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Listen to Jorgenson's Speech
It's good to see so many familiar faces, so
many old friends. Some of you I haven't
seen in years. Thank you for coming.
Bill Coles, our able
President, in the annual report has told you of our year, of what we
accomplished, of the need for further improvements, our business goals for
next year and the years beyond.
I'd like to talk to you about
something else. I want to share with you some of my thoughts concerning the
vote that you're going to make in the company that you own.
This proud
company, which has survived the death of its founder, numerous recessions,
one major depression, and two world wars, is in imminent danger of
self-destructing -- on this day, in the town of its birth.
There is the
instrument of our destruction. I want you to look at him in all of his
glory, Larry "The Liquidator," the entrepreneur of post-industrial
America, playing God with other people's money.
The Robber Barons of old at least left
something tangible in their wake -- a coal mine, a railroad, banks. This
man leaves nothing. He creates nothing. He builds nothing. He runs
nothing. And in his wake lies nothing but a blizzard of paper to cover the
pain. Oh, if he said, "I know how to run your business better than you,"
that would be something worth talking about. But he's not saying that.
He's saying, "I'm going to kill you because at this particular moment in
time, you're worth more dead than alive."
Well, maybe that's true, but it is
also true that one day this industry will turn. One day when the yen is
weaker, the dollar is stronger, or, when we finally begin to rebuild our
roads, our bridges, the infrastructure of our country, demand will
skyrocket.
And when those things happen, we will still be here,
stronger because of our ordeal, stronger because we have survived. And the
price of our stock will make his offer pale by comparison.
God save us if we vote to take his
paltry few dollars and run. God save this country if that is truly the
wave of the future. We will then have become a nation that makes nothing
but hamburgers, creates nothing but lawyers, and sells nothing but tax
shelters. And if we are at that point in this country, where we kill
something because at the moment it's worth more dead than alive -- well,
take a look around. Look at your neighbor. Look at your neighbor. You won't
kill him, will you?
No.
It's called murder and it's illegal.
Well, this
too is murder -- on a mass scale. Only on Wall Street, they call it
"maximizing share-holder value" and they call it "legal." And they
substitute dollar bills where a conscience should be.
A business
is worth
more than the price of its stock. It's the place where we earn our living,
where we meet our friends, dream our dreams. It is, in every sense, the
very fabric that binds our society together.
So let us now, at this meeting, say to
every Garfield in the land, "Here, we build things. We don't destroy them.
Here, we care about more than the price of our stock! Here, we care about
people."
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