Page:(Commercial character) The Joseph Fisher lecture in commerce, delivered at the University of Adelaide (IA commercialcharac00jessrich).pdf/12

8 " everything in the way of invention to her own service, and has good reason, though at times she trumpets it a little too blatantly, to be proud of her achievements." The virus of ennui and its sequent cynicism find no place in this sane organism. The great fact is recognised that the world must be a world of workers, and that the chief function of the state is to so equip men and women that they can worthily fill such places in the vast industrial army as suits their capacity. Some say that the pernicious abuse of their power by capitalists will convert America into the first purely socialistic state. I cannot believe it, for there, if anywhere, is a field where energy and ability can find due recognition and reward, and I cannot admit that energy and ability, even though exercised for the benefit of their possessors, have ceased to be the most potent factors in life. I need scarcely remind you that ability is a term susceptible of many applications, but of course the ability we are concerned with is business or commercial ability, an article representing a money value to its owner. Commercial ability is often characterised nowadays as smartness. Now I have heard that there is a saying in America that the smart business man is the man who knows how to keep out of gaol, which, from an ethical standpoint, seems to indicate the existence of but a very fine line dividing smartness from dishonesty. The clear inference to be drawn is that for the man of ordinary ability it is true now as ever that honesty is the best policy. It is an important day in a man's life when he discovers that he hasn't brains enough to be a rogue; and he is indeed fortunate if he makes the discovery before the world's scorn shows