The Niche Formula

Furthermore, bitter experience combined with observation of many different cases is slowly educating shareholders and the share-purchasing public; and it is probable that the public is, on the whole, less easily fooled, more ready to defend itself, and better supplied with legal weapons than was formerly the case, though on this point there is difference of opinion. These remarks are not intended to indicate that the evil of corporate exploitation has disappeared or is likely soon to disappear. On the contrary, it is flourishing and resourceful. While new weapons against it are being forged, it is assuming new and less vulnerable forms. And the recent exposures by the Interstate Commerce Commission of the financial histories of two great railroad systems the New Haven and the Rock Island furnish ample evidence that the old-time boldness and ruthlessness of the buccaneers have not disappeared. Petty Abuses by Subordinate Officers In a corporation which is conducted by able business men who are single-mindedly devoted to the upbuilding of the corporation, it is probable that nearly all subordinate officers will be of the same type. In the business world, as everywhere else, like attracts like. Men who are themselves honorable prefer to work under chiefs of the same type. If they suspect that their company is being exploited by its officers, they naturally seek an opportunity to leave and their places are taken by men who are perhaps less able or less scrupulous. There are, of course, innumerable exceptions on both sides, but the general rule holds good. Consequently, when we find a company in which the chief officers have been primarily engaged in exploitation, it is only too likely that petty graft will not be unknown among the subordinates....