The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-29
A FEW PLAIN WORDS
 ABOUT NEW ENGLAND.
tBy George French of .'The Independ-

(By George French of t'The Independ- ent.'D
 It is possible to understand and ap- preciate New England if one basic fact Of her history is always kept in mind; and we are sure to think of her with more charity, and remember her with more reverence, if we are. well aware of this historic fact.
 IndustrialIy New England has al ways been nurtured with the dregs of her human product No offense is meant to her vital men and women, and the term ssdregs'' is employed in the sense of residuum. but not that sort of residuum that is thrown out as useless and harmful I mean that New England has had to get along with the men and women raised with in her borders who could not go west ward to grow up with the country and to help make country in which to grow up.
 The Pilgrim Fathers had scarcely cleared their first farms when they began to work their way wes stward. When they were young men and wo- men they went toward the west. Af-i ter the Revolution was settled in favor of the Americans everybody who could went west, and it was west then, rath- CT than westerly. The pioneers swept over the borders of New England, in- tent upon conquering the remote will dernest. This has kept New England drained of much of it's young vigor during all the years since until almost the present. There is now a astepdency1 tos-stay in New En gland and even to3 return to it. Men whose grandfathersi lived there are coming home Young men are beginning life there more plentifuIly and more readily.
 New England shows the results of this renaissance in her blood. It is to- day, in many vital respects, the most progressive section of the country, and | the section offering the best opportuni- ties for enterprise It is true, though seemingly strangely untrue, that in New England today there is the best l agricultural opportunity the country affords. It is true that in New Eng I land there are most striking and al- turing examples of agricultural sue cesses. There is nothing in the re- | ports of rewards for intelligent work ing of the land from any section to excel those from New England. All of the tales from the apple sections of the middle and northwest. aI1uring as they are made by the Htboomers matched from the performances of New England. Corn and wheat, those great staples of the west, are actually raised in New England more | prohtably than in the states noted for l their culture.
 | A 1SW WSekS ago l went all aDOuL the suburbs of one of the most thriv- ing and delightful of New England l cities, the city of Worcester. A few 1 months previous to that I had been 1 through the west and southwest, not ably Texas, and had seen all of the thriving cities there. Many of them 1 are in the same class with Worcester 1 While these Texan cities are indeed wonderful, they have much to learn from this New England city, and from many other New England cities. This city of Worcester has been growing at marvellous rate. Within the past few years it has overrun much terri tory Its farms of twenty years ago are now covered with beautiful i homes. Within five years it has taken in many square miles of farms and made lovely and popuIous subur bs
 of them. Its factories have doubled i and quadrupled. Its banks have be-
 come swollen with surpluses. It has
 expanded, and thickened, and gone
 skyward with big office buildings.
 The point is that if there had been
 such growth in any western city as
 has been going on in Worcester of
 late there would have been ssueh T trumpetings as would have made the
 name of that city ring in the ears of every reader of newspapers. But Worcester has gone it's swift and
 building way almost in silence. It's
 growth has been one of the mar
 vels and miracles of American growth,
 but to know about 1t one has to go ' there and ferret it out.
 But Worcester is not the single ex- , ample of wonderful growth among
 New England cities. There are many others with records comparatively as
 significant and extraordinary. Spring
 field, Pittsdeld, Providence, Framing ham, New Bedford, Fall River, not
 to mention Boston and the metropoli-
 tan zone surrounding it, all present
 excellent texts for whoever wishes to exalt New England; and there are many smaller towns that have made
 a great record for enterprisine growth. I am minded to mention one ] and there are many almost as deserv- ing.
 The lovely town of Litt1eton, New Hampshire, has a record for enter
 prising growth that would make many
 a western city green with envy if il were generally known. Within less ! than twenty years-nostly within hal1
 that time-it has been transformed from about the most unpromising hamlet into one of the most extra
 ordinary towns in the country. The
 motive has been the energy and per-
 severance of it's citizens-of one oiti-
 zen in particular. When I was in
 Houston, Texas, last summer, asked