Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-06-12
No Man Is as Great as His
Work
In His Little Lifetime Do Only Small Part of Any
Important Task Then He Must Pass On and Leave Its
Completion to Others.
ssr
;fatjr,1e he fan no ONLY a. Small


street nor the Standard Oil Company any power
earth anything do with the building Of this railroad
built my brains They got the they got
me the men It is good railroad of the best in the world
and going for many years monument to
But mind that made the railroad the railroad didn t.
make
This from pompous, ronawed railroad president as
he scowled at inquisitive reporter.
The reporter duly speech down and somewhere in
some newspaper may be found essentially have set 1t
forth here.
It ism true just it ism sense, but
there can be no doubt that railroad president uttered
believed every word He fanced then he fancies now
greater than his work and that the railroad
tcay sprang his told that lesser dee
sprang the of Jove who the head of the family
of dee worshpped by thoughtful but credulou people Of
early times
Now this able he merely put together that
railroad Centuries heard of dug
ore thus provided the by which his
track locomotives and wheels could be built
While the bufaloes still kicking dust clouds along
his present rghoway, Stephenson nkerng at his tea
kettle of locomotive engine thus beginning ONE BRANCH of
the railroad business Of ALL WHOSE BRANCHES this
man calls himself the
Then other improved and devised meth
DDS Of engineering and harnessed the lightning the electric
telegraph and taught how work steam shovel and
educated the public into of buying railroad stocks and
bonds and experimental with different kinds of rolling stock
until from the abundance of the work that they had produced
it possible to choose and the materials for rail
road.
And meanwhile the tough snewy who had crossed
the plains with Teams fighting their against Indians and
and billiards. developed
the wheat fields that made the railroad worth while
great railroad builder instead of being greater than
his work, merely small part of it.
He took up the work of hundreds thousands of
and following the example of many other railroad builders
combined it all into toleraby efficient railroad
Relatively he was about as much the originator of the great
system that he brought together the fourteenth
reef composed of fourteen hundred billion coral
originator of the reef.
The world requires men like this with magma
ton and who its needs and who have the
snthropicwhch Is oftenor wholly selfish But the world
afford conceited fancy
pared to their important personalities the work that they
doing incident
Several times history big have become possess
ed with the idea they greater than all earthly
beings The last of these Napoleon and he lived under
stand, if not to admit his mistakes
America has been fortunate its great men Wash
ington knew that compared the he served his per
sonality counted for but little There that he
would have stepped aside ADLER charge
the Colonial army had ableI man been possible find
Lincoln counted his country first and himself last He had
no vanity that his contemporaries able to discover had
ambition other than the country and
at peace Great men We're both Of these yet neither Of them
for minute fancied that he the task that he
had been set to do
The world most of us know Is a great workshop in
which each must find the Job he best fitted do and do
Education stud, nc what other ocu have done in tbe
world N order mat we may waste NC time discovering what
has already been discovered following paths
been found to lead in no useful direction
There is work uumportant that + to be despsed
long it wholesome there field human ondeavor
for labor
The man who realizes shat instead Of beng greater his
task he IS Infinitely small comparison with chance to
do his best and doing his best he reasonably sure to be
successful
Whether he gathers together fortune or moi does
matter deal Some not meant for for
tunes. and spoiled by them
But whether not he justify existence In being
of those that here aud those who mat
great DIAL.
Let him take hold of any work that hand if he
finds that he and learning all that there to
know about what has been done eouageouy work
do a little if he
He will find that he the Importance of his
task becomes constantly greater in his eyes and that as the
passed by he has prefer anything
in the world.
Whether medicine. law engineering selling grocer
feels that is great and useful work he viii
and satisfaction and uncoocous he viii become
one Of the world S really valuable workers.