ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Mayor Bunker. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



In response to an invitation given to me this morning by your 

 worthy President, I come here this evening as the representative 

 of the citizens of Waterville to extend to you people who have 

 gathered here this evening a cordial reception and welcome to 

 the city of Waterville. It hardly seems necessary for this to 

 be done, for when the invitation was given to you to come here, 

 it must have necessarily been given in a sufficiently cordial 

 manner to have warranted to you a warm reception when you 

 came here, or you would not have accepted the invitation. But 

 now that you have accepted that invitation and have gathered 

 here, it behooves the citizens of Waterville to do all in their 

 power to extend to you every courtesy possible. Our reputa- 

 tion as a city for hospitality and civic pride is well known, and 

 if for no other reason than that we could not afford to allow our 

 reputation in any way to be injured along this line, it behooves 

 us all to endeavor to make your stay while in Waterville 

 as pleasant as I am sure it will be profitable. We are always 

 glad to welcome people to our city, whether they come here for 

 the purpose of establishing for themselves a permanent home 

 or come, as you have come, to consider these questions, indus- 

 trial questions, which are so far reaching in their influence. 

 We perhaps had a selfish motive in having you come here, and 

 I trust that you will pardon us if it so seems to you. For we 

 are well assured that by the influence of the meetings to be held 

 here this week, by the questions that will come up for discus- 

 sion, every person in this vicinity who ever desires to do any 

 work along the line of fruit raising will be greatly helped and 

 assisted. I was greatly surprised this morning when in conver- 

 sation with one of your members, to find that this society had 

 been in existence so many years. If I remember correctly it 



