Ethical Business Practices

Office Boy 1917, Boston, Massachusetts--Photo by Lewis Hine (courtesy of Library of Congress)

The following passages are taken from the 1894 edition of a business handbook called The Business Guide; Or Safe Methods of Business by J.L. Nichols, A.M., Principal of the North-Western Business College, Naperville, Illinois.This fascinating little book is intended as a practical guide for a young person getting started in business. It is beautifully written, and full of wisdom.

J. L. Nichols

This amazing book offers advice on aspects of business practice as varied as etiquette, letter writing, applying for a job, writing contracts, accounting, legal matters, avoiding being swindled, securing patents, the rights of married women, election laws and the responsibilities of owning a dog. It contains sample alphabets, and writing and drawing exercises to practice the beautiful penmanship that was essential in that era. There are also tables for compounding interest and calculating wages, determining time differences between cities, "short rules of arithmetic," weights and measures, adding up the cost of smoking cigars, as well as a business dictionary. Other topics covered by this book include determining the carrying capacity of freight cars, how to measure plots of land, "how to estimate the contents of a pile of grain, potatoes, hay or wood" and "how to find the number of heaped bushels of ear corn, apples or potatoes in a crib or bin," how to mix paints of various colors and how to write names on iron tools and glass.

Handwritten Business Alphabet

The book begins with advice on how to succeed in business--the foundation of everything else. Energy, hard work and ambition to get ahead are essential, but there is also great emphasis placed on ethical conduct, including honesty, generosity, good manners, self-reliance, protecting one's reputation, preserving good credit and building character. There is also advice on cultivating good habits for health and life balance, including taking time for leisure and avoiding worry.

I find this book to be interesting and inspiring, because much of the advice given is still relevant today. In our times, greed is almost seen as a virtue: there is so much emphasis on making money above all else. The ends usually justify the means, and wealth, power and bluster often trump fairness, honesty, courtesy, logical thought, strength of character, concern for other people and responsibility to one's community. It is refreshing to remember that business does not have to be conducted with ruthlessness and amorality. Being grounded in solid values is a good foundation for all human endeavors. It is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a way to build and maintain true strength and success throughout life.

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Office Worker, Boston, 1917--photo by Lewis Hine, (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Doing Good

The same feeling pervades our common humanity. The poorest man, the daily worker, the obscurest individual, shares the gift and the blessing of doing good--a blessing that imparts no less delight to him who gives than to him who receives. If God blesses you with riches, remember your fellow man in need of bread.

Your Reputation

Learn to be a man of your word. One of the most disheartening of all things is to be compelled to do business with a person whose promise is not to be depended upon. There are plenty of people in this wide world whose promise is as slender a tie as a spider's web. Let your given word be as hempen cord, a chain of wrought steel that will bear the heaviest strain.... The man who does not honorably meet his promises is not only dishonest but is also a coward. Do not be a lump of moist putty molded and shaped by the influence and impressions of those whom you last met. Your reputation is made up by your conduct. Cultivate force, energy, self-reliance and be a positive quantity that can be calculated upon at all times and at all places. Be a man whose word is worth a hundred cents on a dollar and your reputation will be as good as gold.

Thrifty in Order to be Generous

Man must be thrifty in order to be generous.Thrift does not end with itself, but extends benefits to others. It founds hospitals, endows charities, establishes colleges, and extends educational influences. Benevolence springs from the best qualities of mind and heart. Its divine spirit elevates the benefactors of the world.

Eager To Be Richer

Men go on toiling and moiling, eager to be richer; desperately struggling, as if against poverty, at the same time that they are surrounded by abundance. They scrape and scrape, add shilling to shilling, and sometimes do shabby things in order to make a little more profit, though they may have accumulated far more than they actually enjoy. And still they go on, worrying themselves incessantly in the endeavor to grasp an additional increase of superfluity...They become miserly, think themselves daily growing poorer, and die the deaths of beggars. We have known several instances. They have nothing to think of but money, and of what will make money. They have no faith but in riches.

It Is No Disgrace to Be Poor

The praise of the honest poverty has often been sung. When a man will not stoop to do wrong, when he will not sell himself for money, when he will not do a dishonest act, then his poverty is most honorable. But a man is not poor who can pay his way and save something besides. He who pays cash for all that he purchases is not poor but well off. He is in a happier condition than the idle gentleman who runs into debt, and is clothed, shod and fed at the expense of his tailor, shoemaker and butcher.

Riches No Proof of Worth

Worldly success, measured by the accumulation of money, is no doubt a very dazzling thing, and all men are naturally more or less the admirers of worldly success. But though men of persevering, sharp, dexterous and unscrupulous habits, ever on the watch to push opportunities, may do and "get on" in the world; yet it is quite possible that they may not possess the slightest elevation of character, nor a particle of real greatness....Neither a man's means nor his worth are measurable by his money. If he has a fat purse and and a lean heart, a broad estate and narrow understanding, what will his "means" do for him--what will his "worth" gain him? Let a man be what he will, it is the mind and heart that make a man poor or rich, miserable or happy; for these are always stronger than fortune.

Good Manners

     An old saying, "Politeness costs nothing, and accomplishes wonders," is a good one. Of course, politeness without sincerity is simply a refined form of hypocrisy, and sincerity without politeness is but little better. A savage, a barbarian can be honest, but is not likely to be very polite. So politeness of speech and manners is a distinguishing trait between the civilized and the uncivilized.

     A coarseness and roughness of speech, a studied effort to say things that grate upon or wound the feelings of a person possessing ordinary refinement, is utterly, inexcusably and wholly indefensible.

     There are many persons, however, who seem to have the idea that because they are honest, sincere and sympathetic, after a fashion, they are excusable for being impolite, and consequently justified in cultivating boorish manners, and indulging in rough speech; but this is a mistake. It pays to regard the feelings of others, especially when it costs us nothing. It does not follow because a man is polite that he is therefore insincere. Politeness and sincerity can go together, and the man or woman who possesses both will get along much better than the individual who has either without the other.

    

 

Store Interior, 1917 or 1918--Photo by Harris and Ewing (Courtesy of Library of Congress)