Page:(Commercial character) The Joseph Fisher lecture in commerce, delivered at the University of Adelaide (IA commercialcharac00jessrich).pdf/14

10 venture to think, Disraeli to the contrary, notwithstanding that in this analytical age, neither creed, doctrine, nor dogma, or a combination of them, will, unsupported, serve to make a people truthful, honest, and moral. I have spoken of the responsibility attaching in this respect to those in high places, and as my theme is "Character," I will say that I recognise no such potent earthly force for good or evil as the force of example afforded by our leaders, social, political, commercial. The lives of good, not goody, men and women, are now, as ever, the brightest beacons to guide inexperienced youth aright through this puzzling pilgrimage. Yes, life is a complicated business, a puzzle to the wisest, but to few more than to the aspirant for success in the commercial career. The youngster who goes into an office is somewhat at a disadvantage compared with the boy who proposes to make his living in a trade. For while the latter knows what it is that he has to learn, the ordinary clerical fledgling, unless he have good friends behind him, is like a rudderless boat in a rough sea, with heavy odds against his making a safe port. There is, I believe, an institution in London called The Future Career Association which undertakes to supply full and accurate information relative to spheres of occupation, and one can readily see the valuable potentialities of an organization which would show one desirous of entering commercial life the various specialties into which it is divisible, and indicate the studies necessary to qualify for the one selected. When I was young the ordinary parent with an ordinary boy to provide for, and a soul above retail trade, put him into an office. Young hopeful was supposed to rub along somehow in commercial life.