ome into the language until late
(etiquette came even later) and then it was used to describe the polite
practices at court. It was wholly divorced from any idea of character,
and the most fastidious gentlemen were sometimes the most complete
scoundrels. Even the authors of books of etiquette were men of great
superficial elegance whose moral standards were scandalously low. One of
them, an Italian, was banished from court for having published an
indecent poem and wrote his treatise on polite behavior while he was
living in enforced retirement in his villa outside the city. It was
translated for the edification of the young men of England and France
and served as a standard for several generations. Another, an
Englishman, spent the later years of his life writing letters to his
illegitimate son, telling him exactly how to conduct himself in the
courtly (and more or less corrupt) circles to which his noble rank
entitled him. The letters were bound into a fat, dreary volume which
still sits on the dust-covered shelves of many a library, and the name
of the author has become a synonym for exquisite manners. Influential as
he was in his own time, however, neither he nor any of the others of the
early arbiters of elegance could set himself up as a dictator of what is
polite to American men, of no matter what class, and get by with it. Not
very far by, at any rate.

It is impossible now to separate courtesy and character. Politeness is a
fundamental, not a superficial, thing. It is the golden rule translated
into terms of conduct. It is not a white-wash which, if laid on thick
enough, will cover every defect. It is a clear varnish which shows the
texture and grain of the wood beneath. In the ideal democracy the ideal
citizen is the man who is not only incapable of doing an ungallant or an
ungracious thing, but is equally incapable of doing an unmanly one.
There is no use lamenting the spacious days of long ago. Wishing for
them will not bring them back. Our problem is to put the principles of
courtesy into practice even in this hurried and hectic Twentieth Century
of ours. And since the business man is in numbers, and perhaps in power
also, the most consequential person in the country, it is of most
importance that he should have a high standard of behavior, a high
standard of civility, which includes not only courtesy but everything
which has to do with good citizenship.

We have no desire for candy-box courtesy. It should