employee--and worked lies, deceptions,
into the building.

The majority of railroad wrecks, of disasters on land and sea, which
cause so much misery and cost so many lives, are the result of
carelessness, thoughtlessness, or half-done, botched, blundering work.
They are the evil fruit of the low ideals of slovenly, careless,
indifferent workers.

Everywhere over this broad earth we see the tragic results of botched
work. Wooden legs, armless sleeves, numberless graves, fatherless and
motherless homes everywhere speak of somebody's carelessness,
somebody's blunders, somebody's habit of inaccuracy. The worst crimes
are not punishable by law. Carelessness, slipshodness, lack of
thoroughness, are crimes against self, against humanity, that often do
more harm than the crimes that make the perpetrator an outcast from
society. Where a tiny flaw or the slightest defect may cost a precious
life, carelessness is as much a crime as deliberate criminality.

If everybody put his conscience into his work, did it to a complete
finish, it would not only reduce the loss of human life, the mangling
and maiming of men and women, to a fraction of what it is at present,
but it would also give us a higher quality of manhood and womanhood.

Most young people think too much of quantity, and too little of quality
in their work. They try to do too much, and do not do it well. They
do not realize that the education, the comfort, the satisfaction, the
general improvement, and bracing up of the whole man that comes from
doing one thing absolutely right, from putting the trade-mark of one's
character on it, far outweighs the value that attaches to the doing of
a thousand botched or slipshod jobs.

We are so constituted that the quality which we put into our life-work
affects everything else in our lives, and tends to bring our whole
conduct to the same level. The entire person takes on the
characteristics of one's usual way of doing things. The habit of
precision and accuracy strengthens the mentality, improves the whole
character.

On the contrary, doing things in a loose-jointed, slipshod, careless
manner deteriorates the whole mentality, demoralizes the mental
processes, and pulls down the whole life.

Every half-done or slovenly job that goes out of your hands leaves its
trace of demoralization behind. After slighting your work, after doing
a poor job, you are not quite the same man you were before. You are
not so likely to t