Life — June 2, 1904 — page 36: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

country scems too big for comprehension until one sees the vast fields of the Middle W and then it appears as simple as the growth of a single stalk. So with the Prudential. To say that, in ten years, the company’s income grew from something more than $9,000.000 a year to more than $39,000,000 last year is amazing as a general statement, but when made in relation to the broad principles on which that growth has been based, it be- comes as much a matter of course as the corn crop. There is no mystery about it: but there is in it, from the day when the principles were planted in Newark until these great harvest days, the genuine American spirit of achicvement, strong, hopeful and ex- pansive. The Prudential Insurance Company of America is a national institution. It was founded to provide insurance for the Ameri- can people on the broadest possible basis, consistent with strength and safet ye t does not write insurance abroad. In fullest sense it has worked out the democratic idea of s fe insurance for the great masses of the American people. It has adjusted its airway Main Buildi policies to American conditions ; it has based its dividends on the earning power of Ameri- can investments; has pla d its premium rates on the American tables of vital statis- tics; in a word, it was intended to be and it has become an insurance company for the Life adv The Prudential Tower. American people. And they have met the Prudential’s bro: 1 American principles with « broad American support, and, as a result, the company’s marvelous growth has come But, as naturally as the full ear on the sta as the full ear is always on a stalk that been cultivated, so, too, the growth from the Pr their spread by an or; iential’s principles has come throu nization that is a marvel of efficiency And right here is the most stirring chapter of the Prudential’s rise to greatness. Just as Grant and 1 organized their armie or as Kouropatkin and Yamagata plan their campaigns in Asia, so does the Prudential work out its national insurance propaganda. The company’s organization is essentially military. It is a wonderful com- bi ion of big grasp and outlook with the most painstaking thoroughness and system in details. And, as is always the case in every organization that throbs throughout with intelligent energy, there is a man at the center of it. This man has a constructive ima; ination lighting up a New England brain. To business prudence there is added the large vi ion which sweeps the horizon for opportunity. Naturally, to such a vision the application of the democratic idea to insur- ance was an opportunity of the first magni- tude, When scen it was grasped and devel- oped. The Prudential was founded. In the most careful way its idea was tested, just as the Secretary of Agriculture tests seeds at the Government's experiment farms. Here was where prudence kept the large vision in proper focus. Gradually thg idea took root and grew. Year after year the Prudential added to its number of policy holders. And all the time the company was working out a more libe! basis for its democratic idea But each time a more liberal policy w: offered, it was fully tested. “Progress with strength” is the way President Dryden de- scribes the company’s principle of growth— the results, clearly, of v: ision and prudence At the end of ten years of this method of growth, the company reached the point where, it was believed, insurance could bq safely offered for any amount with premiums payable on any plan, cither in weekly install- Within the five years, 1886 to 1890 inclusive, the company’s ments or at longer periods. assets ncreased nearly five-fold, from $1,040,- 816 to $5,08. ance in force from $40,266,445 to $1 39,163,654 .895, and the amount of insur- The Prudential had found itself. The idea of democratic insurance had been fully tested and adjusted to the needs and conditions of the American people. Then, with a boldness which only large vision could have quick- ened, the plan was formed to make the Pru- denti ‘'s idea known in every section of the country. Gibraltar was chosen as the symbol of the company’s strength, and advertisin: the telling of the Prudential idea to the peo- ple—was begun. Section of Ordinary Policy Department, The Prudential publicity is accompanied by wise promotion from a ficld force of over 12,000, some of whom have been with the company for over a quarter century, work- ing in’ almost every State of the Union. They have the zeal of Crusaders and it is kept at ardent pitch through an organization comicbooks.com