Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-11-11
TIE 2O0rH ANNIVERSARY
or Incorporation Of Brookline Duly
Celebrated by City's Citizens.

Brookline, Mass. Nov. 10.-The OBJ
5erVance of the 200th anniversary Of the
incorporation oi Brookline which has
long held the name OF being the wealth.
lest Town III the world, was opened, to-
uay. and Will continue through Monday.
Many of BroOklinc's former residents
have returned to participate in the va
rlouS exercises. These will be charac-
teriztd by the dignity and literary sig
niicance which have long character
lied the townships history.
The opening of the observance took
(hc form of 4 public meeting in which
an Grafton Was delivered by United
states Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.
The exercises We're held in the Town
hall. Other features OF the celebration
VIII include fireworks in the evening,
dedication of Il memorial tablet, tomor-
Tow. by the Sons of the American Rev
olution a festival in music, commence
ra;iVe services in all the churches, sun
day, and a banquet in the Town hail.
Muhd.y evening.
The hall was well filled when the
meeting, this afternoon, was opened.
Senator Lodge was warmly applaudcd
MS IL arose to deliver his Grafton.
Senator Lodge said in part: The New
England towns adopted with cXtraordinl-
rs unAnimity the principle that the gov
ernncnt should he rs limited in its func-
| tons as was possible and that the larscst
scope should be given to the Individual
man to work ont his own fortune here
and his own salvation hereafter. How
successful. how wise, how strong this doc
trinr has proved is shown by what the
United States is. today. Under this theo-
ny of government, this country has been
built up, our vest prosperity attained and
all our trumphS as people won. In
view of the past let us beware how We
depart from the principles, practices and
beliefs of DIR fOr,fatherS. | say this not
because the sphere of governmental ac-
ton has been inevitably enlarged by the
growth and development of the country
but because it is seriously proposed to
extend the sphere of governmental action
in state. i'll nation and in town, in ways
which are not at all inevitable but which
are advocated openly for the purpose of
destroying our old system of restricted
government joined to large individual lib
| crty, and replacing it with another and
totally different arrangement.
The system proposed is one of the old
est schemes for the abolition of all exist
ing evils ever devised and in form
or another has been tried and failed at
intervals almost since the beginnings of
the human hi..1ry. Thus far modern
democracy, which since our war for indie
pendence and the French revolution has
been steadily taking possession of the
world of Western civilization has pro-
ceoded upon the American theory of the
least possible interference by government
and the largest possible individual liberty
compatible with the rights Of others. The
measure of its success can be gagged by
contrasting the United States with Rus
sill. the former the most perfect eXpon-
ent of the modern system, the latter q
fairly complete example of the old theo-
ry embodied in what is in its essence a
military and religious socialism
The breakdown of the Russian system
under modern economic conditions is GO
ing on before our eyes. today, and where
ii will end no man can say; but this is
not what concerns us. Our interests and
welfare liz in determining whether the
movements for larger governmental ac-
ton are trending here. That they lead
toward the system of Russia and away
from the principle upon which we have
built up the United States is undoubtcd
Socialists and Anarchists are often
spoken Of together as if they were SINH
lar They are really the antipodes of
each other. The Socialists would have
the government everything. the Anar-
chists would destroy all government
Somewhere between these extremes lies
the path Of safety. 1t may be narrow and