The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-10-14
Board of Trade Members Enter
taIned This Noon
GOVERNOR GATES WITH PARTY
Made Short Speech at Bennington
Club Rooms Complmenting
County Roads

| bON. tHdIlcS w. 1dIGS Ftuu SlAJy-
five members of the Brattleboro
Board Of Trade were guests of the
Bennington Board of Trade for a
brief period this noon at the rooms
of the Bennington club.
The occasion was the annual auto
mobile ride of the Brattleboro board
which started from that town at 3
o'clock this morning and came across
the state through Marlboro, Whining
| ton and Woodford. There were u
cars in the junket nearly all of which
made the trip without mishap.
With the governor were Stoddard
| Bates, state road commissioner, Hort
ton d. Walker, president OF the Brat
| tlehoro Board OF Trade and NJ. G..
| Houghton, ex-president of the same
organization. The governor was in
the fifth car which reached Benning-
ton square at 10 minutes after
twelve, the first car belonging to Mai
+. w. Childs and party.
The object of the junket was to
| compare the roads between Brattle-
boro and Bennington with the roads
of Massachusetts and endeavor to as
certain what can be done toward bet
tering the cross-state highway. In
cidentally it was an opportunity for
the Brattleboro crowd to get better
acquainted with their neighbors and
have good time.
The crowd was met by a commit
tee of representative business men
headed by President William H. Mich
OILS. Secretary Z. S. Harris and VII
lage President A. w. Braisted.
Upon the arrival Of the complete
party the crowd was taken to the
rooms OF the Bennington club where,
after light refreshments. President
Nichols made a brief address of well
come and introduced Governor Gates.
The Governor stated that he had
consented to make the trip with the
Brattleboro crowd for three-fold
purpose; Because he wished to get
an idea of the condition OF southern
Vermont roads, to keep an eye on the
Brattleboro boys and to get a brief
vacation that would involve no
speechmaking.
The excellent condition of the
roads between here and Brattleboro
considering the size of the towns
maintaining them, especially in Wood
ford and Bennington, had so delight
ed the executive that he made five
minute speech complimenting the
southern Vermont towns on their
good road work and the spirit of CO.
fest, not alone to keep them in as
good or better condition but to pull
into line other communities where
there is greater dearth of interest.
The governor stated that nothing
was more indicative OF this get-togeth
er spirit than the junkets after the
nature OF the one at hand, and also
the Good Roads days which are being
held all over the state after the char
acter of the one held in Bennington
last March.
Especially did he compliment
the town of Woodford as being a
sturdy example of what a small com
munity can do in cooperating with
the state for better highways. He
stated that such willingness to take
the lead would eventually lead to
state supervision of all highways and
that the towns of southern Vermont
were rapidly becoming good pace
makers for other communities further
north
a misunderstanding in regard to
the arrival OF the Bellows Falls
Board of Trade here yesterday pre-
vented the local board from dining
the crowd in Bennington as they
would have liked to do. Therefore,
because the forty mile ride had been
a, good appetizer, the bennington
stop-over was somewhat shortened |
that the men might go to Williams
town where dinner awaited them,
The complete junket covers 1875
miles. From Williamstown they
went to North Adams, Pittsield, Len
OK, Lee, Westfeld, and Springfield,
stopping in Springfield tonight at the
Kimball, as the guests of the Spring
field board They will arrive back in
Brattleboro tomorrow evening.