For it is one of the traits in human nature that no sooner does a man begin to do any work for which he is not paid than he demands recognition of some sort. He wants to be differentiated from the rest. The man who has served twelve months as an A.S.C. batman clamours for an extra chevron. Why should he be ranked on the same level as the infantryman who has only been in the line thirteen weeks. The officer who censored letters at the Base in the first October of the war demands a riband to show he is not one of those mere conscripts who only landed in 1915. They are working of course not “for glory or for honour.” Their service is perfectly disinterested, all they want is to be of help to the nation. But still, they do think, that in common justice some sort of difference should be made, some privilege perhaps....
And it was so with the officials of the Pitt League. They all maintained that it was their greatest delight to be of service to the camp, that they were collectivists of the truest and most practical kind. Yet they were only human, and when they saw lazy officers reaping where they had themselves sown, the wedge of justice slipped itself beneath the barrier of their altruism. The elemental idea of “mine and thine” once firmly planted, strengthened and took root. They felt the need of recompense.
For some time they were in doubt as to the dress in which public gratitude should be arrayed. But at last the shorthand expert was gifted with an inspiration. Triumphantly he bore his commodity to the premier.
“Sir, couldn’t we have precedence in queues?”
“Precedence, Wilkins?”
“Yes, Sir, we have such a lot to do, that really we have not time to waste half the morning in queues. Couldn’t we have a pass or something so that we could go straight in?”
“Oh, yes, admirable, Wilkins, admirable. A Priority Pass, the very thing.”
And so the abuse of privilege began.
The camp, not realising what it would lead to, received this news with equanimity.
“Quite right too,” was the general opinion. “These fellows do a lot of work. They have not got too much spare time.”