How  to  send  a  message  to  Garcia 怎样把信送给加
西亚
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  vastness  of  Cuba-no  one  knew  where.
No  mail  nor  telegraph  message  could  reach  him.
The  president  must  secure  his  cooperation,and
quickly.
What  to  do!
Some  one  said  to  the  president,“there ’s  a
fellow  by  the  name  of  rowan  will  find  Garcia
for  you,if  anybody  can.”
Rowan  was  sent  for  and  given  a  letter  to  be
delivered  to  Garcia.How “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,disappeared
into  the  jungle,and  in  three  weeks  came  out
on  the  other  side  of  the  island,having
traversed  a  hostile  country  on  foot,and
delivered  his  letter  to  Garcia-are  things  I
have  no  special  desire  now  to  tell  in  detail.
The  point  that  I  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  at?”
There  is  a  man  whose  form  should  be  cast  in
deathless  bronze  and  the  statue  placed  in
every  college  of  the  land.It  is  not  book-
learning  young  men  need,nor  instruction  about
this  and  that,but  a  stiffening  of  the
vertebrae  which  will  cause  them  to  be  loyal  to
a  trust,to  act  promptly,concentrate  their
energies:do  the  thing-“carry  a  message  to
Garcia!”
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.
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  s  miracle,and  sends  him  an
angel  of  light  for  an  assistant.
You  put  this  matter  to  a  test:
You  are  sitting  now  in  your  office-six  clerks
are  all  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:
Who  was  he?
Which  encyclopedia?Where  is  the  encyclopedia?
Was  I  hired  for  that?What ’s  the  matter  with
George  doing  it?Is  he  dead?Is  there  any
hurry?Shan ’t  I  bring  you  the  book  and  let
you  look  it  up  yourself?What  do  you  want  to
know  for?
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  the  bet,but
according  to  the  law  of  average,I  will  not.
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
the  benefit  of  their  effort  is  for  all?
My  heart  goes  out  to  the  man  who  does  his  work
when  the “boss ”is  away,as  well  as  when  he
is  at  home.And  the  man  who,when  given  a
letter  for  Garcia,quietly  takes  the  mission,
without  asking  any  idiotic  questions,and  with
no  lurking  intention  of  chucking  it  into  the
nearest  sewer,or  of  doing  aught  else  but
deliver  it,never  gets “laid  off ”nor  has  to
go  on  a  strike  for  higher  wages.
Anything  such  a  man  asks  shall  be  granted.He
is  wanted  in  every  city,town  and  village  and
in  every  office,shop,store  and  factory.The
world  cries  out  for  such:he  is  needed  and
needed  badly-the  man  who  can “carry  a
message  to  Garcia ”.