feguards and securities, however much we may talk of a
business method or instinct that takes nothing for granted, it remains
a self-evident fact that we must take human honesty for granted, that
we must assume that the man with whom we do business intends to do
it rightly and honorably, that he is actuated by a settled principle
of fair conduct that will work automatically, and that without this
automatically working standard of behavior all our guarantees and
safeguards and securities would really have very little value. It is the
universal expectation of fair dealing that makes business possible and,
in fact, it is this universal expectation of good behavior that makes
its breach sufficiently novel to be reported in the newspapers. If fraud
and chicanery and violence were the order of the day, they would have no
value as news. After twenty-nine years of dealing with human nature in
a business where it is seen at its extremes--at its best and at its
worst--I believe that the great majority of men and women in business
are honest and I am certain that if this were not so, it would be
impossible to carry on business. Take the statistics of the credit
insurance business, a business that may be said to be based upon an
assumption of human honesty; examine the statistics of the losses made
in business and you will find that these are but a small fraction of the
total amount involved and even this small proportion is chiefly due to
errors of judgment or to causes in which dishonesty plays no part. Ask
any banker how much he relies upon human honesty as an indispensable
background to the ordinary precautions and safeguards of his business.
Ask him what is his attitude toward a client whom he detects in a lie or
in sharp practice, and he will tell you that he has no use for such a
man. He would rather be without his business and free from all contact
with those whose natural and innate sense of honesty is lacking. Go
wherever you like, and you will find the same expectation, the same
assumption of honesty. You will find that no business can be carried on
without it. Whatever high and honorable ideals you may have formed you
need have no apprehension that they will be scorned in the business
world or that you will have to put them away to win success. It is
in the business world that they will be valued, and even the mental
equipment that you are now seeking will be less important to you, a
lesser guarantee of success than your