Fundamentals of Prosperity | Page 2

by the president of one
of the largest banks to see his new safety deposit vaults. He described
these--as bank presidents will--as the largest and most marvellous
vaults in the city. He expatiated on the heavy steel doors and the
various electrical and mechanical contrivances which protect the stocks
and bonds deposited in the institution.
While at the bank a person came in to rent a box. He made the
arrangements for the box, and a box was handed to him. In it he
deposited some stocks and bonds which he took from his pocket. Then
the clerk who had charge of the vaults went to a rack on the wall and
took out a key and gave it to the man who had rented the box. The man
then put the box into one of the little steel compartments, shut the door
and turned the key. He then went away feeling perfectly secure on
account of those steel doors and various mechanical and electrical
contrivances existing to protect his wealth.
I did not wish to give him a sleepless night so I said nothing; but I

couldn't help thinking how easy it would have been for that poorly-paid,
humpbacked clerk to make a duplicate of that key before he delivered it
to the renter of that box. With such a duplicate, the clerk could have
made that man penniless within a few minutes after he had left the
building. The great steel door and the electrical and mechanical
contrivances would have been absolutely valueless.
Of course the point I am making is that the real security which that
great bank in Chicago had to offer its clientele lay not in the massive
stone columns in front of its structure; nor in the heavy steel doors; nor
the electrical and mechanical contrivances. The real strength of that
institution rested in the honesty,--the absolute integrity--of its clerks.
* * * * *
That afternoon I was talking about the matter with a business man. We
were discussing securities, earnings and capitalization. He seemed
greatly troubled by the mass of figures before him. I said to him:
"Instead of pawing over these earnings and striving to select yourself
the safest bond, you will do better to go to a reliable banker or
bond-house and leave the decision with him."
"Why," he said, "I couldn't do that."
"Mr. Jones," I went on, "tell me the truth! After you buy a bond or a
stock certificate, do you ever take the trouble to see if it is signed and
countersigned properly? Moreover, if you find it signed, is there any
way by which you may know whether the signature is genuine or
forged?"
"No," he said, "there isn't. I am absolutely dependent on the integrity of
the bankers from whom I buy the securities."
And when you think of it, there is really no value at all in the pieces of
paper which one so carefully locks up in these safety deposit boxes.
There is no value at all in the bank-book which we so carefully cherish.
There is no value at all in those deeds and mortgages upon which we
depend so completely. The value rests first, in the integrity of the

lawyers, clerks and stenographers who draw up the papers; secondly, in
the integrity of the officers who sign the documents; thirdly, in the
integrity of the courts and judges which would enable us to enforce our
claims; and finally, in the integrity of the community which would
determine whether or not the orders of the court will be executed.
These things which we look upon as of great value:--the stocks, bonds,
bank-books, deeds, mortgages, insurance policies, etc., are merely
nothing. While fifty-one per cent. of the people have their eyes on the
goal of Integrity, our investments are secure; but with fifty-one per cent.
of them headed in the wrong direction, our investments are valueless.
So the first fundamental of prosperity is integrity. Without it there is no
civilization, there is no peace, there is no security, there is no safety.
Mind you also that this applies just as much to the man who is working
for wages as to the capitalist and every owner of property.
Integrity, however, is very much broader than the above illustration
would indicate. Integrity applies to many more things than to money.
Integrity requires the seeking after, as well as the dispensing of, truth. It
was this desire for truth which founded our educational institutions, our
sciences and our arts. All the great professions, from medicine to
engineering, rest upon this spirit of integrity. Only as they so rest, can
they prosper or even survive.
Integrity is the mother of knowledge. The desire for truth is the basis of
all learning, the value of all experience and