1902.] INRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 2/ 



women, and our boys and girls; it means good roads in the 

 sparsely settled districts of this State at the expense of the 

 whole State; it means a market for the farmer and a high 

 school for his children. If Torrington were as large as New 

 Haven today, and Torrington is larger than New Haven was 

 eighty years ago, and growing twice as fast proportionately, — 

 if Torrington were as large as New Haven today, it would not 

 be a danger to the farmers of Litchfield county. If Rockville 

 and Willimantic were cities like Hartford, and they are today 

 larger than Hartford was one hundred years ago, could it be 

 said that they would be a danger to the agricultural interests 

 of Windham or Tolland counties? I think not. The farm has 

 surely been the salvation of the cities, and the cities have been 

 the stay of the farms. They always will be. I want to say 

 to you that there is not a mechanic at his bench, nor a banker 

 at his counter, nor a clerk at his desk that does not love the 

 country, and wish the farmer prosperity and happiness. (Ap- 

 plause.) And I want to continue now, perhaps, with a word 

 of encouragement. It seems to me that these times are much 

 better than the old times. Doesn't the farmer have more 

 money and more comforts today than he did sixty years ago, 

 and isn't it due somewhat to the ingenuity and the indu'stry 

 of the mechanic and the inventor? When I contemplate what 

 our fathers had to live in and walk on, and eat and wear, and 

 to do with and do without, and my recollection carries me back 

 far enough to' know, I think that many of you will agree with 

 me that these days are far better than the old days. I believe 

 that the State of Connecticut in all its diversity of industrial 

 progress has become a much more comfortable State to live 

 in than it was fifty years ago. While Connecticut has ever 

 been at the forefront in the past, and in all her labors for 

 Christianity and charity and morality, building the first asylum 

 for unfortunates at Hartford that was ever built in America, 

 giving more men and money to the cause of morality and the 

 cause of Christianity in the colonial times than any other 



