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'I bring you also the greeting of the man who, next to the President, stands highest in official rank-the Hon. Champ Clark, speaker of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States of America. (Applause.)

"As is necessary when leaving the national legislature, I went to him for permission, and on telling him my reason, he said he wished he were going with me, as he had been unable to accept at any time an invitation to Worcester, and desired very much to meet her people. It is peculiarly fortunate that it is at this stage in the record of the House of Representatives that I am with you; for while I address you as your representative and as representative of the national government, I feel as do you that there is probably a wide divergence of view between some of us as to what is for the best interests of the country; but thus frr at least the achievements of the House of Representatives have been non-partisan. (Applause.)

"I call your attention to a brief review of them. Apart from the preliminary work of organization, three great measures have been placed on their way toward enactment in the three weeks of the House's life: the election of United States senators by direct vote, the ante-election publicity of campaign expenses, and the reciprocity agreement with Canada. I presume most of you are aware only of these facts, but there are interesting incidents connected with each which showed the only evidence of partisanship, or perhaps I should say of any extensive diversity of opinion on any of these bills exhibited during their passage. The two first measures were passed without being discussed in the committee of the whole, so that roll-calls could be demanded by one-fifth of those present. One section of the bill or resolve, which is a submission of an amendment to the constitution committee, revokes the power of Congress over the election of senators. On this there was a roll-call on amendment to strike out the taking away from Congress power over election of senators, and the amendment was rejected.

"The resolve was finally passed, 296-16. On the publicity measure there was an amendment offered providing for publication by candidates of expenses both at elections and at the primary nominations. There was an aye and nay vote and the amendment was carried, 172-131. This was contrary to the wishes of the majority of the election committee, and at once the chairman moved that the measure be recommitted to the committee with instruction to reject the amendment and report the bill back without it. This was carried by the narrow margin of 157-149. Again when reported back this was accepted, 165-139, and then the whole measure was passed, 307-0.

"The reciprocity agreement was discussed in the committee of the whole so that there was no opportunity for calling the ayes and nays. After the discussion had lasted for nearly a week the bill was placed on its passage, being read paragraph by paragraph, and then the fireworks began. Almost every paragraph had one or more amendments offered, some serious, some humorous. Five minutes' discussion was allowed for and against. All amendments were voted down by an overwhelming majority after four hours, and the bill was reported back to the House with recommendations that it pass, on which the ayes and nays were 267-89.

"In the discussion of this measure New England bore her share of the argument and more than her share of honors. As against the measure Asher C. Hinds, the former parliamentarian of the House, opened the debate and delivered probably the most finished literary speech of the discussion. Mr. Hill of Connecticut gave a most logical plea for the measure; while of the new members, Mr. Reilly of Connecticut and Mr. Murray and Mr. Curley of Massachusetts justified the confidence of their constituents, while Mr. Gardner of Massachusetts was the sole Bay State congressman to oppose the measure. Mr. McCall summed up for those Republicans who were in favor of the measure, and his speech will probably rise up to plague him during the tariff revision. Certainly he delivered a most impressive and cogent oration. The attitude of the Massachusetts members of the House is shown by their votes as follows: On the direct election of United States senators, six for, four against, four not voting; on the ante-election publicity of campaign expenses, ten for and four not voting; on the reciprocity agreement, thirteen for, one (Representative Gardner) against. So that you can readily perceive, in spite of some adverse comments in the daily press, the present session of Congress thus far has been in the nature of a love feast.

"But I am apprehensive that we are at the parting of the ways. The farmers' free list which is now being discussed in Congress will probably be passed by little more than the party majority, for strange as it may seem, the insurgents opposed the reciprocity measure and will vote for the free list. The statehood bills of New Mexico and Arizona, considering the very radical character of their constitutions, will meet with some opposition, while schedules K and C, the woolen and cotton schedules, will be the signal for a battle royal. But with all that, the House will have completed this program by the middle of June, so that it will be for the Senate to decide whether or not we are to have a midsummer session. As now nearly four weeks since the opening of Congress, it has not completed its

"An interesting incident of the amendments was when Richard Bartholdt offered an amendment as follows:

"Mr. Chairman, having had no time during general debate, I avail myself of the privilege of offering the pro forma amendment to strike out the last word, for the purpose of reading or having read into the Record a poem on reciprocity composed by the poet laureate of the city of Washington, Col. John A. Joyce; and I may be pardoned for suggesting that our poets are not usually inspired by what is bad, but generally by what is good. I ask the clerk to read it in my time.' "Following the reading, former Speaker Cannon said in his squeaking vocie and inimitable manner:

"Mr. Chairman, I desire to ask the gentleman from Missouri a question. It is signed John A. Joyce. Does that settle the question between John A. Joyce and Ella Wheeler Wilcox as to who is the author of "Laugh and the world laughs with you"?' (Laughter and applause.)

To a new member the variety and immensity of the subjects on which he is called to legislate must perforce give him pause and for a while he is inclined to sit dumbly in his seat and listen to the weighty logic and endless eloquence of more experienced men; but in a short time it dawns upon him that there is some truth in the old adage that fools rush in where angels fear to tread and if he cannot add to the one class, certainly he will not be unduly conspicuous by aligning himself with the other.

"In conclusion I desire to speak briefly about the ultimate aim of this organization and of that other organization to which I for the present belong. The obvious commentary is that the one is for the purposes of encouraging trade, and the other for the purpose of legislation, which is of course strictly true; and whither does each tend? To but one end-good laws and effective commercial undertakings are attainments only for still greater ones; the higher things of life, recreation, literature, art, education and charity, man's individual life, in a word the leisure that shall give opportunity for physical and psychical regeneration, are the lofty ideals toward which each one of us in our separate spheres is making, whether consciously or unconsciously. It will not benefit us one iota if we make the attainment of great commercial results and great legislative enactments our one and sole purpose in life; unless there is an ideal and aim beyond this, then is our work, though apparently successful, in vain. To become too much engrossed in these, to make them our whole life, is perhaps to gain the whole world and to lose our souls.

The chief speaker of the evening was introduced by the President in these words:

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In this country there is a city more than twice as populous as Worcester whose government derives none of its powers from the consent of the governed and whose citizens have no voice in their municipal government, or that of any state or the nation: the city of Washington.

"The site of the Federal City was selected by George Washington, and its wonderful city plan was largely the product of his engineering skill and taste! We have with us to-night a man who has been what few men can ever be in this country, and that is, a ruler of his fellow Americans. He was for ten years President of that triumvirate known as the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. He conducted that office most creditably under the eyes of all the people of the United States. It is largely to him that we are indebted for the recent revival and perfecting of the original plans by George Washington, which will result in making our national capital one of the most beautiful on earth.

"The city and the Father of his Country must ever be remembered together. Our guest is to speak of Washington and Worcester. It is of interest to recall that while George Washington's grandfather was fighting Indians in Virginia, his kinsman, Sir Henry Washington, was defending the crown as military governor of Worcester in England.

"But it is of the relations of the national capital to our own people that we shall hear.

"It is a great privilege to listen this evening to an orator with the keenness of a newspaper man, the learn

ing of a lawyer, and the ability of a statesman. I have the honor to present the Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland." Mr. Macfarland said:

"Washington and Worcester have had relations as close and cordial as any between the national capital and its sister cities. The capital has no commercial or other rivalries with any city and therefore friendship with all. All the cities, like all the citizens, take a common interest and a common pride in the common capital. At their worst the relations between modern cities are far better than were possible between ancient cities. Even to Plato all outsiders were barbarians and strangers enemies. The states which sprung from the cities, notably greater Rome, had peace only within their own borders and by holding subject states in iron hand. The slow processes of history, often as unseen as those of nature, have brought about such relations between nations as are typified in the Hague Tribunal and promised in the project of the last Hague Conference for an International Arbitral Court to do for the nations what our Supreme Court does for our states. Nations are being civilized towards the standards of their best citizens and will come to live together under law like all civilized men and women. Meantime we may have wars and shall certainly have rumors of wars, but with a real Court for the Settlement of International Disputes, backed by the public opinion of the world, wars can be and will be prevented. Reason and sentiment will combine to secure international peace through international justice, until in the Supreme Court of Nations shall speak the conscience of the world restraining the individual state.

"Worcester has done its duty to Washington. Its representatives in Congress have faithfully

been saved, he would return to aid in making it beautiful by constructing some of its finest buildings. Every Worcester man must be proud of the fact that the three beautiful buildings on the west side of the White House Park in Washington, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Continental Hall of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Pan-American Union Building, where the President of your Board of Trade and other distinguished delegates represented you at the recent Pan-American Conference, were constructed by Norcross Brothers Company. They have to their credit in Washington also banking and residence buildings only

less imposing, and best of all an honorable reputation which has been publicly attested by such tributes as that of Senator Root upon the opening of the PanAmerican Building, and that of Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, president general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, at the opening of the Congress last week.

So, Senators and Representatives, the citizens of the District of Columbia, who bore the whole expense of the maintenance of the capital until 1878 and have borne one half of it since, and give freely of their time and efforts, their devotion symbolized by the enlistment of fifty-seven hundred of volunteers as the first defenders of Washington before Sumter was fired upon, and all the rest of the citizens of the republic who contribute through the federal taxation or more directly, like O. W. Norcross, in personal service in war and in peace, have been working together to execute the last desire of George Washington. He closed his unequaled service to his country by personally establishing the federal district and making the magnificent plan of the federal city, which was his prediction, written, as it were, in his own bold handwriting that the then young and feeble Union would live, grow and expand, notwithstanding the doubts of most other men, to be a real and great nation.

represented the desire of all intelligent citizens, that the national capital should be made in all respects the most perfect on earth. Naturally no one from Washington can come to Worcester without paying tribute to Worcester's greatest citizen, the late Senator Hoar, one of the greatest of senators, who brought such honor to this city, this Commonwealth, this country. The national capital never had a better friend. In his address at the Capitol on the 12th of December, 1900, when we celebrated the centenary of the national capital, he expressed his devotion to its progress and predicted with his far-seeing vision its great future. I can testify from close official association to his constant and stimulating interest in its development even in the midst of his great labor for Massachusetts and the nation at large.

"There is a private citizen among you whose long service to Washington is typical of what other private citizens have done. In 1861, as a private in a Massachusetts regiment, he came to Washington to defend the capital from attack without thought that after the Union had

"George Washington died at the very height of his power, a comparatively young man; so that this was his last and greatest prophecy. If he had lived, the capital might have developed more rapidly instead of being so largely neglected by the government, partly because the government was so poor, and waiting three-quarters of a century for a real beginning of the execution of Washington's plan. John Adams, the Massachusetts President who first sat in the President's House, did what he could, but his time was short and progress had to wait while the country grew and the government strengthened, and finally the Civil War made it certain that the Union would live and the capital would not be removed to the West as the Mississippi Valley cities desired. Then came the first attempt, rough and costly, to change the capital from a Maryland village to a real city on the Washington plan when the Shepherd regime between 1871 and

TH

HE annual meeting of the Board was postponed this year from April 18 to April 28. The rapidly increasing interest in the work of this organization was evidenced by the fact that the attendance was greater than ever before in its history.

The various reports were received with marked approbation, harmony prevailed, and the undercurrent of belief in the future possibilities and present effectiveness of the work of the Worcester Board of Trade was manifested in many ways.

The President, Charles T. Tatman, in his opening address gave a terse review of the year's work, and closed by tendering his thanks for their loyal support to the Directors, the members of committees and his associate officers. His address in full was:

The year just closing sees the Worcester Board of Trade more active and with a larger membership than ever before. The corporation has a substantial surplus in cash, larger than ever, although the organization has expended money liberally for the benefit of its members and of this community at large. I will repeat what I said last year, that the moneys which come from dues of members ought to be expended carefully and wisely, but our members are entitled to have all they contribute each year used for the legitimate purposes of the organization. There are plenty of useful activities which require the expenditure of money, and which will bring large returns in one form or another.

The influence of this organization secured the holding of the New England Corn Show in Worcester last fall, the Board guaranteeing and raising the sum of $1000 towards expenses, of which sum it contributed $100 from its treasury. The affair was a grand success in every way, and did much for Worcester by attracting attention and visitors from afar, and by educating the neighboring people as to the possibilities of scientific agriculture.

For the first time in its history the Board has had a committee on agriculture, in the personnel of which it has been very fortunate. This committee has had several meetings and has abundantly justified its continuance. A plan endorsed by this committee and by the Board of Directors is well under way for our co-operation with the Massachusetts Agricultural College in its extension work, and with the same institution and the United States government in the matter of a proposed soil survey of this very important agricultural county. I hope that the fullest assistance will be rendered by the Board in these very practical matters.

The Board launched the Worcester Playground Association and gave it its financial and moral support. Under the wise leadership of our Ex-president, Mr. George F. Booth, the movement was a most pronounced success.

The facilities of our rooms and our active assistance were tendered and accepted by the authorities in charge of the United States census. Full returns have not yet been received, but it is known that Worcester has a population of 146,000, an increase in the last decade of twenty-three per cent., which is two per cent. greater than the increase of the nation as a whole, and three per cent. greater than the increase in Massachusetts. There are five cities in Massachusetts with more than 100,000 population each; namely, Boston, Worcester, Fall River, Lowell and Cambridge. The proportionate increase of Worcester was larger than any other city of the five, about three per cent. larger than Boston, and about twice as large as either of the others. Worcester is still the third city of New England, with New Haven a fairly close competitor, increasing at about the same rate. The figures show that the wages paid in Worcester are much higher than in the country as a whole, due largely to the high class of labor here employed.

The figures just given are a comparison of population for the ten-year period up to 1910. Through the courtesy of Census Director Durand, the Board of Trade has obtained a preliminary statement of the general results of the census of manufactures of this city with a comparison of the five-year period prior to Jan. 1, 1910. In part this statement is as follows: There was a 58 per cent. increase

in the cost of materials used, 56 per cent. in the number of salaried officials and clerks, 48 per cent. in the value of products, 42 per cent. in the miscellaneous expenses, 37 per cent. in the salaries and wages, 37 per cent. in the value added by manufacture, 33 per cent. in the capital invested, 24 per cent. in the average number of wage-earners employed during the year, and 23 per cent. in the number of establishments.

There were 580 establishments in 1909, as compared with 470 in 1904, an increase of 110, or 23 per cent.

The value of products in 1909 was $77,148,000, and $52,145,000 in 1904, an increase of $25,003,000, or 48 per cent. The average per establishment was approximately $133,000 in 1909, and about $111,000 in 1904.

Among the noteworthy events of the year affecting the welfare of the city has been the installation of the fine new power-plants of the Worcester Electric Light Company and the Worcester Consolidated Street Railway Company.

Among the new organizations fostered by the Board during the year may be mentioned the Worcester Publicity Association and the Worcester Real Estate Exchange.

The Board was the first officially to suggest the removal to Worcester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its amalgamation with the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. A committee now has this matter under consideration, and assurances have been received from Boston that any proposition from Worcester will be seriously considered.

One of the most useful and most thoroughly appreciated acts ever done by this Board was the holding of a public meeting for the purpose of informing our citizens with reference to the proposed abolition of the northern grade crossings.

This Board inaugurated the movement for the investigation of the practicability of preserving the Union Station tower and the improvement of Washington Square. Upon its petition Frederick Law Olmsted, the noted landscape architect, was employed by the city to make recommendations, and the Board is at present active in securing information as to what may be done wisely towards carrying out his or similar plans.

I take pleasure in announcing at this time that the officials of the Boston & Albany Railroad have shown a fine spirit in their desire to co-operate in this movement, and I have it on the authority of Mr. James H. Hustis that their disposition is to work with our committee in arriving at a satisfactory solution.

I sincerely hope that a similar spirit will animate our citizens in their thought and action on this matter.

Under the able direction of the Publication Committee, George F. Booth chairman, Secretary Herbert N. Davison, Editor Willard E. Freeland, and Advertising Manager Edwin A. Benchley, the Worcester Magazine has been maintained at its usual high standard, and remains the finest publication issued by any commercial organization in the country. No finer thing is or can be done by the Board than the publication of this splendid medium for placing Worcester correctly before the world.

The numerous smoke-talks of the winter have been of high merit, and have been much enjoyed. Larger quarters for the social gatherings at the close of the smoke-talks would add much to the enjoyment of those evenings, rendering this one of the most useful functions in bringing our business men into closer personal acquaintance and relationship. I hope that during the coming year experiments may be tried with occasional simple noon-day lunches at some hotel or restaurant, with a short address by some local man or visitor with a special message.

The tendency of the times is toward combination and co-operation. We have worked with other organizations in several instances, and in one at least have demonstrated the extreme value of concerted action in matters of common interest.

In November, 1909, was called a meeting of representatives of eastern commercial organizations from Maine to Virginia, which was largely attended, at the rooms of the Merchants' Association of New York, where we were represented by four delegates. An association was formed for the protection of the common interests of all eastern points in questions of railroad rates, and an executive traffic committee of ten was appointed to have in charge the management of cases and the raising of funds for their prosecution. One of the members

of this Board was on that committee and has attended many meetings.

Eastern interests have been well cared for in several cases before the Interstate Commerce Commission. The exceedingly important case was the advanced rate case, growing out of the proposed advance in all freight-rates in the official classification territory, to wit, the northeastern section of the country. The committee was fortunate in having as its chairman Mr. D. O. Ives, the traffic expert of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and in obtaining the services of Attorney Louis D. Brandeis of Boston for the hearings before the commission. The complete and overwhelming success of the shippers in that case has more than justified the expenditure of time and money by our Board in co-operating with the other organizations. We did at least our full share in a financial way. Among other good results of the work has also been the minor one of impressing the entire east with the activity and energy of the Worcester Board of Trade.

The Committee on Railroads and Transportation was active in these matters, and succeeded also in its efforts, in combination with the Boston Chamber of Commerce, in getting a temporary compromise of the dispute over the proposed new demurrage rule. This committee has also been successful in getting changes in trains and in parlor and sleeping car service for the accommodation of our people.

We sent a delegate to the New York meeting on the subject of express rates, and we raised and contributed one hundred dollars towards the prosecution of the express cases before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

We have co-operated also with a large number of commercial bodies in the formation of the New England Business Federation, which is full of possibilities of good for our section of the country. The work of the eastern commercial organizations in the advanced rates case ought forever to keep quiet those croakers who complain that we ought to live with our eyes on ourselves alone, and that we ought not to interest ourselves in matters beyond the boundaries of Worcester. We shall do well to continue to expand our vision and our activities with the intention of doing our share in the protection of the interests of our section of the country, whether it be our county, our State, New England or the East.

I am happy to record that we have been represented by delegates in person at the following meetings: Convention of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, at Providence; the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, at Mohonk Lake, N. Y.; the Conference of the American Bureau of Municipal Research, at Philadelphia; the Conference on the Work of the Monetary Commission, held at New York under the auspices of Columbia University; the meeting of those interested in Vocational Education, in Boston; and the Pan-American Conference at the Bureau of American Republics, in Washington, where we had twenty-five delegates, a larger representation than any other city in the country.

Our Secretary has been sent by the Board to the Convention of the National Association of Commercial Executives, and he is also a member of the New England group of similar officers. I thoroughly approve of these connections, from which come information and inspiration that cannot fail to bring benefits to our Board.

The International Congress of Chambers of Commerce will be held in America for the first time in 1912, and Boston is the place of meeting. I recommend that we keep in touch with this important affair, and watch for opportunities, which are sure to present themselves, to advance the interests of Worcester on this occasion. I recommend the appointment of a special committee to consider the advisability of extending an invitation to the delegates to visit Worcester, and such other matters in that connection as may appear to the advantage of the city.

One of the exceedingly pleasant events of the year was the entertainment of the Filipino commissioners, a function well planned and carried out under the guidance of Mr. Ernest P. Bennett and the Committee on Foreign Trade.

We have co-operated on several occasions with different local organizations. Among them we have found the Worcester Branch of the National Metal Trades Association ever ready to join hands to assist us for the common cause of this community; and to them this acknowledgment is due.

The Board of Trade Glee Club has assisted us materially in the enjoyment of the smoke-talk evenings. I hope that this feature will be continued and amplified during the coming year. The Glee Club has also added very much indeed to the pleasure of our annual banquet.

I wish to acknowledge with heartfelt appreciation the loyal support of the members of the Board of Directors, and all the officers and employees of the organization. It has been a pleasure to work with such an agreeable, far-seeing, enthusiastic and tireless number of people. The same may be said of the members of committees, most of whom have attended to the business which has been allotted to them with cheerfulness and dispatch. To those who have thus demonstrated their love for Worcester and their loyalty to this organization, I tender my thanks.

I wish to acknowledge with grateful appreciation the intelligent, energetic, untiring and tactful manner in which Mr. Herbert N. Davison has conducted the position of Secretary. The Board of Trade will do justice by Mr. Davison if it gives him a substantial increase in salary. We are in a financial condition to be able to do this, and I am sure that Mr. Davison will render full value for what he may receive.

I have no other recommendations to make excepting that the Worcester Board of Trade continue to work for the lasting benefit of Worcester, remembering that its function is to promote the civic welfare as well as the commercial prosperity of the community.

The Secretary, Herbert N. Davison, followed with a report in detail of the varied activities in which the Board had had an active part, closing with two important recommendations that the Board secure larger quarters, and that through a Committee on Housing an earnest endeavor be made to stimulate the erection of more and better homes for wage-earners.

The Secretary's report in full follows:

Mr. President and Gentlemen:

To attempt to delimit the toil and achievements of the Worcester Board of Trade for the past twelve months is not quite such a task as Mr. Peary set himself when he came within a mile of reaching the North Pole, but like the job performed by the intrepid explorer the undertaking to-night confronting me is not without its difficulties.

It is said that the late Sam Bowles, of Springfield Republican fame, on being chided by a friend because he did not write more short editorials-an art at which he excelled-declared, “The reason I do not write more short editorials is because I cannot find the time. It takes me about twice as long to write a short editorial as it does to write a long one." So if any member of this body finds this report unduly long drawn out, he can charge it up to the fact that the Secretary had plenty of time when he wrote it-and employed it. Having been talked to all the year by the members he rejoices at this opportunity to talk back.

The year as a whole has been one of unprecedented activity in this office. The Board has not only kept pace with the city's growth in population-not an easy matter-but it has also kept pace with its growth in spiritual things-the finer side of life-which is a far more difficult proposition.

Never in the history of this organization has so much work been unselfishly done for the benefit of all the people of this city as we have done this year. Indeed, if the Board had not by repeated evidences of its public usefulness in the past attested its right to live, its work this year alone would have justified not only its existence, but its loyal and enthusiastic support by this community. Not only have the President and Directors labored zealously for the best interest of Worcester, but they have not been unmindful of the interests of New England and of the still greater interests of the nation. Realizing that this organization is one of the twenty or thirty widely known and influential commercial organizations in the United States ranking with Cincinnati, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and many other communities much larger than this, the officers of this Board have endeavored so to act and so to vote that our influence, always widespread and always respected, has been greater and more far-reaching this year than ever before.

The President in his most illuminating address has told you many things that you should know of his work and of the work of the Directors. It remains for me to give an account of my stewardship and to justify, if I can, the splendid support that the President, the Directors and every member of this organization has given me during the year now drawing to a close.

The first great item of business undertaken by the present administration was the financing of what has come to be known as the New England Corn Exposition, Inc. This organization, created in the interests of the farmers as a result of the activities of certain members of the faculty of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, the State Board of Agriculture, prominent seedmen and other publicspirited individuals, voted, while still in its embryonic state, early in the year 1910, to come to Worcester to hold its first annual corn show. At that time, and for many months subsequently, it had neither a corporate form nor a dollar in the treasury, the first $100 it ever possessed being the gift of this Board.

It was not expected at the outset that our connection with this enterprise would be anything but of the most tenuous sort, but it soon became evident that the whole fabric incident to crystallizing this movement must be formulated by this Board. Ultimately it was stipulated that we should raise a guaranty fund, as it was called, of not less than $1000, and that the Worcester Agricultural Society should give its grounds free for the week of the exhibition.

These terms having been agreed to and the money having been secured by your Secretary by popular subscription, it soon became evident that we must further obtain a manager who was acquainted