The Growing Pains of Democracy February 9, 1913

Edward A. Filene, February 9, 1913
“I think that we shall agree, all of us, that we are face to face with most momentous political, industrial, and social changes. I think we shall also agree that in as much as these changes predicate the need of greater justice, we should feel ourselves under obligation to see that they are brought about with fairness to all interests concerned with due regard for the conversation of all in the present order that is worth conserving. I think we may also agree that the most immediate changes needed are those dealing big business and those making for greater justice between employees and employers. I do not think that such just relations come about from the mere statement of abstract principles, but most come rather from the working out in our everyday life and in competitive business of these principles. If that is true and the great questions that underlie the coming changes are business questions, then we shall require the best leadership and the best business leadership that we can get.
“The best rule for business is the golden rule. Men who love their neighbors and therefore can handle and lead men are the coming leaders of business. The only road to success and happiness for any of us is to conform to the great current of democracy of which we are a part and to do with a will our share of work for the common good.”
Q: Does the rum business serve the common good, and shall it go on serving it?
A: There is a difference of opinion about that. The last vote of this commonwealth said that it did and that the people want it continues.
Q: What do you think of the single tax?
A: I think well of it. I think it is good. I do not believe in the final radical program of it. But I think the tax will come more and more on the land and less on production.