Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-12
SERVICE AND
EFFICIENCY TOLOSE
DO Something Quick and
Do 1t Right-That's Eff
cheney.
DO Something For Some
body Quick and Do 1t Right
That's Service
BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW

BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW
There are just two big words in
the world to-day. They are up in great
electric letters over our playhouse, the
Earth. Just two words, Service and
Efficiency" l was speaking to Lucille.
Come, that's not worthy of you"
she replied. You know you don't
have to rely on catch-words."
Lucille is one of those gifted capable
women who combine with their ca
pacity rather more than their fair
is one of lazy indifference. She can af-
ford it, for she is really hard-work-
ing, successful interior decorator
Its not my fault If they're catch
words" L retorted. az know they are
overworked by faddists and earnest
thinkers But what of it? There never
was a word or a phrase that expressed
a vital idea that wasn't caught up by
trifiers. Is that any reason why live
men and women should discard them
DO something quick and do it
right-that's Efficiency.
do something for somebody quick,
and do it right--that's Service.
A Woman Nowadays Must Be a
Worker or u Stacker
"The men and women who wish
to stay alive" L continued, have got
to learn to spell those two words and
practise what they stand for. Other
wise, they might just as well climb
into their collins and fold their pale
hands over their placid breasts, for
they are, as dead as they ever will be.
"A woman nowadays has got to be
a worker or a slacker'-another
catch-word, if you please. And by the
way, the readiness. to apply it to shift
less, pretty women is another proof
that the age of chivalry is past. Slack
err is a label for the woman who fails
to do her bit as well as for the man
who fails to do his"
"Oh, it's all so real and earnest
interrupted Lucille lazily. II think I'd
like nothing better than to go to sleep
and wake up in those early-Victorian
times when everything was all settled
forever and ever. Everybody believed
in He'll, and the Atomic Theory, and
woman's intellectual inferiority and
spiritual superiority, and the Italian
operas as the last word in music. And
Tennyson threatened the established
order of things by saying:
There is more faith in honest doubt
Believe me, than in half the creeds."
But that world has vanished as
completely as the Lost Atlantis"
argued. Were living in an entirely
different one-the World of Work. 1t
sounds dull. Our brains are so clogged
up with old ideas and traditions that
we haven't begun to realize that to be
the citizens of this wonderful new
world is the hallmark of distinction,
the special privilege of the high gods.
It's more; it's a new and thrilling ad-
venture, the most absorbing and fas-
cinating game there is.
Every normal man and woman
loves work, but we hate drudgery.
And it is natural and human and
right to hate drudgery. Drudgery is
the miry road through the swamp of
muddle. Work is the motor track along
the Milky Way, with the stars swing
ing in festoons about u.s."
There are millions of people work
ing" said Lucille, "and only about one
per cent. of them are doing congenial
work. The rest of them are toiling
simply to live"
THAT is where Efficiency applies" +"
I put in eagerly. 81 know 1t is a word
that women. especially shudder over.
1t means to many of them a soulless,
mechanical method of shaving seconds
so that an Efficiency Boss can get ten
minutes more work an hour out of
you. Then, too, the consciously eff
cient people are apt to be so irritating,
so competent and dead-sure they are
always right. Nevertheless, Efficiency
means just the difference between do
ing your work by hand and using ma
chinery."
But" objected Mary, who had
been listening to the argument as an
innocent bystander, 81 love to cook,
and 1 know how intuitively and also
by training. BY the same token, / hate
to sew. No matter how hard Il tried,
could never be an efficient seam
stress"
Eyes, you could" insisted Lucille.
'It is simply a case of X plus" She
is a born mathematician. You tenn
porarily subtract all the natural en-
thusiasm and interest and concentra-
ton you now give to your cooking and
add it to your sewing. Then you would
have the same result"
"But''-Mary shook her head
the effort would be cold and me-
chanical, mere determination of the
will. Can you get any real accom-
plishment in that way?"
Personally I believe that you can,"
contended. I maintain that you
can't throw yourself heart and soul
into anything even if it's just by will
power, and not arouse in yourself a
genuine enthusiasm for what you are
doing.
And suppose" went on, "you are
not merely working for yourself, but
for some one else? You don't for in
stance, want to be thoroughly ef-
ficient saleswoman just for your own
glory. There's pride and satisfaction
in adding to the standing and prestige
of the business house with which you
are connected.
$50 whether you are a seamstress
or woman of wealth, busy with all
kinds of plans for the happiness and
betterment of others, whose material
comfort is not so great as yours, or
whether you are a cook, or a sales
woman, or in an Office, or the mistress
of q household, or whatever your job
in life may be, it is a joy to feel that
in doing your work efficiently you've
done your part in maintaining the