ual observation in a narrow
field--that comparison becomes extremely difficult. My own opinion would
be that there is at least as much real religious feeling in England as
in the United States, and certainly more in Scotland than in either;
but that the churches in America are more active as organisations and
more efficient agents in behalf of morality.

But we are now speaking of the business community as a whole, and the
force which ultimately keeps the ethics of every business community pure
is, I imagine, the same, namely that without honesty the community
itself cannot live or prosper and that, with normal ability, he who is
most honest prospers most. American business was dishonest before
society had settled down and knitted itself together.

The change which has come over the American business world can perhaps
best be made clear to English readers by taking a single example; and it
must necessarily be an example from a field with which I am familiar.

* * * * *

There is in my possession an interesting document, being one of the (I
think) two original manuscript copies of the famous "Gentleman's
Agreement," bearing the signatures of the parties thereto, which was
entered into by the Presidents or Chairmen of a number of railway
companies at Mr. Pierpont Morgan's house in New York in 1891. In the
year following the signing of the Agreement, I was in London in
connection with affairs which necessitated rather prolonged interviews
with many of the Chairmen or General Managers of the British
railways,--Sir George Findlay, Sir Edward Watkin, Mr. J. Staats Forbes,
and others. With all of them the mutual relations existing between
railway companies in the two countries respectively formed one of the
chief topics of our conversations, and that at that time the good faith
and loyalty of attitude of one company towards another were much
greater in England than in America it is not possible to question.
British companies are subject to a restraining influence which does not
exist in the United States, in the parliamentary control which is
exercised over them. Every company of any size has, with more or less
frequency, to go to Parliament for new powers or privileges, and any
Chairman or Board of Directors which established a reputation for
untrustworthiness in dealings with other companies would probably be
able to expect few favours from the next Parliamentary Committee. But
(although th