Intercultural Competence in Organizations
A Guide for Leaders, Educators and Team Players
Alex Matveev New York, USA
ISSN 2192-8096
Management for Professionals
ISBN 978-3-319-45700-0
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45701-7
ISSN 2192-810X (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-45701-7 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016950585
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
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To my parents who taught me to live and love the world we live in.
To people who will have to live and work in the world I am describing.
Foreword
Dr. Alex Matveev challenges his readers to develop their intercultural competence so as to make themselves more effective, more humane, and more socially skilled in a world that increasingly involves extensive contact across various groups of people. These diverse people bring cultural assumptions, beliefs, and behaviors based on their nationality, ethnicity, sexual identity, gender, age, social class background, possible physical challenges, and other factors that lead individuals to complain about “all these different people and their expectations.” The thoughtful perspectives that Dr. Matveev provides will not be easy to put into everyday practice. Since cultural differences are the major focus of this book, differences brought on by cultural diversity will be emphasized here.
A major reason for the difficulties of developing intercultural competence is that adults anywhere in the world have invested great amounts of time and energy into becoming well-functioning members of their own culture. They have learned about status markers, the relative importance of family connections, what social norms are more and less important, what importance should be given to gender, what powerful people are expected to do and what level of deference they expect to receive, and a host of other concepts whose acceptance marks cultural membership (Hofstede, 2001; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004). The acceptance of these cultural beliefs and values becomes part of people’s worldview, that is, people’s views about correct and incorrect ways of living. When intercultural practitioners and scholars ask people to be tolerant of others with very different world views and to be respectful during interactions with them, they are asking a great deal.
The reluctance of people to enthusiastically study, understand, and consider the viewpoints of culturally diverse people has received attention in the scholarly literature. An intriguing set of arguments surrounds the fact that people know they are going to die and are terrified of this certainty (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). One way to deal with this terror is to accept a culture’s view of how best to understand death; and this often involves accepting the tenets of a religion, a secular view about living a productive life or both. Religious views often involve visions of an afterlife, and these visions reduce the terror of constantly contemplating death. Secular views keep attention away from the terror of death by encouraging people to accept cultural views of what a good person does. Accepting a set of cultural values, then, becomes a buffer between people and their contemplation of death. These views can include a work ethic, a concern for taking care of one’s extended
family; the acceptance of roles dictated one’s birth, the acquisition of visible signs of wealth, the desire to create a legacy, and various culturally influenced behaviors that lead others to hold a person in high regard. But if people take on the task of becoming more interculturally competent, this quest will involve considering diverse views that may lead them to think in uncomfortable ways. If they understand the reasons why people in other cultures behave as they do, they may have to consider the possibility that their own culturally influenced views may be wrong or at least incomplete. As a result, they will not have the cultural protection of certainty about life that ameliorates the constant dread of thinking about death.
Another reason for the difficulty of developing intercultural competence is that it is a time-consuming task that has to compete with other challenges in people’s busy lives. Consider a couple in their early 40s. The partners have to deal with these and other life challenges, many of which are influenced by the guidelines of their own culture. They have to earn enough money to house and to feed themselves. They may have children and so will have major responsibilities for socializing the youngsters into productive citizens. They may have elderly parents who look forward to significant care-giving efforts. The partners may have jobs that demand extensive amounts of time. They may be expected to engage in afterhours socializing with coworkers and may decide to take night courses to keep current in the technological demands of their jobs. They have to spend time dealing with the preferences of their bosses and various stakeholders associated with their organizations. They may be expected to take roles in supportive tasks that are expected given their religious affiliations. These and other time demands make the additional expectations surrounding intercultural competency to be a challenge for people’s limited time and energy.
The fact that people are extremely busy in their family, work, and community lives leads to a discussion of heuristics (Kahneman, 2011). People have to make many decisions, and they may do so in calm, deliberate, and careful manner—sometimes called “System Two thinking.” Or, they may make their decisions based on quick reactions to social situations that are familiar from the many years spent in their own culture which is sometimes called “System One thinking.” Put another way, System Two thinking is careful, time-consuming, and is marked by efforts such as web searches on a topic, visits to a library, consultations with experts, and checklists of plusses and minuses associated with various decision options. System One thinking, often the more common approach, involves fast decisions based on memories of what seems to have been effective recently, what is highly familiar, and quick analyses of what others are likely to do given social norms. Heuristics are common in System One thinking. Heuristics refer to rules of thumb that people have learned during their socialization into their culture. For instance, decision making often involves assessment of expert credibility. Heuristics take people away from careful consideration of what recommendation the would-be experts make and instead involve a focus on quick markers of credibility. Such markers can include diplomas hung on office walls, manner of dress, communication styles, and namedropping of high status individuals. These heuristics often have a strong cultural component. The dress of high status people in one culture is different from that in
other cultures. Titles that convey expertise are different across cultures. I remember receiving a letter from a person in South Asia who had the title of “Assistant Expert” of a division within his organization. Apparently, that title communicated a certain amount of clout in his culture. I have also received letters with the phrase “MS, failed” under people’s signatures. Individuals reading the letter are supposed to know that graduate school admittance in certain countries is highly selective and so people who failed degree requirements still have a status worth communicating. System One thinking is often based on emotional reactions to social situations rather than on long and involved cognitive activity. Culture provides the background for people’s emotional reactions. What makes people happy or sad? What makes them angry or disgusted? What makes them fearful or surprised? For many years I have tried to address such questions through the analysis of critical incidents that capture the experiences of people as they try to understand puzzling intercultural interactions (Brislin, 2008). An experience early in my career is based on System One and System Two thinking. I was living in a collectivist society and the editor of the local newspaper came to a nearby college and gave a lecture on the responsibilities of the press. He argued that reporters had a responsibility to discover the truth and that they should not fear censorship if they pursued stories on controversial issues that would bring embarrassment to powerful figures. The next week, a reporter from an individualistic culture found evidence that the editor’s niece had embezzled money from a company. The reporter wrote the story but the editor chose to ignore it and would not publish information that would bring shame to his niece. A key to understanding this incident is that the editor and reporter were working from different System Two heuristics. The editor had in mind that “influential people take care of their relatives,” a common guideline for behavior in collectivist cultures (Winter, 2016). The reporter had in mind that “members of the media should pursue the truth no matter who will face public ridicule,” a value common in his individualistic background. The outcome was that the story never was printed. The reporter was not fired but was given unchallenging challenges, such as to report on the orchid society’s monthly meeting, that he quit his job and returned to the city where he was born.
Such incidents are difficult to deal with, but they exemplify the sorts of experiences that people who pursue intercultural competence will have to face (Brislin, 2008). Various guidelines provided by Dr. Matveev will be helpful and will encourage the careful study that is central to System Two thinking. For example, he discusses cultural differences brought on by socialization into individualistic and collectivist cultures (Hofstede, 2001; House et al., 2004). As people learn about such concepts, they can apply them to a more nuanced understanding of their own cultures and thus have the opportunity of gaining increased self-insight. Another concept discussed by Dr. Matveev—power distance, deals with distinctions between high and low status people in a culture. In some cultures, powerful and high status people are not accustomed to criticism from those of lower status. Rather, they expect deference and they expect to have their opinions listened to carefully. In low power distance cultures, people are more comfortable criticizing powerholders. They organize meetings to voice their opinions on various matters. They make jokes
about high status people. They write letters to newspaper editors and complain about the behavior of powerholders. I am from a low power distance culture and will admit that I have difficulty interacting with self-styled high status individuals just because of their impressive titles, status given by birth into a prominent family, and number of assistants in their entourages. I am interested in what they have actually accomplished and am not comfortable being deferent solely because of titles. This means, however, that I must monitor myself carefully during certain intercultural encounters.
While recognizing the difficulties, I hope that more people will accept the challenges of increasing their intercultural competence. The need for such competent people is increasing as cultures come into contact through expansions of international businesses, opportunities for overseas study as part of students’ education, increased interest in international tourist experiences that go beyond views of wellknown landmarks, migration, and other life-changing experiences.
I’d like to make some suggestions. The difficulties I have discussed for developing intercultural competence means that there will be large differences between cultural specialists and the general public. Members of the general public are not ignorant. Rather, they are extremely busy given the myriad demands on their time and energy. My recommendation is that intercultural specialists communicate with each other and decide on a basic set of concepts that they would like the general public to know. This task would be similar to efforts that try to identify concepts in literature, history, and the sciences that everyone should understand. The concepts presented in this volume provide a good smorgasbord from which to choose. Such concepts can be presented in a jargon-free manner, with attention to information about why the concepts will be useful for people. This will take the identification of intercultural concepts away from being simply an academic exercise into helpful communications about usefulness in people’s everyday lives. I hope that this effort does not shy away from controversial topics. People need to know about possible cultural influences in such conflict-ridden areas as the Middle East, Africa, the two Koreas, South Asia as well as difficult intercultural interactions among ethnic groups within the same country. Intercultural specialists who can communicate effectively with the general public should be lauded with as much enthusiasm as researchers who identify core concepts and theories. The frameworks presented in this book will be of great assistance in the efforts to address controversy and to nurture both researchers and practitioners who can contribute to a greater understanding of intercultural effectiveness.
Distinguished Professor and Professor Emeritus, Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii Richard
W. Brislin
Preface
Why did I write this book? This book is a result of a journey that began 25 years ago. Then an engineering student from Russia, I came to the United States to learn the rules of communicating in English and the basics of business and management. This journey would not have started if not for the academics from the United States and Russia who interviewed me and stated “He will do well in America.” I am not sure what criteria they used, but I was very happy to become one of many intercultural sojourners, the term that I had no idea about at that time. Now, thinking back I realized that during that interview I was able to exhibit an interculturally competent behavior that made the interviewers believe that I am well suited for an academic study abroad. I thank them for their choice as I do many people in my life and the powers above for presenting me with a gift of experience living and working in another culture.
This book is not about me, however, but about the ways people communicate with each other at work and relate to other people who are not from their culture. Three individuals who have to do this every day come to mind whom I believe are worth mentioning here. They are Ed, Irina, and George.
First is Ed Richards, Vice President of Business Development for The Lubrizol Corporation. After completing his degree in chemistry in Cleveland, Ohio, Ed mastered a variety of skills working in different professions—analytical chemistry, technical services, and industrial sales and marketing. Ed started his sales and marketing career with Lubrizol in 1985 in a quest to help the company diversify into new, global specialty chemical markets. It was at that time when Lubrizol, a company with a 60-year history in manufacturing lubricants for the transportation and industrial markets, began a concerted effort of diversification by leveraging their chemical and problem-solving expertise into new markets. Now after 30 years, Ed is the Vice President of Business Development and is responsible for the company’s business development activities, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, and commercial development, all of which can be very delicate and interculturally sensitive processes. In the early 2000s Lubrizol completed the acquisition of Noveon International, a specialty chemical company from Ohio, the USA, with a strong product portfolio in advanced materials for the coatings, engineered polymers, life sciences, and personal and home care markets. In 2010 Lubrizol opened a world-class additives manufacturing facility and an R&D Center in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.
A usual day for Ed often starts at 06:00 h in the morning as he obtains updates on activities with his colleague working in Tokyo, Japan, where it is 19:00 h in the evening. Ed also communicates with key managers, companies, and investment banking contacts throughout Europe and Asia regions. Ed has to manage the time differences, location challenges, and attenuate to cultural differences among the various cultures. This is very demanding, isn’t it? In spite of his busy schedule, Ed is “always on” and reachable via electronic mail and phone. In his moments of free time Ed takes short break holidays with his grandson and avidly researches new opportunities for his investment portfolio.
Irina Astrakhan is the second individual of this kind, now a Practice Manager of Finance and Markets Global Practice at the World Bank. Irina started her career in Russia helping small businesses to grow. After mastering Economics and Sciences at Moscow State University, she pioneered the International Center for Development of Small Enterprises and the first consulting and training institution for Small and Medium Enterprises in Russia, then the Soviet Union. Irina managed training programs in entrepreneurship and exchanges with many Centers of Excellence for the SME training—in Finland, Italy, and the UK. A highlight of Irina’s career in Russia was leading the Business Development Program and building eight business support centers across Russia. In 1998 Irina joined the Small and Medium Enterprise Unit of the World Bank. She worked extensively on privatization and enterprise restructuring projects in transition economies, including Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, and Albania. During the financial crisis of 2008–2009, Irina led the delivery of three financial crisis response operations in Western Balkans on two policy loans and the line of credit and participated in the negotiations of the Vienna Initiative with the IMF and EBRD for Balkan countries.
Now after 25 years in international business, Irina manages the Finance and Markets Global Practice of Africa Region, overseeing 47 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa with a population of 1.1 billion and the territory of 11 million square miles. A challenging task for one person indeed, isn’t it? In the morning Irina talks to colleagues in Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa. Then she follows the sun and the earth time zones and works with her project partners in Angola, San Tome, and Cote d’Ivoire. She discusses governments’ progress on financial inclusion, financial flows to the small businesses, quality of financial sector supervision, advancement of mobile payments technologies, and the most disadvantaged aspects of Africa’s economy. The range of projects that Irina manages covers technical assistance for governments in developing financial sector strategies, resolving problem banks, establishing deposit guarantee schemes, building financial infrastructure and upgrading payment systems, and financing SME and especially women entrepreneurs.
Irina has many “gifts.” Positive thinking, superb interpersonal communication, and excellent memory are on the top of this gift list. Irina remembers the minute details about her past and present projects across the world. Interesting, but she finds time to see plays at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, performances at the Lincoln Center in New York, and operas at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
Third is George Grishin, a successful reinsurance broker, who started his career selling protection and indemnity insurance over 30 years ago. George had
to learn different types of ships sailing and docking at different ports in the world, from San-Francisco in the West to Mombasa in the South to Nagasaki and Sydney in the East. In the early 1990s he formed his own company—Oakeshott Insurance Consultants, which has grown to operate in all countries of the former Soviet Union and many in the Eastern Europe. George believes that selling insurance is fun and fascinating. At many of his talking occasions George says that the main task in international insurance is to build communication bridges between the owners and insurance brokers and between professionals from the West and from the East. Many times he had to explain “the Eastern insurance” concepts to Western insurance brokers while helping insurers from the Eastern Europe to understand the lengthy contracts customary in the West. Interesting, isn’t it? George views insurance as a peace-building and friendly profession, a great comradery tool, like music or art, when people who differ in many respects, in culture or profession, come together, discuss, disagree or agree, and form business relationships on the basis of shared values. This remarkable attitude and sensitive intercultural communication skills brought George’s company to insuring AN-225, the largest plane in the world, and becoming a broker of Lloyd’s of London, the top insurance market.
I am fortunate to meet them all. I know Ed from my studies at Ohio University in the early 1990s, the happy university time that I will never forget. I know Irina from my consulting career at the World Bank when we had to draft recovery scenarios for governments and financial institutions during the late 1990s crises. I know George from joint research studies as he graciously agreed to examine his Oakeshott Insurance Company on intercultural issues. I chose to talk about this trio not because I know them. I talk about them in light of my belief that they are interculturally competent professionals. Many successful people live in society and many managers have reached high levels in their organizations. But only a few of them are able to communicate in a way that creates an impression of a personal, appropriate, and knowledgeable communication.
My intercultural journey introduced me to many professions—teaching, consulting and writing. I claim no exceptional expertise. I tend to think of myself as a traveling philosopher whom people of different professions in many cultures opened their hearts and doors to share their views so others understand them better. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to put some of their stories in writing. In the ending years of last century I reported on business education in Russia in Springer’s “Educational Innovation in Economics and Business Series.” I progressed from writing on advantages of employing quantitative and qualitative methods in intercultural research to editing Challenges of Educating People to Lead in a Challenging World, also with Springer. The last drop in a motivational pond for writing this book, however, was my article on intercultural competence and multicultural teams in SAGE’s International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management which unexpectedly noticed the mark of two lists of the “Top 25 Most-Cited” and the “Top 25 MostRead” articles. Back then in 2011 I started putting together a more comprehensive piece focusing specifically on intercultural competence. I am thankful to Springer Science and Business Media Group who noticed it. Not without the encouragement
of the publisher, I decided to embark on this book with one central goal: to share my views on intercultural competence through the lens of professional and academic experiences of others like myself and to encourage other successful people to learn from them.
This writing is different. First, we live in the time when many of our assumptions about how our lives work are being turned upside down. My favorite author Charles Handy, one of the most influential living management thinkers that I met in my life, wrote a few years ago about this. The changes in values, communication, and technology affect everyone, including those who have no desire to engage in intercultural communication. Second, many problematic communication and intercultural challenges are happening in the international arena, some of which are too sad to be reported here. Third, my father’s illness made me to take some time off regular work to attend to my family needs. This stage of my life journey introduced me to new type of intercultural communication—the doctor–patient communication and the patient–family communication. One can discuss which one is more of a challenge. People who experienced this in their lives know what I am writing about. I am indebted to people who stood by me during this time and helped me to overcome this life challenge and rethink a few things, if not the entire life.
I am writing this preface at the time when leaders, educators, and team players of all kinds and sorts need to take time to learn how to reach out to others and to communicate with those different from them. Only a few months ago the Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill had an apolitical rendezvous in Cuba to discuss global problems, marking the first encounter in history between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch in the nearly 1000 years. How will Ed, Irina, and George be affected by this meeting, if not at all? What will they do differently knowing that there is always a chance to reach out and communicate with different folks? I am less concerned for the skillful intercultural communicators as Ed, Irina, and George. I do hope, however, that my writing elevates the overall level of understanding of intercultural communication dilemmas and becomes handy for practicing managers, leaders, educators, and team players of tomorrow.
Alex Matveev
Organization of This Book
Few books focus on a single topic. This one does. The centrality of the intercultural competence backed by underlying theoretical foundations, conceptual models, and evaluation and development tools aids the readers in mastering this complex construct. The book does not favor any specific intercultural competence model or concept, although I spent a good portion of my life to develop the Collaborative Model of Intercultural Competence. An educated, knowledgeable, and competent reader is motivated enough to decide which model is most appropriate for a certain task and time. So readers have all controls for their learning.
The book has three parts. Part I presents the foundational concepts of intercultural competence, the essential theory, and common models of intercultural competence. Part II focuses on intercultural competence in multicultural teams so common to modern organizations. Part III considers various approaches to assessment and development of intercultural competence in a variety of organizational contexts. I provide a brief summary of each chapter for more structured readers. I think, however, that some of these chapters will be of more immediate interests than others. Therefore, it is possible to read these chapters in a variety of ways, depending on one’s interests at the time. I do realize that the academic readers prefer orderly reading. Therefore, the book begins with the foundational concepts and definitions and progresses to more advanced theories and practicalities. Those who are familiar with my earlier academic writings may notice some concepts and ideas surface here and there, including the Collaborative Model of Intercultural Competence. These foundational concepts worked well for me and others several years ago, and now they help to illustrate important intercultural dilemmas.
Chapter 1
The first chapter introduces the focus of the book—intercultural competence in organizations. The chapter provides the recent and established definitions of intercultural competence, explains its relevance to contemporary organizations, and highlights its perceptual nature. Further, the chapter describes a common framework for intercultural competence analysis and research, introduces how intercultural competence is viewed in the context of multicultural teams, and outlines the basis for researching and practicing intercultural competence.
Chapter 2
The second chapter continues with a more in-depth explanation of why intercultural competence is important and how intercultural competence is related to national culture and cross-cultural studies. It provides a valuable theoretical foundation for understanding intercultural competence—the uncertainty reduction theory. The chapter describes different contextual applications of intercultural competence research, such as performance abroad, intercultural adjustment, and intercultural effectiveness.
Chapter 3
The third chapter provides the reader with a visual and textual explanation of the theoretical model of intercultural competence, created by the author of this book. From underlining the cognitive, behavioral, and attitudinal dimensions of intercultural competence to explicit dimensions of interpersonal skills, effectiveness, cultural uncertainty, and cultural empathy, this chapter leaves the reader with a clear sense of what intercultural competence is.
Chapter 4
Because of the emphasis modern organizations place on self-managed work teams and collaboration between employees and organizations, the fourth chapter extends the topic of intercultural competence in organizations to the context of multicultural professional work teams. The chapter highlights the importance of intercultural competence for multicultural teams, presents some challenges and advantages of multicultural teams, and explains how intercultural competence can help to develop coherent and effective culturally diverse teams.
Chapter 5
This chapter explains how practitioners use intercultural competence in their professions and how academics and trainers assess intercultural competence. The chapter begins with an explanation of the purpose, the design, and the implementation of intercultural competence assessment in different contexts. The chapter completes with the examples of intercultural competence assessment.
Chapter 6
The sixth chapter brings a logical close the journey into the world of intercultural competence by explaining how practitioners and trainers develop intercultural competence in their organizations. This chapter presents the reader with the current frameworks of
Organization of This Book
intercultural competence development. The chapter completes with the examples of intercultural competence development and with a futuristic insight on intercultural competence in organizations.
Reviewer List
Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Ph.D., Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
Carmencita P. Del Villar, Ph.D., University of the Philippines, the Philippines
Caroline Hatcher, Ph.D., Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Wenshan Jia, Ph.D., Chapman University, USA
Young-Ok Lee, Ph.D., Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Richard G. Milter, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, USA
Paul E. Nelson, Ph.D., North Dakota State University, USA
Wilfried Vanhonacker, Ph.D., American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Esther Lee Yook, Ph.D., George Mason University, USA
Acknowledgements
Many very special people contributed to this book. First, it was Professor Paul Nelson, my long-time research advisor and friend, who supported me in my endless attempts to put my grand ideas in writing. I had to revisit my early writings from over a dozen years back to see if they are current and useful in today’s conditions. I am grateful to Paul for his patience attending to my many questions and queries and correcting my verbal imperfections with great accuracy and tact. I am grateful for introducing me to Professor Judy Pearson, a well-accomplished writer on intercultural and human communication. I was fortunate to witness Judy speak at many professional meetings connecting well to large audiences and touching hearts of each among them individually. Yet another great Paul’s lesson was showing a way to the World Communication Association, a truly remarkable professional group of scholars and practitioners of intercultural communication with global mindsets and open hearts.
Special thanks go to many colleagues in a community of scholars who helped creating this book by voicing their commitment to mastering intercultural competence through their research and teaching. They are Professors Richard Milter of Johns Hopkins University, Carmencita Del Villar of the University of the Philippines, and Young-Ok Lee of Kyung Hee University, my research partners and frequent discussants of my writing. Included in this list are many scholars and thinkers whose books I read and whose theories and ideas I found practical and valuable to my professional life. They are Brian Spitzberg, Charles Handy, Edward Hall, Fons Trompenaars, Fons van de Vijver, Geert Hofstede, James McCroskey, Martin Gannon, Milton Bennett, Richard Brislin, Richard Wiseman, Shalom Schwartz, Shinobu Kitayama, Susan Wheelan, and William Starosta. Meeting and talking to Charles Handy, a living management guru, and Desmond Tutu, an Anglican Archbishop of South Africa, were sacred “gifts from God.” Luckily I read many of their books, including Charles’ outstanding Gods of Management and Desmond’s Passion for Peace: Exercising Power Creatively coauthored with Stuart Rees.
I am particularly thankful to Professor Miwa Y. Merz of San Jose State University, my research partner in many research undertakings on intercultural competence. Coming from Japan to the United States first to study and then to teach, Miwa is a fluent intercultural communicator and an attentive colleague. I found frequent communication with her on the issues of intercultural competence assessment and development very valuable and timely. I would like to thank many of my research
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colleagues for their help collecting data in different countries—China, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Vietnam—and interpreting it afterwards, which is always a unique and challenging task. Your timely comments and feedback contributed to making this book a stronger tool for many people mastering intercultural competence.
Then there are many others who encouraged my writing. First are my students in New York and in many international locations as China, France, Greece, Russia and Vietnam. They are the true testers of my research ideas and intercultural competence models. Second are professional businesspeople like Ed Richards, Irina Astrakhan, and George Grishin who influenced my thinking on intercultural communication and other life matters and Mrs. Ann Helm, then the Director of the Center for International Service at CUNY, who demonstrated her warm and interculturally sensitive communication daily. Third are these many people whom I met during my numerous international consulting and teaching engagements and intercultural sojourner-type trips. One needs to write another book to mention all of you here, but I hope you know that I write about you.
The book would not be possible if not for my many teachers in various universities and academic places. I am thankful to my professors at Ohio University who granted me the tools for intercultural communication—the ability to understand others and share with others. I am thankful to my music teachers who taught me the skill of listening to others perform and pressing the keys on the piano for many hours. Isn’t that what writers do on a different instrument—the keyboard? Then it was Nitza Jones-Sepulveda, Associate Editor at Springer Science and Business Media, who helped me to shape my many ideas into a book of such form that others in our profession understand and appreciate reading it.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the special people who made my writing this book more enjoyable and coped with me while I was doing this. They are my close friends and family. They asked me how many pages I wrote in one day, told me to take breaks when writing, and showed me a way to stay alert when writing for a long time. Their resolute belief in me helped me to put my ideas in writing and present this book to you.
3.7.1
3.7.2
Part III
4.2.1
4.3.2
6.1
4.4.4
About the Author
Alex Matveev is a writer, consultant, and teacher. He has been a management consultant and economist with Deloitte & Touché, the World Bank, and World Trade Center; a professor at the City University of New York and Shanghai University in China; and a lecturer in business, community, and corporate programs. He was born in Moscow, Russia, the son of engineers, and educated in the USA (Ohio University). Alex’s professional experiences brought him to over three dozen countries, including all BRICS, Vietnam, and Peru. He brings a very unique perspective and energy to professional and academic learners in their quest for effective, appropriate, and sensitive intercultural interactions in diverse multicultural business contexts. Professor Matveev’s many books and articles include Intercultural Communication Competence and Multicultural Team Performance, Educational Innovations in Economics and Business, and Business Education in Russia Needs Change. He and his family live in New York and Moscow.
Part I
Intercultural Competence: Key Concepts
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establish a new government for themselves.
"8. I would then, in a not distant future, leave them to work out their own salvation, as every nation on earth, from the beginning of time, has wrought out its own salvation. Let them work out their own salvation, as our own ancestors slowly and in long centuries wrought out theirs; as Germany, as Switzerland, as France, in briefer periods, wrought out theirs; as Mexico and the South American Republics have accomplished theirs, all of them within a century, some of them within the life of a generation. To attempt to confer the gift of freedom from without, or to impose freedom from without, on any people, is to disregard all the lessons of history. It is to attempt
'A gift of that which is not to be given By all the blended powers of earth and heaven.'
"9. I would strike out of your legislation the oath of allegiance to us and substitute an oath of allegiance to their own country."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (April). Act temporarily to provide revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico.
See (in this volume) PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900; and 1900 (APRIL).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (April). Appointment of Second Commission to the Philippines. The President's instructions. Steps toward the establishment of civil government and the principles to be observed.
See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (May-October).
The Twelfth Census of the Republic.
The Twelfth Census of the United States was taken between May 1 and November 1, 1900, with general results reported on the latter date by the Director, William R. Merriam, as follows: The following statement … gives the population of the United States in detail for each State and organized Territory and for Alaska and Hawaii as finally revised. The figures purporting to give the number of "persons in the service of the United States stationed abroad" include an estimated population of 14,400 for certain military organizations and naval vessels stationed abroad, principally in the Philippines, for which the returns have not yet been received. The total population of the United States in 1900, as shown by the accompanying statement, is 76,304,799, of which 74,610,523 persons are contained in the 45 States, representing the population to be used for apportionment purposes. This statement also shows a total of 134,158 Indians not taxed, of which 44,617 are found in certain of the States and which are to be deducted from the population of such States for the purpose of determining the apportionment of Representatives. The total population in 1890, with which the aggregate population at the present census should be compared, is 63,069,756, comprising 62,622,250 persons enumerated in the States and organized Territories at that census, 32,052 persons in Alaska, 180,182 Indians and other persons in the Indian Territory, 145,282 Indians and other persons on Indian reservations, etc., and 89,990 persons in Hawaii, this last-named figure being derived from the census of the Hawaiian Islands taken as of December 28, 1890. Taking this population for 1890 as a basis, there has been a gain in population of 13,235,043 during the ten years from 1890 to 1900, representing an increase of very nearly 21 per cent. No provision was made by the census act for the enumeration of the inhabitants of Porto Rico, but a census for that island,
taken as of October 16, 1899, under the direction of the War Department, showed a population of 953,243.
STATES AND Indians not TERRITORIES 1900 1890 taxed 1900
The United States. 76,304,799 63,009,756 134,158
STATES.
Alabama 1,828,697 1,513,017
Arkansas 1,311,564 1,128,179
California 1,485,053 1,208,130 1549
Colorado 539,700 412,198 597
Connecticut 908,355 746,258
Delaware 184,735 168,493
Florida 528,542 391,422
Georgia 2,216,331 1,837,353
Idaho 161,772 84,385 2,297
Illinois 4,821,550 3,826,351
Indiana 2,516,462 2,192,404
Iowa 2,231,853 1,911,896
Kansas 1,470,495 1,427,096
Kentucky 2,147,174 1,858,635
Louisiana l,381,625 1,118,587
Maine 694,466 661,086
Maryland 1,190,050 1,042,390
Massachusetts 2,805,346 2,238,943
Michigan 2,420,982 2,093,889
Minnesota 1,751,394 1,301,826 1,768
Mississippi 1,551,270 1,289,600
Missouri 3,106,665 2,679,184
Montana 243,329 132,159 10,746
Nebraska 1,068,539 1,058,910
Nevada 42,335 45,761 1,665
New Hampshire 411,588 376,530
New Jersey 1,883,669 1,444,933
New York 7,268,012 5,991,353 4,711
North Carolina 1,893,810 1,617,947
North Dakota 319,146 182,719 4,692
Ohio 4,157,145 3,672,316
Oregon 413,536 313,767
Pennsylvania 6,302,115 5,258,014
Rhode Island 428,556 345,506
South Carolina 1,340,316 1,151,149
South Dakota 401,570 328,808 10,932
Tennessee 2,020,616 1,767,518
Texas 3,048,710 2,235,523
Utah 276,749 207,905 1,472
Vermont 343,641 332,422
Virginia 1,854,184 1,655,980
Washington 518,103 349,390 2,531
West Virginia 958,800 762,704 Wisconsin 2,069,042 1,686,880 1,657
Wyoming 92,531 60,705
Total for 45 States 74,610,523 62,116,811 44,617 {646}
STATES AND TERRITORIES 1900 1890 Indians not taxed 1900 TERRITORIES
Alaska 63,441 32,052 Arizona 122,931 59,620 24,644
180,182 56,033
153,593 2,937
61,834 5,921
1,604,606 807,663 89,541
Persons in the service of the United States stationed abroad 89,670
Indians, etc.,on Indian reservations, except Indian Territory 145,282
Report of the Director of the Census, November 1, 1900.
"By the twelfth census the center of population in 1900 was in the following position: Latitude 39° 9' 36"; longitude 85° 48' 54".
In ten years the center of population has moved westward 16' 1", or about fourteen miles, and southward 2' 20", or about two and one half miles. It rests now in Southern Indiana, at a point about six miles southeast of Columbus, the county seat of Bartholomew county, Indiana. The center of population is the center of gravity of the country, each individual being assumed to have the same weight. … The center of area of the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii and other recent accessions, is in northern Kansas, in approximate latitude 39° 55', and approximate longitude 98° 50'. The center of population is therefore about three-fourths of a degree south and more than 13 degrees east of the center of area."
United States, Twelfth Census, Bulletin Number 62.
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900 (May-November).
The Presidential election. Party platforms and nominations.
The issues on which the presidential election of 1900 would naturally and logically have turned were those growing out of the Spanish-American War, relative to principles and policy in dealing with the colonial possessions that were taken from Spain. But circumstances forced those most important political questions into the background of consideration, so far as concerned the opinion of a large part of the American people. The monetary question, which might have been supposed to be settled by the election of 1896 and by the Congressional legislation of March, 1900, was brought forward again with a persistency that caused uneasy feeling in the commercial and industrial world. The party which had fought the battle for a silver monetary standard in 1896, and been beaten, seemed willing to abandon that "lost cause," but the candidate to whose fortunes the party had become committed would not consent. His will prevailed, and the old issue came into the canvass again, with such confusing effects that the real meaning of the votes that were cast, as an expression of the judgment and will of the American people, can by no possibility be known. Men dreaded a disturbance of the conditions under which the business of the country was active and prosperous. How far their wish to preserve those conditions coincided, as a motive in voting, with their judgment on other issues, and how far it overcame dispositions that urged them contrariwise, are puzzling questions which the election of 1900 has left behind.
UNITED STATES:
United Christian Party Platform and Nominations.
The first candidates to be set in the field of the presidential campaign were put forward by a convention held at Rock Island, Illinois, May 1, representing a small combination of voters styled the United Christian Party. It named, in the first instance, the Reverend S. C. Swallow, of Pennsylvania, for President, and John G. Woolley, of Illinois, for Vice President, both of whom declined the nomination. Jonah F. R. Leonard, of Iowa, and David H. Martin, of Pennsylvania, were subsequently made the candidates of the party, and received a few hundred votes at the ensuing election, mostly, it would seem, in Illinois. The "Declarations" of the United Christian Party were as follows:
"We, the United Christian party, in National Convention assembled in the city of Rock Island, Illinois, May 1 and 2, 1900, acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all power and authority, the Lord Jesus Christ as the sovereign ruler of nations, and the Bible as the standard by which to decide moral issues in our political life, do make the following declaration:
"We believe the time to have arrived when the eternal principles of justice, mercy, and love, as exemplified in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ should be embodied in the Constitution of our nation, and applied in concrete form to every function of our Government.
"We maintain that this statement is in harmony with the fundamental principles of our National common law; our Christian usages and customs; the declaration of the Supreme Court of the United States that 'This is a Christian nation,' and the accepted principle in judicial decisions that no law should contravene the Divine law.
"We deprecate certain immoral laws which have grown out of the
failure of our nation to recognize these principles, notably such as require the desecration of the Christian Sabbath, authorize unscriptural marriage and divorce, and license the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.
"The execution of these immoral laws above mentioned we hold to be neither loyalty to our country nor honoring to God; therefore it shall be our purpose to administer the Government, so far as it shall be intrusted to us by the suffrages of the people, in accordance with the principles herein set forth, and, until amended, our oath of office shall be to the Constitution and laws as herein explained, and to no other, and we will look to Him who has all power in Heaven and in earth to vindicate our purpose in seeking His glory and the welfare of our beloved land.
"As an expression of consent or allegiance on the part of the governed, in harmony with the above statements, we declare for the adoption and use of the system of legislation known as the 'initiative and referendum,' together with 'proportionate representation' and the 'imperative mandate.'
"We hold that an men and women are created free and with equal rights, and declare for the establishment of such political, industrial, and social conditions as shall guarantee to every person civic equality, the full fruits of his or her honest toil, and opportunity for the righteous enjoyment of the same; and we especially condemn mob violence and outrages against any individual or class of individuals in our country.
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"We declare against war, and for the arbitration of all National and international disputes.
"We hold that the legalized liquor traffic is the crowning infamy of civilization, and we declare for the immediate
abolition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.
"We are gratified to note the widespread agitation of the cigarette question, and declare ourselves in favor of the enactment of laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes or tobacco in any form to minors.
"We declare for the daily reading of the Bible in the public schools and institutions of learning under control of the State.
"We declare for the Government ownership of public utilities.
"We declare for the election of the President and Vice-President and United States Senators by the direct vote of the people.
"We declare for such amendment of the United States Constitution as shall be necessary to give the principles herein set forth an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of our land.
"We invite into the United Christian party every honest man and woman who believes in Christ and His golden rule and standard of righteousness. We say especially to the sons of toil: Jesus, the carpenter's son, is your true friend. In His name and through the practice of His principles you may obtain your rights long withheld and long outraged. You have the votes necessary to enthrone Him. His love and principles, politically applied, will lift you up and give you true civic liberty forever."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900. People's or Populist Party Platforms and Nominations.
The second of the political parties to appear in the field of
the national contest was the People's, known more commonly as the Populist Party, the division in which, shown in 1896, had become separation, complete. The two wings of the party held distinct conventions, in different places, but on the same day, May 10. Those known as the Middle-of-the-Road Populists assembled at Cincinnati and named Wharton Barker, of Pennsylvania, for President, with Ignatius Donnelly, of Minnesota for Vice President. The convention representing those who wished to act in co-operation with the Democratic Party, and known as the Fusion wing, met at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and anticipated the action of the Democracy by nominating William J. Bryan for President, with Charles A. Towne, of Minnesota, for Vice President.
See, also, (in this volume) FARMERS' ALLIANCE.
The platform declarations of the two wings were substantially the same on main questions; but those of the Fusionists covered several subjects which the Cincinnati convention passed by. They were as follows:
"The People's party of the United States, in convention assembled, congratulating its supporters on the wide extension of its principles in all directions, does hereby reaffirm its adherence to the fundamental principles proclaimed in its two prior platforms and calls upon all who desire to avert the subversion of free institutions by corporate and imperialistic power to unite with it in bringing the Government back to the ideals of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln. It extends to its allies in the struggle for financial and economic freedom, assurances of its loyalty to the principles which animate the allied forces and the promise of honest and hearty cooperation in every effort for their success. To the people of the United States we offer the following platform as the expression of our unalterable convictions:
"Resolved, That we denounce the act of March 14, 1900, as the culmination of a long series of conspiracies to deprive the people of their constitutional rights over the money of the nation and relegate to a gigantic money trust the control of the purse and hence of the people. We denounce this act,
First, for making all money obligations, domestic and foreign, payable in gold coin or its equivalent, thus enormously increasing the burdens of the debtors and enriching the creditors.
Second For refunding 'coin bonds' not to mature for years into long-time gold bonds so as to make their payment improbable and our debt perpetual.
Third For taking from the Treasury over $50,000,000 in a time of war and presenting it, as a premium, to bondholders to accomplish the refunding of bonds not due.
Fourth For doubling the capital of bankers by returning to them the face value of their bonds in current money notes so that they may draw one interest from the Government and another from the people.
Fifth For allowing banks to expand and contract their circulation at pleasure, thus controlling prices of all products.
Sixth For authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue new gold bonds to an unlimited amount whenever he deems it necessary to replenish the gold hoard, thus enabling usurers to secure more bonds and more bank currency by drawing gold from the Treasury, thereby creating an 'endless chain' for perpetually adding to a perpetual debt.
Seventh For striking down the green back in order to force the people to borrow $346,000,000 more from the banks at an annual
cost of over $20,000,000. While barring out the money of the Constitution this law opens the printing mints of the Treasury to the free coinage of bank paper money, to enrich the few and impoverish the many.
"We pledge anew the People's party never to cease the agitation until this great financial conspiracy is blotted from the statute books, the Lincoln greenback restored, the bonds all paid, and all corporation money forever retired. We affirm the demand for the reopening of the mints of the United States for the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, the immediate increase in the volume of silver coins and certificates thus created to be substituted, dollar for dollar, for the banknotes issued by private corporations under special privilege granted by law of March 14, 1900, and prior National banking laws, the remaining portion of the banknotes to be replaced with full legal-tender Government paper money, and its volume so controlled as to maintain at all times a stable money market and a stable price level.
"We demand a graduated income and inheritance tax, to the end that aggregated wealth shall bear its just proportion of taxation.
"We demand that postal savings banks be established by the Government for the safe deposit of the savings of the people and to facilitate exchange.
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"With Thomas Jefferson we declare the land, including all natural sources of wealth, the inalienable heritage of the people. Government should so act as to secure homes for the people and prevent land monopoly. The original homestead policy should be enforced, and future settlers upon the public domain should be entitled to a free homestead, while all who
have paid an acreage price to the Government under existing laws should have their homestead rights restored.
"Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads in the interests of the people and on a non-partisan basis, to the end that all may be accorded the same treatment in transportation, and that the extortion, tyranny, and political power now exercised by the great railroad corporations, which result in the impairment, if not the destruction, of the political rights and personal liberties of the citizen, may be destroyed. Such ownership is to be accomplished in a manner consistent with sound public policy.
"Trusts, the overshadowing evil of the age, are the result and culmination of the private ownership and control of the three great instruments of commerce money, transportation, and the means of transmission of information which instruments of commerce are public functions, and which our forefathers declared in the Constitution should be controlled by the people through their Congress for the public welfare. The one remedy for the trusts is that the ownership and control be assumed and exercised by the people. We further demand that all tariffs on goods controlled by a trust shall be abolished. To cope with the trust evil, the people must act directly without the intervention of representatives who may be controlled or influenced. We therefore demand direct legislation, giving the people the lawmaking and veto power under the initiative and referendum. A majority of the people can never be corruptly influenced.
"Applauding the valor of our army and navy in the Spanish War, we denounce the conduct of the Administration in changing a war for humanity into a war of conquest. The action of the Administration in the Philippines is in conflict with all the precedents of our National life; at war with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the plain precepts of
humanity. Murder and arson have been our response to the appeals of the people who asked only to establish a free government in their own land. We demand a stoppage of this war of extermination by the assurance to the Philippines of independence and protection under a stable government of their own creation.
"The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the American flag are one and inseparable. The island of Porto Rico is a part of the territory of the United States, and by levying special and extraordinary customs duties on the commerce of that island the Administration has violated the Constitution, abandoned the fundamental principles of American liberty, and has striven to give the lie to the contention of our forefathers that there should be no taxation without representation.
"Out of the imperialism which would force an undesired domination on the people of the Philippines springs the un-American cry for a large standing army. Nothing in the character or purposes of our people justifies us in ignoring the plain lesson of history and putting our liberties in jeopardy by assuming the burden of militarism, which is crushing the people of the Old World. We denounce the Administration for its sinister efforts to substitute a standing army for the citizen soldiery, which is the best safeguard of the Republic.
"We extend to the brave Boers of South Africa our sympathy and moral support in their patriotic struggle for the right of self-government, and we are unalterably opposed to any alliance, open or covert, between the United States and any other nation that will tend to the destruction of liberty.
"And a further manifestation of imperialism is to be found in the mining districts of Idaho. In the Cœur d'Alene soldiers have been used to overawe miners striving for a greater
measure of industrial independence. And we denounce the State Government of Idaho and the Federal Government for employing the military arm of the Government to abridge the civil rights of the people, and to enforce an infamous permit system which denies to laborers their inherent liberty and compels them to forswear their manhood and their right before being permitted to seek employment.
"The importation of Japanese and other laborers under contract to serve monopolistic corporations is a notorious and flagrant violation of the immigration laws. We demand that the Federal Government shall take cognizance of this menacing evil and repress it under existing laws. We further pledge ourselves to strive for the enactment of more stringent laws for the exclusion of Mongolian and Malayan immigration.
"We indorse municipal ownership of public utilities, and declare that the advantages which have accrued to the public under that system would be multiplied a hundredfold by its extension to natural interstate monopolies.
"We denounce the practice of issuing injunctions in the cases of dispute between employers and employés, making criminal acts by organizations which are not criminal when performed by individuals, and demand legislation to restrain the evil.
"We demand that United States Senators and all other officials as far as practicable be elected by direct vote of the people, believing that the elective franchise and untrammelled ballot are essential to a government for and by the people.
"The People's party condemns the wholesale system of disfranchisement by coercion and intimidation, adopted in some States, as un-republican and un-democratic. And we declare it to be the duty of the several State Legislatures to take such action as will secure a full, free, and fair ballot, and an honest count.
"We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of Columbia, and the early admission of the Territories as States.
"We denounce the expensive red-tape system, political favoritism, cruel and unnecessary delay and criminal evasion of the statutes in the management of the Pension Office, and demand the simple and honest execution of the law, and the fulfilment by the nation of its pledges of service pension to all its honorably discharged veterans."
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900. Socialist Labor Party Platform and Nominations.
The convention of the Populists was followed next by that of the Socialist Labor Party, which met in New York City, on the 2d of June, and put in nomination Joseph P. Maloney, of Massachusetts, and Valentine Remmel, of Pennsylvania. Its Platform was as follows:
"The Socialist Labor party of the United States, in convention assembled, reasserts the inalienable right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"With the founders of the American Republic we hold that the purpose of government is to secure every citizen in the enjoyment of this right; but in the light of our social conditions we hold, furthermore, that no such right can be exercised under a system of economic inequality, essentially destructive of life, of liberty, and of happiness.
"With the founders of this Republic we hold that the true theory of politics is that the machinery of government must be owned and controlled by the whole people; but in the light of
our industrial development we hold, furthermore, that the true theory of economics is that the machinery of production must likewise belong to the people in common.
"To the obvious fact that our despotic system of economics is the direct opposite of our democratic system of politics can plainly be traced the existence of a privileged class, the corruption of government by that class, the alienation of public property, public franchises, and public functions to that class, and the abject dependence of the mightiest of nations upon that class.
"Again, through the perversion of democracy to the ends of plutocracy, labor is robbed of the wealth which it alone produces, is denied the means of self-employment, and, by compulsory idleness in wage slavery, is even deprived of the necessaries of life. Human power and natural forces are thus wasted, that the plutocracy may rule. Ignorance and misery, with all their concomitant evils, are perpetuated, that the people may be kept in bondage. Science and invention are diverted from their humane purpose to the enslavement of women and children.
"Against such a system the Socialist Labor party once more enters its protest. Once more it reiterates its fundamental declaration that private property in the natural sources of production and in the instruments of labor is the obvious cause of all economic servitude and political dependence.
"The time is fast coming when, in the natural course of social evolution, this system, through the destructive action of its failures and crises on the one hand, and the constructive tendencies of its trusts and other capitalistic combinations on the other hand, shall have worked out its own downfall.
"We, therefore, call upon the wage workers of the United States, and upon all other honest citizens, to organize under
the banner of the Socialist Labor party into a class-conscious body, aware of its rights and determined to conquer them by taking possession of the public powers; so that, held together by an indomitable spirit of solidarity under the most trying conditions of the present class struggle, we may put a summary end to that barbarous struggle by the abolition of classes, the restoration of the land and of all the means of production, transportation, and distribution to the people as a collective body, and the substitution of the Cooperative Commonwealth for the present state of planless production, industrial war, and social disorder a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900.
Republican Party Platform and Nominations.
On the 19th of June the national convention of the Republican Party began its session at Philadelphia; adopted its platform on the following day, and nominated President William McKinley for re-election ou the 21st, naming Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of New York, for Vice President, in opposition to his earnestly expressed wish. The adopted platform of principles was as follows:
"The Republicans of the United States, through their chosen representatives, met in National Convention, looking back upon an unsurpassed record of achievement and looking forward to a great field of duty and opportunity, and appealing to the judgment of their countrymen, make these declarations:
"The expectation in which the American people, turning from the Democratic party, intrusted power four years ago to a Republican Chief Magistrate and a Republican Congress, has been met and satisfied. When the people then assembled at the polls, after a term of Democratic legislation and administration, business was dead, industry paralyzed, and the
National credit disastrously impaired. The country's capital was hidden away and its labor distressed and unemployed. The Democrats had no other plan with which to improve the ruinous conditions which they had themselves produced than to coin silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republican Party, denouncing this plan as sure to produce conditions even worse than those from which relief was sought, promised to restore prosperity by means of two legislative measures a protective tariff and a law making gold the standard of value.
"The people, by great majorities, issued to the Republican party a commission to enact these laws. This commission has been executed, and the Republican promise is redeemed. Prosperity more general and more abundant than we have ever known has followed these enactments. There is no longer controversy as to the value of any government obligations. Every American dollar is a gold dollar, or its assured equivalent, and American credit stands higher than that of any nation. Capital is fully employed, and labor everywhere is profitably occupied. No single fact can more strikingly tell the story of what Republican government means to the country than this that while during the whole period of 107 years from 1790 to 1897 there was an excess of exports over imports of only $383,028,497, there has been in the short three years of the present Republican Administration an excess of exports over imports in the enormous sum of $1,483,537,094.
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"And while the American people, sustained by this Republican legislation, have been achieving these splendid triumphs in their business and commerce, they have conducted and in victory concluded a war for liberty and human rights. No thought of National aggrandizement tarnished the high purpose with which American standards were unfurled. It was a war unsought and patiently resisted, but when it came the American Government was ready. Its fleets were cleared for action, its
