NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION O1~ I~IRE CHIEFS
So he went to the boxing match that night, and when it was. over, his
friends brought, him home, with four or five teeth miss.~rig, both eyes. dosed
and black, and he was hardly able to walk. His wife s)id:, -. "
"I knew it; I knew it. Look at what they did to you. ~It’s awful."
And he said: "Oh, no; you don’t half understand it. I won. I have
to meet the next guy tomorrow night!" (Laughter.)
Then, there is "Efficiency." Suppose these men who serve in the Fire
Fighting Forces of our communities’. were to just sit there and wait for the bell
to ring, and when it rang, take off and without any previous thought as. to what
they were doing, where would you and I be?
But,’ no. They spend their time making sure that before the bell rings,
all of the equipment which they will need is. availal~le and in its proper place,
and awaiting its proper use. And, it i~ because of this et~iciency that when
they arrive at the scene o5 the action, the results are so satisfactory.
Efficiency, too, covers all fields of endeavor. Every time you tell a story,
you know, you are apt to step on somebody’s toes, and I want to tell you a
story about efficiency that doesn’t step on anybody’s toes but mine, and I
don’t object.
It seems that there was a clothing store proprietor who had thousands
suits on his racks. And one of those suits was. a monstrosity; it was a sort of
a purple background, with a yellow check and a green stripe; and, needless to
say, it didn’t move from the racks. It was. there for years.
One day, when he came down from lunch, it was gone.
So he asked his efficient salesman what had happened to. that suit, and did
he put it in the storehouse.
The efficient salesman said:
No; I sold it."
"You sold it?"
"Yep."
"For how much?"
"For the full tab."
"Do you mean that somebody walked in here and paid the full price for
that thing?"
"That’s right."
’"And didn’t make-any argument about it?"
"Not a bit. He liked the feeling of the material; it fit him well, and he
took it and paid for it, and went out very happy~ He didn’t object at all."
"He didn’t object to it at all?"
~’No; but I thought his see-eye dog would bite me!" (Laughter.)
M for ’~Methodical." It almost ties up with "Efficiency." It is the method
whereby you operate that makes the difference. Just stop and think of all the
wonderful results that have been achieved, by way of fire prevention, from
the training the firemen-receive. It is~by_ methodical procedures’, that all
success is achieved.
I think that I would like to tell you; in connection with that, of the housewife
who was very methodical about roxming the kitchen and every department
of the home. She read somewhere that the greatest and cheapest source of
iron and protein fp..r ._the diet were pr~ries, s~’she went out and bought a bushel
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