or normal number at work. It meant a stiff comparison because 1925 was a good year. Labor was well employed. Wages were good. Saving deposits were large. Business as a whole was prosperous. Now as between the average of 1925 and January, 1928, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found a shrinkage of 1,874,050 in employment, and I stand squarely on those estimates. The estimate made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1921 concerning the amount of unemployment was criticized by some as being too high. But that estimate stood the test, and the estimate made this spring by Commissioner Stewart will do likewise.

I believe there is no attempt to discredit the estimate given by the statistical bureau. It is simply a question of how the figures shall be interpreted. In the eyes of one critic, the figures are right if interpreted his way. He thinks they point to a still larger amount of unemployment. Still another critic believes the employment shrinkage is four times the findings of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On

The most extravagant attempt of all has been to link the bureau's findings with the year 1920. That was during a period of high wages and of patriotic appeal to all workers to go into the factories and "produce goods for starving Europe." In 1919 and 1920 women and girls who never had worked before took temporary employment. the other hand the year 1921 was one of sudden and acute depression, with unemployment. If you took that year as a basis of comparison, it would be possible to show more people at work to-day than ever were before with but one single exception-1920.

The normal year of 1925 shows what I think is absolutely correct, that we have to-day 1,874,050 fewer people on the pay rolls. After having read the estimate by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a distinguished critic wanted to know, " Why the extra fifty?" As a matter of fact, if that man will stop talking long enough to find jobs for those 50 workers represented by the number mentioned, we will gladly take it from the sum total.

The fact is, if you take into account what this country has lately been through, the wonder is that we have not had an economic catastrophe. Even under the restrictive immigration law we admit nearly 300,000 immigrant aliens every year. In view of the quota law, many of my hearers may well inquire, "How can this be when the total quota fixed by law is 165,000 annually?" But this quota applies to Europe and does not apply to Canada, Mexico, and the other independent countries of the Western Hemisphere. Anyone who can pass the literacy tests from these countries may enter the United States. As I have repeatedly stated, We have closed the front door and left open the back door." Since 1925 more than a million immigrants have come to us. Every year one of our southern neighbors sends to us about 70,000 people, most of them common laborers, the hardest of all to fit into jobs. And with improved machinery in our factories and on our farms, it is going to be still harder to find places for the common labor already here. Every year 250,000 people leave the farms to seek work in the cities. Since 1925 nearly three-quarters of a million of these have thus joined the ranks of the job hunters. Every year nearly 2,000,000 boys and girls attain the age of employment. Of course, we must take into account the fact that many of these took the places of those who had passed from life or beyond the age of employment. But there still remains an annual increase of many millions of workers to be absorbed.

Against this increase in the number of workers we have had unusually heavy economic blows since 1925-the floods in the Mississippi Valley and in New England, the Florida tornado, a serious disturbance of more than a year's duration in the soft-coal industry, and the temporary closing of the largest single motor industry for readjustment. consequence we have had a business recession, though comparatively slight and passing.

And as a

On top of this, new automatic machinery is steadily displacing hand labor. New scientific management methods and labor-saving devices enable many industries to turn out a greater production than ever, with fewer workers than ever. To cite a single instance, the railroads to-day are handling a record tonnage of freight with vastly fewer men. same process is going on in every industry. And the jobs thus wiped out are gone forever.

The

To my mind it is a proof of our wonderful vitality as a Nation that we have been able to meet these rapid and sweeping industrial changes with as little unemployment as we have. In all fairness to the people of this country who want to see business prosper-in all fairness to the workers, skilled and unskilled, who are temporarily unemployed-it seems to me that the tactics of those who exaggerate a present condition that is serious enough, only tend to increase the general uneasiness and slow up the return to better times with reemployment for all. Calamity howling only creates calamity. Sometimes, too, the unwise and unscrupulous employer takes advantage of the situation thus created to reduce wages. Such employers have no thought for the permanent prosperity of our people. They are wholly selfish.

As it is the natural course of events is improving the situation every day. While it seems that because of a backward spring April will not show any great improvement, I am confident that May will show a substantial improvement in practically all lines of industry and agriculture. Seasonal work will pick up in May and will increase the

number of workers and the total of pay-roll disbursements. The advanc ing season will open the farms to the 600,000 workers annually employed in growing and harvesting the crops. Building and other outdoor trades will likewise take on greater activity. States, municipalities, and the National Government all have elaborate building and construction programs that will absorb a large percentage of the unemployed, most of whom are what is called "common labor."

The proposal that Government work be launched in times of depression to aid the situation is not a new one. That has been the recommendation by all "employment conferences." The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a decline in employment throughout 1927 and the United States Government has recognized it by its approval of a large construction program throughout the country and the District of Columbia.

The Government has appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to carry on the work. The Treasury Department informs me that everything possible is being done to hasten work on these projects. The one motor industry long suspended for readjustment is returning to normal activity. And before long some plan for flood prevention will add to all these other demands for labor.

Forward-looking business men themselves are beginning to tackle the unemployment problem from their own practical angle. They know that people out of work can buy no products. They know that in order to be fully prosperous the country must keep at work every person in need of a job, all earning wages and provided with purchasing power. They know that the more buyers we have, the greater the demand for products in general. The greater the demand, the greater the demand for workers to keep the market supplied, with greater profits to business in general.

One of the greatest employers of labor in our country has evolved a plan whereby men engaged in continuous operations, who have always worked a seven-day week, are under a new arrangement given a six-day week on seven days' pay. This has made room for additional workers who also work a six-day week on seven days' pay. That one act put 20 per cent more men to work in a single operation. It is one fine way to reduce unemployment. As this particular company's scientific methods are good ones, its competitors already are trying this way of absorbing workers, and the method will spread. It seems to me one of the revolutionary moves in modern industry. It not only relieves temporary unemployment, but strikes at the great ideal of preventing unemployment altogether. Above all, it wipes out the seven-day week, a practice it is time to abolish.

Unemployment is a world problem. Other countries have tried treating the festering sore with surface poultices-government doles and the like. The thing to be done is to get to the roots of unemployment and wipe it out altogether. That is the greatest economic problem of our time. The best brains in government, business, and science will be needed to solve it. But if this richest country of all does not soon apply itself to the problem, our discontented jobless may force us into the same paternalistic experiments now costing other countries so much.

History teaches that unemployment has often led to revolution. Education has taken us out of that danger. But it has brought us face to face with new possibilities. The man or woman out of work and truly desirous of employment need no longer resort to violence. Neither will they steal or starve. them new ways of striking back. put through special legislation. If we are to go on firing good employees at 50, and allowing skilled workers to be displaced in thousands by new labor-saving machinery, without practical efforts to reabsorb these people in new pursuits, they will eventually appeal for special legislation to take care of them at public expense. Special legislation has already been passed by Congress, and if such legislation can be passed for one class it can for another.

Education and the ballot have given
They will arouse public opinion and

It would be deplorable if this grave and deeply human problem of unemployment is to be made a political football. We ought to grasp this nettle not as partisans but as Americans and practical economists. Those who would make it a political issue are only playing into the hands of the party and the administration they seek to belittle.

The party to which I belong came into office at the end of a former opposition administration that left behind it nearly 6,000,000 of unemployed. Under the present administration these millions were put back to work. Under the Presidency of Calvin Coolidge this country has further absorbed all but a fraction of the millions who have come into labor's ranks from the farms and through immigration growth. In spite of sweeping advances in business method and labor-saving That feat of machinery it has kept at work nearly all of the workers. construction and reconstruction speaks for itself.

Not only this, but under President Coolidge the United States has We become the most prosperous country of to-day and of all time. Americans do not need to say this ourselves. All the rest of the world says it for us. And as good Americans it seems to me we should give up disturbing this state of affairs and instead do everything

within our power to keep our country prosperous so that everyone who desires to do so may be steadily employed and at good wages. That I know is the ambition of President Coolidge and all who are connected with his administration.

ADDRESS BY EDWIN B. PARKER

Mr. RANSDELL. Mr. President, during the World War Judge Edwin B. Parker, whose home is in Houston, Tex., was a member of the War Industries Board and priorities commissioner. After the signing of the armistice he went to Europe as chairman of the United States Liquidation Commission, of which Vice President Dawes was a member, and which disposed of al American surplus war materials in Europe and settled all claims between the United States and its allies in the short period of 10 months. Subsequently he has been serving as a member and as umpire of several international arbitral tribunals, which tasks he has discharged in a manner to inspire the confidence of nations and promote the cause of international arbitration. He has now entered upon his duties as war-claims arbiter under the settlement of war claims act of 1928, recently passed by Congress.

On the 7th instant Judge Parker, as chairman of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, delivered a very remarkable and philosophic address, sounding the keynote of the sixteenth annual meeting of that organization. It is one of the finest things of the kind I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I ask that it may be printed at this point in the body of the RECORD, together with a resolution passed by the board.

The VICE PRESIDENT. Without objection, it is so ordered. The address and resolution are as follows:

TEAMWORK FOR PROSPERITY

THE KEYNOTE

"Business repudiates those whose ruthless methods tend to discredit all business and reaffirms its allegiance to those sound principles of conduct which beget confidence, upon which to endure all business must rest."

"We pledge ourselves to team play with every element of the community of which we are a part to achieve an all-embracing prosperity, inclusive of all groups and all classes."

"We dedicate anew our best efforts to the diligent pursuit of the greatest of all vocations-the business of right living-proclaiming to the world that he who would be great among us must become the servant of all."

(An address by Edwin B. Parker, chairman of the board of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, at the sixteenth annual meeting, Washington, D. C., May 8, 1928)

TEAM WORK FOR PROSPERITY

For many years and under varying circumstances and conditions, in peace and in war, in prosperity and in adversity, it has been my privilege to have close contacts with those engaged in all classes of business activities, and thus I have acquired an accurate understanding of the problems and the aspirations of the average American business man. The message which I bring to you to-day flows from these Sources of information and understanding. It is not, in any proper sense, my message. I am simply the agency to interpret and the mouthpiece to express, with the utmost frankness and earnestness, this composite message of the average business man dealing with some of the fundamentals of prosperity.

This, the sixteenth annual meeting of the federation of American business, has for its underlying theme and will sound as its keynote "Teamwork for prosperity."

Let us at the outset place the emphasis on "teamwork." If it is broad and general, prosperity will follow. Thus conceived, this keynote is a bugle call to duty. It envisions vast vistas of enduring usefulness. Narrowly conceived, it is paltry and sordid.

We are not here to consider a teamwork between members of a particular group; to promote a prosperity, measured solely in terms of profit to the members of that group, without thought of the interests and the welfare of every individual of every group within our Nation. Such is the miser's conception of prosperity-coldly, selfishly, narrowly calculating; a precarious prosperity because of its very narrowness. Prosperity to endure, prosperity to be worthy of the effort to attain it, prosperity as we here conceive it, is an all-embracing prosperity.

To achieve such a prosperity we invoke a teamwork that is not merely a cohesion of members within a business group, or yet a cohesion of business men with business men. It is rather a broader teamwork, an all-embracing cohesion whose bonds of unity are the tendrils of enlightened self-interest, which is mutual interest and common understanding of common purposes; teamwork between business and labor; teamwork of business and labor with agriculture; teamwork of business and labor and agriculture with Government, the servant of all; a teamwork that translates and gives dynamic effort to the professed conviction of this chamber that whatsoever is not for the

public good is not for the good of business. A teamwork, in fine, whose inspiration is the fostering of the general public interest rather than that of one or of a group of special interests.

Teamwork is not new to business. Business has a tradition, through teamwork, for pointing the way to higher concepts of the public interest. The tradition goes back a long way. In the early part of the ninth century Charlemagne recognized the "ancient custom of commerce as something definite that had been created by the merchants themselves, and something conferring advantages to which other classes had not yet attained. In the general insecurity and lawlessness that prevailed in the early part of the Middle Ages the merchants-the business men of the day-organized for their own protection, and to govern their transactions developed principles which were far in advance of the principles of the laws of their times, and provided their own tribunals, where these principles could be equitably and promptly applied. At a time when legal proceedings were notoriously dilatory and technical and where obligations were enforceable only when embodied in formidable documents of great artificiality business men evolved the law merchant and themselves so administered it that an English judge of the eighteenth century referred to it as "a system of equity founded upon rules of equity and governed in all its parts by plain justice and good faith." What higher tribute could be paid any body of men with respect to their intertrade relations?

Business to-day is profiting by the example set by the merchants of the Middle Ages, and transactions involving billions of dollars annually in our own country occur under conditions of self-government in business prompted by the dictates of "plain justice and good faith." Statutory fiat has never created a single great modern market nor originated the facilities that have made such markets possible.

The growth and development of business and the progress and wellbeing of society as a whole demand unhampered opportunities for individual effort and initiative, which is rendered increasingly difficult in proportion to the increase in Government regulation of business. On the other hand, methods and practices designed to secure immediate gains, without reference to the effect on the general public or the ultimate effect on business itself, sometimes render restrictive and regulatory legislation in the public interest imperative. Business chafes under such legislation. The remedy lies in its own hands. It can, if it will, be governed and regulated by its own rules and principles of business conduct enforced by the most effective of all sanctions-a wholesome public opinion-created and fostered by business itself. At its annual meeting held four years ago this chamber, in adopting 15 fundamental principles of business conduct, committed itself to self-regulation by business in these words:

"Business should render restrictive legislation unnecessary through so conducting itself as to deserve and inspire public confidence." This is not a mere phrase, not a mere grouping of platitudinous words expressing pious protestations intended for public consumption but not for practical application. I am convinced that the great masses of successful business men who have adopted as their own this principle of business conduct have done so in the utmost good faith, with the fixed purpose not to stop at subscribing to it but of living it, realizing that it is fundamental to enduring prosperity in business. Another principle of business conduct, then adopted by this chamber and subsequently by local chambers, trade associations, firms, and individuals throughout the Nation, runs thus:

"The foundation of business is confidence, which springs from integrity, fair dealing, efficient service, and mutual benefit."

And going a step further this Federation of American Business said:

"The function of business is to provide for the material needs of mankind, and to increase the wealth of the world and the value and happiness of life. In order to perform its function it must offer a sufficient opportunity for gain to compensate individuals who assume its risks, but the motives which lead individuals to engage in business are not to be confused with the function of business itself. When business enterprise is successfully carried on with constant and efficient endeavor to reduce the cost of production and distribution, to improve the quality of its products, and to give fair treatment to customers, capital, management, and labor, it renders public service of the highest value."

In adopting these principles American business professed its belief that "the expressions of principles drawn from these fundamental truths will furnish practical guides for the conduct of business as a whole and for each individual enterprise."

These are high professions of strong, farsighted, earnest men. That they then expressed, and increasingly continue to express the firm convictions of the great body of successful business men of this Nation, there can be no doubt. But when we are considering teamwork it is profitable to recall the fundamental rules of the game, which should govern the team irrespective of the numerous elements in its composition.

Business does not exist unto itself alone. Business exists only by reason of what it does for others. It finds its opportunities to coutinue and to develop only in advancing the welfare and the happiness of all those from whom it buys, those to whom it sells, and those

whom it employs. In the final analysis business deals with human welfare and human happiness. Its function is to find ways of promoting human welfare and of adding to the opportunities for human happiness. Without teamwork that function can not be successfully performed.

In its true significance teamwork among business men contemplates that each man so pursue the task he has set for himself that he will progress by virtue of his own abilities, of his own skill, of his own diligence rather than through placing impediments in the way of others. This principle of business conduct has been proclaimed by this chamber in these words:

"Unfair competition, embracing all acts characterized by bad faith, deception, fraud, or oppression, including commercial bribery, is wasteful, despicable, and a public wrong. Business will rely for its success on the excellence of its own service."

While this is a simple formula, it is not so simple that it operates automatically. There must be teamwork to insure its observance.

Business performs its function by seeking out new methods to reduce costs, by developing new products of ever-increasing utility in commodities and services, and by evolving new methods to advance the common welfare. It is peering into the future, making forecasts of conditions in months and years to come, and backing its forecasts with all it possesses. It does not pause to philosophize about the future; it gathers all that philosophy can offer, all that science can give, compounds everything it can garner from every Lource, however humble, with all the hard facts of daily experience; and, basing its conclusions upon the product, it acts. Thinking little of the past, scarcely taking note of the present, it is 'intent upon the future into which it projects itself. That it may gauge the future correctly, it requires more than the cooperation of the publicit must have the confidence of the public. Any disturbance of that confidence, any detriment suffered by the public which will cause a moment's hesitation in the free bestowal of that confidence, withdraws from business the foundation upon which its future must rest.

concern of business is to cast the beam out of its own eye; to purge itself of those corrupters of public servants whose moral turpitude in making possible the betrayal of a public trust is even greater than that of those whom they would debauch; and to put the ban of outlawry upon those who have a contempt for the public interest, those who have a contempt for the government that affords protection to them and to their property, and those who have a contempt for our institutions of justice. Organized business will have the courage and the sound judgment to cast out these defilers of the institution of business both in its own interest and in the interest of the public, which in turn will be quick to brand the offenders with the contempt which they richly deserve.

Leaving all public agents entirely out of the picture, and dealing solely with the shortcomings of its own members, business is here concerned with purging its profession not only of the principal offenders, but of those accessories, either before or after the fact, who, unmindful of the public interest involved and of their duties to the public, are guilty of a suppression of the truth which the public has a right to know.

It is the function of government to deal with crime. But there is a twilight zone between acts which are illegal and criminal on the one hand and acts which are simply unmoral on the other. Those whose conduct falls within this zone, whose acts, while within the law, are repugnant to the public interest, must be branded as social outlaws. We are here concerned in awakening the seemingly dormant business consciences of many of the stockholders of corporations who, through nonaction, impliedly place the seal of their approval on the acts of their offending agents. All such owe it to themselves, to the profession of business, and to the Government, publicly to repudiate those who misrepresent them. They can not accept the profits flowing from corruption and escape the moral stigma which inheres in such profits. Neither can they permit those who act for them to profit personally through corrupt corporate transactions or shield others who do.

May I remind you that another one of your principles of business conduct provides that

"Corporate forms do not absolve from or alter the moral obligations of individuals."

The recent conspicuous examples of individuals, prominent in big business, becoming intoxicated with power and involved in transactions tainted with fraud and corruption, violating every principle of sound business conduct, holding themselves above the law, are not peculiar to this day nor to the profession of business. Every generation, every profession, has its unfaithful members. But business, which has lately been defined as "the oldest of the arts and the newest of the professions," must, in order to maintain its professional status and to reap the unquestioned advantages of group action, scrupulously discharge its group responsibilities.

Among these responsibilities is to see to it that the profession of business is purged of those pirates whose acts stigmatize and bring business generally into disrepute. Such individuals, unmindful of their duties to the public, inevitably bring upon themselves and the entire institution of business the thunderbolts of public wrath in terms of legislative and governmental regulation that hamper a legitimate freedom of initiative. Ruthless and selfish initiative must be curbed in the public interest and in the interest of legitimate business.

Just as nations will decline to recognize, as a member of the family of nations, a government committed to destroying the foundations of our civilization; just as the legal profession has taken measures for disciplining and disbarring the " shyster"; just as the medical profession purges itself of the unethical practitioner, so business will decline to recognize as a member of the profession of business, and trade associations will decline to receive into their ranks, or will expel, an individual or an organization that willfully violates the fundamental principles upon which sound business rests, or that persists in ignoring the decencies of business intercourse, and besmatters all business with the slime of corruption or with the muck of unclean practices.

Shall the business community as a whole lose the ground that it has painstakingly and deservedly gained in order that a few-a very few in relation to the vast host engaged in American business-a few who hold themselves above the law, may crash through and demolish the canons of sound business practices? Those canons have been set up by organized business for its self-government, not only for its own protection, but as an assurance to the public that business may be trusted to formulate and enforce its own rules of fair play-its rules of good sportsmanship-and to do and do thoroughly its own housecleaning. If organized business is content to sit supinely by and permit the ruthless few to undermine the sound foundation on which it rests, then indeed does business richly deserve that swift manifestation of public indignation that will surely be visited upon it.

Much has been said and written of late of the betrayal of public trusts by those in high places. All such must be dealt with by the courts and by the voters to whom they are accountable. I have neither the time nor the disposition to deal with them here. The present

Let me also remind you that an established corporation has a person

composite of the individuals, whatever their rank or station, who control, direct, or manage it. The character they stamp upon it, the color and form they give it, the life, the force, the spirit they breathe into it-these constitute its soul. Individual responsibility is not lost through corporate action but, on the contrary, is increased in exactly the ratio that the influence exerted through corporate action exceeds that of independent individual action. An enlightened self-interest will prompt the great body of stockholders to delegate responsibilities only to men who realize that while acting in a representative capacity they owe obligations not only to their stockholders but to others-to employees, to the public which they serve, and even to their competitorswhich obligations, neither they nor their stockholders can escape through the creation of the legal fiction of an artificial person.

We are concerned in pointing out to the millions of corporate stockholders throughout the land that it is far more important to the permanent success of the institutions in which they have invested that these institutions be managed and directed by clean, upright, just, and able men than that their profits should be abnormally increased. This chamber is committed to the principle that Government should not enter the realm of business to undertake that which can be successfully performed in the public interest by private enterprise. This principle is politically and economically sound. We are here concerned in pointing out to business men everywhere that this principle is in far less danger from the propaganda of radical agitators than from the members of the business profession who are faithless to their obligations, who break down public confidence, and who provoke Government regulation,

Congressional investigations of particular business activities are sometimes bitterly denounced. Many congressional investigations are of the highest value to the public, including business. The demoralization to legitimate business that sometimes follows in their wake can be largely avoided by organized business doing its own investigating and frankly and fully laying all pertinent facts pertaining to any business affected with a public interest before the tribunal of public opinion. A business which can not stand this acid test is not entitled to prosper. The public, which is entitled to know the facts, will be satisfied with nothing less. Organized business should itself perform this task in its own and in the public interest. Failing to do so, Congress should and will act.

This chamber-the federation of American business-is vitally interested in promoting sound trade but not directly interested in promoting the fortunes of any trader. With an organization membership of more than 1,500 chambers of commerce and trade associations, and an underlying membership of nearly a million business men, its concern is not with any particular business or group of businesses or with any special interest but with business as a whole. Therefore, it is deeply concerned in preventing any special interest taking an unfair ad

vantage of or collecting an undue profit from business as a whole. It is deeply concerned in ascertaining to what extent there is danger of pooled capital-in the form of an artificial person, clothed by law with the corporate power to engage in every activity in which an individual could engage, of obtaining a strangle hold on the homes, the workshops, the businesses, the communities, and ultimately on the Government of the Nation.

During the World War we had an ugly but expressive word for those who sought to evade the duty the emergency laid upon every citizen. We called them "slackers." Public opinion was swift and sure in its condemnation of them.

"Slacking" did not end with the war. Every member of the profession of business who fails to observe the canons of decency and fair play and good sportsmanship, or everyone who, living up to those canons himself, lacks the courage to speak out in condemnation against that minority which brings business into disrepute, is "slacking" in his duty-in his duty to himself, in his duty to business, and in his duty to the public. And organized business, if it is to continue to deserve public confidence, must brand such "slackers" business outlaws.

As I have indicated, the only prosperity which will endure is a general and an all-embracing prosperity, and the teamwork to achieve it must be a general and all-embracing teamwork between business and labor.

The application of scientific principles to the technique of production and distribution has enormously increased volume and reduced costs. There is every reason to believe that the use of mechanical labor-saving devices will increase progressively, with a constantly decreasing number of employees per unit of production and distribution. The labor released must find, and to a great extent has been able to find, employment by supplying the ever-increasing demands of the constantly rising standards of living.

But much of this released labor can not in the nature of things create its own employment. This is a task for the business engineer, for the enlightened self-interest of business demands that our population have the opportunity for steady and gainful employment. Business can not stop to contemplate with satisfaction the products of its invention, but must press forward to provide for the victims of its invention. Progress means improvements on systems which were impossible to previous generations, and these improvements, in turn, stand in peril of being wrecked by other improvements. It is the task of the business engineer, while pressing on and occupying higher and higher ground in the economy of business, to see to it that he does not leave behind the mangled bodies of those who have made his ascent possible.

The production by labor to the limit of its ability to produce increases the wealth of the world, correspondingly raises standards of living, and adds to consuming power. To the extent that consumption is increased production and distribution must be enlarged, which in turn contributes to the prosperity of business.

But labor can prosper only through gainful employment-steady employment. Irregularity in employment entails not only individual loss and human suffering but economic waste, which works directly to the disadvantage of business as a whole. Here is a problem which calls for the maximum of teamwork between business and labor. It is a challenge to the resourcefulness of the business engineer that production and distribution which have been considered as seasonal be made continuous throughout the year, so that seasonal unemployment with its inexcusable waste and suffering may be relegated to the past.

Business will continue to grow and to prosper and to endure so long, but only so long, as it mounts on its yesterdays as stepping stones to higher things; not on the backs of labor, staggering under the load, robbed of the opportunity of honest and continuous employment, a victim of that progress which would otherwise glorify our generation. Be it said to the everlasting credit of the business engineer that he has accepted the imperious challenge to correlate and harmonize the conflicting forces in commerce, trade, and industry, and will not stop short of providing steady and gainful employment to all seeking it, including those who have been dislocated by the march of progress. Here is presented an opportunity for teamwork between business and labor calculated to produce the maximum of satisfaction and the most enduring prosperity.

There is a German proverb to the effect that when the farmer is prosperous, prosperity is general. Whether this be economically sound or not, certain it is that when the farmer is not prosperous his curtailed buying power adversely affects every class of business. The idea that there is an irreconcilable conflict between the interests of the farmer and that of organized business has been exploded. Waste-breeding war between these two great forces in our national economy is being superseded by productive cooperation and teamwork, increasing the prosperity of both.

We hear so much of the problems of agriculture. There are many agricultural problems, and they vary just as the soil, the climate, the geographical location, the transportation facilities, and numerous other factors affecting agriculture vary from one locality to another. When

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collectively these many problems affect adversely large agricultural populations throughout the Nation, we have a national problem.

It is the duty and privilege of business men everywhere methodically, systematically, and whole-heartedly to cooperate with organized and unorganized farmers and to assist in finding sound solutions for their problems. In this undertaking the local chambers of commerce already are playing and will continue to play an ever-increasing part, and the national chamber, with the data and material which it has assembled and other information which it has within its reach, is not only willing but anxious to do its full share toward promoting general prosperity through systematically and sympathetically contributing toward solving the many problems of agriculture.

Reference has heretofore been made to a fundamental principle of this chamber-that government should scrupulously refrain from entering any of the fields of industry, commerce, transportation, or distribution, or any phase of business that can be successfully undertaken in the public interest by private enterprise. Firm in that faith this federation of American business stands to-day. But this principle, sanctioned alike by American political tradition and sound economics, in no whit abridges the right and the duty of government to conserve the larger public interest with respect to those private enterprises that are impressed with a public interest. Indeed, this chamber, which is not an organization of "big business," but is a big organization of all business, is profoundly interested in the proper function of government in the legitimate regulation of those private enterprises impressed with a public interest, for experience demonstrates that wholly unhampered and unchecked private initiative may become destructive of the welfare of business as a whole.

Business believes in wholesome competition, but competition is not primitive strife. Business knows that competition may become not the life of trade but in truth the death of the traders. Piracy masquerading as competition is piracy none the less. Ruthless and unbridled individual initiative must be curbed in the public interest, and such legitimate checks and curbs are a proper exercise of the function of government. But business insists that this function be so exercised as neither to become burdensome as to costs nor to paralyze that constructive initiative which is the mainspring of American business.

In this nice balancing of their respective functions is an opportunty for enlightened teamwork between government and business.

In the progress which business has made through trade association activities and otherwise toward organized self-regulation, government is playing, and will increasingly play, an important part. Business can and is prepared in effect to legislate for itself in eliminating unfair, uneconomic, and wasteful trade practices, including all forms of unfair competition. Chief among these are commercial bribery to secure competitive business, the misrepresentation of wares through misbranding or otherwise, the deformation of credit, enticement of employees, the use of financial strength to drive competitors from the market, or any action of any nature whatsoever opposed to good morals because characterized by bad faith, deception, fraud, or oppression. While business men, out of their intimate knowledge and experience of conditions and practices obtaining in their particular trade, are increasingly demonstrating that they have both the foresight and the courage necessary for self-regulation, nevertheless business lacks both the machinery and the power to enforce, save through moral suasion, those rules of selfrestraint which it may promulgate in its own and the public interest and discipline such members of a group as may transgress those rules. When the appropriate Government agency has, after full hearing, approved such rules as in the public interest they can and will be enforced.

But in its own interest business, in its self-regulating activities, must be careful not to lean too heavily on government. When a majority of the real leaders in business are not only willing themselves to eliminate unfair trade practices but insist that all members of their group do the same or be branded as "slackers" not only because it pays but because it is right, the effect of their moral influence will leave comparatively little for Government agencies to do.

Trade and the individual trader can not afford to forget that the giver of commercial bribe, as well as the giver of a political bribe, is more despicable than is the debauched recipient. The plea that competition forces the adoption of this and other unfair trade practices can no longer be sustained in view of the ever-increasing success of the experiment of self-regulation by organized business with the cooperation of government. Here team play between members of a trade in cooperation with government furnishes a clean and effective way out. Moreover, such a plea, quite apart from its moral aspect, is economically unsound; for, while a business adopting unfair methods of competition may temporarily prosper, it can not long endure. This chamber, as the mouthpiece of organized business, is clothed with the duty of assembling and presenting to legislative and other governmental agencies data and information helpful to the Government in applying the principles enunciated through referenda or resolution by the chamber's members. In so doing, organized business is exer

But it is just as important that business should not undertake to usurp the legislative function as that government should not undertake to invade the realm of private business.

We must be mindful of the fact that the Congress of the United States, and other legislative assemblies, are, for the most part, composed of earnest, public spirited, and able men constituting a fair cross section of the public-including business-represented by them. We must be mindful of the fact that they have been designated to act for all of the people in the discharge of the legislative function, and the attitude of business toward them will be one of helpfulness in presenting facts on which to base sound conclusions. But business will neither seek to usurp the functions of government on the one hand, nor, on the other, sit by and decline to assist Government agencies and then criticize whatever they may do. On the contrary, business will do its full part toward stimulating a spirit of teamwork between government and business in the interest of an all-embracing general prosperity. Thus far we have dealt with teamwork and with prosperity within our own Nation. But America can not, if she would, and would not if she could, live unto herself alone. She is in, and of, the world, with rights and privileges and correlative duties and responsibilities with respect to the world. Just as, applied to our Nation, a prosperity to endure must be general, embracing all classes, achieved through teamwork participated in by all classes, so an international prosperity can not be achieved without whole-hearted teamwork on the part of the business community of all nations. American business has pledged itself to such teamwork. Through its American section, affiliated with the national chamber, it actively participated in organizing and has whole-heartedly supported the International Chamber of Commerce, through which business of all nations meets on common ground to consider, to analyze, and to solve international business problems. These problems will increasingly engage the attention of American business.

In its intercourse with foreigners American business will scrupulously observe the principles of business conduct which it has adopted for its guidance at home, and jealously guard the reputation of American business as a whole, thus establishing and maintaining internationally that confidence which is the foundation of all business.

Our business in foreign countries can not be extended and put on a firm basis by force. While American business is entitled to the reasonable and proper protection of its Government in foreign fields, it is a mistake to enter such fields if force is constantly required for its adequate protection. Rather should the quality of our product, the excellence of the service to be rendered, and the confidence inspired by fair dealing insure to American business a welcome to every land, not for the purpose of exploiting either its natural resources or its peoples but to assist in its growth and development, and to render a service through the fair exchange for its products of whatever America may have to offer.

America is the great creditor nation of the world, notwithstanding which the balance of trade in its favor is constantly increasing! America has in its vaults 45 per cent of the gold of the world! standards of living are the highest in the history of the world!

Her

These and similar statements are heard in our countingrooms, at public gatherings, in hotel lobbies at home and abroad, and constantly appear in our press. Well-what of it? Why this constant proclaiming of facts already too well known to our neighbors of other Would it not become us to have more regard for our neighnations? bors' sensibilities? It is true that industry and prudence have combined with circumstances to bring to our country an unusual degree of prosperity; but can it be that we have not the stamina to stand prosperity? Can it be that prosperity and poise can not walk hand in hand? Must not the constant rehearsal and parading of our prosperity prove offensive to our neighbors? Does it not better become us to dwell on the responsibilities to ourselves and to the rest of the world which this prosperity implies, and cultivate an attitude of humility rather than self-satisfied superiority?

America is on trial before the world. How shall we use the leisure which the growth of mechanical power has provided? How shall we use the power which accumulated wealth has placed in our grasp? Does not the answer turn on the degree of intelligence and self-control developed and used by the Nation or the individual, as the case may be? Will America meet this test and, instead of flaunting her prosperity, seriously and with her accustomed efficiency discharge her responsibilities, dedicating her prosperity to service, to the task of making the life of the peoples of the world fuller and freer and more abundant? Is not this America's place on the world's team?

Every individual within the sound of my voice will indorse this message your message-to the world. While the voice of the individual is weak, the resounding chorus of organized business will be heard throughout our Nation. We all at times become discouraged with the slow processes of group action. Business men as a rule thrive on direct action. But in such moments of discouragement remember that business as a whole is much more progressive than the average business man. Remember that it is only through teaming with his

ing for his community through his chamber of commerce-nationally through this organization, internationally through the international chamber-that the aspirations of the individual can be realized.

The machinery is at hand. Let us use it to the full.

Will not this chamber at this its sixteenth annual meeting repudiate those whose ruthless methods tend to discredit all business, and reaffirm its allegiance to those sound principles of conduct which beget confidence, upon which to endure all business must rest?

As members of this American federation of business, shall we not pledge ourselves to team play with every element of the community of which we are a part, and with our neighbors of other lands, to achieve an all-embracing prosperity, inclusive of all groups and all classes?

Shall we not dedicate anew our best efforts to the diligent pursuit of the greatest of all vocations-the business of right living-proclaiming to the world that he who would be great among us must become the servant of all?

Resolution adopted by United States Chamber of Commerce, May 11, 1928

GROUP RESPONSIBILITIES

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States declares its confidence in the general integrity and sound ideals of modern business. These are brought into high relief by recent disclosures of individual violation of established business practices.

American business is jealous of its good name, insists upon protecting its professional status by the maintenance of the highest standards, and intends scrupulously to discharge its group responsibilities.

Chief among such responsibilities is that of purging business of all those who indulge in commercial and political corruption and through resort to unclean practices bring business into disrepute and shock the sensibilities of all decent citizens.

The chamber declares that the moral turpitude of corruptors of public servants is even greater than that of those whom they debauch.

The chamber emphasizes its principle of business conduct which provides that "corporate forms do not absolve from or alter the moral obligations of individuals." It maintains that stockholders of corporations owe it to themselves, to the Government, and to the profession of business publicly to repudiate those who misrepresent them. Such stockholders can not accept the profits flowing from corruption and escape the moral stigma which inheres in such profits. Neither can they permit those who act for them to profit personally through corrupt corporate transactions or shield others who do.

The chamber reaffirms its allegiance to the principles of business conduct adopted at its annual meeting in 1924, and particularly does it reaffirm the principle that "business should render restrictive legisla tion unnecessary through so conducting itself as to deserve and inspire public confidence."

STREET-CAR FARES IN NEW YORK

Mr. COPELAND. Mr. President, we are very much perturbed in New York City over the transit situation. There is a feeling of resentment that this matter has been referred to the Federal courts. I ask to have printed in the RECORD, in connection with these brief remarks, certain resolutions passed by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New York two days ago with reference to that matter. The VICE PRESIDENT. Without objection, it is so ordered. The resolutions are as follows: BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND APPORTIONMENT, CITY OF NEW YORK. Whereas the city of New York entered into a certain contract with the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. whereby the city leased its transit properties to be managed and operated by that corporation for a fare not to exceed 5 cents; and

Whereas this contract has been in existence for many years, and since its execution the Interborough Rapid Transit Co., through its officials and counsel, has repeatedly referred to this written instrument as a "contract" at every time and place wherein it was a subject of discussion or litigation; and

Whereas this instrument was intended to be, and by the frequent concession of the Interborough Rapid Transit Co., through its officials and counsel, was conceded to be, and actually is and has been, a contract" without any reservation as to what that term implies; and

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Whereas the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York and doing business wholly within the jurisdiction of the State of New York; and Whereas the city of New York as a political unit also wholly within the territory of the State of New York; and

Whereas for the purpose of what amounts to a violation of the aforesaid contract which has been in effect for many years the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. has now invoked the jurisdiction of the United States Federal court; and

Whereas the said United States Federal court has assumed jurisdiction in this matter and prevented the issues therein being determined in the