"We will pass the parson and the doctor and the novelist as witnesses of
no value. They can't possibly have any cognizance of the first principle
of business; their affair is to look after the souls and bodies and
fancies of other people. But what should you say it was?" he asked the
banker.
"I should say it was an enlightened conception of one's own interests."
"And you?"
The manufacturer had no hesitation in answering: "The good of Number One,
first, last, and all the time. There may be a difference of opinion about
the best way to get at it; the long way may be the better, or the short
way; the direct way or the oblique way, or the purely selfish way, or the
partly selfish way; but if you ever lose sight of that end you might as
well shut up shop. That seems to be the first law of nature, as well as
the first law of business."
"Ah, we mustn't go to nature for our morality," the minister protested.
"We were not talking of morality," said the manufacturer; "we were talking
of business."
This brought the laugh on the minister, but the lawyer cut it short:
"Well, then, I don't really see why the trades-unions are not as
business-like as the syndicates in their dealings with all those outside
of themselves.
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