Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1920-06-30
Bear HEAVY LOAD
Some Of the Trials of Present.
Day Executives.
Man Who Complained That There Were
Ne Efficient People In the World
Had Some Excuse for His Bitter.
ness-Treuble 10 Moral.

Several years ago, when I had Just
been promoted to my first real Job,
called on a business friend Of mine. He
Is a wise and experienced handler Of
men. asked him what suggestions he
could make about executive RESPONSE
bility, writes Bruce Barton, in the Red
Book.
you are about to make a great dis
covery," he said. within a week or
two you will know why it Is that ex-
ecutives grow gray and die before
their time. You will have learned the
bitter truth that there are no efficient
people In the world"
l am still very far from admitting
that he was right, but 1 know well
enough what he meant. Every man
knows, who has ever been responsible
for a piece of work or had to meet
a pay roll.
Recently another friend of mine
built a house. The money to build It
represented difficult period of saving
on the part Of himself and his wife ;
it meant overtime work and self-de-
NAL, and extra effort in behalf of a
long cherished dream.
One day when the work was we'll
along he visited it, and saw work
man climbing ladder to the roof with
a little bunch of shingles in his hands.
"Look here" the foreman cried,
cant you carry a whole bundle Of
shInglesT
The workman regarded him sullenly.
"if wanted to bull the job"
By "bull the Job" he meant "do an
honest days work."
At 10 o'clock one morning met still
another man in his office in New York.
He was munching a sandwich and
gulping a cup of coffee which his Sec
rotary had brought in to him.
II had to work late last night" he
said,- "and meet very early appoint
ment this morning. My wife asked
our maid to have breakfast half hour
early so that might have bite and
still be here In time.
"When I came down to breakfast
the maid was still In bed"
She lives in his home and eats and
is clothed by means of money which
his brain provides; but she has no
interest In his success, no care what
ever except to do the minimum of
work.
"The real trouble with the world to-
day Is a moral trouble" said thought
full man recently. "A large proportion
of its people have lost all conception
Of what 1t means to render an ade-
quate service in return for the wages
they are paid"
He Is generous man. On almost
any sort of question his sympathies are
likely to be with labor, and so are
mine. I am glad that men work short
er hours than they used to, and in
certain instances 1 think the hours
should be even shorter. am glad they
are paid higher wages, and hope they
may earn still more.
lnSlC ult NhSh any ~
patty goes out to those in whose be-
half no voice is ever raised-to the
executives of the world, whose hours
are limited only by the limit of their
physical and mental endurance; who
carry not merely the load of their own
work. but the heartbreaking load of
carelessness and stolid indifference in
so many Of the folks whom they EN-
ploy.
Perhaps the most successful execu-
tive In history was that centurion OF
the Bible.
"For I am a man Of authority, hav.
ing soldiers under me-" he said. "And
I say to this man go. and he goeth and
to another. come, and he cometh; and
to my servant, do this, and he doeth
IT,"
Marvellous man!
fhe modern executive also says,
$50" and too often the man whj
should have gone will appear a day OF
two later and explain. II didn't under
stand what you meant" He says,
"Come," and at the appointed time
his telephone rings and voice speaks,
saying, 81 oversight and will be there
in about three-quarters of an hour"