most important factor in a business
operation; that the business ability of the man at the head of any
business concern, big or little, is usually the factor which fixes
the gulf between striking success and hopeless failure.

An additional reason for caution in dealing with corporations is to be
found in the international commercial conditions of today. The same
business conditions which have produced the great aggregations of
corporate and individual wealth have made them very potent factors
in international commercial competition. Business concerns which have
the largest means at their disposal and are managed by the ablest men
are naturally those which take the lead in the strife for commercial
supremacy among the nations of the world. America has only just begun
to assume that commanding position in the international business world
which we believe will more and more be hers. It is of the utmost
importance that this position be not jeoparded, especially at a time
when the overflowing abundance of our own natural resources and the
skill, business energy, and mechanical aptitude of our people make
foreign markets essential. Under such conditions it would be most
unwise to cramp or to fetter the youthful strength of our Nation.

Moreover, it cannot too often be pointed out that to strike with
ignorant violence at the interests of one set of men almost inevitably
endangers the interests of all. The fundamental rule in our national
life--the rule which underlies all others--is that, on the whole, and in
the long run, we shall go up or down together. There are exceptions;
and in times of prosperity some will prosper far more, and in times
of adversity, some will suffer far more, than others; but speaking
generally, a period of good times means that all share more or less in
them, and in a period of hard times all feel the stress to a greater or
less degree. It surely ought not to be necessary to enter into any proof
of this statement; the memory of the lean years which began in 1893 is
still vivid, and we can contrast them with the conditions in this very
year which is now closing. Disaster to great business enterprises
can never have its effects limited to the men at the top. It spreads
through-out, and while it is bad for everybody, it is worst for those
farthest down. The capitalist may be shorn of his luxuries; but the
wage-worker may be deprived of even bare necessities.

The mechanism of modern business is so del