The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-12-11
Echoes Of Woman's Clubs


you wish to know, but make point
If writing once a month anyway.
ADDRESS OF WELCOME.
The Hon. Curtis Guild, Jr., Governor
of Massachusetts.
From Biennial Convention Report
Madam President and Ladies: l
hank you very heartily for your
very kind reception. 1t is my happy
privilege to be here tonight to well
come you to the Commonwealth of
and to give you the
heartiest welcome in the power of the
Old Bay State. In greeting you !
that this organization
should be, and that you intend that 1t
shall be, a vast power for good, not
merely in the private life OF the
people, but in the public
.
life of the American nation.
We welcome you to Massachusetts,,
to Massachusetts Of today. We trust
that you will leave here with an idea
that this good old Commonwealth is
more than summer re-
sort, safety deposit vault or an his
torical museum, that 1t is alive, ac-
tive, bustling and modern-a COM
with lofty aspirations as
old old, and with every impetus for
modern progress.
You have heard of Massachusetts,
pride in her own history. We are
still proud, but we are prouder yet of
another history. 1t is to be my
happy privilege to welcome you indi-
in company with my own
governor at the state house, day after
tomorrow, and as you ascend Beacon
Hill, you will notice that there is an
other flag that stands on the right
even of the old white flag of the
commonwealth. This flag since the
Spanish war has doubly meant that
this is the United States of America,
and that the time has come when the
adjutant of the first troops from the
North to shed blood in the war be-
tween the States, of the Sixth Massa-
chusetts, can serve on the staff of
Lee in the common uniform
and under the commonwealth.
And SO | welcome you to this his
toric old commonwealth, but with the
hope that you will take time and the
trouble to look into some of our in
stitutions and some of our industries.
This is not merely the commonwealth
of Plymouth Rock 1t is one of the
territorial divisions of our common
country, rich in material progress.
AS you doubtless know, half of all the
boots and shoes made in the United
States are made in this single little
commonwealth. 1t leads in the man
ufacture of cotton and of wool, and
of rubber goods and paper.
We are proud, too, that in spite of
all the changes in our population the
general course of the commonwealth
has remained the same. This is no
longer a Puritan capital, and Massa-
chusetts no longer a Puritan state,
yet the Puritan ideals remain.
The increase in population In Mas
in the last census decade
was over half million, largely by
larger actual increase in
this small territorial division than in
any other state in the Union except
New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Today the majority of the population
Of Massachusetts is foreign born and
Of foreign parentage. Today the ma
jority of the population of Massachu-
sets is not of the old creed of the
Puritans, but is of the communion of
the Roman Catholic church, but in
spite OF all these changes, the old
Puritan ideals of Plymouth Rock, the
ideals of citizenship, the ideals of
honor have not left the soil of Mas
We have found them in
new blood that has come to us to be
made citizens, citizens of the United
States, who have been as eager in the
preservation, not only in the preserv-
alton of our historical monuments,
but also in our ideals.
We are proud of the matter of ma
terial progress, that Massachusetts,,
the city of Boston, was the first To-
cality in the United States to utilize
the lower surface below the streets
as a subway for street traffic, and
that we were the first city in the
United States to build a submarine
tunnel for the accommodation of
street cars. We are prouder yet
that those greaet public works were
without ono sinp1a hint