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may say that, of fifteen men, five evidently
had been bent to the side of unmoral
conduct when young. Ten had
been trained carefully and patiently to
ilo the right thing. But, in such an important
matter, 1 could not assume. I
must know. So 1 put a direct question
squarely to one of them, and he said:
"When I was a boy my father used to
gather us children around him on Sunday
afternoon and teach us the Bible. Every
morning we had family prayers. At
every meal, grace was said. We had such
a steady diet of religion and morals, I
grew tired of it. At times, it seemed
that rebellion and flight were the only
things left. Several times I started to
run away from home. I am no cowan
now. I was not then. But 1 didn't run
away because I couldn't. The drill had
been too thorough. I could no more run
away than a German soldier can turn
coward and desert.
"Today, I can't play truant from any
business obligation. Often, if I consulted
my wishes, I would quit midway in a big
campaign. The burden seems too heavy
compared with the returns. When 1
think of it. the duty T owe to my men
and the other stockholders demands my
attention. So, T don't run away.
T suppose it is because I was
trained not to quit."
To get the cash value of this
program to this man, I went
over his business record. Ten
years ago his capital was $15,-
000. Today, it is $5,000,000.
With his statement and record
in mind, I questioned and investigated the
other fourteen men. My record shows
thai seven of them had been drilled about
the same as had been the first one. Their
drill had not been so severe but still it
was thorough. Two more had been
drilled by parents or friends in the works
of the great philosophers. Thus 100 per
cent of those who had stuck by their
guns in a business sense said they did so
because they had been trained in morality
and could not desert the way they had
been "brought up."
MORAL FIBER IN BUSINESS 205
And, 100 per cent of them had scored
a financial success. They all said their
success was due to the fact that they had
played the business game cleanly.
From that, I went into a study of the
moral and financial record of the five
who had quit—sold out when trouble
came. I found that not one of them had
had any serious moral training. Two
said they were members of a church, but
they smiled and winked when the}' said
it. The only thing about it which seemed
worthy of mention was that the minister
was "liberal".
The Indulgent Father Is Responsible forthe Majority
of Our Dissolute Youth