ON BUSINESS

With eloquence and emphasis, in public print and private word, Luce informed the U.S. businessman that he was a prodigy in the history of mankind--and should therefore live up to the responsibilities of his achievement.

> "The claim of modern industry on the brains and energy and honor and intelligence of man exceeds the claims that have ever before been made upon the intelligence and character of man. Modern industry, if we could only encompass it within our feeble imaginations, is the instrument by which it is given us to achieve in our lifetime nearly all that mankind has struggled for in centuries of blood and sweat and futility." April 1934.

> "For centuries the Europeans, and notably the admirable British, kept business in its place. They called it 'trade'--snobbishly and profitably. But business is an American word--and the business of business is no longer to provide a 5%-6% interest for the aristocracy, whether in London or Newport or Hyde Park. The business of business is to take part in the creation of the Great Society." April 1939.

> Note to a FORTUNE editor on a story of a corporate battle: "I resent the fact that [these men] are fighting for a huge chunk of the 'national estate' without there seeming to be any point to the fight. Neither [one] seems to stand for a damn thing. This is the sort of thing that turns one against capitalism. I resent having these great companies owned by pointless men like these. And as for these vast investment trusts, I am inclined to think that they should be abolished." April 1961.

> "The American economic system is one of the greatest achievements of all times. It is great not only because of its measurable end product; it is great because, on the whole, it is so humane. The American economic system is producing the material basis for the Great Society. The present and foreseeable flood of abundance is not only producing the means for a great civilization; it is forcing us to think in those terms. If anybody doesn't like the idea of civilization building--don't blame it on any literary or ivory-tower types. They didn't cause all this trouble; businessmen did." June 1964.

> "Whatever may be the purpose of human life, if any, one thing is clear: that in all past experience, human purpose has had to be worked out primarily within the limited limits of an unbreakable economic equation. That equation was stated in the third chapter of Genesis in terms of a divine command: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.' And confirmed by the single economic passage in the Lord's Prayer: 'Give us this day our daily bread.' In mid-20th-century America, bread is a drug on the market. Our problem is not to get bread but to get rid of it. The breaking of this age-old economic equation is, in the sweep of history, just as new as the atom--and much less appreciated. December 1955.

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