The Final Supreme Effort



The annual statement of the company at the end of the year showed beyond
the peradventure of a doubt that the company had kept the faith, but it
was left with a very attenuated surplus. Then business began to grow by
leaps and bounds. The bread which had been cast upon the waters was
returning and another problem now confronted the company - to protect
the reserves on the rapidly increasing income. This required a working
surplus and meant more assessments which seemed to be adding insult to
injury. The stockholders had already provided the funds to pay losses
and to now ask for more money for any other than loss-paying purposes,
gallant as was the spirit of those directly interested, seemed
dangerous. The directors and some of the more prominent stockholders met
informally and discussed the situation and the concensus of opinion was
that the honor of the company demanded that it continue to the end to
accomplish to the fullest that for which so many financial sacrifices
had been made - to take any other course, to discontinue, to fall down,
or to break faith with those who had given us their confidence would be
suicidal. In this deduction proof was given of the sound judgment and
business acumen of those who bore the brunt of the burden in those hot
days of battle. They took the position that the reputation which the
company had already builded was an asset of almost unlimited value and
realized that the peak of the mountain was just a few steps further on -
that summit from which the company could look out upon the valley of
success and reap the full reward for all the sacrifices its stockholders