to buy a house It has a duty beyond its immediate business of supplying goods at the right quality and price; it has a duty of citizenship, of cooperating with the proper authorities at every level of government. In framing its policies, it must consider the wider aspects of the public interest. In its everyday actions it must practise consideration for its neighbours. It must be an active asset to the community within which it operates, not a passive occupier of space. These are noble aims. How, in fact, does a business management 'further the social and economic progress of the community' other than by supplying it with something it wants at the right price ? The first answer must be that management has a responsibility to make profits so that it can create more wealth and pay more taxes. The operation of 'furthering the social and economic progress of the community' must be a profitable one. Industry and commerce are not accountable to the State to be so, i.e. profitable, but in a liberal, capitalistic, competitive society business will not exist long if it isn't. It follows then that those concerned with good management, accepting, as they must do, the validity of the 'ends' of much of any democratically elected government's aims for the community (even if there are differences about means) are inextricably bound up with the State as such. The pity is that politicians (hence the State) mortgage the wealth before it is earned. Doing good for the community is an intoxicating business which can go to a government's head. How far does management organize itself to keep the elected representatives and their servants on the rails ? It is surely not an exaggeration that the quality of management and the efficiency with which it is carried out must, in its turn, greatly affect the attitude of the government of the day. The desire of governments to enter legitimate fields for private enterprise and in Britain this problem is a recurrent one is inflamed when managements fail. And management can get little but cold comfort from the depressing spectacle of State enterprises which do not, in the event, produce better labour relations, administrative efficiency, and improved services to the consumer. These are political matters with which top management at least should be concerned. Though the ranks are growing, too few able business men are prepared to give time either to politics or to voluntary national work. It is the same small band of overworked patriots (for that is what they are) who are to be seen 'chairing' committees, sitting on public bodies, giving parttime, meagrely paid service to State boards. The rewards? There is a passage in The Boss: the Life and Times of the British Business Man, by Roy Lewis and Rosemary Stewart, which well describes them: . . . those who wish for public recognition have to seek it outside business in politics, public works, or philanthropy. personal finance