LOYALTY 551 



and report on a given piece of property who sells or turns over to 

 outside parties information belonging to his employer, or who uses it 

 for his own personal ends. Can anything be farther from the object 

 for which men are employed, more base, more dishonorable ? 



Let us have the opinions of men of wide experience. I once recom- 

 mended a young man for the position of assistant to one of the leaders 

 of science in this countiy, who wrote back to make further inquiries, 

 and wound up with this : " I want a man who is orderly, interested in 

 the work and who will devote himself to my interests. If be will not 

 devote himself to my interests I don't want him, no matter how com- 

 petent he may be." 



Dr. Eossiter W. Eaymond, the venerable secretary of the American 

 Institute of Mining Engineers, a man who has perhaps had a larger, 

 more varied and more honorable career in connection with mining 

 operations in this country than any other one man, says on this 

 subject: 3 " Loyalty commands to-day the highest price in the market: " 

 and he says much more to the same effect. 



In one of the large banking houses of New York City this notice 

 is posted up in full view of prospective customers : " If you can't 

 cooperate, don't come round." 



A few days ago I saw a letter from the manager of one of the 

 largest mining companies in the world which contained the following 

 reference to a man who had not been loyal to his employer : " I per- 

 sonally consider that a pick and shovel are the only instruments a man 

 should be allowed to use who abuses his employer's confidence." 



I doubt if the man who says this would want such a person about 

 him even to use his pick and shovel. For if a man is not loyal, no 

 one trusts him, no one feels comfortable with him around, and no 

 one wants him at any price, or for anything. 



Loyalty is so highly esteemed by most people that one is ready to 

 overlook slow head, slow hands and slow feet where loyalty exists, while 

 without it no skill or agility of mind or body makes one a desirable 

 employee. 



In large enterprises where many men have to cooperate, the lack of 

 loyalty throws all the machinery of organization and administration 

 out of gear; nothing runs smoothly. 



Employees, assistants, partners and colleagues are wanted to help, 

 to render service, not to hinder, to bring disorder and disorganization 

 into an enterprise, no matter whether that enterprise is a great in- 

 dustry or a small one, a club, a fraternity, an organization of any kind 

 whatever. No institution can long survive without the loyalty of its 

 members to the common interest and purposes of its organization, and 

 to each other. 



3 Engineering and Mining Journal, June 23, 1906, p. 1199. 



