Harvard Business School Club August 1, 1956 Mr. President and Gentlemen: I just finished reading in "Arizona Progress", a publication of the Valley National Bank in Arizona, an article which starts out with the title "Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen" and continues to say: "These are the most ominous words in our language. They are the forerunner of more boredom and anguish, both mental and physical, than any others known to man. They mean that someone is about to launch into a speech. This is usually preceded by a meal of sorts and some precautionary doses of Old Pain Killer to dull the agony. "We often ask ourself, rhetorically, why anyone in his right mind ever makes a speech. And Echo always answers with ghoulish laughter that "No one does". But, not being very bright, we continue to accept invitations, sweat out the preparation, lose sleep, ruin our digestion, and then profess pleasure at the opportunity of addressing such a distinguished assemblage." Excluding informal remarks, stints of presiding at meetings and such lesser transgressions, I have committed the sin mentioned above some 57 times since January 1, 1956, by giving a formal speech on the average of one every 2.6 working days. In that time I will confess to you confidentially that I have some times spoken about subjects about which I knew little and many times on subjects about which I knew nothing. It therefore comes as a welcome relief to me to have the opportunity of talking to you about the construction industry. and more particularly about what we are trying to do in the Utah Construction Company. If I may, I should like to dispose of the construction industry generally in fairly short order. In 1955 as in 1954 the construction industry generally in the United States experienced the paradox of setting new highs in the volume of work performed as well as new highs in the number of business failures in