The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-01-26
NO.
DEPENDENCE ON OTHERS.
Barham put an old saw into verse
when he said:

Barham put an old saw into verse
when he said:
| servants too often negl'ge elf;
If it's business of consequence do it yourself.
The advice is good enough in its
way, but very often impracticahle, and
especially in this age of the world,
! when everything is done on the grand
scale and the business man, with the
aid of stenographers, type-writers and
monographs, transacts more business
in day than his father could handle
in week. The servant, negligent or
otherwise, must be employed; society,
or at least that part of society which
has to do with business affairs, is re-
duced to kind of human machine.
There is directing head, but the de-
tails of work are entrusted to assis-
tants, and there is no time allowed for
supervision of their work; results
alone can be considered. Men of af-
fairs are more dependent upon others
than ever before in the worlds history,
but the service has been improved, and
undr good general direction better re-
suits are achieved than ever before.
Take, for example, any of the great
trusts or combinations of corporations
considered merely as means for the
transaction of business, without refer
ence to their moral influence or the ef-
feet they may have upon individual en-
terprise. No one man could possibly
supervise in detail the business of such
vast aggregations of capital and indus
trial forces. Whoever may assume
the task must be dependent upon 9th
ers, and these in turn upon superln-
tendents or foremen in lessening de-
gree of Importance and responsibility.
And yet the trusts develop into eff
cient business machines, because the
servants are faithful and intelligent.
"Do it yourself was doubtedless a
good rule in the days of small things,
but in the coming twentieth century
men will have to learn to make the
best of necessary dependence upon
others. Success will attend those
who learn to choose faithful and eff
cient assistants, while those who occu-
py minor positions will learn that the
surest recommendation tor advance
ment will be found in faithful service.
I'm the beginning of the nineteenth
century-it is not necessary to go
back much farther-servants were en-
ployed (the term being employed in
its broad. sense), but the employer was
not entirely dependent upon them. If
they failed he could do their work him
self. This is no longer the case. Ir-
respective of the magnitude of modern
operations work is so specialized that
the employer of labor is no longer able
to take the place of those whom he di-
rects. Nor can his immediate assis-
tants take the place of those under
them Industrial society is becoming
more dependent; those who are able to
take front rank must be judges and
managers of men rather than skilled
workers, and the workers themselves
must learn to be faithful and efficient
servants or they will be displaced.
The evolutionary changes cannot be
halted; the best we can do is to adapt
ourselves to new conditions and learn,
if we are the actual workers, to be dill
gent and faithful, or, if we occupy
some higher place, to choose as as
sistants those who can be relied upon
to do even Cuisines of consequence"
without our intervention Baltimore
(,,o