The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-12-28
VALUE OF COURTESY.
The Effect of Discourtesy in the Army
Discipline.
POLITENESS Is NOT WEAKNESS.
A Wrong idea About the Treatment of In
feriors and Those who Are Our Ser
vants-Courtesy and Rough Treatment
in Three Great Armies.

lite and courteous to servants and other
persons over whom authority has TO be
exerted. They imagine that by being cour-
teous they undermine their own power
and authority, aud that in order to teach
the person who has ito execute orders"
his or her proper place, great care must be
taken TO avoid courtesy. IF you are hat
finland TO your servants, your clerks and
your shopmen. how can you expect them
70 obey you and respect youP-that is the
common feeling. Courtesy, IL is consid.
cred, will be sure to be interpreted as a
sign Of weakness-as an indication that
the position of master or mistress has been
abdicated.
Hence it happens that there " a great
deal of what we may call ceremonial dis
courtesy Plenty of people would like to
be as polite to those whom they hire TO
obey their orders as to their social equals,
but out of "A sort of fear of being thought
incapable of command, they adopt the plan
of speaking to servants as one speaks to a
dog, or as one writes a sixpenny telegram:
Fetch my great coat Lace up my
boots" Saddle my horse" The habit,
of course, grows like all others, till at last
the man, who is naturally polite aud cour-
teous, becomes as bald and bearish in his
treatment of his interiors as the foreman
of factory.
II there were the slightest reason to sup
pose that people could not be made to obey
orders by any other way of treatment than
that Of lowering the standard of courtesy
in adressing them. it would, of course, be
absurd TO protest that courtesy ought TO
be shown TO those under authority. The
world, IL is quite clear, cannot get on with
out orders being issued and orders being
obeyed, and whatever conventions Of Ian
guage make most for the proper and due
discharge Of orders, must be the conven-
tions TO be encouraged. But is there the
slightest reason to suppose that courtesy
does make it harder TO get orders obeyed'
COURTESY IN THE FRENCH ARMY.
IL is evident it does not in the French
army or in France generally, and we be-
lieve that it would not in England. In our
army at the present moment the officers
except, perhaps, the sergeants and cor
porals-are, as rule, most scrupulous
about treating their men justly and avoid
ing violent and abusive language. Not
being rude or offensive is, however, a very
different thing from being courteous. Yet
we venture TO think that if English officers
took the trouble TO treat their men With
the sort of courtesy which so bewilders the
Englishman abroad they would find them
not less but more amenable to discipline.
The officer would gain in dignity and the
soldier in self respect, and so in the quality
which can be most easily worked on to Sc
cure the due fulfillment of duty. No doubt
the British private would at first be some
what staggered by an officer who treated
him with courtesy and might, indeed, for
a time consider he was being deliberately
insulted. Very soon, however, he would
realize the situation and would learn that
when relations governed by courtesy
exist, CELEBRITIES" are not encouraged but
forbidden. Nor does habitual courtesy
prevent, when necessary, the use of Ian
guage at once forcible and direct. Because
you treat a man with courtesy, you are not
deprived of the power TO point out to him
when necessary that he Is idle, a coward or
fool.
The effect OF courtesy, indeed. is to en-
nance, not diminish, the significance of di
rect expressions of opinion. The "wiggings"
of the courteous man are twice as formid
able as those of the boor. Courtesy in
deed would pay in the army, both as re
CARDS discipline and as regards the popu-
larity of the service. Men do not like be.
ing spoken to as IL they were dogs, especial
ly il they are uneducated, and so disin-
cined to take up the logical position that
an order is an order, and that the setting"
is immaterial.
HOW THE GERMAN OFFICERS COMMAND.
No doubt the behavior of the officers in
this respect is great deal better than IL
used to be, but considering how easy it is
TO wound the self love of the uneducated
class in England-it is the commonest
thing in the world for day laborers to leave
their employment because they amt
a-going to stand old So-and-so's cheek
the wonder is that the army Is as popular
as it is.
As matter OF fact, the lower the cu..
ture of the individual the more necessary
il is to treat him with courtesy.
There is story of Count Schuvaloff rid
ing with Prince Bismarck at review in
Berlin, and noticing the German officers
cursing and actually kicking their men
into a mathematically exact line. "Our
officers would not venture to treat their
men like that" is said to have remarked
the admiriDg diplomat.
"Ah but ycu must remember" replied
his companion, "that half of these canaille
have been through a university"
Whether the story is true or false 1t con-
tains truth. Men who have been taught
to think tend TO grow what, for want of a
better word, we must call cynical.
They shrug their shoulders and say, "If
they like TO curse us they can-smooth
words, after all, wouldn't make soldering
less irksome." This philosophic feeling,
however, is hardly likely TO be found in
Tommy Atkins, and we expect that the
nearer the bearing of our officers ap-
that of the French and the far
ther IL departs from that of the Germans
the more popular the service will become.
ff, too, courtesy were the rule in our
army, 10 would be found much easier to
exact strict discipline-the essential condi-
ton of an army. Courtesy of bearing, and
not mere absence of discourtesy, is what
is wanted. This, coupled with merciless
strictneSs in the enforcement of real duties,
Is the true desideratum. Many forces are
no doubt tending 20 bring about the con-
Lition we desire, but n great step would be
gained IL people could only learn that
courtesy does not imply weakness.-Lon-
don Spectator.
Emmons Blaine is said to have taken
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