In few lines of commercial activity can unfilled wants go long without detection by enterprising Americans. Brains and capital are eagerly seeking fertile fields. There is more likelihood of overcrowding any field than of neglecting it. And when an article is devised which fills human need its producer, if he is wise, will spare no effort in placing its merits before the public. At this moment innumerable selling campaigns are going on, designed not only to supply demand, but to actually create it.

Conspicuous among these will soon be the nation-wide campaign to popularize trust service.

One of the greatest human needs in the land today is trust company service. The vast majority of people who need it, for their own profit and protection and for the welfare of their loved ones, are utterly unconscious of their need and ignorant of the benefits and safeguards which trust companies can confer.

What other human need so legitimate, so universal has been as ineptly exploited as trust company service? When one reflects upon the infinitely small proportion of men of property who are "sold" on the idea of employing the admirably organized facilities of a trust company,, not only for conserving estates, but also in creating them, he cannot help but question the enterprise and the salesmanship of trust companies.

Potential Appeal of Trust Companies Every man or woman of any property is, in life, a potential customer of a trust company. And the surest way to secure the handling of an estate after the death of its creator is to demonstrate to him during his life how efficiently the trust company can aid in building a substantial, well managed estate.

In ten years of intimate relationship with trust companies the country over I have had a rare opportunity to observe their methods, to appraise their mistakes and successes

and to analyze the causes thereof. As the result of my observation I believe I can truthfully say that the trust company idea will be a long time getting the recognition it richly deserves unless the principles of good salesmanship are applied in vastly greater degree than at present.

Better salesmanship should be introduced into trust company publicity and also into the personal contact of officers with prospective patrons.

In the average trust company legal ability is considered before sales ability. It is no reflection upon the average trust officer to say that his training has not leaned toward salesmanship. And yet, before a man wil! commit the interests of his heirs to a trust company rather than to a trusted friend he must be "sold" on the advantages of such a course. Somebody must do the selling. Do not most trust companies assume a watchful waiting attitude, and depend upon potential clients selling themselves? You will say no; that trust companies are consistent advertisers, and that advertising is salesmanship.

Misdirected and Ineffective Publicity

Some advertising, yes. But at best -it brings the client to the officers' desks only half sold and if he goes away without "closing" there is little attempt to keep his interest alive, or to whet it. Here is where salesmanship is sorely lacking. The enterprising 'manufacturer or dealer, even the investment broker, keeps on the trail of "prospects." Most trust companies hopefully wait for them to come back of their own accord.

Put trust company advertising literature to the test as "sales" literature and much of it will be found wanting. Much is too technical, too void of human interest to challenge the subconscious mind of the average potential client. It is sometimes difficult for trained legal minds, accustomed to the dignity and restraint of the bar, to approve the freer expression of sales litera

ture. But it must be remembered that this literature is not addressed to themselves but to people who are unfamiliar with legal expression. Too many trust officials insist on having their publicity prepared so that it will make an appeal to minds like their own, when, if they reflect, they would realize that it is designed for minds very different from theirs.

Balk at Technicalities

I fancy few trust company officers would listen with interest to conversation between two surgeons in which they employed the technical phrases little understood outside their profession.

In the drawing of trust agreements there might be considerably more salesmanship employed, for the other party to the agreement must be wholly "sold" on its terms before he will sign it. The harder it is for a client to understand an agreement drawn for him the more hesitant he is to sign it. Many a trust agreement has been held up indefinitely because its very phraseology made it hard for the client to bring himself to the point of putting his name on the dotted line before he buys.

I have often made the statement that if all the people in the United States who ought to employ the services of trust companies in their various capacities, attempted to do so of a sudden, there would not be half enough trust companies to take care of the business.

The ignorance of trust company functions that prevails among successful business and professional men is surprising. It is equally surprising how quickly these same men will respond to publicity of an educational character that they can comprehend. A certain well-to-do business man of my acquaintance related the following experience to me which indicates how much undeveloped business exists among men of his type. He was attending a wedding recently. After the ceremony a number of the guests, mostly prosperous men of the business world, retired to one of the rooms set aside for smoking. In some manner the conversation drifted to wills. My friend had recently made his will and the matter was fresh in his mind.

Of the eight men present he was the only one who had made his will, and he took pleasure in discussing the question from the layman's point of view. He pointed out how unbusinesslike it is for a man of family and means to allow the making of his will to be postponed; and how unwise to name an individual executor. During the following

week every one of those seven men either called on him or telephoned for more information, instead of going to a trust company. The result was that, to his knowledge, four eventually made their wills and nominated the trust company which he had himself selected as executor.

Putting Life into the "Living Trust"

I have been impressed with the farsightedness of one trust officer in a western city who said that he would rather have a living trust and the will of a business man than his commercial account, because he not only had his business during the man's lifetime, but for years after his death.

The living trust should be "sold" to the public in a much broader way than is at present being generally done. It should be the means by which large estates of the future are created. How responsive will people be if the trust companies prove to be the instruments by which they can more quickly and more surely create estates. How much surer will the trust companies be to secure the executorships of well-to-do men if they have thoroughly demonstrated to them while living men the efficient manner in which these estates will be handled.

There is one big natural advantage in favor of living trusts which is not being fully capitalized, and that is the desire on the part of every thinking man to create an estate, not only to leave at death, but to enjoy during his sojourn here.

Many men actually create estates in spite of the losses they sustain in their ventures. Many, many more men fail to create estates because of their inexperience in investing.

I was forcefully struck with a remark made to me by one of the officers of a leading investment house in New York. We were talking of investments and I mentioned a certain class of securities as being proper investments for widows and orphans, and others as business men's investments. He asked me what the difference was. 'I opined that a widow's investment should be one that required no watching, but that a business man seeks a higher rate of interest because he is in a position to watch his investments. My friend said, "Most business men watch their investments go down. Business men do not know how to make investments." Judging from my own experience, I endorse his statement.

Assisting in the Creation of Estates

I believe that trust companies, in addressing their appeals to the business public,

should eliminate as far as possible, technical terms. I am sure if trust companies would appeal to the business man on the basis of assisting him to actually create an estate, there would be much greater business for trust companies and they would certainly be performing an invaluable service. Appeals of this kind should meet with a quick response because every man is now engaged in the attempt to create an estate. Consequently a willingness on the part of the trust company to help him accomplish this object would be certain of appreciation.

Let me cite an example which is typical of thousands of similar cases. Twenty years ago I became acquainted with a young man who at that time was a boilermaker, employed in a small, one-story boiler factory in a mid-western city. Be it said of him that he was ambitious and a good workman. He saved his money and in due time, upon the death of his former employer, was able to buy the business from the estate. He then applied his natural business ability to enlarging the business. Today he is a man of fifty-five, with a wife and son and daughter. He is still a boilermaker, but not in the same sense that he was twenty years ago. His new factory covers half a block. Three hundred men are employed. He directs the business from his office and he is worth, net, approximately a million. His hands are large and rough, due to his early labors. He is not familiar with many of the finer things of life, because he has been educated in but few things, one of the most important of which is how to make money out of boil

ers.

This man has not made his will, nor has he established a trust of any nature. He has received booklets galore from trust companies, many of which speak a language that is Greek to him.

This man is an ideal customer for a trust company, and any trust company that straightens out his future affairs via the living trust and will route, will be doing a service to a fellowman that puts the joy in life.

The country is full of men such as he. Not all boilermakers, of course, but similar types, and yet trust companies are talking to them in a language that they do not understand.

System in Selling Trust Company Service

Successful salesmanship implies a "system" in putting sales across. There is a notable lack of system in trust company publicity-printed salesmanship. Newspaper advertising is rarely co-ordinated with

the printed publicity. Booklets are placed out in lobbies to be taken indiscriminately, and nobody knows who gets them or what prospects are thus initiated.

A prospect who responds to newspaper advertising should be "followed up" to the point of closing with printed literature of a kind that will actually "sell" him.

The "salesman" at the counter, whether he is trust officer of bears some other title, should have at hand a booklet for the inquirer to take away and read at his leisure, with which he can develop his information to a fuller extent than be accomplished in a personal interview.

In the metropolitan cities the trust companies are satisfied to secure the business of the wealthy and give little attention to the man whose means are at present moderate, but who will be the rich men of the future. Also, they center their effort largely upon securing appointment as executor and trustee for the estates of the wealthy and do not care for the business of those of moderate means. It would be in bad taste to criticize such policies.

But almost all new business effort of today bears its ripened fruit years hence. There are thousands of business men in New York City alone who enjoy large incomes, but who are not accumulating permanent estates by using the best means for capitalizing a portion of their earnings. There are thousands who "invest" without formulating safe investment policies.

There are wonderful opportunities for trust companies, not only in the metropolitan cities, but elsewhere, that will make it a policy to encourage custodianship, living trust and investment business from men

whose greatest achievement lies before them. And the companies that do this will be building as solidly for the future as do those who seek only the business of the wealthy, and particularly their post-mortem estates. For the trust company that puts it in the minds of men to create substantial estates and co-operates with them while doing so certainly stands the largest chance to administer these estates after their creators have passed on.

Now, on the threshold of a campaign of national scope for the awakening of the people to their need of trust company service it would be well for trust company officials to give serious thought to the matter of introducing more and better salesmanship in their publicity and personal contacts with the public. Those that do will cash in on the campaign.

The readers of TRUST COMPANIES Magazine are familiar with the plan of the community trust or foundation, its purpose, its success and its method of creation and operation. The proposed Uniform Trust for Public Uses is based upon the same general idea, viz: (1) a carefully prepared trust instrument with ample powers designed to meet all future contingencies; (2) a corporate trustee, and (3) where necessary a committee for distribution.

The two plans, however, differ in certain particulars:

First: The Community trust is usually available for only one or a limited number of corporate trustees. The Uniform trust is open to all corporate trustees.

Second: The Community trust is designed for charities of a local character. The Uniform trust is designed for all public charities, whether a particular charity, a community charity or a world-wide charity.

Third: The Community trust calls for a single committee of local persons. The Uniform trust may call for many committeessome local, some national, some world-widedepending on the purpose of the trusts created.

Fourth: The Community trust calls for appointment of committee by local officials. The Uniform trust calls for appointment by or under the authority of the donor or by the co-operative action of local or charitable organizations, as the case may be, in a manner satisfactory to the trustee.

The machinery for the management of the trust property in both cases is substantially the same.

Advantages of the Uniform Trust Therefore, the Uniform Trust for Public Uses will have several advantages, namely: I. It will open up a new and important field for corporate trusteeships and embrace all charities.

II. It will be available to every corporate trustee.

III. It will be available for every community.

IV. It will be available for all trust purposes whether local, nation-wide or worldwide.

V. It will make uniform and standardize trusts for all public uses and thus prevent much unnecessary litigation.

VI. It will secure the co-operation of organized charity with corporate trustees in the solicitation and care of charitable endowments.

VII. It will make safe and easy the flow of surplus wealth to all wise and practicable public uses.

The preparation of such a uniform plan involves two specially difficult tasks, both of a legal nature. In the first place the plan must be such as shall be legal in every State. In the second place the machinery for the selection of committees and the removal of obsolete or unfaithful committees must be more or less self-acting and calculated to deal with a multitude of situations. These difficulties must be solved to the satisfaction of the best legal talent in the country and be acceptable to the lay mind. As intimated at the Mid-Winter Conference of the Trust Companies when this subject was under discussion the second tentative draft of the proposed resolution for the declaration of the Uniform Trust for Publice Uses has been formulated. It is now in the hands of counsel and certain trust company officials for suggestion and revision.

Organized charity is also taking an active interest in the perfection of the trust. As recently expressed by a prominent clergyman connected with a nation-wide charity, "We are living in an age of big things and it looks as if you have a very wise program."

The Union & Planters Bank and Trust Company of Memphis, Tenn., have issued in booklet form the complete text of the Transportation Act of 1920 governing operation of railroads. The text is conveniently indexed and copies may be secured by communicating with the company.