhood. He wo d an d ask a a r c desire , , f ir p i e for the yield of H His toil . If men did not pay im with rea s t w e Him as onable prompti ude , may think of a c ll sking ivi y, yet firmly , for whatever was ul due Him. People wo d think and speak of a man as n Him as fair business , one not taki g u advantage over the nwary or the ignorant . I all a n His n His rel tio s with fellows , He would be Jesus the Just. As i u a bus ness man , we may be s re that Jesu s ne ver made promises without fulfillin g

. ul them If men worked for Him , they wo d “ ” ds men not be merely han but , to whom He

12 0 THE GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS u re d o n - by a m der , million dollar balance a sheet of present day corporation , what He did in Nazaret h may not be entitled to the ” B w as description of Big usiness , but it bu sine ss — business such as is carried on , down to this present hour . The spirit He would show in conducting His affairs would be that of an honou rable and n a devout busi ess man , doing His work

w a in an honourable and a devout y . The old “ o ut S Cornishman who put the sign, hoe ” G o f had maker by the race God , the self same conception of business as would have

been the possession of the Man of N azareth . “ Jesus coul d never have said : Business is

is l . business , and religion re igion His busi n is ess would be part of His religion , and H ul religion part of His business. He co d never h he ar t s o - c ave played t p of a p eud mysti , hold in i es e an d g to the v ew that timat s contracts , "ESUS AS A BUSINESS MAN 1 2 1 it , He gave honest toil for His wages, and if He found He could not work for the money ff o ered Him, He would not have flung ugly names and uglier stones at the man w ho took a His pl ce . Nor would He have undercut or un - dersold His fellow craftsmen . He would

w as know what His work worth , and in all His in dustrial and commercial dealings would n proceed to play the m a . None of these things can be set aside as being me re hypothetical assu mption . No sane man imagines Jesus during the hidden years of Nazareth” as conforming to any rule of life and conduct other than that He pro

n . claimed i His great evangel What He was ,

He taught ; what He taught, He was . He ln was truth , and honesty, and fair dealing carnate . And the spirit in which He carried on business should be the governing principle s i of all bu iness , of every k nd whatsoever, in i w a th s , the t entieth century of His dispens re tion . We it so , there would be no deceit, no i misrepresentation, no utilization of unfa r advantage , no chicanery , no fraud . There 1 2 2 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS ledgers could be opened in the presence of a

Holy God , and His blessing invoked upon them . The greatest organization now operat ul ing wo d be nothing more , and nothing less , ’ than an enl argement of Jesus method of car r in y g on business , under the impetus of His nl l law of equity and love . Not o y wou d the emotions of mankind be brought under His sway, but the whole sweep and range of out ward life . Business cannot own Jesus ; it must be owned by Him .

n rt i n S o ru s the a icle in my book of cl ppi gs . I n my j udgment , it is a fair , and thoroughly j ustifiable picture of Jesus during His work ing years in the lit t le Galilaean city in which He lived until He fared forth on th e work of t b t His public minis ry . There can e li tle doubt that as a man of orderly life and habit Jesus had some kind of regular hours of labour , and , perhaps some kind of fixed wage

a . B scale , obtained in N zareth ut it is not

1 2 4; THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

t he ing periods of the simpler civilizations , with the less complex relationships of t he ami s human f ly, mankind never solved thi ho w problem of to live together as brethren . An d W e a n . unsolved it has , so far , rem i ed are now rushing headlong into more and more

t c complex associations , and the grea cosmi prayer for the solution of our human prob lems is more urgent than ever before in t he ’ — t a a r world s his ory . Humanity is ll quive . We know that we are on the borderland of an unexplored continent of man ’ s psychological

i w e possibil ties . We know that e ar going o ver to possess the land . " What does this mean There can be but

. I one answer f, as some scientists tell us, we are using less than t e n per cent . of our latent n a mental powers , it mea s that we shall incre se o u r t - powers ei her for good or evil ten fold. "ESUS AS A BUS INESS MAN 1 2 5

Red Dragon of the Boo k of Revelation look k li e a turtle dove . Humanity has been building without an — architect sailing an uncharted sea, bound Hmn an it de fi for no known port . y is not cient in the power of production or aecom pli shm e nt ; but like the builders of the Tower

w e l f of Babel, are all ta king di ferent lan n w e guages , so that when mortar is eeded bring brick , because be do not understand . Th e knowledge w e must n o w seek is not how

t o what . accomplish , but to accomplish The thing w e really need is the establishment of the "ingdom of Heaven on earth . This "ingdom of Heaven can come only through u the development of the so l of humanity, w ll and it i come , whenever our industries and churches become one in purpose and performance . If w e think of Jesus as a carpenter-con o f tractor, we cannot conceive Him asking one of His employes to do a j ob which would involve his being destroyed in the doing of it .

w e Him In fact , can only think of as going out and distributing the work so that every 1 2 6 TH E GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS

Man of Galilee is being revealed afresh to the world , that industry must stop using men and women to make money and go to using money to make men and women. There are no prob lems back of this . If the heads of our indus

and l l try can see this take it at fu l va ue , all our problems will be solved . For whenever our industries become instruments for the production of real men and women , the men ll and women wi take care of the industries . If there were no higher motives than self

n s . i tere t , this would be true But when our indu stries are so conducted that they really and develop men women , there will be higher i motives , and we will not say that l ving the

Golden Rule solves our problems . We will has say, as been the case in our industry , that it has eliminated them. s To thi end , some of us are sincerely bend ff i li ing every e ort , being w l ng to make any s f be acrifice and su fer any loss , that may n ecessary to the accomplishment and attain

1 2 8 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS

Tha t t he shall e t w ho ha v e t he o w e y g p r, k And t hey s hall e ep w ho ca n . Yet something surely is achieved when those who live by that principle are made a ad shamed to own it , and are compelled to h mit its barbarous coarseness . W en all is

o said and done , public sentiment today d es innu m exalt a noble ideal , and is embodied in e rable instances of loft y social effor t s and enthusiasms . Men are beginning , as never before , to see that nothing in life is held in

e absolute ownership ; that time , and tal nt of

t o b every sort , constitute a s ewardship whose An d ligations are broad and ceaseless . the ’ clear c fl e ct of this is visible in the changed consciences of the community and of great c aptains of indust ry towards their handi

c l i . apped mi l ons — In other days days very far from be ing old—the state had no higher nor broader con c ept io n of its duty than that of protecting the

t upon his proper y and revenue , of keeping — SE RVICE HUMAN AND D IVIN E 1 2 9 governm ent were widen ed and made to in clu de a certain solicitude for the general w el fare , not even the most sympathetic historian can deny the presence of a dishonouring patronage an d a discriminating selfishness of management . Not until the most recent years have those sitting in the seat of author

a ity begun to re lize a nobler voc ation . From

a curative agencies to preventive me sures , is the natural development of a wise sympathy conn oting the acqu irement of a clearer appre h e n sio n of wh at it really w as that Jesus came

a to earth to teach . In larger me sure than

a in ever before , such an ttitude claims active t e re st an d and support , demonstrates its being

n ew born of a social conscience , which is the ’ creation of Christ s l aw of love and service . O ne cannot, therefore , but regard this awakening to the paramount character of Christ ’ s social and economic teaching as an evidence of a revival of real religion, in every

- sense , more deep seated and permanent than an y ephemeral , spasmodic demonstration made by the professional religious revivalist . Although the hour of their willingness to give the Golden Rule absolute application to their 1 30 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS universally recognized by all Christian men of business . Time was , and not so long ago , ’ when God s service was supposed to be inco m patible and unworkable with what were de

r f scribed as secular o mundane a fairs . Even “ i ” yet , d vine service is apt to be almost exclusively as sociated in some minds with B churches , chants , sermons, offerings . ut the process of seeking in the world of busi ness the means of fulfilling Christ ’ s purpose k to and for man ind , is rapidly enlarging our sense of old phrases and our understanding ew of n opportunities . There is no substan tial difl e rence between

serving our generation by the will of God ,

and serving the will of God in our generation . A God Who feels Himself “served” and “ ” ’ glorified in life s every day business experi c nce s i co n and relationsh ps , is as grand a ce t ion— — is p yea , grander as the God Who a worshipped through an ornate ritu l , in

st ately edifice or hoary cathedral . Jesus never shone with so divin e a lustre as

1 32 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS these gracious ministries ha ve meant any at thing all to us , that we must turn about to find some outlet for the inspiration of

. A our worship nd if we will , we may fin d it —in succoring the needy, in attack ing some gaunt and cruel wrong, in the advocacy of righteousness , j ustice , sobriety , h square and fair dealing . T is is the real

au Christly service , which makes for the t hent ic establishment and the onward march ’ And of the Master s kingdom . the keynote of it all is the clarion - voiced declaration of : There ore a ll t hin s what soever e Jesus f , g y w ou ld t hat men shou ld do t o ou do e y , y even so t o t hem : for t his is t he law and t he ” r h t s p op e . S - t " M elf interes , say you aybe , but not necessarily . Whatever of this element may

accrue , is but the working out of a sound , “ e ow compensating law . Whatso ver a man s ”

ll l . n eth, that sha he a so reap No i junction , or demand , or promise made by Jesus in the days of His flesh fails under the acid test of — SERVICE HUMAN AND DIVIN E 1 33

an d righteous dealing , the miracle may hang

fire . Yet the fault is all ours , as is the shame the loss .

Th e ange ls k e ep t heir a n cie n t places ;

ir b u t a s t on e a nd s t art a w in . St , g Tis me w it h o u r e s t ra n ed ac e s , g f ,

- Who miss t he mang spl e ndo u r ed t hing.

I know of no better w ay to illustrate the real reward of living t he te aching of Jesus than by the story of a man w ho not long ago came into my office . “I ’ ve heard a lot about your ‘ Golden “ ’ ” l a . Ru le factory, he s id Wil you show me through it "” “Certainly "We ’ ll take the elevator to the

f . sixth loor , and walk down We stepped out into a big room where scores of girls were busy at their machines . “ ’ ” L a et s go through here, I said, w lking

saw w as . along. Then I I talking to myself The visitor was standing a few feet from the door t o the elevator shaft , his face curiously

“I ’ ve never seen people working so fast w e e y wage . ’ He eyed me sharply . You re talking to an M N experienced factory man , r . ash . Don ’ t try to make me believe that "” “A ” sk them , I suggested . He did . Presently we reached the third floor where all our clothing is cut . This is a j ob that should have the utmost care . “What a contrast here "” exclaimed the visitor . The men at the tables act as though they had oceans of time in which to finish ” their j obs . “ ’

n I . They re taking pai s , explained

O t he . f course y are paid by the week , too nl - No . They are the o y piece workers in the plant . “ You mean to tell me that all those people u - p stairs , who are working at top speed , are weekly wage earners ; and that these men here "” are paid by the piece w as i l n I There plain disbel ef his eyes , so told him the story of how our present plan st ar ted and how its amazing resul ts had sur prised me as much as anyone else . As we walked along he stopped occasionally to speak

"I

S OME THING ATTEMPTED S O ME THIN G DONE ” HE previous chapters of this book I have devoted to t elling something of

i t he the story of my l fe , touching on i influences that have gone to the shap ng of it , and to relating some of the outstanding in ci a dents in the beginnings of The A . N sh Com

. I t pany have quo ed what industrial leaders ,

a s c m g azine writers , minister and edu ators have had to say concerning our experiment in applying the principles of the Golden Rul e. a Yet the thought lingers with me th t , pos sibl t ll mi y , there may s i remain in the nd of — SOME TH ING ATTEMP TED DON E 1 37 Four days before the date fixed for the de livery o f the manuscript of my story into the

w as hands of the publishers , I called upon to address the students of the Business School at t re Harvard Universi y . Three days later, I c eiv e d the stenographic report of that ad

I e dress . t may have been possible for m to prepare something better with which to con

clu de u . this book , but I very m ch doubt it And so my fin al word shall be the verbatim report of what w as an extemporaneous talk to a student body at this famous seat of learn a al ing . That it possibly cont ins something ready referred to in these pages is not , in my judgment, a fault or an unnecessary factor . Rather will it serve to gather up the threads of my narrative , and leave my readers with somewhat clearer vision than would have “ at otherwise been the case , of something ” tempted, something done in the spirit and practice of the Golden Rule :

At the very outset of my address I would - t du st r . y . It is not a semi competitive indus ry I think perhaps , if you know the people that control our industry and the nature of that n i dustry, you will agree with me that it is the most highly competitive industry in the world An d today . it is , perhaps , the oldest . There are t w o distinct branches of the n clothing manufacturi g industry ; one , the a - - n m de to order branch , or the bra ch of the industry t hat makes up garments to individ ual measure , the other , the wholesale clothiers ,

a w e who manufacture , in large lots , wh t call - n ready made clothing . That branch of the i du st ry is known as the wholesale clothing manufacturers . They are led by such great n S f M A concer s as Hart , cha fner arx , lfred

D 81. S B " ecker Cohen, tein loch , uppen

and . heimer, other great firms The other branch is known as wholesale tailors . They are led by such firms as the International

Tailoring Company, Ed . V. Price , Lamb d Co an . . , many others

The wholesale clothier cuts out garments , suits and overcoats in large lots, distributes them among the retail clothing merchants , and they hunt for somebody to fit the gar ments . The wholesale tailor sends out his

1 4 0 THE GOLDEN RULE IN BUSINESS my youngest son immediately enlisted in the n Marines and was getti g ready to go over , o f and while we were incorporated, and had

fice s and cutting rooms , we did not start any shops before the war . In fact, my first shop w as bought during the holidays bet ween 1 9 1 8 1 9 1 9 and . So our story really starts with the 1 91 beginning of 9 .

In the year previous , we did worth of bu siness . S o you can see we really had no right , at that time , to be called whole l sale tailors . There are lots of ittle retail tailors doing more business than we did dur e ing that first year . I want you to g t the figur es from that time on ; then we will go back and try to analyze them and find out what the message in those figures is . As I said at the beginning, they are the credentials ff I o er for speaking on this subj ect , because the record I am going to give you now was made in one of the highest competitive busi

n t he . esses in the world, if not highest 1 91 9 did In , we worth of busi — SOME TH ING ATTEMP TED DON E 1 44 1 remember th at 1 9 1 9 w as th e ye ar w hen every

t he he u d a a body got all business co l t ke c re of . Produ ction w as only limited by our ability to an d a t a w w produce , our c pi l to ork ith . The year 1 920 w as w hen the pu blic w as ac cu se d - u n str n of going on a non b yi g ike ; whe ,

m an in July, the A erican Woolen Comp y closed down an d locked the door s o f over h w h h fifty per cent . of t eir mills ; en t ere w as over w orth of woolen s an d tex

o n man ac tiles order , and in process of uf ture , cancelled by t he clothing factori es of this country ; when the clothing fac tor ies them

w n r an ar t selves either closed do , p time,

en manufactured for stock , or w t into bank id ru t c d . p y , as many of them It w as this year of 1 920 that w e did more than three times the business that w e did in

1 9 1 9 w n . , or orth of busi ess The year 1 92 1 w as known as a ye ar of re

n 1 al n s adjustment , ge e shri king in indu trial

an d v e 1 activities , many business failures , y

w e 2 077 little expansion . In that year did $ , , ’ a w 0 1 t h of business . Th t year s busi ness was limited because w e reached the c a size of the room in which we are now gathered into the building of the Joe Magnus Whisky D istillery Company , which for some reason it 1 1 91 9 was willing to give up July , , and we

developed it into a clothing factory . We 1 921 reached the capacity of that factory in , nl and could not e arge . During that year we bought the bottling plant of the Mo e rlein Brewery Company and started to develop that into a clothing factory . 1 922 hi In , in t s new plant , we did

worth of business . S 7034 o far, this year, we have produced more suits and overcoats than we did in the first four months of the two previous years u added together , the exact fig res being for M 1 92 1 January, February , arch and April of 1 922 i and combined , su ts and over M coats ; for January , February, arch and

1 923 . April of , suits and overcoats I n dollars , in January , February , March and l 1 92 1 1 922 did Apri of and combined , we

worth of business ; in January, M February, arch and April of this year

alone , worth of business . k e Now, ta en by thems lves , these figures might not mean so much ; but I think I can facts I think you will recognize that at least I have a j ust claim to speak on the subj ect e that I am going to try to g t across to you . And that thing might be called by several different names . It might be called Funda mental Industrial Economics or Fu ndamen tal Sociology ; but to me it is Fu ndament al

Religion . About a year ago Su ccess Magazine sent a t o l writer to our plant , not make the usua magazine investigation by interviewing t he president and some of the heads and getting a story with his picture , but they sent Ruth

White Colton , of Brooklyn , there to get a j ob in the factory and go to work , and not let the president of the company or any of the bosses t know who she w as or any hing about it . Under the name of Hattie Clark she got that j ob and she worked t w o weeks before she was n t discovered . She made a stateme t af er she came out of our shop that I want to read to you

Fin ll m u ose ccom lished dis a y, y p rp a p , I

cl o se d m iden it as ma zin e w it e ost y t y a ga r r, l

m ob an d ain e d he i v il e e o f w an de y j , g t pr g r

in n o t e bo ok in h n d t h o u h t he f ct o o f g, a , r g a ry , — SOME TH ING ATTEMP TED DON E 1 4 5

l si n s The con t e n t s o f h o k c onc u o . t e no t eb o

ar e c e rt ainl w o rt h o f st u d fo r t h e r e re y y y, y p sent t h e c on cre t e e ffe ct s o f a spirit u al re v ela

a n d an in du i i f t ion st r al re v o l u t o n , o r t hat is re ally w hat h as c ome t o pass in t his small

se m en t o f t h e l o hin indu s r As t o c on g c t g t y .

el u sion s am n ot so su re for th e re is n o hint I , o f an yt hin g so limit ed as a con clu sion in t he ” ld n R l e fac o r Go e u t y .

You know, it seems to be one of the ambi tions of humanity to reach definite conclu

c sions . A onclusion is usually just what the — word indicates the end , the finish , the stop ping u p of all avenues of development . That a is what a conclusion usu lly amounts to , if my t impression is a correct one . Indus rial Eco n omic s as it is being taught in our schools sets forth that the fundamental thing in indu stry is the devising of some scheme or system o f hours , working conditions , and wages that will enable a concern to get production that

can mee t competition . I want to say to you , is no t sou nd young men , that that theory , and i any one using it as a foundation, is build ng

on the sand. n e defi ite conclusions, p rmit me to refer to ’ something that w as said at a great ministers I D conference addressed the other day . ur “ : M ing the discussion one of them said r. N ’ ash , why don t you outline your system in a book so that other people can copy it "” “M ” I “ I hi y brother , said , did say anyt ng about a system " I want to make a fundamental statement here : It is not possible to make a mechanism hi of love, brotherhood , or that somet ng that bloweth where it listeth and w e cann ot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth . You cannot make those things into a mechanism . No w isu nde r , in order that I may not be m in as stood this statement , and , in the intro c m du tion , so e men have been mentioned who have taken some great forward steps in ce me nt in g human relationships , and as Pro fe sso r James said in his introduction that he M thought r . Nash would go all the others one better and say the whole thing is the spirit, hi : e I want to say t s To my mind , thos men are not doing what they are because of the

bu t in s it e o it . mechanism , p f They are doing it because of the spirit of brotherhood that is

No w I know all of the arguments that are P put forward for the other side . erhaps “ : some of you are ready to say Well , we have n to have some kind of machinery, some ki d of mechanism for the spirit to express itself hr i t ough Yes , I know ; we have been say ng

w e that for thousands of years , but have never An d . I yet demonstrated it , suppose , that in l e s your universities and co leges you have , eciall u n p y in yo r laboratories , more co fidence in the things that have been demonstrated, than you have in the things that have been preached and left without demonstration. I im Young men, am not saying that it is I possible to form such a mechanism . am confessing to you frankly that I have not I arrived at a definite conclusion, and am warning you against the men who declare themselves as having arrived at one , because they have also arrived at a place that shuts out development . You notice that I have constantly used the “ word mechanism . This is because I believe there is a difference in the spiritual sense be “ ” “ ” n an d I tween organization and orga ism, believe that in most of the organization work that w e have tried to do in this world w e have — SOME TH ING ATTEMP TED DONE 1 49 made a mechanism o u t of it ; and human be w ho ings , are spiritual beings , do not fit as cogs into a thing that is worked out on an ’ ’ architect s plan, or by a mechanic . We can t “ sa build such a machine and then y , Bring on your human beings and fit them into this ’

. a S thing It doesn t work th t w ay . omehow or other I still cling to the hope that there is such a thing as an organism of hum an spirits

e a that will work . But when ver that org nism begins functioning, it will be human spirits in

- free co operation . Every spirit in it will be i absolutely free . But there will be an n cen t iv e be , there will be a goal, there will a hope , that will lead those free people with one - t h accord to co operate to the n degree . Per haps my brethren w ho are arguing for a ma chine to do this j ob will say that the organism of free spirits that I have just pictured will be the finest organization ever produced in G ’ od s universe . All right ; so be it . “What does this mean in industry " some “ t one may be saying . What is it tha gives "” The Nash Co . this marvelous production now j u s as 1 y o u were a gro up 0 k ers l n I o w n my factory . will both plants and you start to work for me . We get together in : the first one , and something like this is said “ ll a Now , we wi work out piece of machinery that will see that I pay you the right wages and give you the right working conditions , and that you give me the right production . We will all put ourselves into the hands of that piece of machinery , and when we get into — an argument , when you think I am not do ing the square thing or when I think you are — not giving me a square deal w e will carry our troubles to that piece of machinery and ” abide by its decision . Do you think with such an arrangement I should be able to get the same kind of work and the same kind of production out of you that I would if I were to go at it in another way which I am about to outline " Imag ine that I represent the organization and you start as employes - just as my people di I d when I bought my shop in Cincinnati . “ say to you : No w you are all my brothers and t hi e n sis ers , c ldren of the same great Father, titled to all the j ustice and fair treatment I was my rep y . B rotherhood to me is a reality . Every ’ man and woman that walks o n God s foot stool is a child of my Father equally entitled The to all His blessings as I am myself . sacredness of that kinship is the essential thing in the philosophy I am n ow ta lking to you about . But to go back to our mental picture of the : factory After I had given you this little talk , “ of cou rse you would say : I wonder what kind of bunk that is . At any rate that is what the average worker would say if a man went into a factory in the w ay I have indi d o ff c at e . Well , this factory starts j ust the same as the one with its elaborate industrial machine , and it goes along a little way j ust the same as any factory where they are giving — onl y the product ion of their hands turning out the work that the machine demands of u them . The cogs are t rning, the machine is h grinding . The employes start to work wit t heir hands ; their eye is on the time clock and th eir heart is on pay day . But after I have been in and given my lit

n ns. tle talk , sudde ly , something happe The — SOME TH ING ATTEMPTED DON E 1 53 work people find a piece of work coming h — throug that attracts their mentality, some thing they see some beauty in . They begin to take some pride in the thing they are produc s ing, their minds get into action and their eye are drawn from the clock to the thing they are ’ t doing . The employe s mentali y becomes cen t e re d on what he is doing . He does not think a of what the Works Council or the m chine , or anyt hing else says ; he is in t erest ed in t he

u hi hand . t hing n der s . His mind is at work Then the great fundamental thing h ap in pens , when what the past had been known

as the boss , the slave driver , is recognized by the work people , not as a boss , not a dictator,

not a taskmaster , but a brother, interested in L everyt hing they do . Then the spirit of ove o u t begins to come in . And it goes to the

customer w ho is supporting the institution . hi They begin to regard m as their brother , “ and say : We must live the Golden Rule with

him, too . They realize the fact that the institution has become a broadcasting station me how are you going to get the same pro o u t duction of any other kind of a bunch , no " matter how many hours they work “ S ” ee here , some one of you may be saying,

w e ar M ar e not from issouri , but we e in ” Harvard , and you will have to show us . t r —in Well , let me y to show you facts and O fin figures . ur factory , turning out three

—w ishe d suits of clothes every minute and ship i e p ng th m to the customers , works five days each week , eight hours a day , forty hours a week . Other clothing factories of the coun

- try , with two exceptions , work forty four , rt - and many of them fo y eight hours a week .

We have made a very thorough investigation , in so far as these factories will give us the in formation "and we do not believe any of them s find have di counted what they can do ", and a that there is not another f ctory that , in a

- - forty four or forty eight hour week , gets any more production per worker than our factory

- u does in a forty ho r week . Most of them do and not come within fifteen per cent of us , some of them have a production plant that is simply a wonder to look at " I I In spite of all have said , however, am still perfectly well aware that in order to get

1 56 TH E GOLDEN R ULE IN BUSINESS

w e matter what that industry may be , cannot make a law there any more than we can any where else . Whenever and wherever there is an organization that can make conditions which are favourable for the discovery and God operation of the eternal , fixed laws of , in and the revelation of them to the workers , stead o f trying to establish a set of laws it is supposed to have made itself, then you have an organization that amounts to something well worth while . T H E FUNDAMENTAL THING IN INDUSTRIAL

M I S ALL P F ECONO C , AS WELL AS IN HASES O ALL HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, IS To AD"UST CONDITIONS SO As T o DEv ELO P HUMAN B EINGS “ ” OF FULL STATURE THROB B ING WITH THAT “ ” MORE AB UNDANT LIFE WHICH THE CHRIST

CAME THAT WE MIGHT HAV E .

I W s B ILITY ENERGY AND n other ord , A , , WEALTH SHOULD BE DEV OTED To T HE DEV EL

O PMENT OF MEN AND WOMEN . IF OUR INSTI

TU TIONS ARE B UILT ON THIS PHILOSOPHY, WE — SOMETH ING ATTEMP TED DON E 1 57 — storms and all these things have hit this business that I have been telling you about ’ an d sa mark you , Jesus didn t y that they woul d not come ; He said they wou ld beat

w as upon it, but it would stand, because it founded upon a rock . Not a single shingle e O ff t has b en moved tha building, not a check in the growth of that institution has come . It has gone right on through all these condition s w be that e have experienced . And it is my lief that B ro t he rho o dm t he Golden Rule in

— u operation is the only hope of h manity, industrially, socially, nationally , and interna

io n all w e t y . That is the philosophy on which have tried to build our business , on which it still continues to be operated .

Permit me to say here , with me , Christian ity is not simply a theory to be believed . bu t LIV Christianity is not believing a theory,

LIFE T ha W . ING A . t is hat I am talking about And Whenever We make industry Christian in that sense, we will stop using men and women to make money, and get to using money in order to make men and women . Then, we e me 111 8 umon an 1 k e care 0 that institution . I believe that any system of economics or sociology or business teaching to be unsound that does not start on this funda mental basis : that the men and women con n e ct e d with it are the important , the vital , asset of that business , and that their develop i ment , their bring ng into that more abundant life that Christ came to teach men how to

s t he im rt ant and t he u ndam nt al obtain , i po f e

h n n whic bu ld n nst it u t o n t i g o h t o i a y i i . Please remember that I am not talking about something that depends on the bigness or littleness of an organization . When ours was a little factory of twenty -nine people ; when they fought their way into that clothing t fac ory building through picket lines , people “ : said Well , it is a little thing and Nash is personall y acquainted with all that little ’ group . He can do it there , but he couldn t do ” it with a big industry . Today , with over three thousand workers , representing the big in gest industry of its kind the country , and

I all , myself, nearly the time away from the t h fac ory , that spirit of brotherhood , t at leaven which put into the meal has leavened the whole of the lump , goes on working and theology He gave the world, which He m sum ed up , and put into one sentence , in the S M : ermon on the ount , when He said “ F A T HERE ORE, LL THINGS WHATSOEV ER YE WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO To YOU DO YE

EV EN SO TO T H EM : FOR THIS IS THE LAW AND

T H E PROPHETS .

I an d l n that , that alone, ies the hope of s h mankind . The world has tried every c eme that the ingenuity of man can invent , and has I has failed miserably . t been demonstrated in our organization that the philosophy of

Jesus will work , and in every place that it has

has been made real , it worked j ust as it has n A nd done i ours . It is the only way out . He to Whom We must look as the great Cap tain in this liberation and enl argement of our f O s li e , is ne Whose teaching, while ba ed on S t S the same crip ures used by the cribes , was of another tone and character ; O f Whom His disciples coul d say as He recalled the lessons He had drawn from the Law and the Proph ‘ ets : Did not our hearts burn Within us as He ’ talked with us by the w ay "

ca Prin t e d in t he Un it e d St at e s of Ame ri .