Study of Other Nations’ Needs and Mastery of Their Languages Give Her
Advantages.
If the rise of the United States to a position of first importance has
been the great phenomenon of the last decade, the tremendous strides
made by Germany in commerce and industry should be placed only second in
importance. The reasons in the one case cannot be the reasons in the
second; whence the value of a descriptive analysis of the German
advance, such as the article by Dr. Louis Elkino, which appeared in a
recent number of the _Fortnightly Review_. He writes:
If I were asked to say what has contributed most to Germany’s
progress, I should unhesitatingly mention the development of
patriotism in its best sense in the individual, and, though this
historic fact cannot be proved by the usual methods of the
statisticians, we know beyond doubt that the nation has come to work
together as a firm and united organization.
His conclusions on the importance of education were:
There can no longer be any doubt that Germany’s industrial advance is
mainly due to the extent and thoroughness with which technical
education is being conducted. Briefly stated, the secret of the
pronounced success of the technical colleges in the Fatherland lies in
the fact that they have kept pace with the ever-increasing scope of
all branches of science in general, and, to the same extent, with the
ever-increasing demands of the present-day industrial enterprises upon
scientific investigation and research.
And, in addition, the number of subjects and sciences taught is
constantly being added to, while, on the other hand, the harmonious
blending of the practical with the theoretical has greatly furthered
the development of the scientific spirit in all its essential details.
Another important cause is the great pains taken to master foreign
languages.
German firms are competing strongly with British firms in markets
which, at one time, were almost entirely in the hands of British
merchants, and this is not surprising, for the British representative,
as a rule, has little or no knowledge of the language of the country
in which he travels for orders, while the German is able to speak it
fluently. It is extraordinary that British firms should continue to
send abroad representatives who can speak no other language but their
own.
Efficiency of method is not the least of the main contributory factors.
It is thoroughness which, perhaps more than anything else, Germans
have to thank for their present happy state of abounding prosperity.
It has enabled Germany to overcome one crisis after another in
commerce and finance, inasmuch as it helps to the discovery of where
the weakness lies. Economists teach that small concerns cannot exist
side by side with large ones when they are in competition, but this is
disproved in the world of German enterprise. The small firms flourish
almost equally with the large ones; like the great trusts, they are
able, when they wish, to sell cheaply in foreign markets. Both employ
the same methods. This partly explains how it is that, though there
has been a concentration of wealth and of enterprise into the hands of
a limited number of people, a vast amount of money has been
distributed more or less evenly into the hands of the population of
the country as a whole.
“AMERICANS PERFECT CHILDREN IN BUSINESS.”
Bernard Shaw Says Our Stratum of Romanticism Prevents Us from Knowing
the Real Thing.
George Bernard Shaw is never afraid to express an opinion on any
subject, and apparently he is never at a loss for the opinion. The other
day he expressed his views on business, saying:
The most striking peculiarity about business men is that I have never
met one who understands the slightest thing about business.
Business men have certain set, conventional methods. Propose to them a
way of doing business that departs from their usual method, and
although the new way may mean more profit, they will not accept it
unless forced to, and even then they believe they are being swindled.
My own way of doing business is perhaps novel, but it is neither harsh
nor unfair. But it is novel, and therefore the men I deal with object
to it, although they themselves are the gainers by doing things my way
and not the way in which they are used. Yet they regard me with
suspicion. It is very much as if you offered a man five dollars for
doing something for which he had previously been in the habit of
receiving a dollar, and having him denounce you as a swindler.
Not content with generalities, Mr. Shaw went on to discuss Englishmen
and Americans as business men.
In making an agreement with an Englishman, you may be sure of one
thing: if it is not entirely to his advantage he will not keep it.
An Englishman, when he wants a house, or money, or anything else,
knows that in order to get what he wants he has to sign something. He
does not care what he signs as long as he gets what he wants. After he
obtains the money or the house, or whatever else he stood in need of,
if he finds the agreement he signed disagreeable, he will denounce the
man who holds it as a knave or a scoundrel and as one who is trying to
take unfair advantage of him.
In my own experience with Englishmen, the terms of my agreements,
satisfactory at the time of signing, have afterward proved irksome.
They would then come to me and say: “Surely, Mr. Shaw, you cannot
expect to hold us to such outrageous terms”; and when I would point to
the agreements bearing their signature, they would retort: “Surely,
Mr. Shaw, you are a gentleman!”
After all, the Jew is the only man who knows what he is signing, and
will keep absolutely to his agreement.
Americans are perfect children In business. They have a stratum of
romanticism that prevents them from knowing what business really is.
This childish, romantic spirit impels them to be doing things, to cut
somebody out, to do something that nobody else has done, or to do a
greater thing than anybody else has ever done. Accidents, of course,
will happen, and sometimes they make money. But the percentage of
failures in America is something terrible. We never hear of these.
Every attention is centered on the conspicuous few who have made
success.
Shall we apply to Mr. Shaw the words of Horace,
Aliena negotia curo
Excussus propriis,
which, being interpreted, is: “I attend to the business of other people,
having lost my own?” It were fairer, perhaps, to say that, in his rôle
of witty playwright, everybody’s business is Mr. Shaw’s.