Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Fire Underwriters Association of the Northwest Volume 26 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ...it were more prudent to say mostly made. He will be trained in his profession, commencing near the lower round of the ladder. In it he will acquire the habit of wide observation, and thorough discipline and knowledge. His grasp will extend beyond the mere technique of the business, and take in conditions of finance and trade; the study of men and movements, and their relations to the general enterprise in hand. With quick perceptions, he will combine a spirit of aggressive enterprise and persevering energy. He must possess fertile resources and virility of character; for with 1805. t our frontiers obliterated, the country settling down to fixed and stable conditions, no new lands to explore, capital hungry for employment, and men eager for place, he must cope with a competition not hitherto met, and growing intenser each day. He will be a man of details, never losing sight of the small things in the business. His knowledge of geography will be minute. His bad lands will be thoroughly charted; his debatable grounds carefully surveyed, and his fruitful fields assiduously cultivated. His attitude toward competitors will be that of honorable cooperation in associated efforts, suffering neither selfish prejudices nor aggrandizing purposes to isolate his influence in measures for the general good. He will be a man of economy; for in the more careful ways the future will enforce, neither capital nor the public will tolerate an expense ratio that many consider legitimate to-day. He will be no specialist, working along narrow lines, expecting to avoid the experience inseparable from existing conditions, or the discoverer of remedies for the cure of all difficulties the profession encounters; for the business which he is to direct must be organized on a...