Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-04-27
DOING ONES DUTY.

''Of the three kinds of young men,"
says Andrew Carnegie" those who do
their duty, those who do less than
their duty and those who do more
than their duty, the last class is fur
nishing all those who amount to any
thing in the world
If this were the sum total Of the re-
marks that Andrew Carnegie should
leave behind him, if he had no other
claim to fame, his pointing out of this
fact in such unmistakable language,
should entitle him to praise and secure
for him grateful remembrance years
after he Is dead. For If every young
man would take this one sentence Of
Carnegie's to heart, ponder over it and
act according to it's teachings. the gen.
Grafton just growing into responsible
lty would be the greatest the world
ever knew.
When boy enters the employ Of a
firm or of an individual he has GER
tain amount of work for which he is
held responsible each day or each
week. If he does all of this work he
can retain his position for years. per-
haps. He will be doing work that may
be characterized as good enough" If
retain his position, or, If he does, it
will be with reduction, or, at best, no
increase of salary. But if he does all
his work each day and then, instead
of running home or to the corner store,
he looks about for other work to do,
helps some other employee and makes
himself generally useful around the
place, he will not hold his lowly posi-
ton very long. His work will entitle
him to an increase and he will get it.
First his salary will be raised and
then, when the first opportunity arises
he will be given better position and
his salary will be increased again. He
will be doing more than his duty.
Recently an Ottumwa business man
advertised for an apprentice Having
been through. several years Of expert
ence with apprentices he stated in his
lad" that he was not looking for a
general manager, nor the president of
the company-that he was looking
simply for boy to learn the business
from the bottom up. He had had some
Of the boys who do not do their duty.
1t is noticeable fact that the lads
who go ahead fastest are the ones
who, when employed, never ask the
amount of their salary, but learn first
what work they are to do. The salary
If the work is done rightly, will take
care Of itself. A man seldom gets
money enough to go into business. I'M
less he is of the kind that watches the
work of their employees carefully. He
who does watch, knows, when an open.
ing comes, to whom to give the oppor.
tunity, and it is to the boy who has
done more than his duty that he
beckons when he wants responsible
task done we'll.
Mr.. Carnegie knows whereof he
speaks, and this fact makes his words
quoted above, doubly valuable. He
was a poor boy, poorer than are most
boys at this time, but he adopted, early
In life, the rule which he has now laid
down for others to follow. In re-
cent interview he told of it as fol
lows: Instead of asking yourself
What must / do for my employer?
change your question to, What can
do for my employer?'' If every young
man would take this method of learn
Ing how to serve the firm or the indi
vidual for whom he works there would
soon be much less room at the top OF
the business ladder than there is now