life--the rule which underlies all others--is that, on the whole, and in
the long run, we shall go up or down together. There are exceptions;
and in times of prosperity some will prosper far more, and in times
of adversity, some will suffer far more, than others; but speaking
generally, a period of good times means that all share more or less in
them, and in a period of hard times all feel the stress to a greater or
less degree. It surely ought not to be necessary to enter into any proof
of this statement; the memory of the lean years which began in 1893 is
still vivid, and we can contrast them with the conditions in this very
year which is now closing. Disaster to great business enterprises
can never have its effects limited to the men at the top. It spreads
through-out, and while it is bad for everybody, it is worst for those
farthest down. The capitalist may be shorn of his luxuries; but the
wage-worker may be deprived of even bare necessities.

The mechanism of modern business is so delicate that extreme care must
be taken not to interfere with it in a spirit of rashness or ignorance.
Many of those who have made it their vocation to denounce the great
industrial combinations which are popularly, although with technical
inaccuracy, known as "trusts," appeal especially to hatred and fear.
These are precisely the two emotions, particularly when combined with
ignorance, which unfit men for the exercise of cool and steady judgment.
In facing new industrial conditions, the whole history of the world
shows that legislation will generally be both unwise and ineffective
unless undertaken after calm inquiry and with sober self-restraint.
Much of the legislation directed at the trusts would have been
exceedingly mischievous had it not also been entirely ineffective.
In accordance with a well-known sociological law, the ignorant or
reckless agitator has been the really effective friend of the evils
which he has been nominally opposing. In dealing with business