sorting is done finer - but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go. It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best - those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to anyone else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders, and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled number nine boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear too for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slipshod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming, I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds the man who, against great odds, has directed the efforts of others and, having succeeded, finds there's nothing in it—nothing but bare board and clothes.

I have carried a dinner-pail and worked for day's wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers

are not rapacious and highhanded, any more than all men are virtuous.

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off" nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long, anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town, and village - in every office, shop, store, and factory. The world cries out for such; he is needed and needed badly Garcia."

the man who can "Carry a message to

Elbert Hubbard wrote this sketch at the time of the Spanish-American War. That is what he is referring to as this Cuban business" in the first line. William B. McKinley was President at that time.

I. Why does the author not tell the complete story of Rowan? What is he more interested in doing?

2. Find the sentence in this selection which you think best expresses the author's thought.

3. Explain the meaning of these expressions:

Cast in deathless bronze

A stiffening of the vertebræ

Carry a message to Garcia

By hook or crook

An angel of light

I will lay you ten to one
The law of average

Getting the bounce

Carried a dinner-pail
Firebrand of discontent
Let us drop a tear

Limited by the whistle

Go on a strike

The world cries out for such

It is related of Kitchener that once during the South African campaign a subordinate officer reported to him a failure to obey orders and proceeded to give the reasons for his failure. K. of K. heard him through and said: "Your reasons for not doing it are the best I ever heard. Now go and do it."

There is the spirit of efficiency for you. To "go and do it" with all that that implies - is to be efficient. To be able not only to go and do it yourself but to make others go and do it too, cheerfully, zealously, effectively, is to be a master of efficiency.

It is precisely this quality, possessed in superlative degree, that distinguishes George W. Goethals, the modest, unassuming army engineer, who needs no more impressive title to commend him to history and posterity than that of builder of the Panama Canal. "The Colonel," as thousands of Canal workers have known him affectionately during the years when they dug the Big Ditch under his inspiring leadership, is done with his biggest job. But he still serves his country, just at present as chairman of the commission which is to find out how the railroad eighthour law works. His appointment is the best possible assurance that this big task of investigation of a dangerously contentious subject will be thoroughly and adequately done. That is the only way "the Colonel" does things.

A GLUTTON FOR WORK

It is a significant fact that whenever we come to look at the career of a man who is worthy to be called master of efficiency, we find one fact standing out above all the rest. The efficient ones are hard workers. They do not spare themselves. They give the best that is in them and give with both hands. So it is with Goethals. On the Canal everyone worked hard; but no

1 Reprinted from The Independent by permission.

one worked harder than "the Colonel." No eight-hour day for him; no luxurious holidays; no "loafing on the job." He stopped work at night only to sleep; sometimes, in his own phrase, he "took the Canal to bed with him."

He is a glutton for work and a bulldog for persistence. One of those who were most closely associated with him on the Isthmus said once: "If he has a weakness, it is that when he has made up his mind that a certain way is right, you might as well talk to a stone. Goethals won't hear you. He'll set his teeth in it like a snapping turtle and never let go till it thunders. That is a vital part of his secret: terrible tenacity — terrible, but open-eyed and intelligent. He is a finisher." "The Colonel's" motto might well be expressed in a slight modification of the vernacular saying of the day, "Don't start anything you can't or don't - finish."

HIS MASTERY OF OTHERS

But his efficiency lies not only in the quantity and the quality of the work he gets out of himself, but in the amount and the excellence of the work he gets from others. As he himself once expressed it: "To accomplish successfully any task, it is necessary not only that you should give it the best that is in you, but that you should obtain for it the best there is in those who are under your guidance."

If there was anything more wonderful on the Isthmus than the efficiency of the force that was building the Canal, it was its esprit de corps. Everybody from "the Colonel" all the way down and back again believed in the Canal, loved the Canal, and fought the good fight that the Canal might be made a great reality. They were ready to give every ounce they had for the Canal because "the Colonel" believed in them and they believed in him. It was their job, their responsibility, their trust. The marvelous spirit of the Canal builders was a reflection in a myriad→ faceted mirror of the spirit of their chief.

HIS HUMANITY

His heart matched his head, and worked in perfect harmony with it. He said, "Be considerate, just, and fair with them in all dealings, treating them as fellow members of the great brotherhood of humanity."

In this spirit he approached the human problems that constantly confronted him, and with this spirit he conquered. His broad humanity met the instant, generous response of the thoroughly human units of the great machine he guided. "Tell the Colonel" was the characteristic refrain of a popular song on the Isthmus; and everyone with a grievance or a problem or a suggestion told "the Colonel" and received ungrudging justice, generous helpfulness, and cordial recognition.

Out of it all came efficiency in richest measure; and the building of the Canal will always stand as a monument to the man who "went and did it."

This characterization of George Washington Goethals (gû'tǎlz') was written in 1916. When America entered the World War, he was called to service as Quartermaster General in charge of all supplies and equipment for the American armies. He was as efficient in this position as in the building of the Canal.

1. Find a short life of Goethals and read it in connection with this sketch.

2. What are three important qualities of Goethals?

3. What is efficiency? What is a "master of efficiency"?

4. Check character traits as directed on page 436. Check the character of General Goethals with that of General Gorgas.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Kitchener, known as Kitchener of Khartoum (K. of K.), was an English general famous for his efficiency in service and for his brevity of speech. Esprit de corps (ès-prē dẽ kôr′), a French expression that means the spirit binding together the members of an organization; comradeship.