A scout is obedient. "He obeys his parents, scout master, patrol leader, and all other duly constituted authorities."
The English version of this law contains the following explanatory paragraph in addition: "Even if he gets an order he does not like, he must do as soldiers and sailors do, he must carry it our all the same because it is his duty; and after he has done it, he can come and state any reasons against it; but he must carry out the order at once. That is discipline."
Whenever men have work to do together, like managing a ship or performing military tactics, it is necessary that they should act as a unit, or as if all the separate men were parts of one organization under the direction of one guiding mind.
This principle of organic unity adds efficiency to all cooperative work, that is, to all work which is done by people combining together for a common object.
The case of a ship's company is a convenient instance of this sort of thing; but, with certain modifications in their regulations and manners, the same general principles apply to banks, factories, and all sorts of institutions that employ a considerable number of people.
The authority of a captain on board ship is supreme, but this does not mean that he must close his mind to the opinions of his subordinate officers and be obstinate and self-willed in having his own way. It means always that the responsibility of all decisions rests with him, and this he cannot delegate to anybody else. As he cannot do all the work of the ship himself, he is obliged to have officers and petty officers, engineers, cooks, stewards, and seamen, under his command. The captain should understand, as far as possible, every detail of the ship's work so as to know whether it is properly done or not. If it is not properly done, he is responsible for seeing that the error is corrected, either by putting another person in charge or by training the same person to do better. With a wise and capable captain and a good crew, a ship becomes a school in which many different men are taught many different things, and a happy ship is one of the happiest places in the world; but the chief thing required, and that which makes all the others possible, it the habit of obedience and discipline.
It s a mistake to imagine that, because he really gives all the orders, the captain himself is not obliged to submit to discipline. In the first place, unless he had been through the inferior grades of service with credit, and so shown that he knew how and was willing to obey, he could never have reached the chief command; and, in the second place, his responsibility makes a more sever tax upon his judgment and conscience than mere obedience to the orders of a superior officer. In serious matters, and in cases of emergency, when there is time, a good captain consults and listens to the advice of other men on board. This is a habit of all open-minded men which they use as a check on their own judgments; but it does not in the least interfere with the responsibility of the captain for the course which he determines to pursue, and which he alone has the authority to order. Responsibility and authority go together.
At sea and in war time, breaches of discipline or obedience are punished with great severity, because the fate of a whole ship's company or of a whole army may depend upon the way in which an order is carried out; but in business and industrial enterprises, the need of discipline is just as great, if the highest efficiency is to be reached; and usually the highest efficiency for the concern as a whole means the best training and schooling for the individual.
Some people think that obedience is either a childish, or a slavish, or a mean quality, but this shows great ignorance of its practical workings and the splendid results that it brings about. If obedience is from fear or merely for the sake of getting something for one's self, then it is mean and selfish; but when it is the result of voluntary love of principle and order and a desire for the welfare of other people beyond our own, then it is one of the most noble and happy virtues.
The best commanders or leaders like to have intelligent criticism upon their orders, provided the carrying out of present plans is not interfered with. Any member of the force who honestly believes that an order which he receives is a mistake should report his opinion to his immediate supervisor as soon as possible after the order has been thoroughly carried out! If he should prove to be right, he may favorably affect future plans, while at the same time he has done nothing to prevent the success of present operations.
As a general thing, the men who obey their officers with the greatest alacrity and force are those who have already learned to obey their own consciences.
"He that ruleth the spirit is better than he that taketh a city."
He that ruleth his own spirit is better because he requires to give orders to himself as well as to obey them, -- he must be at one with himself and concentrated upon the true aim of his life; whereas a city may be taken by soldiers who, from obedience to their commander, are enabled to carry out a larger and a wiser plan than they themselves could conceive. In the latter case, obedience is good and indispensable for the conquest of material and perishable things; in the former, it is part of an interior combination of responsibility, conscience, and obedience which we call character and which is powerful enough, by God's help, to overcome all the "principalities and powers" which injure and weaken men's souls.
It is a very common thing for boys to think that they cannot do things when the truth is that they don't want to. It is an unconscious excuse for laziness, and it is easy enough to be as stupid as one pleases when one does not want to take the trouble to observe, and understand, and act. Many people would rather suffer great discomfort than undergo what to them is still greater discomfort of having to exert themselves; and so, when they are asked to do something, they make the most of their ignorance and inability.
"John, go and ask Frank to come and speak to me."
"Where is Frank? What do you want to see him for? Joe's right here; won't he do as well?"
A thousand such remarks as these come rushing up into the lazy and undisciplined mind, and so make it impossible for work to be promptly and efficiently carried out. There are many boys who have this habit of senseless opposition to anything that they may be asked to do, and it stands in the way of their success in every field and tends to make them more and more inefficient. When we have the spirit of obedience strongly developed, we are sometimes even willing to undertake things which we don not as yet know how to do, feeling confident in our ability to find out. We almost always know enough to make a beginning; and, if at first we do not know the rest, we can study and inquire until we do. In other words, obedience is nine tenths good-will; and, if that is strong enough, the ability will in the end take care of itself.
The spirit of obedience implies that we should obey the intentions of a given order, even if the order itself is inadequately expressed. In such a case a mean and undisciplined spirit will take advantage of the smallest mistake in an order as an excuse for not carrying it out thoroughly. On the other hand, it sometimes happens, under favorable circumstances, that a command may be carried out more completely than was considered possible at the time it was given, and this is obedience at its best. But, before we are able to carry out orders in such a manner as this, we must first learn to carry them out with the greatest possible accuracy, that is, -- to do just what we are told and nothing else. Without the ability to obey accurately and exactly, any attempt to improve on our orders whould only bring confusion.
The first form of authority with which we are confronted is that of our parents, and their claims upon our obedience are paramount until we are ourselves grown up; even then; we own them obedience whenever it does not conflict with the responsibilities which our maturity imposes upon us. The spirit of obedience to parents is what ancients called "piety," and it is a very sacred thing, partly because it is divinely ordained in the course of nature, and partly because it is one of the cornerstones of human society.
Obedience and respect for our parents is the nursery of respect of all sorts, and even of reverence for
God. A society in which respect for parents were totally lacking would be a weak and disorderly
herd of human animals, without dignity and without the power for growth. The element of reverence
is essential to the dignity of human life, and by rendering exact and willing obedience to our mothers
and fathers, we are not only making their lives happier, but we are preparing happiness for ourselves
in the future, when we may be fathers, with sons and daughters of our own.