the direction of movement for the rest. His control in those portions of the field that are not immediately under his hand is, no doubt, somewhat loose and uncertain; but in the long run his discretion is in great measure decisive even for these outlying portions of the field, for he is the only large self-directing economic factor. His control of the motions of other men is not strict, for they are not under coercion from him except through the coercion exercised by the exigencies of the situation in which their lives are cast; but as near as it may be said of any human power in modern times, the large business man controls the exigencies of life under which the community lives. Hence, upon him and his fortunes centres the abiding interest of civilized mankind.
For a theoretical inquiry into the course of civilized life as it runs in the immediate present, therefore, and as it is running into the proximate future, no single factor in the cultural situation has an importance equal to that of the business man and his work.[1]
- ↑ "Dem unbeteiligten Beobachter drängt sich die Erkentniss auf, dass in dem Phänomen des Handels [here equivalent to "business"] ein entscheidender allgemeiner Gedanke enthalten und eine der mächtigsten Thatsachen der Geschichte gegeben ist, mit der jede Zeit gezwungen wird, sich woh loder übel abzufinden. . . . Der Handel ist in folgerichtiger und unaufhaltsamer Entwicklung das führende Gewerbe geworden. Es ist für die anderen Gewerbe ain völlig aussichtsloser Versuch, ihn zu hemmen und durch Zwangsmittel in seine 'dienende Stellung' zuruckzudrängen."—K. Th. Reinhold, Arbeit und Werkzeug, pp. ix, x.
