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Show Page Two Despite the record Utah Construction & Mining has achieved, its entire net worth is still below General Electric's profits for the first quarter this year. As I looked at my new associates on the GE Board, I realized that Utah had less land than George Montgomery, less iron ore than Bud Humphries, less uranium than Dean McGee, and far less coal than Consolidation, though there is some recent evidence that George may have paniced when he saw us coming. When General Electric announced my election to the Board, they were careful to refer to me as "a mining executive", for they were too smart to admit that they had selected someone who was still, trying to find a way to make a living out of the construction business. Given all these facts, I finally concluded that what GE wanted in me was a utility outfielder someone who came cheap, could play a lot of positions and none of them very well. It reminds me of the time in my freshman days at Stanford University when I was invited to the home of one of the brothers in the fraternity to which I had just pledged. He said that he wanted me to meet his family and I arrived there on a warm sunny day expecting to meet the usual dignified San Francisco businessman. Instead, I was ushered out into the back yard where there were some 50 students sitting on the grass facing a gentleman sitting in a garden chair, clothed in black and white knickers, shabby high top shoes, loud wool socks, and a little cap sitting on the top of his gray curly hair. His son grabbed me by the arm, walked me up to this canvas throne, introduced me to the ruling potentate by saying: "Dad, I'd like to have you |