P/8
REMARKS OF
LESSING ROSENTHAL AT
THE UNVEILING OF THE
BUST OF JOSEPH SCHAFFNER
AT THE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE OF
THE NOR THWESTERN UNIERSITY

M Ar 27, 1920



It was Mr. Schaffner's modest desire during his lifetime-that
his service to Northwestern University, in the founding of the
School of Commerce, should remain inconspicuous. After his
death the School expressed to Mrs. Schafner its desire to have
some form of memorial to its benefactor. The result was the
presentation of a bronze bust of Mr. Schaffner, the work of the
eminent sculptor, Edmond T. Quinn. At the unveiling exer-
cises the chief address was given by Mr. Lessing Rosenthal, a
lifelong friend; and because of its excellence as a tribute to the
memory of their former colleague, the Trustees of the University
have ordered the address to be perpetuated in this form.


55I/3 Cut~          L Li A tK
~LLltI[I)  Jf  IitI}> u_1 tji     pc ~ . )lJ .tI   t  )LLdJt


W E are met tonight to devote a few min-
utes to the memory of a man whose
precious life meant much to the exist-
ence and welfare of this School. It is a little
over two years since Joseph Schaffner passed to
his eternal rest. Less than a month before he
had celebrated his seventieth birthday. He was
born in Reedsburg, Ohio, on March 23, 1848.
Such elementary education as he could get, he
received in the public schools of Cleveland.
In 1871, at the age of twenty-three, Joseph
Schaffner came to Chicago. He was originally
employed by Hart Brothers, engaged in the
men's furnishing goods business. He gave up his
position with this firm in 1887, when he was thir-
ty-nine years old. He was planning to join his
brother-in-law in St. Paul, when he was asked to
associate himself with Harry Hart, Max Hart
and Marcus Marx in the wholesale clothing busi-
ness in which they were engaged and with them
in that year he organized the firm of Hart,
Schaffner & Marx-a name that is now known
from one end of this country to the other. The
business grew year by year until it outstripped
all others in the same industry. In 1911 it was
incorporated, but the control continued in the
men who had founded it.
A few years ago I chanced to be at luncheon
with some wholesale clothiers in Boston. "It was
Hart, Schaffner & Marx," they said, "who put
the conduct of the wholesale clothing business
upon a high plane." In previous days it was
crude; it was too much a matter of driving the
best bargain; it had not been placed upon a
strictly high-class business basis. In so placing

[Three]


it Joseph Schaffner played a prominent role in
the firm with which he was associated for thirty-
one years.
He was a man of high ideals. These ideals
were not reserved for his private life; they did
not guide him merely on Sundays; he carried
them into his business; they controlled his ac-
tions at all times. He never faltered in the belief
that a business could be successful and at the
same time conducted in strict accord with the
highest principles of honesty. Indeed, if success
meant a departure from fair dealing and ethical
practices, he was willing to forego success.
Thus he was instrumental in building up with
the retail clothing merchant that confidential
relationship which was founded on faith and
assurance. And Joseph Schaffner's ideals spread.
He was anxious that the customers of his house
should conduct their stores in accord with the
best and highest business principles. He let his
views be known to them and he never hesitated to
express himself freely and forcibly.
And the same high principles guided his rela-
tions to the public. He was not one of those men
who indulged the foolish fallacy that bad govern-
ment was good for big business. To his nature,
keenly sensitive of the distinction between right
and wrong, it was inconceivable that public cor-
ruption or even poor management could aid legit-
imate business. He felt satisfied that an honest
council of efficient men must needs be helpful to a
community and that any prosperity based on
wickedness could not thrive.
He did not hesitate, therefore, some years ago
to accept the chairmanship of the Finance Com-

[Four ]


mittee of the Municipal Voters League. I say he
did not hesitate--I am wrong in this-he did
hesitate because his modesty made him question
his power fully to discharge the duties of the
office he was asked to assume and his innate re-
serve made him shrink from the public gaze; but
he did not hesitate on account of any thought
that it was better not to have his name connected
with an organization that was vigorously assail-
ing elements in the community that were power-
ful though unprincipled.
And well did he fill the 'office for which he was
chosen. In his modesty he always said he did
little, but his wise suggestions, his good, busi-
ness-like, practical ideas meant much in the con-
duct of a successful campaign and his name, in
view of his high standing, carried great weight.
Let me illustrate further Joseph Schaffner's
ideas of public morality. We have in this state
an abominable system of taxation. The attempt
to tax all personal property has proved an utter
failure wherever it has been tried. Where sworn
schedules are required, it has made perjurers of
thousands of men and women. In Illinois the dis-
parities in the valuations of property of persons
in like circumstances are glaring. Under such a
system it is not always difficult to be taxed less
than your proportionate share. But Joseph
Schaffner did not want this. He recognized the
partnership relation of the citizens to each other,
and in this, as well as other things, he wanted to
bear his fair share of the public burden.
We know how with that p'ortion of the press
that is degraded, good will is sometimes bought
through money spent for advertising; but such a

[Five]


thought never lured Joseph Schaffner. I well re-
member when there was some interference with
a project undertaken by Hart, Schaffner & Marx,
and the suggestion came from a sinister source
that this interference could be stopped through
advertising in the columns of the newspaper
whose representatives were making claims. The
suggestion was quickly resented. Joseph Schaff-
ner was a great believer in advertising, but just
as he was anxious that the advertisement itself
should represent the truth, so he was anxious
that advertising should not be employed for dis-
honest purposes.
It was because of Mr. Schaffner's sense of
duty to the public, that he was a great respecter
of the law. How far his feelings carried him is
shown by a little incident which I shall mention.
When in 1910 Hart, Schaffner & Marx had
moved into the new building which had been
erected for them at Monroe and Franklin Streets,
it was found that the boilers did not quite work-
as is not unusual-in accordance with the archi-
tect's specifications. The result was a notice
from the City of its smoke violation ordinance. I
thought this at the time a trivial matter, but it
gave Mr. Schaffner some concern, and the reason
was, as he put it to me, that he wished the repu-
tation of Hart, Schaffner & Marx preserved in
every way; he did not want his firm even charged
with violating the law.
Joseph Schaffner's sense of justice was one of
the mainsprings of his action throughout life-
justice to the public, justice to his fellow-man,
justice to himself. In his dealings with others, he
wanted no unfair advantage. In connection with

[SixI


the drawing of contracts, I have often heard him
say, "I want nothing beyond what is our due, I
want something that is fair to both sides, we do
not want the best of the bargain." In a contro-
versy with a public utility corporation relative to
rates, in which his ire had been aroused, because
he believed that there had been discrimination
against his firm, his instructions at the time the
matter was submitted to his own counsel to arbi-
trate;were: "Adjust this so as to have it equit-
able to both of us."
His desire to do justice to his fellow-man made
Joseph Schaffner most anxious to promote the
welfare of the employes of his firm. These num-
bered thousands. As one of the heads of the
house occupied with the larger affairs of the
business, and especially since he was not con-
nected with its manufacturing department, he
did not come into contact with the laborers.
Much had been done for their welfare and the
amelioration of the conditions under which they
worked. ;He thought they were well satisfied
both with conditions and wages, when suddenly
the great strike of 1910 came on in the clothing
industry. Mr. Schaffner was greatly disturbed.
He thought the action taken by the garment
workers was unjust and he realized that the loss
to the business was great. The strike continued
for some time with all the usual ugly incidents,
that do not tend to bring about a better feeling
between the opposing sides. Other houses were
in favor of standing out and fighting to the
finish, but the conviction grew upon Joseph
Schaffner and his associates that perhaps there
was a better, a juster system than the one under

[Seven)


which the wage. earners had theretofore been
employed, and out of this conviction came the
"Hart, Schaffner & Marx Labor Agreement,"
with its distinctive features 'of collective bar-
gaining, shop representation, trade boards and
arbitration committees.
Costs increased, new adjustments in the
business had to be made, but the mental satis-
faction that Mr. Schaffner had during the last
eight years of his life through the thought that
he was fair to his employees, that a better rela-
tionship between employer and employee had
been secured, that he understood his men better,
and that they understood him and his associates
better, was indeed great compensation to him.
He was always anxious to improve industrial
conditions and the lot of the laboring man, and
he realized as he grew in years that this meant
not only better wages and acts to promote the
workman's physical welfare, but certain freedom
of action; that the workman was not satisfied
with mere paternalistic benevolence, but wished
at least to be represented in the matter of his
employment and the conditions of work to which
he should be asked to conform. He realized too
that the success of the large employer was not
dependent upon absolute and unrestricted liberty
of action.
The problem excited a keen interest in Mr.
Schaffner. He was deeply impressed with the
Kantian imperative: "So act as to treat human-
ity, whether in thine own person or in that of any
other, in every case as an end withal, never as
means only." But he deplored and resisted un-
just demands, and he was conscious that there

[Ed ghtI


might be a tyranny of labor as well as a tyranny
of capital. Notorious instances of the former
have not been lacking in recent years.
And as Joseph Schaffner was anxious to be
just to the thousands of garment makers in the
employ of his house, so he was desirous at all
times of being just to those who served in the
office and to those who occupied executive posi-
tions. Here he demonstrated the breadth of his
vision. He helped boys grow up and participate
more and more in the activities of the business.
He placed ever increasing responsibilities upon
them and vested in them much freedom of action.
"Only in this way," he said, "can the right man
forge ahead." He was a great believer in a well
organized business. "I have been endeavoring
for some years," he would frequently say to me,
"so to organize my department that when I am
gone I shall not be missed." And he added at
times: "And I want the man that succeeds me
to do the same thing." He illustrated his idea
once by telling me the story of an executive offi-
cer of a corporation who on his return from his
vacation was discharged because he had been
missed while away. The chief head of the busi-
ness insisted that this showed want of proper
organization.
But do n'ot imagine that Joseph Schaffner's
sense of his own responsibility was not keen. It
was marked. When in 1911 the big business of
Hart, Schaffner & Marx assumed corporate form
and the partners were enabled to withdraw a
large part of their capital for personal invest-
ment, he first thought he would enjoy a greater
feeling of personal comfort, but it was not long

[Nine]


before I heard him say: "Do you know that
instead of being relieved, I feel a greater degree
of responsibility today than I ever did. I feel
responsible to the people who were induced to
invest their moneys and become stockholders in
our enterprise." And this feeling on his part con-
tinued to the last.
And it was because of this keen sense of
responsibility that he refused to continue as a
director of the National City Bank of Chicago, a
position he prized, and in which for several years
he displayed his fine financial judgment. In a
case decided last year-the Supreme Court of the
United States emphasized the duty of a national
bank director not only to be honest but also dili-
gent, but long before this judgment was handed
down Joseph Schaffner decided that the degree
of diligence which he felt would be required of
him in the capacity of bank director was incom-
patible with the attention which his own business
demanded, and he resigned. He was unwilling,
as so many men of means seem to be, to serve as
an absentee director or as a figurehead. And his
action was particularly laudable, because his keen
financial judgment enabled him to solve fiscal
problems more quickly than many another could.
That financial judgment grew and developed
in his business. "When I began," he told me, "I
thought that every customer's credit had to be at
least AA1, but I soon learned that if we sold only
to those who had that rating, our business could
not grow big." He therefore investigated age
and character. He knew that youth and char-
acter and energy were an asset which often out-
weighed financial resources. And as the business

[Ten]


of Hart, Schaffner & Marx grew larger and
larger, he also realized that if a loss should occur,
its percentage to the total volume of business
would probably be negligible.
Joseph Schaffner had foresight in another di-
rection and in this he departed from the tradi-
tions of business. Other things being equal, he
preferred the man possessed of a higher educa-
tion. He believed in college education. He did not
believe as so many business men unfortunately
do, that higher training and mental development
unsuited a man for a commercial or manufactur-
ing occupation. On the contrary he felt that
higher education and culture enabled the prac-
tical man who was willing to work to cope more
intelligently with the problems of commerce. He
himself sought out a man grounded in economics
and an instructor at a university to help solve his
firm's labor problems. Science, in his judgment,
when properly applied could not hurt business.
Indeed, in his opinion, scientific study was al-
ways bound to be an aid to commerce and indus-
try. This prompted Joseph Schaffner and his
associates some years ago to found the "Hart,
Schaffner & Marx Prize Essays." The purpose
was, as stated in the announcement, "to arouse
an interest in the study of topics relating to com-
rerce and industry, and to stimulate an examina-
tion of the value of college training for business
men." Leading economists have always consti-
tuted the committee to award the prizes. Some
excellent studies have been the result. The books
which Houghton Mifflin Company has published
in this series have been a distinct contribution to
economic thought, and have demonstrated the

[Eleven]


great value to society at large of the encourage-
ment of economic research.
It was his confidence in the value of scientific
study and higher business training that prompted
Joseph Schaffner to join with others in founding
this School of Commerce. It was primarily due
to his efforts and contributions that this School
was established and he was proud to observe its
development and its ever growing sphere of
usefulness. He knew that in the course of time
its value might be measured in dollars and cents,
but to him its chief value lay in the mental and
moral broadening of the many young students
who attended its courses.
Mental development meant much to Joseph
Schaffner. He constantly sought mental stimu-
lus. His thirst for learning was never quenched.
In his youth he had but an ordinary school
education, but how this was supplemented
during the rest of his life! He read, as so many
men who have grown big have read. It was
not reading of the ordinary kind. "The misuse
of books,"-to quote Frederic Harrison-"the
debilitating waste of brain in aimless, promiscu-
ous, vapid reading, or even, it may be, in the
poisonous inhalation of mere literary garbage
and bad men's worst thoughts," did not have to
be impressed on him. He realized that, to quote
Harrison again, "the longest life, the greatest
industry, joined to the most powerful memory,
would not suffice to make us profit from a
hundredth part of the world of books before
us." Therefore, he sought only the best.
His favorite reading was in the books of the
great English authors. When a young man,

[Twelvel


while others sought amusement, he devoted his
leisure hours with a friend in reading Shake-
speare. The great poets fascinated him and
many a poem had he committed to memory, a
memory that remained with him until the end
came.
Joseph Schaffner married in 1888. His wife,
a devoted and fitting companion, always bore
a most sympathetic attitude toward his ideals,
his aims and his pursuits. It was in her com-
pany and that of his children that he loved to
be, and nothing did he enjoy more than to sit
in his library, with them around, perusing the
pages of a serious book-Taussig's Principles
of Economics, Walter Raleigh's Essay on
Style, Wordsworth's Poems, Emerson's Essays,
Charles Francis Adams' Autobiography, and
many, many more that I might mention.
Nor shall I mention the many who are in-
debted to him for having their course of reading
turned in the right direction. "Read good
things," he would say, and he would supplement
this advice by sending a volume excellent in
content and choice in type, for he admired the
beautifully printed page.
Much did I personally profit in my many
talks with him about books. In my library are
fine editions of Malcolm Bell's Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, The Poetical Works of William
Wordsworth, Prof. A. C. Bradley's Lectures on
Shakespearean Tragedy, Lewes' Life of Goethe,
Moncure Daniel Conway's Autobiography, Lord
Brougham's Lives of Men of Letters and Science
and Statesmen in the Time of George III, Dr.
John Browne's Horae Subsecivae, The First and

[Thirteen]


Last Journeys of Henry David Thoreau and
many others I might name. I prize them all,
not only because they came to me from him, but
because they were dear to him; they were among
the best friends with whom he had constant
communion.
But I could not speak of his books without
mentioning one great personality, whose phil-
osophy profoundly influenced Joseph Schaffner,
and whom    he constantly  quoted - Marcus
Aurelius. Even as my dear friend's life was
ebbing away, he spoke to me of that fine passage
in the Meditations: "Think not disdainfully of
death, but look on it with favor; for even death
is one of the things that nature wills."
"I have lived more than the years generally
allotted to man," he said to me just prior to his
seventieth birthday; "so if I am not permitted
to live any longer I am content." The philoso-
phy of Marcus Aurelius had borne in on him:
"Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate
of man,-yesterday in embryo, to-morrow a
mummy or ashes. So for the hair's-breadth of
time assigned to thee live rationally, and part
with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, ex-
tolling the season that bore it and the tree that
matured it."
A few nights before the end came-he died
on April 19, 1918,-he recited William Cowper's
poem, "On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture."
And well might Joseph Schaffner have applied to
himself that verse found in this poem:
"And now, farewell-Time unrevoked has run
His wonted course, yet what I wish'd is done."

[Fourteen]


I mentioned that Joseph Schaffner shrank
from the public gaze. He was essentially a
modest man. No one had probably ever paid
more; attention to advertising than he; but he
used it only as a medium to build up the business
of Hart, Schaffner & Marx. That company's
phenomenal growth has undoubtedly been due
in a measure to truthful, judicious and wider and
wider advertising, and during Mr. Schaffner's
lifetime this was under his special direction. He
wanted advertising for the wares of his house,
but he wanted none for himself; he wanted no
publicity. In keeping with the natural reserve
that characterized her husband, Mrs. Schaffner
wished the bust she was giving to the School to
be presented in this informal fashion.
It is an excellent likeness of him whose
memory we have come to honor. The sculptor,
Edward T. Quinn, deserves much credit for his
superb work. There is no more fitting place for
this bronze than in this School in whose welfare
Joseph Schaffner-a trustee of Northwestern
University from 1910 until his death-was so
deeply interested. Here the lineaments of that
face that marked Joseph Schaffner's strong char-
acter and the recessed eyes that showed the
deep thought in which he was so often absorbed
and betokened the great vision that illumined the
path of his noble life and ever led him on to
higher and greater things will speak to the
students who enter here each year and point out
to them that study and energy and right living
will lead to success.

[Fifteen]



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