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THE
VOL. LXIII. No. 20 Published Every Saturday by the Estate of Edward Lyman Bill at 373 4th Ave., New York, Nov. 11, 1916
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)YALTV, in many respects, is probably one of the most ill-used words in the English language, though
loyalty itself is the basis of the success of government, business, church, or any enterprise in which two
or more are associated.
•^
In the business world there has been a general broadening of ideas—a new conception of the
duty of employer to employe and vice versa, a new understanding of co-operation and its mutual benefits.
There are, however, many business men, some of them in the piano trade, who still regard the question
of loyalty as a one-sided proposition, who believe that the payment of a specified amount as a weekly wage
ties a man body and soul to their service and demands his loyalty without any further effort on their part
There are different kinds of loyalty. There is the loyalty, of doubtful value, based on fear, like the
dog who cowers at his master's feet and licks his hand, because the master provides in some manner for his
demands in the way of food, and has the power to punish him.
There are some employes whose loyalty is of the same standard, whose fear of the loss of the weekly
wage causes them to cower to their employer, and who can see no further than his power to discharge them.
Such loyalty, from the viewpoint of modern business, is worse than useless. It is really an obstacle.
The loyalty that is worth while is the loyalty that is developed through fair treatment, through,
co-operation, through mutual respect. When an employe owes to his employer only the service for which he
is actually paid and no more, his value to the business remains on a level and, if anything, gradually decreases.
Business men generally are beginning to see this. If they have opportunities they share their oppor-
tunities with their employes. If there is an increase in profits they endeavor in a manner to share those
profits, for they realize that an employe, given the right opportunity, will work to increase the prestige and
income of the establishment. If he makes more money and advances to a higher position, the house is going
to make more monev and in direct ratio.
Carnegie was one of the first to realize this fact. He took his thirty valuable young men, gave them
an opportunity to develop their latent abilities, and the result was that every one became a millionaire, but
at the same time, mark you, Carnegie became a multi-millionaire.
Big corporations which to-day secure the services of a good man do not simply pay that man the smallest
possible salary and confine him to a limited radius of action. On the contrary, they give him opportunities.
They pay him well. They make his job so good for him that he cannot afford to leave it.
We have seen manufacturers change man after man in certain positions. Some, of course, have not
been the right men, but others have gone with other houses, have been given opportunities, and have developed
into veritable captains of industy. Yet the original employer will insist that good men are hard to" get, and
that when they are secured they are of such calibre that they are never satisfied and they leave him.
The trouble with such a man is that his vision is narrow. He wants everything for himself. He
cannot see the big things in the future—cannot see that as a man develops himself in a certain position, he
has developed business in that particular division—that the bigger he gets the bigger the house gets.
Some employes are of the opinion that loyalty in business is a kind of patriotism, that as one sticks to
one's country, right or wrong, so should the employe stick to his employer.
Loyalty—the right kind of loyalty—is that which is developed in the employe by the employer himself,
through giving the former the opportunity to make good and then rewarding his efforts in a suitable manner.
When a man ceases to seek opportunity he gets into a rut and stays there. That is not loyalty to the house.
It is just plain, every day laziness.
When you, as an employer, feel prone to criticize your employe for lack of loyalty, stop and measure yourself
and your own conscience. What have you done to make him loyal? _