WHO COMMANDS HERE?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 127, 7 September 1910, Page 4

WHO COMMANDS HERE?

Once upon a time there was a bank. The Board pf Directors saw that the business was growing, and one of them mentioned that the time was now ripe to appoint a manager, as he considered that tie messenger was not so experienced in accountancy and banking law as was necessary for the success of the business. The Board of Directors turned pale. One or two directors rose in their agdtation, and stated that if a manager was appointed, the messenger would leave and the bottom would fall out of the bank, and the depositors would cease depositing, and the worst would happen.' Then again, there was a ship that had Ibeen doing short trips aeross a har-bor-under an able-bodied seaman. Suddenly the company that owned her appointed a skipper, and the shareholders were horrified. They said that it was iniquitous that an able-bodied seaman should be superseded by a master mariner, merely because the ship was about to embark in the deep sea business.

One shareholder said that if a captain was appointed tie able-bodied seaman I would refuse duty and would clear out. and that the ship would founder and be thrown on a rock, and Hie crew and passengers would be ealen by sharks or cannibals. And one or two of the others said "Hear! hear!" Then again, • there was the case of the armv that was led by a captain and had never needed anylbody else because it had no fight on. ■ The country that owned the army saw that a fight was brewing and imported a general to command the army. The Council of Defence met, a.nd the Adiu- J taut-General, in a voice broken sobs, said that if Cantain Ju&B WBg <o J" ' dered about ibv any general'ho would ' throw iro his commission, and the army ' OTndd disbud, wl fl» colon would fce i

| captured, the Empire would be wiped out, and generally the worst would happen. And, further, there was the Taranaki County Council, which had managed very well on a small scale by rule of thumb, instinct and hard physical struggle. It was served in a faithful way by the rank and file of its servants, but the servants had not been i able to gather all the knowledge and ' skill required for the very best conduct of the work to be done. No one had any, fault to find with these conscientious servants, but one day a councillor arose and mentioned that a controlling brain, belonging to a man versed in the science of engineering, might get better service out of the servants by reason of •its knowledge. This was a bombshell. ! A gentleman or two showed that engineering was all a mistake, that a twofoot rule as a measuring implement I was vastly inferior to the humand hand, or the human foot, that in the matter of measurements and plans, roads, culI verts, bridges, grades, quantities and so on, nothing could beat good old British brawn. If a better brain and a more complete knowledge were imported into the county, the brawn would leave in a body, and as the brawn mentioned was the only brawn available, what would happen to the _ county then ? This ought to have been a facer for the radical councillor who had suggested modern methods in dealing with modern problems, but he continued to show that nothing is successful that is not controlled, that faithful undirected service is not necessarily the service of the highest skill, and that the people who are too haughty to be instructed should not necessarily control a county. The idea that a messenger will not work because 'a manager is appointed, an able-bodied ; seaman will refuse duty because a skip- | per arrives on the scene, and a foreman abandons his long-handled shovel because an engineer takes charge, is an indicai tion that discipline and efliciencv, mod- '■ ernity and general effectiveness have to , fight hoary prejudice and unreasoning conservatism. The man who won't take orders ought not to take anything.