IN
ancient Damascus—the "pearl of the desert"—was the tamed Street of the
Sword makers. Here, in one corner of the oldest inhabited city in the
world, lived a guild of artificers, and here they produced the famous
blades of Damascus.
These blades were so keen that you could cut a floating thread of silk
with them; so elastic that they would bend almost double and then spring
back as straight as ever.
Death—death by strangling—the most shameful punishment of the time—was the
sentence passed on any member of the craft found guilty of producing an
interior product, because:
He did place the proof mark of our most honored and trusted craft upon
badly smithed and evily tempered blades which, having failed in the hand
of the purchaser, brought great disrepute upon all the master sword makers
of Damascus.
It was as if each sword bore the fingerprints of its creator, a projection
of his personality. And it is doubtful if these early craftsmen were
entirely inspired by concern for the unlucky purchaser who might trust his
life to a blade which had a defect that the eye of man could not detect.
Rather they were motivated by a sense of indignation that their skill
might be questioned.
When a Rotary club is formed, the first consideration is to secure as
members, outstanding representatives of every worthy and recognized
business and professional activity in the community. The same thought
directs the selection of new members. They must be successful, that is,
they must be skilled in their respective crafts. Their integrity must be
above suspicion. They must be dedicated to the idea of supporting and
improving the standards of their craft. Indeed, a Rotary club might well
be described as an assembly of skilled craftsmen.
Unlike the ancient guilds, however, the Rotary club is not organized to
safeguard and hoard the knowledge of particular skills. On the contrary,
the Rotary club is dedicated to the task of extending the service which
all skills can render to society.
The Rotary club, moreover, which selects its membership from different
trades and professions contrasts in that respect with the ancient guilds
which associated men of the same craft. A closer comparison might be drawn
with the modern trade-union except that the guild was built around
employers rather than employees. It would seem that the nearest thing to a
modern guild is the trade association whose membership largely comprises
employers of the same business or craft, many of whom are direct
competitors.
The absence of competitors in Rotary clubs in order to include a
cross-section of all business and professional activities in the community
entails certain obligations. One of these was expressed by the board of
directors of Rotary International when it enjoined Rotarians that they
"should not expect, and far less should they ask for, more consideration
or advantages from fellow-Rotarians than the latter would give to any
other business man with whom he has business relations;' Any abuse of
friendship for profit is foreign to the spirit of Rotary, In other words,
free competition is a blessing that Rotary clubs are designed to foster.
Another and more positive obligation of the Rotarian is to carry the
message and ideals of Rotary into his business relations with competitors.
As a trustee of his classification each member is regarded as an
ambassador to his craft and urged to participate actively in the work of
his trade association. This obligation was stated very forcibly by the
chairman of one vocational service committee addressing the members of his
club:
It is my duty as the spokesman for the vocational service committee, my
fellow-Rotarians, to say to you in all earnestness and candor, that unless
you are carrying back to your craft, your trade association, or your
professional group the ideals, the precepts, and the high standards
embodied in Rotary, you should resign. You say that you are not inclined
to bother about your competitor, that you are too busy with your own
affairs to be concerned with what the other fellow is doing, that you are
not inclined to take on the responsibilities of leadership in your line of
business. I am sorry. The membership committee made a mistake when they
let you in. Those who fail in their duty to properly represent their line
of business or profession choke up one of the arteries through which the
lifeblood of Rotary flows.
The Rotarian who is putting his shoulder to the wheel in his trade
association derives many advantages. Not the least of these is goodwill. A
striking demonstration of this advantage was given in the course of a
radio program on vocational service, broadcast from one small-town
station. The work of medical associations was cited as the reason why
doctors are regarded almost automatically as valuable citizens. Because
his association has established minimum standards of education, enforced
codes of correct practice, provided for the exchange of new methods and
discoveries, the individual doctor has a long start in earning a place of
respect wherever he may locate.
The practical benefits that small business gains from membership were
interestingly illustrated by a tailor called upon to explain the value of
his trade association in a Rotary meeting. Looking back over a generation
of business dealings in his town, he found that general wages had
increased five times while the price of tailoring had only gone up three
times. It was at the meetings of his trade association that he and his
competitors had exchanged the "know-how" which had enabled them to
increase the efficiency of custom-tailoring so that competition from
"ready-to-wear" clothes could be met.
With the viewpoint of an outsider, an Australian Rotarian expressed his
amazement on observing the discussions of a meat-packers' conference in
Chicago. The domestic problems of individual plants were discussed before
assembled competitors in a wholehearted and unreserved way. Besides
raising the general level of the industry, these discussions proved that
in a meeting of twenty men, any one individual stands to learn more from
the other nineteen, than they in turn could learn from him. Yet in the
commercial field, away from the conference, the Australian visitor found
that these same men were engaged in the most vigorous competition which
acted as a salutary stimulus to increased efficiency and the elimination
of waste.
The advantage of belonging to the trade association being fairly obvious,
it may be asked, what particularly is the Rotarian's contribution.
The indication that a larger proportion of Rotarians belong to their craft
associations in towns under 12,000 than in the larger cities shows how
much the small business man has to gain from the ideas and improvements in
practice made current by the trade association. But what can the Rotarian
himself, coming from a small town and operating a small business,
contribute to the work of these large and impressive bodies?
A Canadian Rotarian responded to this question by recalling a childhood
experience:
As a very small boy, I attended a rural school. There was one good-natured
lad, not particularly clever, and with no particular gifts of leadership.
The older boys were a tough and, in some ways, quite a vicious crowd. They
used to tease this fellow unmercifully, but through it all, he preserved
his good nature and steadfastly refused to deviate from his standards of
conduct. The contrast of his good-humored determination had a tremendous
influence. It's the same way in trade associations. Without the influence
and exertions of sincere individuals, a cynical minority can accomplish
much mischief.
The great statesman-author, Edmund Burke, once declared that "When bad men
combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one, an
unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle" Rotarians combined can
exercise a potent influence for good in their trade associations if they
inject the larger vision of opportunity to serve society and the
realization that only so far as the public is served can trade
associations serve their own best interests.
That there is need for Rotary leaven in the practices of many trade
associations was vigorously asserted during a discussion at one craft
assembly at a convention of Rotary International. Too often it was
charged, trade associations, instead of putting service ahead of profit,
degenerate into pressure groups, conspiracies to circumvent government
regulations, and merchandising corporations to control prices. Rotarians
were urged to join forces against these tendencies and to support
vigorously their association code.
An outstanding contribution of Rotary to the strength of the modern
"guild" has been the development of codes of correct practices. In fact,
it is generally recognized that the widespread movement by trade
associations to adopt these voluntary commitments, sprang largely from the
thought and effort of vocational service in Rotary. The results of this
experience in drafting codes can be summarized briefly as follows:
(1) The code is not a law, but an expression of the determination of
members in the association to maintain certain standards.
(2) These standards are stated positively and specifically as evolved from
the experience of the particular business or profession.
(3) Example and friendly influence are the only ways by which the code is
enforced.
The value of a code to a trade or profession depends largely on the
fulfillment of these conditions. If it is limited to generalities, if it
is out of date, if it is used only to adorn the wall or hidden away in
files; it might as well or better not exist. The inspiration and labor
which brought its adoption by the trade association may have been
educational at the time when it was formulated, but now it no longer
serves.
What finer opportunity for effective work in vocational service is offered
than the methodical exploration of the status of codes?
Each member of a Rotary club might be asked to produce the code of his
trade association for the purpose of critical comparison. In cases where
no code exists or where the existing code consists of generalities or
obsolete references, members may be persuaded to take action in their
trade associations to repair the omission. In this great work, they should
seek the whole-hearted co-operation of Rotarians in their classification
from other clubs who belong to the association. They can obtain much
helpful guidance in these efforts from Rotary International.
Even those members of the club whose trade association can boast of an
adequate code of correct practices have a task to perform. They can take
steps to make sure that its standards are observed in their own business
or professional practice, as a training manual for employees, by spreading
its influence among customers and suppliers, and by references to it at
meetings of the trade association to revive its authority among their
competitors. Thus they may help to spur the development of a new sense of
craftsmanship in these modem guilds. Thus they may repay the debt which,
in the words of Bacon, each man owes to his profession.
Because the great influence of Rotary is formulating codes of correct
practices for trade associations was at its peak some forty years ago,
there may be a tendency to assume that this kind of work no longer needs
doing. Emphatically, such is not the case. A famous instance of
price-fixing in the American electrical industry stimulated one Rotarian
recently to take action on a broad scale. He was a past director of Rotary
International and happened also to be United States Secretary of Commerce.
From this strategic position, he inspired a movement to inject fresh
vitality and increased sensitivity into the thinking of business and
professions about ethical responsibilities.
Trade associations were only one sector of his campaign. While they were
urged to take steps to ensure that their codes were more than just "window
dressing," the national Business Ethics Advisory Council published a call
for action addressed to American businessmen as individuals. To help them
analyze the ethical level of their own practices the appeal included a
series of probing questions. Further influence was exerted through
"committees of one hundred" that united leaders in all walks of life to
work down through individual industries to individual firms. The first of
these committees, organized by Rotarians in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.,
offers to share its experience with others forming similar groups.
Another recent development in the story of codes comes from Sweden where a
Rotarian is director of a nationwide watchmen service. He discovered a
need to help his employees "raise their pride in their work, their regard
for its honor, and their interest in the body they belong to." Instead of
establishing rules for them to follow, however, he devised a process by
which the watchmen discussed the specific problems of their occupation and
worked out their own rules. Small groups of watchmen around the country
met to talk about the situations that really concerned them. Reports from
all these groups were gathered and sent back to them for further
discussion. Eventually, representatives from all the groups attended a
two-day conference at which a code of twenty rules was adopted. Signed by
all the representatives, this code was presented to all employees of the
company as something they had hammered out from their own experience.
Since then, every new employee gets a thorough explanation of the code
from an older colleague.
Obviously, such a procedure could be followed much more easily yet with no
less heartening results in a business or professional institution where
associates are in daily contact with each other. Observers of this
instance from Sweden "were astonished, touched and delighted with the
strong notions of honor clearly shown by the watchmen. Discussions were
lively and provided a great number of varied, often puzzling examples, but
unanimity was reached eventually on a great many important points."
What action can you take personally to raise ethical standards in your
business or profession?
