Keep up the good work.(From the JPM Archives: 1945)

Prior to the depression, the management business, except as a specialty in the big cities, did not amount to much. Then our late cousin, the depression, descended upon us--the unexpected, unwelcome guest who stayed with us for ten long years. Did I say unwelcome? Cousin Depression made our business with little help from us. The thousands of mortgage lending institutions all over the country found themselves owners, not mortgagees, and they knew nothing about how to handle the job. They turned to the Realtor, who turned to the Institute. We enjoyed prosperity and began to educate the public to our specialized business. We were a group of "professional men" not a trade organization. All this was quite rosy and lasted until the end of the depression. Then we began to sell the properties, and to a large extent forgot the steady income of the management business and our "profession" for the larger quick return of sales brokerage. In our anxiety to make sales, many of us neglected to try to keep our management.

Then the war. Meeting attendance dropped off. The national convention was cancelled. Result? Not good! Loss of business! Loss of interest! Members asked, "What do I get out of the Institute?" "Why should I be a member?"

About this time several very interesting things happened. The Institute began to emphasize the problem of how to go out and get business. Some rather academic criticism was heard that this was "unprofessional." We can not decay while waiting for bad times to throw good business at us. The Institute sponsored an advertising competition and some of us began to wake up and do things. Many of the advertising programs used by our members throughout the country are not just eye-catching "straws-in-the-wind." They are exciting, cash-on-the-line, supported punches to get business. They are evidence that we are taking an aggressive, healthy course to sell our professional business to the property-owning public, which during the depression was unnecessary ...

Then President Delbert Wenzlick came along. He decided not to wait for a pauper's grave but took the offensive. All of us may not agree with all of his ideas, but he went out into the field and met us in our own backyards. He kindled enthusiasm and reawakened our interest. Several new chapters were formed. And now we are working on some By-laws changes. Perhaps we haven't gone as far as some us wanted--but where there is new life, there is hope.

The Journal is in for a facelifting. Pictures and illustrations are coming into more use. Articles are to have new vigor. When all of us put this renewed effort into our own territories, the crises will be over. Go to it!

The depression sleigh ride is over. The shock of the sudden stop has passed, and we have started climbing the hill again. Keep moving, CPMs--keep moving--forward and upward--with caution on the downhill coasting.

Ormonde A. Kieb, Editorial Board

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