The Chemawa American, February 18, 1925, Image 1

Printed at Chemawa, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education
Vol. XXVI
Wednesday, February 18, 1925
CRIMINAL CARELESSNESS
Every day we notice various acts of carelessness on
the part of many of our pupils, and the habit is prev­
alent with so many people that a little discussion of
the matter will be timely.
The history of the human race is full of the most
horrible tragedies caused by the inexcusable blunders
of those who never form habits of accuracy, of thor­
oughness—of doing things right.
Multitudes of people aie hobbling around on one
leg, have lost an eye or an arm, or are otherwise
maimed, because of dishonest workmen slighting their
work by covering up defects and weak places—being
careless.
Inestimable numbers may have lost their lives be­
cause of dishonest, careless work, criminal blunder­
ing in the construction of houses and other things we
use. Thousands of people lose their lives yearly
through defective machinery on account of dishonest
and careless labor. Everywhere we see the tragic re­
sults of careless, botched work, somebody’s blunders,
somebody’s habit of being inaccurate. The worst
crimes are not always punishable by law. Careless­
ness, lack of thoroughness, are crimes against self,
against humanity, that often do more harm than the
crimes which make the perpetrator an outcast from
society.
When a tiny flaw or a slight defect may cost a prec­
ious life, carelessness is as much a crime as deliberate
criminality. If everybody put conscience into his
work, did it completely and thoroughly, it would not
only reduce the loss of human life as well as save
valuable property, but would also give us a higher
quality of manhood and womanhood. It takes honest
work to make an honest character, as we have stated
before many times. The habit of doing poor, slovenly
work, will after a while make the worker dishonest in
other things. The man, or woman, boy or girl, who
habitually slights his work, slights his character, for
work is a part of us.
The majority of people think too much of quantity
and too little of quality. They often try to do too
much and do not do it well. We are trying in these
articles to impress upon our boys and girls in particular
the great necessity that they realize that the education,
No. 18
the comfort, the satisfaction, the general improvement
and bracing up of the individual comes from doing one
thing absolutely right, and continue to follow the plan
of doing whatever comes your way with precision,
which will outweigh in character, in self-respect, the
value that attaches to many thousands of poor, care­
less, botched jobs.
The mental and moral effect of half doing things; its
power to drag down, to demoralize, can hardly lie
estimated because the processes are so gradual, so
subtle.
This habit of carelessness applies so strongly to many
of us here at Chemawa, and is so reprehensible, that
we w’ish to impress upon you with all the force at our
command to take heed, for this habit of doing things
poorly will so demoralize our general character that
we will perform such a poor grade of work without
being conscious of it that it will result in stultifying
our sense of honor and finally render us unable to
realize how worthless we have become, and we will
not realize why we are such ignominious failures.
The person who habitually does things wrongly
will in time become really repulsive. His ideals are
dulled, his faculties palsied, ambition gone, deteriora­
tion occurs all along the line, for the human mechanism
is so constituted that whatever goes wrong in one part
effects the whole structure.
Students, watch your step—be thorough and do not
dodge nor slip in rotten hours nor rotten service. No­
body likes a rotter.
Y. M. C. A. NOTES
The Y. M. C. A. held a meeting in their quarters
on Sunday after supper. After a few songs the roll
was called and the house was open for the election of
officers, resulting as follows:
President, N. Stepetin; vice-president, William
Johnson; secretary, Chas. Wells; treasurer; John Edel­
man; sergeant-at-arms, Joe Webster; reporter, Walter
Metrokin.
The new officers appointed various committees. We
enjoyed talks by the new officers. After a short song
service we adjourned.