PUBLISHER’S NOTES. 
the idea took root and grew. Year after 
year the Prudential added to its number of 
policyholders and all the time the company 
was working out a more liberal basis for its 
democratic idea. But each time a more lib- 
eral policy was offered, it was fully tested. 
“Progress with strength” is the way Presi- 
dent Dryden describes the company’s prin- 
ciple of growth—the results, clearly, of vis- 
ion and prudence. At the end of ten years 
of this method of growth, the company 
reached the point where, it was believed, in- 
surance could be safely offered for any 
amount with premiums payable on any plan, 
either in weekly instalments or at longer 
periods. Within the five years, 1886 to 1890, 
inclusive, the company’s assets increased 
nearly five fold, from $1,040,816 to $5,084,- 
895, and the amount of insurance in force 
from $40,266,445 to $139,163,654. 
The Prudential had found itself. The 
idea of democratic insurance had been fully 
tested and adjusted to the needs and condi- 
tions of the American people. Then, with a 
boldness which only large vision could have 
quickened, the plan was formed to make the 
Prudential’s idea known in every section of 
the country. Gibraltar was chosen as the 
symbol of the company’s strength, and ad- 
vertising—the telling of the Prudential idea 
to the people--was begun. 
The Prudential publicity is accompanied 
by wise promotion from a field force of 
over 12,000, some of whom have been with 
the company for over a quarter of a cen- 
tury, working in almost every state of the 
Union. They have the zeal of Crusaders 
and it is kept at ardent pitch through an or- 
ganization that could not fail to produce a 
wonderful esprit de corps. Wise direction 
and constant encouragement come from the 
home office, and then the company’s agents 
are grouped in districts, under superintend- 
ents and assistant superintendents, mana- 
gers, general agents and special agents, and 
in each district a strong spirit of emulation 
is developed by human contact and co-oper- 
ation. Weekly meetings are held, and the 
problems of wisely presenting insurance are 
discussed. Comparative records of the 
men are kept in many districts, and prizes 
are offered for those writing the largest vol- 
ume of business, for those making the great- 
est individual increase, and for many other 
contests. This wholesome rivalry produces 
an alertness and industry which are to the 
company an invaluable asset in human effi- 
ciency. A few weeks after this magazine ap- 
pears, probably 2,000 agents of the Pruden- 
tial—those who have made the best records 
for the year—will be brought to Newark 
from all parts of the country. They will, of 
course, visit the home offices and come in 
contact with the directing center of their 
wonderful organization. 
And, after all, there is no place where one 
453 
feels the greatness of the Prudential quite 
so much as in the vast granite piles which 
have been raised for the company’s home 
buildings. They rise above the Jersey mea- 
dows as Gibraltar does above the sea, a 
convincing witness, surely, to the growth 
and to the strength of the Prudential. But 
they are not a cold, gray rock, but a living 
organism throbbing from vital contact with 
millions of policyholders. There are now 
four of these great buildings, all occupied by 
the company. In one of them is the Pruden- 
tial’s publishing plant, which, in equipment, 

THE WHIRL OF THE ENGINES. 
surprising as this may seem, is equal to that 
of almost any publishing house in the coun- 
try. Millions of booklets, two publications 
for the company—one, “The Prudential,” 
with a circulation of more than two mil- 
lions—and the policies are all printed here, 
~ besides no end of commercial printing for 
the home office and for the district agencies. 
The big composing room, the pressroom, 
with its eighteen presses, the bindery with 
its folding, cutting, sewing and numbering 
machines, are models of cleanliness and 
light. But, for that matter, all the build- 
ings are as spick and span as a man-o’-war. 
There are subways, well lighted, under the 
streets, connecting the different buildings. 
In every way there has been, in the arrange- 
ments, a conservation of energy and time 
to produce economy and efficiency in carry- 
ing on the company’s vast business. As in- 
dicating how vast that is, the mail coming 
to and going from the Prudential is nearly 
as large as for all the rest of Newark, a 
city with more than 250,000 population and 
of great industrial importance. The mailing 
department is really a big city post office. 
