Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-07-17
The Good state of Vermont.
Secretary PrOctOr's Address before the
Vermont Press Association at Boston
Last Week,

l always meet the representatives of the
press with pleasure and perfect confidence,
for they have saved me so many times,
have so often made me say good things
when | knew | said very poor ones, and
have covered all my shortcomings with such
a mantle of charity that have come to feel
entirely safe in their hands And if was
inclined to criticse the Vermont press at
all it would be only for the good fault
which it seems to me is a marked charac-
teristic of the people of our state in general,
and that is we are too modest by half in
regard to the merits of our own state
We are somewhat like the lawyer of
whom it was said that he was an excellent
man and very sound lawyer but that he
had an unfortunate habit of putting in his
evidence without letting the jury know It,.
Perhaps we have something of the same
unfortunate habit. Knowing the fact so
well ourselves, we do not take quite pains
enough to let the great jury of the public
know how good state we have.
Now if we are to lay our modesty aside
and let the evidence of our virtues be known
to the jury, l will willingly admit, and it
will doubtless be conceded by all, that the
press can take the initiative in this new
departure with less strain and violence to
their personal feelings and previous meth
obs and characteristics than any other class
of our people.
You will doubtless claim for Vermont
that 1t is the best place to stay in, to live
in as well as be born in, the best place for
home, and as good as any for all ordinary
business; not good for the doctors, for it
is so healthful they will have few patients;
nor for the lawyers, because the people are
so honest and law-abiding that they will
haU fatx alia Int 60 81, ,;,,;,
ters and teachers, because we believe in
schools and churches, and especially good
for editors because the people are intelligent
and all read the papers.
And you can fairly claim much more
than this For it is my firm conviction,
based upon a very careful consideration of
the subject, that there is today no better
state for the farmer, whether he is worth
five hundred or five thousand dollars or
more, and that it offers to the business
mel, the investor or labOrer, as good if not
better opportunity for average success
than any section of the country. The
great prizes may not be frequent, but the
wretched failures are unknown.
An opportunity to compare our state, its
people, its resources and its opportunities
with other sections of the country must
tend to make us contented with our lot.
| know that agriculture is depressed and
values low, but there is this same complaint
from all sections, and from many with
much greater force than from us. Many
who have gone from Vermont in recent
years to the West and South wish them
selves back, and many who have not gone
themselves, but have sent their money,
wish that back. | fully believe that our
state has passed its worst period of depres-
Sin far xsalt II
turn, and the demand is better and the
pressure to sell less; that fewer OF our
young men will leave and more of those
who nave left will return, and more who
are seeking desirable homes will come from
other states, and that We are on the eve,
not of great boom, but of steady,
healthy increase of prosperity.
No state has less of the extremes of
wealth and poverty. and none has a pOpu-
lation more homogeneous in character, and
not one is so purely representative of the
old New England stock. This last propo-
sition is one of great importance in consid-
ering the character of our people, and it is
SO obvious to even casual observer that it
requires no proof. The reason for it is
plain, Originally settled from Massachu-
sets, either directly or by way of Connect
icut, we have had much less admiXture
from foreign or interstate immigration than
any other New England state, and the land
being better has been more generally held
by the descendants of the first settlers. No
state has preserved the peculiar New Eng
land institutions, political and social, so
generally as Vermont. For instance, we
have today 240 townships with the identi-
cal old New England township government,
the best system of local self-government
ever devised by man. Only one township
has changed since the organization of the
state to city government, although several
are larger than many cities in other states,
but have wisely, as | think, chosen to re-
tain the old system of town government as
long as practicable. Our other city, as you
know, was originally chartered as such,
soon after the Revolution, and was organ
lied and named out of compliment to our
French allies and their great Minister, and
as a sample to show Boston and other
newer cities how they might manage their
affairs when they got too populous for town
government.
1t is to be noted, too, to the credit of our
state, that we have withstood the tempta-
tiOns and dangers so frequently resulting
from the overwhelming concentration of
political power in one party. We do not
require the danger of defeat to insure good
government. W e nave IL because the pee
pie believe in it and will have no other.
We have had honest elections and no legis-
lative scandals We pay our debts, not
from necessity, but because we believe in
paying them. Besides the great war ex-
penses, that were common to other states,
we paid our soldiers nearly two million dol
lars in addition to their government pay;
but yet the state paid of its war
and has been out of debt for a
dozen years or more.
l believe that there is not state toward
which the sentiment of loyalty and affec-
tion on the part of those bred in the state
who have sought homes elsewhere is so
strong and universal as it is with Vermont
ers. l have had opportunity to learn of
this in meeting so many Vermonters who
have settled in other sections of the coun-
try. This feeling is shown by the remark
able success of Vermont associations in the
different cities and in so many other ways
that it is certain there must be good ground
for this love for the state ON the part of her
absent sons. They find on comparing it
with other sections that they have left
home worth remembering with affection.
If any of you are doubtful whether you
believe in Vermont or not, l would advise
you to go away for year or two. If that
does not settle the question, cannot pre-
scribe for you. ..
Speaking for myself hope TO discharge
to the best of my ability any public duty
that may devolye upon me, and when that
obligation ceases, to return to spend what
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