The Harvester World: Volume 5, number 3, March 1914

              IHC Service  Bureau

THE SPIRIT OF THE THING By Edwin L. Barker

Spirit, personality — call it what you will — has much to do with success. This is just as true in business as it is in our other wanderings.
During the past few months IHC Service Bureau service has created a distinct spirit or personality with the public. It has established itself. It has made its way into the minds and hearts of the heads of banks, commercial clubs, boards of trade, schools, colleges, and other institutions which are working for their own good by working for the general good.
The IHC Service Bureau has projected a friendly spirit of co-operation and a fielp-one-another personal¬ ity. Usually we get back what we give out. The only love we keep is the love we give away. If we would have others help us, we must help them.
The response to our spirit and personality is true and generous. Those working for the greater good of their localities have seen the extended hand of I H C Service Bureau service, and they have recognized it as a help¬ ing hand. Hundreds of letters keep coming to us from every corner of America. These letters are filled with words of praise, and in nearly every case the words are backed with checks for books, lectures, slides, photo¬ graphs, and the other lines of service.
These letters and checks, and the spirit which accom¬ panies them, have firmly established the IHC Service Bureau with a large, co-operating public. To reach the millions who should be reached would be an almost endless task. No institution can reach everybody. The next best thing is to co-operate—to reach those who are interested in the things in which we are interested. This is what the IHC Service Bureau is doing. Stand¬ ing alone we are not very much, and standing alone we cannot do a very large work, but standing with the leaders and co-operating with the leaders, there is no limit to our possibilities. And so the good work is going forward. It is like a chain letter. We reach our friends, and our friends reach their friends, and their friends reach their friends.
The hands that are extended to meet ours are many, and they are such eager, willing, friendly hands. It would be good if every Harvester World reader could sit in the bureau office for, say, just a month; if they could read the letters we read, feel the spirit in them, and understand the friendship that is growing up and around IHC, and all that these letters stand for. But, sad to say, you can't see all that we see, or feel all that we feel. You are busy carrying other messages. So, we are going to do what we can to let you catch a little of the spirit which falls out of the daily mail.
Looking at the IHC Service Bureau service from the standpoint of the banker, we find that A. L. Burney, president of the bank of Harrison ville, Missouri, thinks we "are rendering a great service to the people," and, says Mr. Burney, "we want to help you to get close to as many of our people as you can possibly reach." The Farmers and Merchants' bank at Richland Center, Wisconsin, bought a number of I H C Service Bureau books, and requested that we give this bank exclusive right in the distribution of books from that city. Chas. N. Converse, president Citizens' State bank at Altoona,
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Kansas, writes: "I have read with interest about your Service Bureau service, and here goes for a trial order." He enclosed a check for 100 copies of "The Story of Bread" and 100 copies of "The Golden Stream." Chas. H. May, president of the Birch Run, Michigan, State bank, is "greatly impressed with the service which you promise, and I am convinced that it will prove of great value." G. S. Willard, cashier of the Bank of Pink Hill, North Carolina, stops in his work long enough to congratulate us upon the timely topics of our worth-while books, and to order a shipment of them for distribution. The Traverse State bank, of Traverse City, Michigan, saj-s, "the work you are doing toward the general advancement of education along agricultural and industrial lines cannot be met with too much enthusiasm and co-operation, and when¬ ever this bank can be of service to you, please do not hesitate to call on us." The State bank of Austin, Colorado, is of the opinion that "you are giving the country a service that is of the greatest value." W. E. Heginbothan, president of the First National bank, Holyoke, Colorado, writes, "We should all be inter¬ ested in the class of work you are trying to promote;" and the president of the Exchange National bank, Spokane, Washington, Edwin T. Coman, puts it this way: "The work that you are doing in a broad way should go far toward overcoming the prejudice that is being constantly aroused against those who are doing business on a large scale."
The schools and colleges always have been close fol¬ lowers of I H C Service Bureau service, and the co¬ operation we are receiving from these institutions is really wonderful. The other day, Chas. McKenny, president of the Michigan State Normal College, wrote, "I have followed the development and work of the IHC Service Bureau since its inception, and I am glad to commend its purpose and its achievement." The county superintendent of schools at Hampden Sidney, Virginia, after saying that he is very much interested, adds, " We are on the same road, going toward the same goal." The county superintendent of schools at Frederick, Oklahoma, explains how glad he is to know about IHC Service Bureau service by saying, "I am planning for an educational campaign along the very lines you offer through your service."
"Yours is certainly work along the right lines and should be of interest to every commercial club in the country." So writes J. R. Williamson, secretary of the commercial club at La Grande, Oregon; and the commercial club at Portland says, "We cannot refrain from complimenting the International Harvester Com¬ pany for its really broad-gauge work that is unques¬ tionably doing tremendous good." Carson Hildreth, chairman of the Agricultural development commission of Nebraska, is pleased with the service, and adds that " if at any time I can help in your splendid work, please^ call on me."
We could quote many hundred such letters from busi¬ ness and professional men, religious, civic and financial organizations, from libraries, farmers, students, and editors.
The motto which accompanies the IHC Service Bureau service has been reprinted in many newspapers and magazines.    If you have not seen it, it may be
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