The Ironton News

Strive for Class B Rating

The late Dwight Morrow had this saying, which is often repeated by his friends: "You can divide all the members of the human race into two classes. There are the Class A people who get credit for what other people do, and there are the Class B people who do the things for which the Class A folks get the credit." And he added: "A wise decision is to try to keep your membership in Class B. You accomplish more, and there is much less competition."

His career contained plenty of proof that he took his own medicine. Some of us, who were close to him during the war and in his subsequent activities as Ambassador to Mexico and as delegate to the Disarmament Conference in London, know how often the idea was Morrow's, while the glory went, with his full approval, to some one with more medals and gold braid.

The yen for popular acclaim is normal and provides the steam that turns a lot of wheels. Men will work to be praised, and to have their wives and children think they are Big Stuff. Every move in statesmanship finds a dozen gentlemen, each of whom will tell you that he was the one who did the arranging. In a business organization, if a new idea succeeds, you learn that every officer from the President down was the genius who conceived it.

Seven cities claimed Homer after he was dead. The proponents of a dozen candidates have tried to steal the fame of Shakespeare. Class A is always full. Meanwhile down in Class B a few quiet spirits keep in the shadows and pull the strings. They operate on the basis of the old Jesuit motto: "A great deal of good can be done in the world if one is not too careful who gets the credit." They are not crowded, and they claim to have a lot of fun.