Good name;

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VOL. VIII NEW YORK, MARCH, 1925 No. 3
A Good
SOME men aspire to riches; some love
power and fame. The fool thinks only
of pleasure. A wise man seeks a good
name.
The present generation lives in an age of
organization. System permeates business
endeavor. Psychology has been appropri­ated
to the necessities of scientific adminis­tration.
Business appears as a cold, cal­lous
medium through which is pursued the
phantom of success, a vague term, largely
suggesting a wealth of worldly goods.
The stress and strain of business life
leave little time to express the emotions
which underlie much of human intercourse.
What a man feels must be constantly sup­pressed.
The things a man does are the
standard by which he is judged. The on­rush
of civilization has well-nigh blotted
out all evidence of that pride which the
craftsman of the guild period had in his
work. Sentiment has given way to prac­ticality.
The severity of modern life has
tended to brush aside the finer concepts of
dignified conduct which glorified the time
of King Arthur. Results, not methods,
count.
There is in business, however, a certain
amount of sentiment which, although often
unexpressed, governs many an important
act. Emotions dictate policies more often
than business men are willing to admit.
The regard in which one man holds another
frequently is the controlling factor in
making a decision.
Name
Accountants may possess no asset more
valuable than a good name. The staff
accountant who knew what information he
must have in order to satisfy his conscience
on a certain point, and who persisted, in a
gentlemanly, dignified manner, until he ob­tained
the information from the client,
won the respect of the client and a good
word for his firm.
Accountants are only human. Strange
as it may seem to the masses, who appear
to regard them as infallible, they occasion­ally
make mistakes. Fortunately the per­centage
is small, when the mistakes are
compared with the volume of work handled,
and it must be said in fairness that the
errors are usually those of judgment, rather
than the result of thoughtlessness or care­lessness.
When errors occur there is but
one way open to the accountant who would
preserve his good name. That course is to
set himself straight instanter with the
parties who are affected.
In the lighter gossip among business men,
as well as in the serious conversations which
they hold, the reputation of a public ac­countant
is subject to the emotions which
business men have as the result of their
experience with certain accountants. A
reputation for capable work is important.
It is not more important than a reputation
for sincere, straightforward, manly conduct
when things inadvertently go awry.
"A good name is rather to be chosen
than great riches."—Proverbs, 22.1.