A Message to Garcia

In Hubbard's booklet lies the secret of service. It sounds simple, but so few people are able to swallow their giant egos to do it. Using the true story of a messenger in the Spanish-American War as an example, Hubbard teaches this lesson: when a superior asks you to do something -- no matter how difficult or crazy or impossible it may sound -- just go get it done. Hubbard reminds that, in a society where authority is too often degraded, conformity can be good. The message of Hubbard's commentary on Col. Rowan's mission is not to do what you are told without question, but to think for yourself. What Col. Rowan did was amazing. He was asked to carry a message from President McKinley to an insurgent leader in Cuba named Garcia. This was leading up to the Spanish-American War and Cuba was hostile territory. If captured, Rowan would be shot by the Spanish. What you now know about Rowan's mission is what he knew at the time he took it up. And he succeeded! Hubbard's lament is that all employees are not more like Col. Rowan.

Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 -1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. He was an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts movement and is, perhaps, most famous for his essay A Message to Garcia. Owing to his prolific publications, Hubbard was a renowned figure in his day. Contributors to a 360-page book published by Roycrofters and entitled In Memoriam: Elbert and Alice Hubbard included such luminaries as meat-packing magnate J. Ogden Armour, business theorist and Babson College founder Roger Babson, botanist and horticulturalist Luther Burbank, seed-company founder W. Atlee Burpee, ketchup magnate Henry J. Heinz, National Park Service founder Franklin Knight Lane, success writer Orison Swett Marden, inventor of the modern comic strip Richard F. Outcault, poet James Whitcomb Riley, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elihu Root, evangelist Billy Sunday, political leader Booker T. Washington, and poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Hubbard is an ancestor of singer Brodie Foster Hubbard. Another book which was written by Mr. Hubbard is entitled "Health and Wealth". It was published in 1908 and includes many short truisms that are in line with the Truth movement and Transcendentalists concerning using intelligence to rid one of fear and, thus, to bring the body back to health and happiness which leads to true wealth through service to others.