The origin of the four-way test

Transcript :

In 1932, the American Rotarian Herbert J. TAYLOR, newly appointed head of a kitchen utensil company on the verge of ruin (Club Aluminium Products Company), refused to file for bankruptcy contrary to the advice given by the creditor committee and felt that his employees needed an ethical reference.

He then wrote four questions on a small piece of white paper:

• Is it the TRUTH ?
• Is it FAIR to all concerned?
• Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
• Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

He turned round and saved the company in great financial difficulty by making it adopt this simple course of action.

He called it “The Four-Way test” of the things we think, say or do.

In 1940 he gave Rotary International permission to use the Four-Way Test, which officially became the symbol of Rotary ethics in 1943.