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uineness and sincerity expressed in this faulty sketch as well as in all his work, and the pleasure you take in other paintings of his. The artist shows you his sketch of Santa Barbara and you do not like it. What can

you truthfully say? Perhaps your instinct will be to say nothing at all, and in some cases this is the best solution, but a sensitive person may feel the condemnation of silence more trying, because of its myriad possibilities, than any definite word. If you know nothing of art, you can truly say that you do not feel competent to judge the picture. You can point out any bit of line or color that does appeal to you, and if you are genuinely interested in the artist, ask to see other pictures of his that you may like better, or to see the same picture again. If you are an artist, your suggestions will be really valuable, and detailed criticism which can be turned to account is of far more significance to the artist than indiscriminate praise. It is usually the vagueness or the wholesale quality of a condemnation that makes it hard to receive. If criticism is given in such a definite way and so linked to commendation that the means of improvement are suggested, any earnest worker will, when he has thought it over, be glad to have had it. Anyone who is doing serious work receives the keenest criticism through the success or failure of that work. He knows this, and he is hungry for any intelligent suggestions that will forestall future failure. Flattery is a stone when he wants bread, and even the most shining and polished gem of politeness fails to feed the hungry."

But veracity is not something that can be separated from the rest of the character. The only safe way to attempt to destroy the tendency to lie is to raise the entire character to a place in which the lie is felt to have no place. We may quote Mrs. Cabot once more. "Truth-speaking is not a recipe for making life easy, but for making it worth while; and no one who has thoroughly tested the results of frank, accurate, reliable speech and action will want to go back into the vitiated air of lying. It is evident, however, that truth telling can surely be based only on right living. If we

are sympathetic, generous, courageous, just, it will be possible to be open and true. In so far as we are bitter, avaricious, cowardly, self-deceitful, we shall find it hard to be wholly sincere with others. We can not isolate truthfulness. To demand truth of ourselves is therefore to demand uprightness; thus truth becomes the guardian of our character."

THE RELATION OF INTEGRITY TO
BUSINESS SUCCESS

By integrity is meant reliability or trustworthiness in all its forms, veracity, faithfulness to agreements of every kind, and respect for others' property. The last includes not merely honesty in relation to their money but also in relation to their time if you have agreed to sell yours to them. study of the relation of integrity to business success is really a study, in a particular field, of the value of the confidence of our fellows. It is thus intimately related with the preceding topic.

The

On the subject of the relation of integrity to success in business, it is possible to make general statements only with regard to tendencies. Success is normally due to the co-operation of several factors of which integrity is but one. Therefore the influence of the latter may be masked or even neutralized at times. The problem of tendencies is none the less important for that reason, for it is by studying the direction of tendencies in other words by studying probabilities that wise men guide their conduct. Drunkenness, for example, tends to undermine health and shorten life, as the statistics compiled by the life insurance companies prove. Accordingly, though occasionally an habitual drunkard has lived to extreme old age, apparently in vigorous health, such a fact has no influence whatever upon a man of sense.

The rule, then, is that integrity produces confidence, and that confidence is an essential condition for profitable business dealings between men. This holds for business relations of every sort, whether that of employee to employer, merchant to customer, the man who would borrow to the man that can lend, or whatever it may be. That this is the rule can be discovered by applying the principles that came to light in our study of veracity to the broader problem of confidence in all its forms in their application to business life. Confirmation in the way of concrete examples can be

found in the following magazine articles: The Borrower as a Banker Sees Him in The World's Work 1:534 (March, 1901); Character as a Credit Asset, Ibid., 10:6437 (July, 1905); The New Art of Nursing Business (an art that can be exercised only where there is absolute confidence in the character of the party concerned), Ibid, 15:9951 (March, 1908); A Commonplace Business Career, in The World Today, 15:852 (August, 1908). The first two of these articles are per se the most convincing, but the last will probably be most interesting to high school pupils. For the competence obtained by this high school graduate, as a result, in good part, of the confidence which his fellow townsmen felt in him, is not beyond what some of the more intelligent members of the class may fairly look forward to for themselves, provided they possess a sterling character and the willingness to work with both hands and brain. The first article in the list tells of a grocer in New York City who, in a time of sore need, was loaned six thousand dollars by a bank when the total security he could offer amounted in itself to but six thousand dollars. It was loaned, of course, not from sympathy with him, which would have been a criminal act-but because a very careful investigation had demonstrated his integrity, industry, and good business hablts. After telling the story, the writer continues:

"The inference as to the business methods and the business principles of these days to be drawn from the Eighth Avenue grocer's experience were so extremely optimistic that I did not dare set them down as typical of all similar transactions before I knew whether the same conditions were observed in financial establishments where business is done, not by thousands of dollars, but by hundreds of thousands and by millions. So I went to the head of the great banking house of Spencer Trask and Company and asked him how far integrity was an element in determining credit. In substance this is what Mr. Trask said:

"There is nothing more important to the banker who is asked to extend credit than the integrity of the applicant. If he is a man of bad repute, of known dishonesty, no banker wishes to deal with him. If he can lay down gilt-edged security, it may be accepted, but not in any way that will cause the bank to feel that it has run the slightest risk in any contingency that may arise. A specific case may be used as an illustration: John Doe approaches a banker to ask for money to tide him over some difficulty. He presents his books for the bank's inspection and possibly even his household accounts may be open for investigation. The bank must know not only what sort of a business he has been doing, but must know what his habits regarding paying his debts have been, whether he has been living beyond his income-in short his whole business character must be laid bare. If the result of that examination satisfies the bank that he deserves to be helped, the money he needs will be lent him; perhaps the one bank may not be willing to lend him all he needs, but it will take a share with other banks in relieving him. Now the point is, that man may not have much surplus in money. He may not be "worth," as the phrase goes, anything at all. The bank is relying, not so much on what he has in money, but what he has in integrity. The bank can tell from his books whether he is likely to do well or ill after the money has been lent him. If the signs point to success and his integrity is established, the loan is made. His established integrity is assurance that the loan will be used for the purpose for which it was made.'"

Confidence in proved integrity has been a fundamental factor in the success of men all the way up from the grocer of Eighth Avenue to those who stand upon the topmost round of the ladder of wealth and fame. As illustrations from the latter class it will be sufficient to mention the names of two of America's greatest merchants, Marshall Field and Charles L. Tiffany. For Mr. Field see The Outlook, 82:152 (Jan. 27, 1906) and The Independent, 60:228 (Jan. 25, 1906). All accounts agree as to the literal and complete truthfulness of the statement made at the time of Mr. Field's death by his