GET OUT OR GET IN LINE
By Elbert Hubbard
This selection is a sermon that begins with an illustration. The text is the title. The whole incident of Lincoln's letter to Hooker is used to enforce the text, whose title might be "Loyalty." Why?
Elbert Hubbard (1859-1915) is an American writer of essays and biography. He was interested in the revival of the old handicrafts, especially in the art of printing and binding books.
If all the letters, messages, and speeches of Lincoln were
destroyed except that one letter to Hooker, we should
still have a good index to the heart of "The Rail-splitter."
In this letter we see that Lincoln ruled his own spirit;
and we also behold the fact that he could rule others. 5
The letter shows frankness, kindliness, wit, tact, wise
diplomacy, and infinite patience.
Hooker had harshly and unjustly criticized Lincoln,
his commander in chief, and he had embarrassed Burnside,
his ranking officer. But Lincoln waives all this in deference 10
to the virtues that he believes Hooker possesses, and promotes
him to succeed Burnside. In other words, the man
who had been wronged promotes the man who had wronged
him, over the head of a man whom the promotee had wronged
and for whom the promoter had a warm personal friendship.15
But all personal considerations were sunk in view of the
end desired. Yet it was necessary that the man promoted
should know the truth, and Lincoln told it to him in a way
that did not humiliate nor fire to foolish anger, but which
certainly prevented the attack of cerebral elephantiasis to 20
which Hooker was liable.
Perhaps we had better give the letter entire, and so here
it is:
"Executive Mansion, Washington, January 26, 1863.
Major-General Hooker:
General:— 5
I have placed you at the head of the Army of the
Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear
to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for
you to know that there are some things in regard to which
I am not quite satisfied with you. 10
I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which,
of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics
with your profession, in which you are right.
You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if
not indispensable, quality. 15
You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds,
does good rather than harm; but I think that during
General Burnside's command of the army you have taken
counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you
could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and 20
to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer.
I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your
recently saying that both the army and the government
needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in
spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only 25
those generals who gain successes can set up dictators.
What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk
the dictatorship. The government will support you to the
utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than
it has done and will do for all commanders. I much 30
fear that the spirit you have aided to infuse into the army,
of criticizing their commander and withholding confidence
from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as
far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon,
if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army
while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware of
rashness; beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless 5
vigilance go forward and give us victories.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln."
One point in this letter is especially worth our consideration,
for it suggests a condition that springs up like 10
deadly nightshade from a poisonous soil. I refer to the
habit of sneering, carping, grumbling at, and criticizing
those who are above us.
The man who is anybody and who does anything is
surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. 15
This is a part of the penalty for greatness and every great
man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no
proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being
able to endure contumely without resentment. Lincoln
did not resent criticism; he knew that every life must be its 20
own excuse for being; but look how he calls Hooker's
attention to the fact that the dissension Hooker has sown is
going to return and plague him! "Neither you nor Napoleon,
were he alive, could get any good out of an army
while such a spirit prevails in it." Hooker's fault falls on 25
Hooker—others suffer, but Hooker suffers most of all.
Not long ago I met a college student, home on a vacation.
I am sure he did not represent the true college
spirit, for he was full of criticism and bitterness toward
the institution. The president of the college came in for30
his share, and I was supplied items, facts, data, with
times and places, for a "peach of a roast."
Very soon I saw the trouble was not with the college,
the trouble was with the young man. He had mentally
dwelt on some trivial slights until he had got so out of
harmony with the institution that he had lost the power to
derive any benefit from it. No college is a perfect institution—a 5
fact, I suppose, that most college presidents and
college men are quite willing to admit; but a college does
supply certain advantages, and it depends upon the students
whether they will avail themselves of these advantages
or not. 10
If you are a student in a college, seize upon the good that
is there. You get good by giving it. You gain by giving—so
give sympathy and cheerful loyalty to the institution.
Be proud of it. Stand by your teachers—they are doing
the best they can. If the place is faulty, make it a better 15
place by an example of cheerfully doing your work every
day the best you can. Mind your own business.
If the concern where you are employed is all wrong,
and the Old Man is a curmudgeon, it may be well for you to
go to the Old Man and confidentially, quietly, and kindly20
tell him that he is a curmudgeon. Explain to him that his
policy is absurd and preposterous. Then show him how to
reform his ways, and you might offer to take charge of the
concern and cleanse it of its secret faults.
Do this, or if for any reason you should prefer not, then25
take your choice of these: Get Out or Get in Line. You
have got to do one or the other—now make your choice.
If you work for a man, in heaven's name work for him!
If he pays you wages that supply you your bread and
butter, work for him—speak well of him, think well of 30
him, stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents.
I think if I worked for a man I would work for him; I
would not work for him a part of the time, and the rest of
the time work against him. I would give an undivided
service or none. If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is
worth a pound of cleverness. 5
If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage,
why, resign your position, and when you are outside,
damn to your heart's content. But, I pray you, so long
as you are a part of an institution, do not condemn it.
Not that you will injure the institution—not that—but 10
when you disparage the concern of which you are a part,
you disparage yourself.
More than that, you are loosening the tendrils that
hold you to the institution, and the first high wind that
comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away in the 15
blizzard's track—and probably you will never know why.
The letter only says "Times are dull and we regret there
is not enough work," et cetera.
Everywhere you find those out-of-a-job fellows. Talk
with them and you will find that they are full of railing, 20
bitterness, and condemnation. That was the trouble—through
a spirit of faultfinding they got themselves swung
around so they blocked the channel and had to be dynamited.
They are out of harmony with the concern, and
no longer being a help they had to be removed. Every 25
employer is constantly looking for people who can help him;
naturally he is on the lookout among his employees for those
who do not help, and everything and everybody that is a
hindrance has to go. This is the law of trade—do not
find fault with it; it is founded on nature. The reward 30
is only for the man that helps, and in order to help, you
must have sympathy.
You cannot help the Old Man so long as you are explaining
in undertone and whisper, by gesture and suggestion, by
thought and mental attitude, that he is a curmudgeon and
his system dead wrong. You are not necessarily menacing
him by stirring up discontent and warming envy into strife, 5
but you are doing this: You are getting yourself upon a well-greased
chute that will give you a quick ride down and out.
When you say to other employees that the Old Man is a
curmudgeon, you reveal the fact that you are one; and
when you tell that the policy of the institution is "rotten," 10
you surely show that yours is.
Hooker got his promotion even in spite of his failings;
but the chances are that your employer does not have the
love that Lincoln had—the love that suffereth long and is
kind. But even Lincoln could not protect Hooker forever. 15
Hooker failed to do the work, and Lincoln had to try some
one else. So there came a time when Hooker was superseded
by a Silent Man, who criticized no one, railed at nobody—not
even the enemy. And this Silent Man, who ruled his
own spirit, took the cities. He minded his own business and 20
did the work that no man ever can do unless he gives
absolute loyalty, perfect confidence, and untiring devotion.
Let us mind our own business and work for self by working
for the good of all.
1. Find in the letter instances of the qualities named in paragraph two. What is the moral of the selection?
2. What is there humorous about the third paragraph on page 221?
3. Explain: ranking officer, waives, cerebral elephantiasis, dictator, deadly nightshade, data, disparage, curmudgeon, chute, superseded.
4. You are a clerk in a shoe store on Saturday afternoon, and learn that your employer is overcharging some customers. What should you do?
5. What incentive to loyalty is suggested here? Name a better one.
(Used by permission of Elbert Hubbard II, East Aurora, N. Y.)