ialization of habits and
broader ideas. It encourages industry and thrift and promotes division
of labor. It strengthens social organization and tends to make it more
efficient. Altogether, exchange of goods must be regarded as among the
most important functions of society.

209. =Business Employees.=--The business ethics that are most open to
criticism are those that govern the relations of the merchant and his
employees. Here the system of employment is much the same as in the
factory. The merchant deals with his employees through superintendents
of departments. The employment manager hires the persons who seem best
qualified for the position, and they are assigned to a department.
They are under the orders of the head of the department, and their
success or failure depends largely on his good-will. Wages and
privileges are in his hand, and if he is morally unscrupulous he can
ruin a weak-willed subordinate. There is little coherence among
employees; there are always men and women who stand ready to take a
vacant position, and often no particular skill or experience is
required. There has been no such solidifying of interests by
trade-unions as in the factory; the individual makes his own contract
and stands on his own feet. On the other hand, there is an increasing
number of employers who feel their responsibility to those who are in
their employ, and, except in the department stores, they are usually
associated personally with their employees. Welfare work is not
uncommon in the large establishments, and a minimum wage is being
adopted here and there.

One of the worst abuses of the department store is the low-paid labor
of women and girls. It is possible for girls who live at home to get
along on a few dollars a week, but they establish a scale of wages so
low that it is impossible for the young woman who is dependent on her
own resources to get enough to eat and wear and keep well. The
physical and moral wrecks that result are disheartening. Nourishing
food in sufficient quantities to repair the waste of nerve and tissue
cannot be obtained on five or six dollars a week, when room rent and
clothing and necessary incidentals, like car-fare, have to be
included. There are always human beasts of prey who are prepared to
give financial assistance in exchange for sex gratification, and it is
difficult to resist temptation when one's nervous vigor and strength
of will are at the breaking-point. It is not strange that t