DAIRY MEETING. 55 



"Breathes there the man with soul so dead 



Who never to himself hath said 

 This is my own, my native land." 



The motive which actuated the poet who uttered and penned 

 those Hues was undoubtedly that of sincere patriotism to his 

 own country and admiration of the Anglo Saxon race. Wher- 

 ever that race have planted their feet they hare established 

 order, encouraged industry, built up commerce, created wealth 

 and enthused the ideas of modern civilization into the sluggish 

 populations by which they were surrounded. It is thus that the 

 countries of the Old World have grown quite as much abroad 

 as at home, and it has been their principal boast in the past that 

 they have been overshadowed by their own colonies which have 

 diffused their arts, their language and their civilization over 

 every continent and into the isles of the most distant seas. You 

 are the descendants of those pioneers. In your veins flows the 

 blood that established all of the public institutions which have 

 made our boasted civilization what it is. You represent 60,000 

 happy homes. Many thousand young men and young women 

 have gone out from the State of Maine to enrich other states. 

 We have furnished great statesmen, governors, senators, ora- 

 tors, leaders in society, leaders in public life, in almost every 

 state in this broad land. We have nothing to regret ; we have 

 simply contributed from our abundance, and we believe many 

 of the sons and daughters of these men will return to the old 

 homesteads as the surest road to success. 



We have heard of the abandoned farms of Maine, and I am 

 sorry to say that in many of our coast towns the population has 

 decreased. But I believe the time is near at hand when every 

 one of those places will be restored. The next 20 years will 

 see a great increase in the dairy industry, in the poultry indus- 

 try, in everything connected with agriculture ; it will see, instead 

 of 60,000 happy homes, many, many more. The tide is already 

 turning from the cities to the country. Here is to be the future 

 Eldorado of this country, and to you and to your posterity will 

 come a prosperity undreamed of today. The farmers of Maine 

 are worthy of their destiny. I hail you as the morality, the 

 intelligence and the salvation of our State and of our Nation. 



If I have said anything tonight that may seem to be extrava- 

 gant, if I have said any words of praise that may seem too 



