b"PROGRESSISPOSSIBLE THROUGHORGANIZATION JamesMccawley,Editor,, EDITORIAL In this issue a good deal of space has been devoted to association activities and association history.Businessresearch issomewhat difficult asthe industrial pioneers werenot aware that theywere creating history, and in consequencethe fewrecordstheykept were too sketchy to be of any value. In most cases the early records were destroyed bythe owners, just as today, you who read this, destroy records of your own enterprise, nor realizing that a century from now youwill be regarded asapioneer and yourrecordsmai 1be of great value to a future business historian. We have been fortunate in the possession of AMERICAN ROOFER volumes dating back to 1911. In addition we have found valuable material in the files of the Chicago Historical Library, andin the very valuable records of the M. W. Powell Co. of Chicago. Many of the manufacturers published house organs, and we have filled voluminous notebooks with interesting historical materialfromthe pagesof the Barrett Trail publishedby thethen Barrett Company, the house organ of the Standard Paint Company which later became the Ruberoid Company, and ocher periodicals. We have checked the filesof the Congressional Libraryin Washington and have been rewarded by glimpses of a glamorous past. Much of this historical research has gone into the story of the National Roofing Contractors' Association in chis issue. Most of the story of the oldest construction trade association in the U. S.will be news 'Oits present members. We wouldliketoimpressupon the membershipthedebt they oweto the foundersof theassociation,andthe officerswhohavekept italiveduring periods when depressions ended the life and usefulness of ocher associations. There will always be progress through individual effort but progress is swifter through collective activities. So .urge you to join the local association of your craft in your we area.Ifthere shouldnot be an association locally,gee together with acleasefiveof your competitors and form one. If there is a state assocacion, join it; aregional association, join it and youowe it to yourself and to your business to join the national association which reflects your enterprise. There are local problemswhichanational association cannot solve.There arelarger problems which alocalassociation cannot solve.Aad there are still largerproblemsm which discussions with other nations prove the value of an international association."