Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 3 (1876 - 1882)

Lt 44, 1879

Glenn, W. N.

1879

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother [W. N.] Glenn:

I feel deeply in regard to the office at Oakland. While in Oregon some things were shown me in the night season upon two different occasions. I was shown that the dreams given were of God, but they were not carried out by all. No one man should have the control of matters there in the office unless that one were fully qualified. There are a large amount of means sunk in the office by paying higher wages for labor than are at all necessary. Brother Glenn makes a failure here. At the wages now given to the hands, the office would soon eat up itself. There is a gathering together of hands—more than are required for the work. 3LtMs, Lt 44, 1879, par. 1

Brother Glenn, you may not realize this that I am about to write, but as it has been presented before me I will not withhold it. You are not a financier. You fail to counsel because you feel that you can discern all the liabilities and the consequences better than any other one. This is a mistake. In employing and discharging hands you make a great mistake. In working nights you unfit yourself for clear and undimmed intellect through the day so that you have not the healthful vigor of mind to plan and execute. Your powers are enfeebled by night work. With proper management there might be but very little night work. Your gas bills are enormous. These outgoes are not realized. 3LtMs, Lt 44, 1879, par. 2

Those who are employed are paid too high wages, and your night work unfits you to see through the day that they work to the best advantage. To have less help and let the work drive your hands would be better economy and better for your hands. To have too many hands has a demoralizing influence upon those at work, and again it takes a very large income to pay them. As it is, it would be better for the office were there no job work done. But if the job work were managed upon a close, economical plan, it would be a financial success. You get in a drive and employ hands, but when the drive is over they are still retained at high pay, when not positively necessary. You seem to have no faculty to say, “You are no longer needed.” 3LtMs, Lt 44, 1879, par. 3

Brother Glenn, your night work is disqualifying you to think and act with quickness and with sound judgment. You should take your full amount of sleep and bring matters in a shape where you can do this. 3LtMs, Lt 44, 1879, par. 4