the efficiency of each man in the ship. You may think your job is a small one, but every man's job is small compared to the ship as a whole. Yet every job is of the utmost importance. Learn every detail of your duties at general quarters, and practice doing these duties perfectly every time you go to this station.

(b) Rating duties. The duties of your rating come next in importance to your military duties. You must be expert in them in order to be promoted. To become expert in them, you must work hard and study hard. You can not expect rapid promotion without effort on your part. If you do only what you are told to do, if you do not try to improve yourself by hard study and effort, you can never expect advancement in your profession. Doctors are made by years of hard study and several more years of hard work in hospitals before they can expect fair success in their profession. Men in other professions need years of study and then years of experience before they are considered good in their profession. But all of them have to keep on studying and practicing if they expect to stay good. No man can stay at the top of his form without continuous effort on his part. As soon as he stops his efforts to keep on improving himself, he gets into the well-known rut which steers him on a down grade to failure.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE

Accurate knowledge is necessary if you are to succeed in any job. Without accurate knowledge you waste time, bungle the job, and give everyone the impression that you are incompetent or worthless. Many of you have probably tried to overhaul an auto for the first time and without knowing much about it.

If you have,

you probably remember how long it took you, how greasy and dirty you got, how hard it was to put parts together, and how unsatisfactory the whole job was. You have also seen how a man who knew his job could take this same car, and in a short time, without getting particularly greasy or dirty, overhaul and put the car in fine shape. This is due to the man having accurate knowledge of his job. Now accurate knowledge can be obtained by every rating on board ship. There are training courses for each rating, issued free of charge to everyone. Use them. Do not try to learn by hard knocks and experience alone. That is slow and inefficient. The study of a good textbook for a few hours will probably teach you more electricity than Franklin learned in his whole life. In one month of study and practice you can learn more about your rating than you could learn in two years of "doing just what you are told,” and no more.

DISCIPLINE

Discipline teaches a man to do cheerfully, and without question, what he is told to do, to follow his leader, and to obey. A man has fine discipline when he gives instant and willing obedience to all orders, and, in the absence of orders, does what he believes the order would have been in the particular existing situation had he received one. Discipline does not mean short liberties, restrictions of personal conduct, and forced obedience to all sorts of rules and regulations. It means, rather, self-control, a cheerful obedience to necessary laws and regulations, and a square deal to your fellow man. By self-discipline you gain power to be a leader among men. Through discipline you wield a strong, unified power that means success in emergencies. Without

discipline a ship's company is but a disorganized mass of men. With discipline it is a mighty fighting force. You must learn discipline as you would learn a trade. It is the most important part of your most important duties your military duties.

RULES OF DISCIPLINE

(a) Obey orders cheerfully and willingly. (b) Obey the last order received from any respon

sible senior.

(c) Show respect to your seniors at all times.

QUESTIONS OF DISCIPLINE

Q. What is meant by obedience to orders?

A. It is a prompt, ready, zealous, and complete compliance with orders given. A slow, unwilling, partial compliance with orders is as bad as flat disobedience, and in such cases a guilty person should be reported. Q. What is the first principle of discipline?

A. A prompt obedience to the orders of superiors. Q. How is this obtained and enforced?

A. While it is often necessary to have recourse to punishment for those who deliberately violate orders, it must not be supposed that discipline and punishment go hand in hand and that one is dependent on the other. Discipline is obtained by a constant attention to the minor details of life on board ship; by requiring an absolute compliance with the details of all drills and evolutions, correcting and, if necessary, reporting every infraction of the regulations.

Q. Next to a strict obedience to orders, what always marks a well-disciplined ship's company?

A. Quickness of movement and complete absence of noise, confusion, and "singing out."

Q. What language is always improper on board ship?

A. Profane, abusive, obscene, loud, boisterous language, and noises, disturbances, or confusion of any kind.

THE NATURE OF AN ORDER AND THE NATURE OF A COMMAND

It is necessary to understand the difference between an order and a command. When an officer gives a man an order to perform a certain task, the officer considers that the man has some intelligence and initiative. He gives an order in such a way that the man is allowed some discretion in the manner in which the details of order will be executed.

But when an officer gives a man a command, the man is directed to perform a certain act in a certain definite way. The man is allowed no discretion in the manner in which the details will be executed.

An order contains no details of the way a task shall be accomplished, but a command does.