BEFORE THE WAR 
HOW THINGS LOOKED THEN! 
By Wooprow WiLson 
WE have witnessed in modern business the submergence 
of the individual within the organization, and yet the in- 
Crease to an extraordinary degree of the power of the 
individual — of the individual who happens to control 
the organization. Most men are individuals no longer 
so far as their business, its activities or its moralities, is 
concerned. They are not units, but fractions; with their 
individuality and independence of choice in matters of 
business they have lost also their individual choice within 
the field of morals. They must do what they are told to 
do, or lose their connection with modern affairs. They 
are not at liberty to ask whether what they are told to do 
is right or wrong. They cannot get at the men who or- 
dered it — have no access to them. They have no voice 
of counsel or of protest. They are mere cogs in a machine 
which has men for its parts. And yet there are men here 
and there with whom the whole choice lies. There are 
men who control the machine as a whole and the men who 
compose it. There are men who use it with an imperial 
freedom of design, whose power and whose individuality 
overtop whole communities. There is more individual 
power than ever, but those who exercise it are few and 
! Annual Address, American Bar Association, Chattanooga, Tenn., 1910. 
Reports, pp. 426-434, 439. Reprinted by permission.