Page:The Ethics of the Professions and of Business, with a supplement - Modern China and Her Present Day Problems.djvu/11



ODES of ethics are important agencies for social control. The complexities and the specializations of modern industrial life leave many individuals unable to judge whether or not a member of any profession has performed his services with due regard to the interests of all, as well as with due regard to the interests of his client. In all but the crassest and most obvious defaults in service standards the work of the physician must be judged by physicians and that of the lawyer, by lawyers. And so with each of the professions. The higher the skill, the greater the need for organized group effort toward maintaining a fine sense of obligations, not primarily to others in the same profession, but chiefly to the general well-being of all.

Hence it is that the ideal of all the professions is public service and not monetary gain. The very opportunities for anti-social conduct call forth organized effort to taboo unprofessional conduct. The constructive aim of each of the professions must therefore be the public good. 'The member of each of the professions has a,s his means of livelihood the heritage of the ages in his science. His earning power and his opportunity for immortality of influence depend upon the careful work of countless predecessors. The training necessary to a mastery of a profession gives the opportunity, but not the reason, for enforcing high standards of conduct throughout the profession.

Until very recently business was looked upon solely as a means to a selfish end. The ethics of business were those of the barter-market. The buyer could beware. The sole test of the seller was what he could get away with. But modern transportation systems have changed all this. Oranges grown in California must now be marketed in Philadelphia and automobiles are now made in Detroit to be sold in the Orient. The manufacturer sells to distant unknown customers through advertising. Even contracts to buy and to sell, in these days of the telephone, are largely by word of mouth. Selling prices must now be announced before goods are produced. Business hangs more and more upon good faith. That old adage, "A man's word is as good as his bond," acquires new meaning as a business asset.

The necessity of good faith in business was brought forcibly to the attention of the business world by the unprecedented cancellation of contracts in the recent period of rapidly rising and falling prices. Business men learned then how little money it takes to tempt a man to break his word. But modern business cannot go on where there is lack of confidence. The sudden stagnation of business in 1920 was due more than men are wont to believe to the breakdown of moral stamina. Business is today far flung in its relations and complex in its ramifications. The structure falls when good faith fails.

In the past few months, many business men have come to have a solemn sense of personal obligation to restore and maintain faith in the business world. For ethics is the basis for creative industry. The National Association of Credit Men has adopted a formal code of ethics. (See page 208.) The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World has started a "Truth in Advertising" Movement and has formed a Vigilance Committee to enforce the truthful presentation of business facts in advertising. (See page 214.) The "Commercial Standards Council" was federated out of many large busi-