due
weight. There has been a large mass of business in this country, in
which the community has been unable to recognize any productive
service; it has been regarded only as a means of acquisition for those
who pursue it. Legislation, public opinion, and the evolution of
enforceable standards within particular business groups are tending all
the while to narrow the sphere of purely acquisitive business. With
respect to that great mass of business which has both an acquisitive
and a productive side, these forces are gradually bringing us to an
attitude of mind in which we regard gain as a by-product of service.

The public is also recognizing that the purpose of goods and services
is to promote individual and community welfare, and as fast as public
policy to that end can be worked out, it is carrying emphasis even
beyond specific products and services to the social ends for which
these products and services exist. In these ways society too is trying,
clumsily perhaps, to take a long-time view of its business and to
conserve the human values that make for progress.

Obviously it is but a partial and incomplete analysis of a business
situation that omits these human factors; a working policy that fails
to anticipate their force and then to reduce the zone of conflict to
its lowest limits is neglecting an important element in the definition
of long-time efficiency. And business men are beginning to see this.

A few weeks ago the manager of a large department store in San
Francisco was kind enough to show me his record of departmental profits
for a number of months. The fluctuation in relative profits of
different departments month by month was apparent, especially the fact
that after a certain month several departments which had previously
earned high profits became relatively much less profitable. I asked the
manager to explain, and he did in this way: At the time when the change
occurred a new policy had been inaugurated by which employment of help
had been centralized and standardized for the whole concern. As a
result, when certain departments which had been decidedly sub-standard
with respect to wages were brought up to standard, they were unable to
earn anything like the profits which they had previously shown.

Without going into the question of the connection between high wages
and profits, of which this incident in my opinion was an exception, it
was clear to the manager as to me that the increase in wages in