The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-24

states have the variety of landscape and natural attractions that one finds fin Connecticut. And on the other 1 hand, few have more active business centers and manufacturing industries
 The city where this association has it's seat has made a healthier growth during the last twenty years than al- most any other of it's size in the Unit .ed States. --=z, --.s ----.s- ----s --z5---
 '.I doubt if many of this company realize how fast Bridgeport has always been found forging ahead since it's first beginnings. "OriginaIly it was the little village of Newf1eId in the town of Stratford At the end of the. Revolution there were but a handful of houses. A dozen years later there were so many, and such a business settlement, that 1 weekly newspaper was started, called the American Telegraph. and a voIun- teer fire department was organized by authority of the General Assembly. In 1900 there was a borough charter by the name of Bridgeport. No sooner was that step in advance taken than the publishers of the newspaper began to plan Starting a monthly magazine, and they did it. The first number of the Connecticut Magazine appeared in 1901 ,and it was a very creditable piece of work.
 '*In ISIS, the borough had nearly
 
 newspapers, and bank. The Con- necticut Gazetteer of 1919 spoke warm ly1 of it's industries. adding: It is be- 1ieved that it will not prove altogeth- CT an illusion to calculate that at some future period it will become a consid- erabIe town
 Bridgeport as a town was not in corporated until 1921. It was all taken from Stratford, and embraced nearly half it's population. By the next census Bridgeport had 2,80O in habitants. The number was nearly trebled during the next twenty years, more than doubled between 1850 and 1870, and from then to 1910 increased more than ftvefold.
 The business of manufacturing your business-is what has done this. Bridgeport is the child of her manu- facturers,"of their enterprise, and of their public spihit.
 T have been sorry to notice occas- fonally,, of late years that a Connec- lieut. industry was moving it's Seat to the west, or to Canada Public spirit is fortunately strong enough in most of our manufacturers to keep them here, and make them put the money they, make into the community where they belong and where they made it. Every man owes it to his home to stand by it. There is no better place for a home anywhere than the state u our nome we are not frozen to death, or baked, to death. We have variation in climate, but they are of the kind that make men strong and active. River and plain, sea and mountain, lake and grove-wherever we turn in Connecticut, there is beauty, and industry.
 And it is a varied industry. It is good sometimes to look back on the ways of our ancestors, and compare them with ours.
 A hundred years ago there was one chief manufacturing industry in this State What was it The Connectf- cut Gazetteer of 1919 states it plain ly. It was the manufacture of gin.
 "One of the ministers in Hartford was a leading disti11er.
 We are glad that the Connecticut of today has other industries, which sound better. We are glad there is such a variety of manufacturers that a dull year for one does not neces- sarily mean a dull year for all We are proud of the goods we turn out and of the market they command. Connecticut is deservedly dear to all her people.
 ''You manufacturers, more than any other set of men, have made it what it is. We. who are not naanufactur-