The Argosy, June 1904 — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

a record of growth that is without precedent in insurance and that is hard to match in the whole range of mdus- try. The rise of the Prudential to greatness reads like a romance in big figures, but, in fact, it is a record of business expansion that has been as natural as the growth of an oak. The corn crop of the country seems too big for comprehension until one sees the vast fields of the Middle West, and then it appears as simple as the growth of a single stalk. So with the Pruden- tial. To sav that, in ten years, the com- pany’s income grew from something more than $9,000,000 a year to more than $39,000,000 last year Js amazing as & general state- ment, but when made in relation to the broad principles on which that growth has heen based, | it becomes ax much a matter of course as the corn crop. There is no taystery about it; but there is in it, from the day when the principles were plant- ed in Newark until these great harvest days, the genuine American spirit of achievement, strong. hopeful, and cxpan- SIVC. The Prudential In- surance Company of America is a na- tional institution. It was founded to provide msurance for the American people on the broadest possible basis consistent with strength and safety. It does not write insurance abroad. In the fullest sense it) has worked out the democratic idea of sate im- surance for the great masses of thie American people. It has adjusted its policies to Ainerican conditions: it has based its dividends on the earning power of American investments: it has placed its premitun rates on the Amer- ican tables of vital statisties; ina word. it was intended to be and it has become an insurance company for the American people. And they have met the Prudential’s broad American prin- THE ARGOSY —ADVERTISING SECTION. ciples with « broad Americ ‘an support, and, as a result, the company’s marvel- ous growth has come as naturally as the . full ear on the stalk. But, as the full cur is always on a stalk that has been cultivated, so, too, the growth from the Prudential’s principles has come through their spread by an organiza- tion that is a marvel of effici lency. And right here is the most stirring chapter of the Prudential’s rise to greatness. Just as Grant and Lee or- eanized their armies, or as Kouropatkin und Yamagata plan their campaigns in Asia, so does the Prudential work out its national insurance propaganda. The cvompanys organization 18 essen- tially military. It is a wonderful com- hination of big grasp and outlook with the most painstaking thoroughness and system in details. And, as is always the case in every org ranization that throbs thr oughout with intelligent en- ereyv, there is a man at the center of it. This man has a constructive imagina- tion hghting up a New England brain. To business prudence there is added the large vision which sweeps the hori- zon for opportunity. Naturally, to such a vision the application of the democratic idea to insurance was an opportunity of the first magnitude. When seen, if was grasped and devel- oped. The Prudential was founded. In the most careful way, its idea was tested, Just as the Secretary of Agricul- PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG COnniclo@oo ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED