1957 Fredericton Encaenia
Alumni Oration
Delivered by: Smith, J. Herbert
Content
"Growth, Strength of Business Enterprise Outlined in Address" Daily Gleaner (16 May 1957). (UA Case 67a, Box 2)
Business enterprise was the subject of the Alumni Oration by J. Herbert Smith, UNB '32, vice-president, Canadian General Electric Company Limited, at the Alumni encaenial dinner held in the Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium Wednesday night.
Mr. Smith said "the alumni orator by custom is permitted to choose his own subject, I must commend the courage of an audience which not only leaves the subject to the speaker, but for good measure says the subject must be an 'oration!'"
Mr. Smith referred to the year 1932 when Canadians were in the midst of the Depression. Thousands of men, laborers and professional men alike, were out of work, many after years of good productive effort. Great factories were closed or operating only a few hours a week. The ranks of the unemployed increased daily and the bread lines in the cities lengthened. Men swallowed their pride when faced by starvation of their families, and sought public charity from government and relief agencies. Discouragement and fear were the prevailing emotions of the time, and business was bad.
Conditions are different today, he said. "Our class shares with all Canadians the thrill and satisfaction of being a part of a dynamic, growing country. The problem of the young graduate is not the unemployment, but which of the many opportunities will he accept. Our labor and professional needs are so great that we are inviting men and women from other countries to come and work for us. Today we know that business is good."
The business enterprise of today is an invention of recent years brought into being to meet the productive needs of an expanding industrial age. It was not needed in the early years of industrial revolution. As invention followed invention stimulated by advances in science, machine and factories became more and more costly and business risks ever greater. To meet this need men or families joined their financial resources together into partnerships. It was soon evident that this partnership phase of the development of the business enterprise could not keep pace with the exploitation of productive opportunities through ever more costly machines and factories and ever greater financial risk.
"In 1862 in England by act of Parliament, a new revolutionary unit of modern society was created. The limited company or corporation came into existence. Similar legislation was enacted in Canada in 1886. For the first time in history, a business enterprise was given privileges and responsibilities before the law, quite separate and distinct from the liabilities and responsibilities of the men who owned the enterprise.
"Through wide-spread ownership this plan continued to the present to meet the productive needs of industry even during the tremendous expansion period of the last few decades. In legal terms it is difficult to distinguish between the corporate citizen and the human citizen. But there is one great fundamental difference. The corporate citizen was an inanimate materialistic creature. It had no soul, no spiritual motivation.
"In this basic fact is found the reason for over a century of struggle between the individual and the business enterprise. Strife marked by bloodshed and violence.
"Victory has been won, and this only in recent years, in the modern free-enterprise countries of the world. The outward characteristic of such a victory is a mass of law directing in detail the relations of business enterprise with the people, social legislation financed by heavy charges against the profits of industry, and strong labor unions supported and protected by government.
Basic Philosophy
"In the business enterprise with which I am associated we have in writing a basic philosophy, adherence to which is mandatory for all members of management. Simply expressed it is this: Each member of management is required to do right voluntarily in the best balanced interests of five climants on the enterprise: customers, employees, shareowners, shareowners, supplies, citizens and their elected representatives—the government:
"We know that a democratic industrial society can be organized in such a manner that the self interest of an independent, autonomous, privately managed enterprise is best satisfied if it satisfies and serves the social good. In this possibility of establishing harmony lies the best chance for the survival of western society as a free, strong and prosperous social order.
"The freedom of opportunity is our greatest asset. It means that the leadership of our society as a whole can be continuously re-enforced and re-vitalized by recruits from all segments of our population. No rigidly limited and confined membership in a political party narrowly defines the source from which our leadership many come. No single center of initiative controls our destiny. This is a rich heritage we enjoy, unique in the history of men. It is our responsibility to understand it, to guard it, to correct its weakness and to build on its strengths."
Business enterprise was the subject of the Alumni Oration by J. Herbert Smith, UNB '32, vice-president, Canadian General Electric Company Limited, at the Alumni encaenial dinner held in the Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium Wednesday night.
Mr. Smith said "the alumni orator by custom is permitted to choose his own subject, I must commend the courage of an audience which not only leaves the subject to the speaker, but for good measure says the subject must be an 'oration!'"
Mr. Smith referred to the year 1932 when Canadians were in the midst of the Depression. Thousands of men, laborers and professional men alike, were out of work, many after years of good productive effort. Great factories were closed or operating only a few hours a week. The ranks of the unemployed increased daily and the bread lines in the cities lengthened. Men swallowed their pride when faced by starvation of their families, and sought public charity from government and relief agencies. Discouragement and fear were the prevailing emotions of the time, and business was bad.
Conditions are different today, he said. "Our class shares with all Canadians the thrill and satisfaction of being a part of a dynamic, growing country. The problem of the young graduate is not the unemployment, but which of the many opportunities will he accept. Our labor and professional needs are so great that we are inviting men and women from other countries to come and work for us. Today we know that business is good."
The business enterprise of today is an invention of recent years brought into being to meet the productive needs of an expanding industrial age. It was not needed in the early years of industrial revolution. As invention followed invention stimulated by advances in science, machine and factories became more and more costly and business risks ever greater. To meet this need men or families joined their financial resources together into partnerships. It was soon evident that this partnership phase of the development of the business enterprise could not keep pace with the exploitation of productive opportunities through ever more costly machines and factories and ever greater financial risk.
"In 1862 in England by act of Parliament, a new revolutionary unit of modern society was created. The limited company or corporation came into existence. Similar legislation was enacted in Canada in 1886. For the first time in history, a business enterprise was given privileges and responsibilities before the law, quite separate and distinct from the liabilities and responsibilities of the men who owned the enterprise.
"Through wide-spread ownership this plan continued to the present to meet the productive needs of industry even during the tremendous expansion period of the last few decades. In legal terms it is difficult to distinguish between the corporate citizen and the human citizen. But there is one great fundamental difference. The corporate citizen was an inanimate materialistic creature. It had no soul, no spiritual motivation.
"In this basic fact is found the reason for over a century of struggle between the individual and the business enterprise. Strife marked by bloodshed and violence.
"Victory has been won, and this only in recent years, in the modern free-enterprise countries of the world. The outward characteristic of such a victory is a mass of law directing in detail the relations of business enterprise with the people, social legislation financed by heavy charges against the profits of industry, and strong labor unions supported and protected by government.
Basic Philosophy
"In the business enterprise with which I am associated we have in writing a basic philosophy, adherence to which is mandatory for all members of management. Simply expressed it is this: Each member of management is required to do right voluntarily in the best balanced interests of five climants on the enterprise: customers, employees, shareowners, shareowners, supplies, citizens and their elected representatives—the government:
"We know that a democratic industrial society can be organized in such a manner that the self interest of an independent, autonomous, privately managed enterprise is best satisfied if it satisfies and serves the social good. In this possibility of establishing harmony lies the best chance for the survival of western society as a free, strong and prosperous social order.
"The freedom of opportunity is our greatest asset. It means that the leadership of our society as a whole can be continuously re-enforced and re-vitalized by recruits from all segments of our population. No rigidly limited and confined membership in a political party narrowly defines the source from which our leadership many come. No single center of initiative controls our destiny. This is a rich heritage we enjoy, unique in the history of men. It is our responsibility to understand it, to guard it, to correct its weakness and to build on its strengths."
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