listem] buddy:
Where do you get that ’’hard luck” stuff? 'Why this talk about
not getting a square deal? Who told you they we re’’rubbing it”in?
Man, you’re all wrong, all wrong.1 Go over in the corner by
yourself, sit down, roll a "pill” and talk it over with yourself
instead of spouting out your so-called troubles to your bunkies.
They don’t want to hear then anyway. So you've had hard luok,
have you? Well, in what way? Whenever there is a promotion made
somebody else gets it, is that it? Suppose you think with your
head instead of your pride for just a minute and think honestly.
Isn't the other fellow a better man? Doesn't he "know his stuff”
better than you do? Isen't he more capable of giving orders, and
seeing that they are carried out, than you are? Isen't it a fact
that instead of memorizing the drill manual on some of your off
days, you played "rum” instead?
You may know your drill. You may know what to do when you nea:
a command, but can you give a command, do you know why it is given,
and can you get out in front of a company and explain jus't how to
do it? You can? 'Veil, can you take out a detail of men on a jo^,
tell them what to do, how to do it, and without being overbearing
see that it is properly done, or do you let the men loaf on the
job and do their work in a make shift manner just so as to be a
"good fellow"? You say you can? Well, are you a man your company
commander can hold up as an example to the other men of the compa
ny for cleanliness, soldierly bearing, mien, loyalty, strict atten
tion to duty and dependability?
You are? Well, if you are all the above, kicking to your com
rades and belly-aching around the barracks is a waste of time and
effort. You are barking up the wrong tree. Tell you what to do.
Go to your company commander and tell him about it. Now don’t
take this for bunk. He is worrying about the vacancy he has to
fill, and believe me, he’ll be tickled to death to know that he has
a man who can fill it creditably. If you can go to him honestly,
look him in the eye, and believing what you say yourself, tell him
that you are the man he is looking for, he’ll fall on your neck
and weep for joy.
If you are not the man he wants for the job, he'll tell you so
and what is more, he'll tell you why, and then you will know just
what is holding you hack.
But it isn’t "hard luck". Get that out of your system. Get il
out of your system that you are not getting a "square deal". You
may he getting a better deal than you deserve, which holds good
for most of us. Perhaps you don't exactly know why you are being
passed over. If you don't, ask and find out. If you are really
the man for the higher joh, you'll get it. You have often said:
"You can't keep a good man down". All right, then, why are you
kept down? Are you really a good man, or have you heen, hy blus
tering, etc., trying to "kid yourself" that you are a good man?
The easiest person in the world "to kid", is yourself. Don't
just tell yourself and the rest of the world that you are a good
man, hut get out and he a good man.' Then tell the world how good
you are, hut get good and show "speed" first; just talking aboutit
won't make you good and efficient.
Just as soon as you become a good man, the "hard luck" stuff
will disappear and you'll find yourself getting nothing hut "square,
deals". You'll he what you now think you should he, hut getting
there is up to you. It isn't "hard luck" that's keeping you down,
and you'll agree that it's you - just you. Think it over.'