COMMERCIAL MORALITY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 139, 6 March 1908, Page 4

COMMERCIAL MORALITY.

JAPAN'S INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. It is a well-known fact that the foreign trade of .Japan has recently iriado gigantic bounds, the ; incomo\ from this source alone amounting to, the great total of 100,000,000 yen per annum.- This is wholly to tho uiit-iring exertions of "merchants and the improvement . of. commercial .' morality. But, looking backward; if wo .think' of''tho present standing 'of our commercial morality wo cannot but feel, says a Japaneso paper, that it is still far from , satisfactory, and wo can only admit', that tho growth pf commer-. cial . morality -among tho Japaneso nation as a, whole! is as yet very .slow aiid :moreover. inconsiderable,' to tho great hindrance of. a further increaso or foreign-commerce and .trade.;• That '..commercial morality should .bo strictly maintained! and . improved ' for .tho salco of the country hqs'..hitherto 'been publifcly expressed' and urged by all sections, of tlic community,.: but; tho result of this demonstration has so far proved very unsatisfactory. ._ ... " ' Thero still exists a class of merchants who •transact biisinoss .with foreigner's 'in a 'way that tends not only to damage their own reputation and >fnturo..profits,. but creates a; great obstaclo to tho development of ' the foreign ..trade of Japan. ! Japan has not many : recognised .organs, v by which, slid caii teach her children how .to' practise, this theo'ry to their own: credit and advantage, and some people aro. consequently left on a level not very different from that on which they stood some scores of years ago iri. this particular matter. Should this stato of things bo left unchanged, tho Tesult will'seriously threaten the national interests.

, Having' becin in, contact 1 with. tho. prevailing conditions jn cftnynerfiial! circles for some years, past,- the. editor of the "Ivobo Yusliin Nipp'o" liiis established an institution under tho title of :the-•. Commercial Morality Encouragement Society." . To"'attain' this, end effectually, however, tho . aid of ..tho' . public is both necessary, aiid desirablo) and from this motive the publication of a littlo periodical has been, undertaken.'with tho title of "Commercial '.Morality." Through this m«liunv, ; it.-.is intended to deal freoly with the ideal, ,< calling loudly for tho public to draw attention'to this essential pblicy.'for tho fnturo success of tho trade and commerco of Japan. ,