Hors d'oeuvres # 003
A Message to Garcia
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 & 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!
Someone 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, & 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 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?"
By the Eternal! 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 Garcia’s.
No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well night appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it.
Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & 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, & 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:
- Who was he?
- Which encyclopedia?
- Where is the encyclopedia?
- Was I hired for that?
- Don’t you mean Bismarck?
- What’s the matter with Charlie 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 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 sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself.
And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, 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 getting "the bounce" Saturday night, holds many a 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 a one write a letter to Garcia?
"You see that bookkeeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory.
"Yes, what about him?"
"Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, 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 maudlin sympathy expressed for the "downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.
Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned.
In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on.
The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on.
No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.
It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.
I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to anyone else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him.
He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."
Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat.
No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.
Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.
Have I put the matter too strongly?
Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.
I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides.
There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.
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 take the missive, 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.
Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals.
Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory.
The world cries out for such: he is needed & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.
THE END AND/OR THE BEGINNING?
Retrieved from
https://nrotc.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/A%20Message%20to%20Garcia%20-%20pdf.pdf
Any feedback is highly appreciated: edudolphinmfw@gmail.com
4 Key Lessons from “A Message to Garcia”
Do the thing...
One of the most published articles in history, “A Message to Garcia” (by Elbert Hubbard) highlights several great challenges and lessons of life.
There are four key lessons that I would like to discuss: three of those lessons are key points from the author and the fourth is one that will assist you as you LEAD FROM YOUR CURRENT POSITION®
My First Day in the Devil Brigade (504th Parachute Infantry Regiment)
I was introduced to “A Message to Garcia” very early in my career.
In fact, I was given the article the day I reported to my first active duty unit. At the conclusion of my introductory meeting with my Brigade Commander (then Colonel Peter J. Boylan, Commander of the 1st Brigade, 82d Airborne Division), he simply handed me the article and asked that I write a two-page summary of what the article meant to me and to bring it back to the Brigade Staff Duty Officer the next morning.
I saluted and departed.
This was the beginning of a busy and memorable day since I was an Infantry Second Lieutenant reporting to my first unit.
Next, I would meet with my Battalion and Company Commanders. I was told I would be assigned as Alpha Company’s First Platoon Leader and that I would meet my Platoon Sergeant and Platoon the next morning.
Later that evening, I sat down to read “A Message to Garcia” and contemplate my assignment: the two-page summary.
I was moved by the article and it’s theme: Be Proactive.
Additionally, I was struck by the fact that it was a First Lieutenant Andrew Summers Rowan that would “do the thing” and later be awarded our Nation’s second highest honor for his actions: the Distinguished Service Cross. I promptly wrote my response.
Since the copy of the article I was given was barely legible (it was a multigenerational copy and making another copy would have been illegible), I went out and bought a typewriter.
This was before the personal computer revolution.
That evening, I typed a new version of the article. I would make copies and give them to my new Platoon Sergeant and Squad Leaders the next morning with the exact same assignment (after turning my assignment in at the Brigade Headquarters).
I would later use this assignment for the rest of my career with each organization that I was assigned to.
It became a leadership litmus test of sorts, meaning that it gave me insight into the professional maturity of the writer.
Very similar to the idea that Elbert Hubbard mentions in the article about summoning a clerk to write a memorandum concerning the life of Correggio, how the person completed the task and what they wrote told me a lot about them.
As a minimum, it gave me an opportunity to discuss key aspects of leadership with my Soldiers.
Again Asseverating: 4 Key Lessons from “A Message to Garcia”
Be proactive… Do the thing. The majority of the time, the conditions in our circle of influence are ripe for our action and contribution.
Be response-able. Victor Frankl’s life and writings teach us that we have a great deal of freedom, even in the most awful of circumstances.
Between STIMULUS and RESPONSE is a huge responsibility for us: the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. It is our values & virtues, not the conditions surrounding us, that should guide our choices.
Take the initiative. There are several levels of initiative where your judgment and discretion will guide you, but I believe that you will find very few times that there is a real barrier preventing you from being able to simply “do the thing.”
What can I contribute to the environment so others can flourish? Using the framework of Lead From Your Current Position® (Self-Development, Partnership, and Service) and my definition of leadership, can you identify what actions are needed around you?
Will you look for them in the future?
Did Hubbard put the matter too strongly?
Possibly… but today, like 1899, the points he highlights still seem to ring true.
Regardless, I hope you can use “A Message to Garcia” to enhance your proactivity and ability to contribute to others.
Retrieved from
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