A Message to Garcia
(continued)
General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias. No man who
has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed,
but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the
average man - the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing
and do it. Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference,
and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook
or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or
mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel
of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You
are sitting now in your office -six clerks are within your call. Summon
any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and
make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Corregio."
Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?
On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye,
and ask one or more of the following questions:
 Who was he?
Which encyclopedia?
Where is the encyclopedia?
Was I hired for that?
Don't you mean Bismarck?
What's the matter with Charlie doing it?
Is he dead?
Is there any hurry?
Shan't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?
What do you want to know for?
And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the
questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want
it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him
find Garcia - and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of
course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will
not.
Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your
"assistant" that Corregio is indexed under the C's, not in the
K's, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go
look it up yourself.
And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity,
this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold
and lift, are the things that put pure socialism so far into the future.
If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit
of their effort is for all? A first mate with knotted club seems
necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday
night holds many a worker in his place.
Continued please, page three |
