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SELLING LUMBER 



insured us against competition. Those were the days when we 

 began to grow the crop of block-heads who have so successfully 

 blockaded "business betterment." Those were the days when there 

 was supposedly no commercial conquest except by the sword. Those 

 were the days when salesmen were cringing peddlers pleading for 

 favors. Those were the days when meeting halls like this one 

 were crowded with critical competitors. Those are the days that 

 are gone, never to return. These are the days when men can get 

 together as co-operators, as you do here and now. Differing 

 though you do in your business duties you are yet one in your 

 purpose. Some of you are salesmen, some of you are sales-man- 

 agers, some of you are employers, but none of you have aspirations 

 for a monopoly on salesmanship, there are no charters on leader- 

 ship, no one of you feels able to get along without the rest of us. 

 We are each and all of us intent upon being mutually helpful to 

 one another, for the sake of the general betterment of business 



Let us begin our mutual 



Competitive 



Conditions through the betterment of salesmanship. 



Past and 

 Present 



helpfulness by mutual commendations. There are many here 

 who are to be commended for the opportunity that has been ac- 

 corded us of getting together those who have contributed their 

 money, those who have contributed their constructive ideas and 

 their time, those who are to contribute their addresses. It is not 

 easy to repay these men. Let us show them our gratitude by work- 

 ing with them as much as possible, rather than at cross purposes 

 with them. We are expected, of course, to have our individual 

 opinions about many things, nor can we altogether lose sight of 

 our personal interests, and each of us must plan to profit in some 

 way by being here ; but this is obviously no occasion for inconsid- 

 erate individualism, or purely private interests or independent 

 commercial exploitation. Let us therefore give our opinions 

 those of us who have them but let us be mostly mindful of the 

 general good the Betterment of Business through the Betterment 

 of Salesmanship. 



And remember that "Betterment" entails becoming "better" 

 and "better." You may be very comfortable with what you now 

 earn, but if you are not aggressively bent upon something better 

 your success is a question mark. Be satisfied where you are and 

 you are a destined dead loss you are a potential hobo you are 

 the makings of a "have-not." Stick in your rut and you are buried 

 alive. If you have not the courage to progress beyond the point 

 to which some good employer has led you, relinquish at once all 



