Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
(1) The first duty of businessmen is to supply honest goods, in honest
measure. Underweight, undermeasure, double- bottomed berry-boxes,
bottles so shaped as to appear to contain more than their actual
contents, are obviously cheating. Misbranding of goods is now
regulated, so far as interstate trade goes, by the Federal Pure Food
and Drugs Act; and most States have similar legislation.
Misrepresentation in advertisement should be severely punished; the
selling of cold storage for fresh products, of part-cotton for all-wool
clothing, of less for more expensive woods, and the thousand other
ways of panning inferior goods upon an inexpert public for high-grade
articles. At present there is little recourse but to carry distrust
into all purchasing, learn to be canny, and to recognize differences
in quality in all articles needed. But the average man cannot become
an expert purchaser; he buys furniture which breaks down prematurely;
he pays a high price for clothing which proves to have no wearing
quality; he buys patent medicines which promise to cure his physical
ills, and is lucky if they do not leave him worse in health than before.
Jerry- building, and the doing of fake jobs by contractors, especially
for municipalities, is one of the scandals of our times. [Footnote:
See Encyclopedia Britannica, article, "Adulteration." E. Kelly Twentieth
Century Socialism, book ii, chap. i. For a notorious case of tampering
with weights, see Outlook, vol. 92, p. 25; vol. 93, p. 811. For cases
of adulteration, Good Housekeeping Magazine, vol. 54, p. 593. F. W.
Taussig, Principles of Economics, chap. 45.]
(2) Another duty, less generally recognized by even the more honorable
businessmen, is to sell their goods at fair prices. The strangulation
of competition by mutual agreements or the formation of trusts, aided
often by an iniquitously high tariff, has put many a business for a
time on a par with those natural monopolies which, if unregulated,
can always exact exorbitant prices for what the public needs. Rich
profits have been made by the tucking of a few cents on to the price
of gas, or coal, or steel, or oil, or telephone service. Enormous
fortunes have been made, at the public expense, by the practical
cornering of staple commodities. These hold-up prices should be clearly
recognized for what they are-a form of modern piracy. No business man
or corporation is entitled in justice to more than a moderate reward
for the mental and physical labor expended; the excessive incomes of
monopoly are largely at the expense of the public, who, by one means
or other, are being compelled to pay more than a fair price for the
article. [Footnote: For cases, see C. R. Van Hise, Concentration and
Control, pp. 109,145, 149.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account