Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-04-09
Message From the Governor

engroSSed.
Message From the Governor
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
Augusta, April s, 1921.
To the Honorable Senate of the Eigh-
tieth Legislature:
! At the convenience of your honora-
bic body I shall appreciate the privi-
lege of appearing before you for the
privilege of delivering an address on
subject on which 1 think you will
| be interested.
Respectfully,
PERCIVAL P. BAXTER,
Governor.
The Chair appointed the senator
from Somerset, Senator Folsom, SEN
ator Harrington and Senator Adams a
committee to wait upon his Excellen-
cy the Governor, and inform him that
we should be pleased to receive him
at any time.
The committee retired to wait upon
the Governor.
Thereafter the Governor came in
and addressed the Senate
The Governors Address
Mr.. President, your fellow Senators
and myself desire to present you with
token of our regard and high es-
TEEN. You have presided over the de-
alterations of this body with dignity,
with ability, and with tact. 1t is fit
| ting that some suitable recognition of
| this be made, for you have accom-
plished much. There is no question
but that the record you have made as
presiding officer of this body ranks
! with that of any of the long line of
your predecessors, who stood high in
our. State and who contributed to its
prosperity and its advancement.
| On behalf of the Senators present
and myself, it gives me sincere
pleasure to present to you this watch
! as a memento of their kindly feelings.
/ Your legal knowledge, your recog-
nized grasp of parliamentary law,
! have made your record a splendid one.
! Acting for these Senators, your fell
| low citizens, present you this watch,
hoping that as you use it in the years
to come YOU will have pleasant re-
collections Of this Senate of the GOth
| Legislature.
The PRESIDENT: Governor Bax-
ter and fellow Senators: If 1 were a.
general commanding an army of
forceful words, able to summon at my
viii regiments of picturesque phrase S
and battalions of charming metaphor,
1 should still be unable adequately to
describe to you the overwhelming
flood of emotion that springs from my
soul at this moment. A flood of gra-
tltude.-gratitude not alone because
| of this beautiful gift, combining in it
self the highest achievement of deli
| cate art with the consummate tri-
umph of skilled workmanship, not
alone for this, say, but because it is
renewed expression of that good will
and that cordial cooperation of.Which
you have given me already so'many
manifestations, and for which I am
/ now, and ever shall be, profoundly
grateful.
When you honored me with election
to the presidency of this Senate, I
| looked about me to see what the du-
ties of presiding officer were, and I
naturally reverted to that prince of
parliamentarians, Thomas B. Reed,
only to learn that the requirements
| were so many and so seemingly I'M
attainable that I was conscious from
the first of my own inability to meet
them. He enumerated principle after
principle that must be adhered to in
order that the gathering might pro-
coed along smoothly to the accom-
plishment of the legislative will.
No man could have presided over
your deliberations as long as 1 have.
without having received numerous
| evidences of the fine temper and the
splendid courtesy and the never end
ing patience that you have manifest
ed on so many occasions. I have been
conscious that I have been standing
before you in judgment, but knowing
too that the verdict would come from
souls too great to pass unfair and
harsh criticism upon my own short
comings.
| The office of presiding officer of the
| Senate or of the speakership of the
House is filed with traditions as
charming, as forceful, as anything in
the history of the English speaking
people. The speaker derives his name
from the fact that he is the mouth
piece of the House; he expresses it's
censure; he commends those whom it
commends. At one period of English
history there stood out, three hum
dred years ago, two contrasting fig
ures who represented the speaker
ship of the House of Commons-one,
Sir John Finch, an emmisary of
Charles I, weak, Incompetent and
lacking those very qualities SO much
needed in his position.