New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-07-22
MAJOR Andrc:U S. Ro,Ua,,
A Message to Garcia
By Ebert Hubbard

(The late Ebert Hubbard 1crote
from the e1ploit for Which Major
Rowan has Just been decorated a
business SERMON" entitled "a Mes
sage to Garcia" 1t aUas reproduced
m pamphlet form and circulated
through the United States by the
hundred thousand The Tribune re-
produces 1t hereWith.)
In all this Cuban business there is
one man stands out. on the horizon of
my memory like Mars at perihelion.
When war broke out between Spain
and the United States it was very
necessary to communicate quickly with
the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia
was somewhere in the mountain fast
nesses of Cupa-no one knew where.
No mail or telegraph message could
reach him. The Presto must secure
his cooperation, and quickly. What
to do!
Some one said to the President,
There is fellow by the name of
Rowan will find Garcia for you, if any
body can"
Rowan was sent for and was given
a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How
1.-The fellow by the name of Rowan"
took the letter, sealed it up in an oil
skin pouch, strapped it over his heart,
in four days landed by night off the
coast of Cuba from an open boat, dis
appeared into the jungle, and in three
days came out on the other side of the
island, having traversed hostile
country on foot, and delivered his let
ter to Garcia-are things 1 have no
special desire now 20 tell in detail.
The point that l wish to make is this:
Mckinley gave Rowan a letter to be
delivered to Garcia: Rowan took the
letter and did not ask, where is he
att" By the Eternall there is man
whose form should be cast in death
less bronze and the statue placed in
every college of the land. 1t is not
book learning young men need, nor in
struction about this and that, but q
stiffening of the vertebrae which will
cause them to be loyal to trust, to
act promptly, concentrate their ener-
gies: do the thing-@Carry a message
to Garcia"
General Garcia is dead now, but
there are other Garcias. No man who
prise where many hands were needed,
but has been well-nigh appalled, at
times by the imbecility of the average
mantle inability or unwillingness to
concentrate on thing and do it.
Slipshod assistance, foolish inatten-
ton, dowdy Indifference and half
hearted work seem the rule: and no
man succeeds unless by hook or crook
or threat he forces or brides other
men to assist him, or mayhap, God in
His goodness performs a miracle and
sends him an angel Of light for an as
sistant. You, reader, put this matter
to test. You are sitting now in your
office-six clerks are within call. Sum-
mon any one and make this request:
please look in the encyclopedia and
corning the life Of Correggio."
Will the clerk quietly say eyes, sir"
and go to the task? On your life he
will not. He will look at you out Of a
fishy eye and ask one or more Of the
following questions:
Who was he?
Which encyclopedia
Where is the encyclopedia?
Was l hired for that?
Don't you mean Bismarck?
What's the matter with Charlie doing
it?
rs he dead?
Is there any hurry?
Shall bring you the book and let
you look it up yourself?
What do you want to know for?
And / will lay you ten to one that
after you have answered the questions
and explained how to find the infor-
nation, and why you want it, the clerk
will go off and get one of the other
clerks to help him try to find Garcia
and then come back and tell you there
is no such man. Of course may lose
my bet, but according ITO the law of
averages will not.
Now if you are wise, you will not
bother to explain to your assistant"
that Correggio is indexed under the
C's, not in the KS, but you will smile
very sweetly and say. 'Never mind
End go look It up yourself.
And this incapacity for independe'
trinity of will, this unwillingness to
cheerfuliy catch hold and lift-thcsc
are the things that put pure socialism
so far into the future. If men will not
act for themselves, what will they do
when the benefit of their effort is for
all? A first mate with knotted club
seems necessary; and the dread OF get
ting "the bounce" Saturday night holds
many worker to his place.
Advertise for a stenographer and
nine out of ten who apply can neither
spell nor punctuate-and do not think
it necessary to.
Can such one write a letter to
Garcia?
"You sees that bookkeeper," said a
foreman to me in large factory.
Eyes; what about him? %
"Well, he's fine accountant, but if
I'd send him uptown on an GRAND he
might accomplish the errand all right.
and, on the other hand, might stop at
four saloons on the way, and when he
got to Main Street would forget what
he had been sent for"
Can such a man be entrusted to
carry a message to Garcia?
We have recently been hearing much