promptly, concentrate their energies: do the
thing--"Carry a message to Garcia."

[Sidenote: The Moral]

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.

No man who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many
hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the
imbecility of the average man--the inability or unwillingness to
concentrate on a thing and do it.

[Sidenote: There are other Garcias]

Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and
half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook
or crook or threat he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or
mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel
of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You
are sitting now in your office--six clerks are within call. Summon any
one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a
brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio."

Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do 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:

[Sidenote: Which Encyclopedia?]

Who was he?
Which encyclopedia?
Where is the encyclopedia?
Was I hired for that?
Don't you mean Bismarck?

[Sidenote: What's the matter with Charlie doing it?]

What's the matter with Charlie doing it?
Is he dead?
Is there any hurry?
Shall I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?
What do you want to know for?

_I wasn't hired for that anyway!_

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the
questions, and explained how to find the information, 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 I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average
I 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 K's,
but you will smile very sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it
up yourself.

[Sidenote: _Dread of getting "the bounce"_]

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this
infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold
and lift--these are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the
future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when