From the Rock Island Argus, June 22, 1914. By Henry Howland.
A Chicago businessman says that no business man could live up to the principles of the golden rule.
“Oh, let’s have done with the Golden Rule,
For it isn’t business;
It may do for the dreamer still or the fool,
But it isn’t business.
Let the poet sing on of brotherly love,
And the joy that is earned through being kind;
Let the preacher prate on of glory above—
That will do for the meek and the lame and the blind,
But it isn’t business.
“You may fail, if you please, to gouge where you can,
But it isn’t business;
You may hate to bear hard on another man,
But it isn’t business!
You may scorn to undo one who’s weaker than you,
And seek no more than you’ve earned,
You may treat other men as you’d have them treat you,
But, beaten and poor, at last you’ll have learned
That it isn’t business.”
Has it come to this? Must we deem it so?
Then adieu to business!
Let us back to the fields and the plow and the hoe,
And have done with business.
Yet, because some weeds have grown rank and tall
Shall we say no flowers shall bloom again?
There is greed, but it hasn’t engulfed us all,
And honor is still in the hearts of men
Who are doing business.