Charles Knowlton (1927-2013)

Many years ago, I experienced for myself a phenomenon that is an all-too-common problem in workplace relations between labor and management. I owned a small company, and decided that I would like to start profit-sharing with my employees as much as would be feasible. So, I rounded up an executive table and some chairs and convened an employee meeting.

Many years ago, I experienced for myself a phenomenon that is an all-too-common problem in workplace relations between labor and management. I owned a small company, and decided that I would like to start profit-sharing with my employees as much as would be feasible. So, I rounded up an executive table and some chairs, and convened an employee meeting.

Paul Harvey once told a story about a tough lumberjack who went to town one weekend, fell in with a religious group, and was baptized. He went back to the lumber camp—much to the concern of his preacher, who worried that others would make fun of him. When he went back to town the preacher asked him how it went. He said, “They never caught on.”

“Wanted: Someone to walk with me”. This want ad appeared in a Ohio newspaper a few years ago. When I read it, I assumed it was a joke, and I made an inquiry. What I found was an old person wanting someone to take him for a walk—not because he needed physical help, but because he was afraid.

As I see the United States government striving to work out a new budget, trying to devise a way to get the nation out of deep debt, I am reminded of an old hymn:  "Give of Your Best to the Master."

How did such a rich country as the U.S. fall into such crushing financial debt? Somewhere in its history, a substantial number of its people quit giving of their best, and started to look out for how much they could take from their fellow Americans.