Religious references in purely business connexions are unfashionable, to say the least, and we have mo particular desire to break a tule which has many good points. At the same time a recent address in a Unitarian church in America upon the subject of cancellation of contracts has such a pronounced bearing upon present day commercial morality that allusion to it is permissible. The speaker was Mr. Oliver M. Fisher, President wf the Boston Boot & Shoe Club, and without mincing matters he told his hearers that the present phase of cancellation of contracts was due to the fact that we had! become an irreligious people. Irreligion meant. irresponsibility—that we had no thought of the rights of the other fellow or responsibility to God or our fellow men." We may leave the purely religious aspect—as there are others who can deal with that much more ably—but we may note one thing from this address, that no matter how it is regarded there is a duty on. the commercial community of the world to make war against this type of immorality. The war, producing as it inevitably did a fertile crop of adventurers, was a bad thing for commercial morality, and if we are to get back to our old standards we must grapple with the evil very firmly. We have seen a good deal of it in Shanghai, and in view of what we have learned about its worldwide prevalence, we cannot be too thankful that our Teading commercial bodies took the stand they did at the outset. Mr. Fisher, whom we have just quoted, called for a campaign on the part of the church to counteract the evil, but we fancy that for a considerable time to come it will require 4. campaign by the whole community if we are to get back to pre-war standards.
Synthetic Diamonds syndicate in Germany has had the disappointment of learning that its'hopes of revolutionizing the jewellery trade by the manufacture of synthetic diamonds are vain. It was not a mere question of paste, apparently, that interested the syndicate, but actual, real diamonds, as real.as they can_be made by a synthetic process. The whole business proved a failure, for which one may be truly thankful, as a world overrun by diamonds is too appalling to contemplate. As matters stand there are probably too many diamonds in the world to-day in relation to the people mho can afford to buy the, for there is a very considerable quantity put on the market from Russia which only require re-cutting and polishing to bring to the height of fashion. However, those who synthetically labour, might well turn their attention to other subjects. Caviar, for instance, is.rater and more expensive than ever. Synthetic caviar would fill a Jong felt want. In the mass"it -would hardly be so tragic as diamonds.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.