Several years ago, our friend Elbert Hubbard wrote a little sermonette
entitled "Carrying the Message to Garcia." The story was simply this:
President McKinley called an orderly and gave him a letter and said:
"Deliver this letter to General Garcia."
The employe did not stand around and ask a lot of fool questions about
the trains and things. He put on his hat and duster and he delivered
the letter to Garcia. These facts were stretched out in many words and
made a little booklet. That booklet reached the sale of more than a
million copies.
It seemed to make a hit with business men throughout the country. A
certain railroad bought and gave a copy to every employe. Business men
followed the example. The great sale of the book and the wide-spread
interest it created would seem to indicate that carrying the message to
Garcia was an unusual thing and so remarkable that it attracted
attention.
As a matter of fact the whole theme of the story was simple obedience.
There are thousands of institutions in this country who have employes
who will carry the message to Garcia.
Richard Harding Davis, you remember, was dining with friends in London.
The discussion was along the lines of obedience and the like.
On a wager he called a messenger boy, gave him a letter addressed to
his fiancee in Chicago, told the messenger boy to deliver the letter to
the lady and bring back an answer. That fifteen year old boy carried
the message to Garcia, or in other words to Mr. Davis' sweetheart.
The Colonel of a regiment has under him about twelve hundred men.
Directly under him are his majors, and then come the captains,
lieutenants, sergeants, corporals and privates. The first rule in the
army is obedience of orders without question.
If obedience were subject to question on the part of the subordinates,
the colonel could win no battles.
When your superior gives an order, the thing to do is to carry it out.
If the order is wrong you will not be to blame, but your superior will
suffer.
There are times, of course, when an order is given that is manifestly
impracticable and initiative on the part of the employe might save
trouble.
On the other hand, an executive would be greatly handicapped if his
orders were subject to interpretation and analysis by his subordinates.
The executive may give an order and in the giving have in his own mind
the relation of this order to some other order he has given in an
entirely different department and upon the proper execution of all the
orders given through the various departments depends the ultimate
success of his plan.
The thing for the employe to do is to obey orders willingly, quickly
and to the letter.
The employe is not blamed when he does his duty.
It is a source of great satisfaction to the boss to know he has
dependable employes and that when he gives an order the thing is done
so far as further effort on his part is concerned.