The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-04-23
the Inefficient
(By DR.. Frank Crane. in Atlanta
Journal.)


healthy young fellow of twenty. You
are strong in body and your mind is
not weak. And l say to YOU that If |
you are broke, stranded and friend- |
less, it's ten to one that but one /,
person will be to blame, and that's
yourself.
For you can make yourself eff
cient. There is some one thing.
maybe two things, that you can be
able to do better than most other
people can do. And for a person
who can make good there is always
an opening.
This world is full of second raters,
of unskilled, unframed. blotching,
butter fingered incompetants. They
usually are SO because they were too
lazy or too ignorant to prepare
themselves to do well some part of
the worlds work.
Lord, Lord, the poor work that
fills the world! Think of it! OF all
the mothers in this town, how many
are successes. How many are APP
plying themselves, by study and con-
slant effort, to the business of moth
ering?
had, suppose, a hundred teach
ers, more or less, in my school days,
and of them / can't remember over
two or three that understood how to
teach. The others were just holding
their jobs.
Most preachers you hear are bad
not bad men-but bad preachers.
Most singers cannot sing. Most ac-
tors are mediocre. Most books are
a waste of time. Most houses are
not fit to live in. Most cooks can't
cook. Most clerks do not earn even
the small salary they get.
do not speak of genius, nor of
the exceptionally gifted people. 1t
is a plain fact that the man who
simply does we'll the thing he is paid
for doing is a rare quantity. That
is the shameful truth.
And the direct road toward al
ways getting employment, toward
being indispensable and in *demand,
is to equip yourself to do something
we'll.
Efficiency? Why, I don't know a
solitary hotel or restaurant in this
town where you can get a slice Of
bread that is real bread like mother
used to make. And as for hot bis
cuit-they haven't the remotest idea
of them. You can get forty-seven
kinds of meats and vegetables with
all sorts of sauces, all tasting about
alike, but never a piece Of home.
made bread. It's almost as bad with
coffee.
When you hire carpenter, paint
er, paperhanger, upholsterer, plas
terer, of plumber to do job in YOU
house, it is reasonably sure that hi
work will be sighted, bungled ant
unsatisfactory, unless you stand owe
, him with a club. What field |
open to the man who does goo
, work, who is punctuaily, honest an
capable.
No, my son, don't get led astra
, by wild-eyed theories. To be sure
9 it's a wicked, cruel and selfish worlt
There's a deal of injustice and spec
D ial privilege and all that in it.
But I'm talking to you, And / te
you that the way to keep out Of tn
mud of failure is to train yourself
: to study, to be industrious, and
. fit yourself to do something we'll,
make good.
: They tell you that every employe
. has more applicants than he ha
9 jobs. The truth is that he has MOI
inefficient applicants. II he kne'
y that you could do the business sa
s isfactorily he void give YOU tn
I work Immediately.
r The world is hungry for men VIII
> can and do make good.
e Not all can be employers or Leaf
q ers, but there's always room for tn
man who, doing his stunt the be!
he can, knows right down in h
heart that the boss can't hang an!
thing ON him as one man expresse
it the other day. And this was nc
said in any spirit of antagonism.
Recently man said to the write
I'm up against 1t. I've had to Il
two Of my best men go-the
weren't loyal"
This man is a responsible ma
and an honest man, and one VIII
s wouldn't look for nor expect pei
fection-but he baked at disloyalt.
and these two men, capable and eff
cient as they had been-had los
their usefulness to him.
He needed them in his bushes
. but he needed loyalty more.
In speaking of the matter, tn
man showed no bitterness-he simI
ly dismissed the subject and the me
as closed issues, and he needed bot
of them-but they are dead to hil
they lacked the ounce of loyalt!
They had known him for years
there was nothing new to them |
= his personality or ways of dom
e business and with their help he wa
1 building up a fine business and the
d were receiving their share.