ctory before another
can be built (all of which is, in a measure, only relative and
metaphorical), in the United States there is always room for the
newcomers. New population is pouring in to create new markets: new
resources are being developed to provide the raw material for new
industries; there is abundance of new land, new cities, new sites
whereon the new factories can be built. This is why "America" and
"opportunity" are interchangeable terms; why young men need never lack
friends or backing or the chance to be the architects of their own
fortunes. Society can afford to encourage the individual to assert
himself, because there is space for and need of him.

From this flow certain corollaries from which we may draw direct
comparison between the respective spirits in which business in the two
countries is carried on. In the first place, in consequence of the more
crowded condition of the field and the greater intensity of
competition, the business community in England is much more ruthless,
much less helpful, in the behaviour of its members one towards the
other. It is not a mere matter of the more exacting scrutiny of credits,
of the more rigid insistence on the exact fulfilment of a bond (provided
that bond be stamped), but it colours unconsciously the whole tone of
thought and language of the people. There are two principles on which
business may be conducted, known in America respectively as the "Live
and let live" principle, and the "Dog eat dog" principle. There was
until recently in existence in the United States one guild, or
association, representing a purely parasitical trade--that of
ticket-scalping--which was fortunately practically peculiar to the
United States. This concern had deliberately adopted the legend "Dog eat
dog" as its motto and two bull-dogs fighting as its crest; but in doing
so its purpose was to proclaim that the guild was an Ishmaelite among
business men and lived avowedly in defiance of the accepted canons of
trade. On the other hand one meets in America with the words "Live and
let live" as a trademark, or motto, on every hand and on the lips of the
people. Few men in America but could cite cases which they know wherein
men have gone out of their way to help their bitterest competitor when
they knew that he needed help. The belief in co-operation, on which
follows a certain comradeship, as a business principle is ingrained in
the people.

I was once given two letters to read, of wh