Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-02
Sunday Morning Talk
RED TAPE.

Red tape is an example of a good thing abused. Order and system are desirable The o1d-tfme legal doc urnents tied up with red tape would probably have been scattered and lost without such protection. But when red tape is bound on too thick it gets in the way and becomes a nuisance. 1-
 The lay mind can scarcely cempre- bend the degree to which red tape holds sway in certain official circles. When a thing is to be done it is nat ural for the average citizen simply to go and do it. But that is not good governmental procedure, In official dom, things must be done after a lrescribed formula and with a due regard for the rules and regulations. Normal activities of the individual are carefully hedged about with re- strictioas. When q department clerk wishes 8 bottle of ink, he, is not to go and take it from the shelf; he is to make a requisition and sign papers after which, Tn due course, the ink will be brought. to him by the proper authority. All of this doubtless, saves ink. but wastes time.
 Before one casts. single pebble
 
 slider some. of the red tape in his own personal establishment. What him drances, delays, inhibitions, as the psychologists would say, in. our own dealings are we responsible for? How we daily and tWirl our thumbs In the presence of duty. The distance be- tween a good intention and it ful- filment is longer than the road to Tipperary. We demand that con- ditions be exactly right before we get on the move. Only about one man in fifty is able to carry message to Garcia.
 Red tape is only a name for those endless fornalities that men deem necessary before they do things that ought to be done It is, therefore. a mental mood as well as a matter of affidavits and reduisitions. Most of US have some of it in our disposi- tons. How much times is wasted by good people simply in getting ready to do right! It is well to prepare for any realm of action, but net well to lprepare too long. Time for prepara- tion may easily overlap the time that belongs to action.
 And thus the native hue of resolution 1 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
 And enterprises of great pith and mo- With this regard their currents turn ] awry
 And lose the name of action. After the battle of Antietam. in our Civil war, the North expected a prompt and decisive pressing of the 1 advantage gained. But, for five ex- asperating weeks, the army waited l in absolute inaetlon. In reply to the Etelegrams of the iong suffering Lin coin, it was stated that necessary 1 equipment was lacking, that the mer l were tired ana that the cavalry horses had sore mouths. When al things were at last in order the army 1 moved. But the enemy had alst nnoved--long since. The chance wa I lost.
 i It was not in the spirit that Capt 1 Jeremiah OrBrien of Revoiutionar! fame beheid one day the British man 1 of war Margaretta off the harbor Q l Maehias. Only an old lumber slool l was at the. wharf: but this tn. 1 doughty captain manned and aFme, Il as best he eosiid--pitchforks befns
 prominent item in the battery .I and sailed of to the attack. A tnightfall the Continental colorS f1oaf ,i ed at the eneny's masthead. So it ha ever been. The great achievements 0 history have been wrought by me- . who thus knew how to seize the pass ing opportunity. With what prepara , tion and equipment they had. the , resolutely did the thing at hand. Cir run7stances, ideal or otherwise, hay ever proved of trivial moment fl ,t comparison with that of an indornit 7 able human will.
 # one can dc nothing to speed u ' any part of offfcialdorn, he can, a , E1es.st, cut the. red tape with whfc ! his own life is .'all bound round" Tn , robust message of Carlyle, as ssnfne , up by Prof. James, strikes the neede : note: Hang yotir sen sfbifities; sto . your sniyeling .cornplaints and you fequal1y snfveling raptures; leave ol } general emotional tomfoolAry an !. get :. to work like men" The day f fours We may never have anothe, 3 Do it now Behold, now is the ae , cepted time, Behold, now is the da Of salvation.
 : l zzz RARaoN