Torch, Winter 1992

Anderson: We also need to support programs that educate people in the free enterprise system...by contributing our money and by volunteering to participate. Our Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (like similar programs in 29 other states) seeks to educate leaders of tomorrow. Local businesses provide scholarships for high school students to attend our abridged version of Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week to about 30 people in the natural gas industry who are eager to learn about the free enterprise system. Hopefully, we will be able to educate them such that we can work out joint ventures. TORCH: Mel, you also went to Soviet government has terribly abused the environment in that area of their country. Twenty-five people from the Soviet Union attended the conference. One high-ranking delegate asked me if I would give my presentation at a conference they were having in Nukus in Uzbekistan. So my wife and I flew there last fall. summer business education program. Many Christian business executives from all over Pennsylvania volunteer in PFEW as well. I was surprised at the number. Baldwin: At Cedarville College, the total business program supports the free enterprise system. In Small Business Management class students become entrepreneurs and work under the free enterprise system to develop their own businesses. Our Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) club promotes free enterprise principles in local high schools and other settings and then competes statewide and nationally. Some of us are involved with faculty groups from other colleges and have the opportunity not only to promote free enterprise but to give our Christian witness as well. Also, last year I had the opportunity to teach at The Foreign Language Institute in Gorky, Russia. The Russian managers A Christian Testimony in Retailing John Wanamaker 1838-1922 When "lion"! John" W"n"'"''" """d hi' fust clothing 'to<e in Phil,ddphi" om" century ago, he was determined to show that a retailing business could be run by biblical principles. Throughout his career he cherished "the store family" of what grew into the Wanamaker Department Store empire. He was the first to grant vacations with pay, training programs, free medical service, and the Christmas bonus. The company also sponsored summer camps, concerts, and an employee band. For the benefit of his customers, Wanamaker pioneered the use of price tags which did away with the established practice of haggling. He said that the client had the right to know the true value of an item and even what the store 's profit would be. Wanamaker was the first to offer a money-back guarantee. He instituted the first department store in the United States (to provide everything a family needed under one roof) and "the downstairs store" of bargain-priced items. He held special sales to return some of the profits to the customer. Early in his life, John Wanamaker established the Bethany Mission which became a lifelong effort to reach slum youth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord blessed Bethany with the largest Sunday school in the city, perhaps in the world. When Wanamaker served as postmaster general in Benjamin Harrison's cabinet for four years, he returned to Philadelphia every Sunday to teach his class. He had an ardent interest in the Philadelphia YMCA. As a young man he served as secretary and later as president. On one occasion he lent a newly purchased building, destined to become his first department store, to Dwight L. Moody for revival meetings. John Wanamaker loved his neighbor as himself. Possessing the heart of a servant, he looked back in his later years and described himself as always having had "a broom in my hand." wanted to learn free enterprise principles. They have been in a government-controlled system for so long that they don ' t understand any other system, let alone know how to change theirs. I saw almost no goods for sale in the marketplace. The people in Gorky were helping each other with the necessities. They weren't hungry, but there wasn't much to buy. Russia recently. Is an active role in Eastern Europe something other Christian business people should pursue? Entingh: Yes, but it wasn ' t something I initiated. Here in the States, I had spoken on water conditioning at a conference on the Aral Sea crisis. The Christians can have that kind of opportunity if we will demonstrate the kind of concern and expertise in our work that others can appreciate. We can enhance the image of free enterprise, and show our Christian testimony at the same time. Anderson: The executive director of the PFEW program is in Moscow as we speak. He was invited to take an