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Reprinted from

The Fra and The Philistine

Copyright, 1921

by

The Roycrofters

GIFT

HF5386
H89

LOYALTY IN BUSINESS

363

Loyalty in Business

BIG business is a steamship bound for a port called Success. It takes a large force of men to operate' this boat. Eternal vigilance is not only the price of liberty, but it is the price of every other good thing, including steamboating. To keep this steamship moving, the Captain requires the assistance of hundreds of people who have a singleness of aim-one purpose-a desire to do the right thing and the best thing in order that the ship shall move steadily, surely and safely on her course.

Curiously enough, there are men constantly falling overboard. Folks who fall overboard are always cautioned to keep away from dangerous places, still there are those who delight in taking risks. These individuals who fall off, and cling to floating spars, or are picked up by passing craft, usually declare that they were discharged." They say the Captain, or the Mate, or their comrades had it in for them.

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I am inclined to think that no man was ever discharged" from a successful concern― he discharges himself. When a man quits his work, say, oiling the engine or scrubbing the deck, and leans over the side calling to outsiders, explaining what a bum boat he is aboard of, how bad the food is and what a fool there is for a Captain, he gradually loosens his hold until he falls into the yeasty deep. There is no one to blame but himself, yet probably you will have hard work to make him understand this little point. When a man is told to do a certain thing, and there leaps to his lips, or even to his heart, the formula, "I was n't hired to do that "he is standing upon a greased plank that inclines toward the sea. When the plank is tilted to a proper angle, he goes to Davy Jones' locker, and nobody tilts the fatal plank but the man himself. And the way the plank is tilted is this: the man takes more interest in passing craft and what is going on on land, than in doing his work on board ship.

So I repeat: no man employed by a success

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