<SPAN name="chapter_i"></SPAN>
<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">I</span><br/> Honesty or Steel Doors?</h2>
<p class="chapter_summary">While fifty-one per cent of the people have
their eyes on the goal of integrity, our investments
are secure; but with fifty-one per cent of
them headed in the wrong direction, our investments
are valueless. The first fundamental of
prosperity is Integrity.</p>
<p class="first_paragraph"><span class="first_word">While</span> on a recent visit to Chicago,
I was taken by the president
of one of the largest banks
to see his new safety deposit vaults. He
described these—as bank presidents will—as
the largest and most marvellous vaults
in the city. He expatiated on the heavy
steel doors and the various electrical and
mechanical contrivances which protect the
stocks and bonds deposited in the institution.</p>
<p>While at the bank a person came in to
rent a box. He made the arrangements
for the box, and a box was handed to him.
In it he deposited some stocks and bonds
which he took from his pocket. Then the
clerk who had charge of the vaults went
to a rack on the wall and took out a key
and gave it to the man who had rented the
box. The man then put the box into one
of the little steel compartments, shut the
door and turned the key. He then went
away feeling perfectly secure on account
of those steel doors and various mechanical
and electrical contrivances existing to protect
his wealth.</p>
<p>I did not wish to give him a sleepless
night so I said nothing; but I couldn’t
help thinking how easy it would have been
for that poorly-paid, humpbacked clerk
to make a duplicate of that key before he
delivered it to the renter of that box.
With such a duplicate, the clerk could
have made that man penniless within a few
minutes after he had left the building.
The great steel door and the electrical and
mechanical contrivances would have been
absolutely valueless.</p>
<p>Of course the point I am making is that
the real security which that great bank in
Chicago had to offer its clientele lay not in
the massive stone columns in front of its
structure; nor in the heavy steel doors;
nor the electrical and mechanical contrivances.
The real strength of that institution
rested in the honesty,—the absolute
integrity—of its clerks.</p>
<p class="thought_break">******</p>
<p>That afternoon I was talking about the
matter with a business man. We were
discussing securities, earnings and capitalization.
He seemed greatly troubled by
the mass of figures before him. I said to
him: “Instead of pawing over these earnings
and striving to select yourself the
safest bond, you will do better to go to a
reliable banker or bond-house and leave
the decision with him.”</p>
<p>“Why,” he said, “I couldn’t do that.”</p>
<p>“Mr. Jones,” I went on, “tell me the
truth! After you buy a bond or a stock
certificate, do you ever take the trouble to
see if it is signed and countersigned properly?
Moreover, if you find it signed, is
there any way by which you may know
whether the signature is genuine or
forged?”</p>
<p>“No,” he said, “there isn’t. I am absolutely
dependent on the integrity of the
bankers from whom I buy the securities.”</p>
<p>And when you think of it, there is really
no value at all in the pieces of paper which
one so carefully locks up in these safety
deposit boxes. There is no value at all in
the bank-book which we so carefully cherish.
There is no value at all in those deeds
and mortgages upon which we depend so
completely. The value rests <em>first</em>, in the
integrity of the lawyers, clerks and stenographers
who draw up the papers; <em>secondly</em>,
in the integrity of the officers who sign the
documents; <em>thirdly</em>, in the integrity of the
courts and judges which would enable us
to enforce our claims; and <em>finally</em>, in the
integrity of the community which would
determine whether or not the orders of the
court will be executed.</p>
<p>These things which we look upon as of
great value:—the stocks, bonds, bank-books,
deeds, mortgages, insurance policies,
etc., are merely nothing. While
fifty-one per cent. of the people have their
eyes on the goal of Integrity, our investments
are secure; but with fifty-one per
cent. of them headed in the wrong direction,
our investments are valueless. So
the first fundamental of prosperity is integrity.
Without it there is no civilization,
there is no peace, there is no
security, there is no safety. Mind you
also that this applies just as much to the
man who is working for wages as to the
capitalist and every owner of property.</p>
<p>Integrity, however, is very much broader
than the above illustration would indicate.
Integrity applies to many more things
than to money. Integrity requires the
seeking after, as well as the dispensing of,
truth. It was this desire for truth which
founded our educational institutions, our
sciences and our arts. All the great professions,
from medicine to engineering,
rest upon this spirit of integrity. Only as
they so rest, can they prosper or even survive.</p>
<p>Integrity is the mother of knowledge.
The desire for truth is the basis of all
learning, the value of all experience and
the reason for all study and investigation.
Without integrity as a basis, our entire
educational system would fall to the
ground; all newspapers and magazines
would become sources of great danger and
the publication of books would have to be
suppressed. Our whole civilization rests
upon the assumption that people are honest.
With this confidence shaken, the
structure falls. And it should fall, for,
unless the truth be taught, the nation
would be much better off without its
schools, newspapers, books and professions.
Better have no gun at all, than one
aimed at yourself. The corner-stone of
prosperity is the stone of Integrity.</p>
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