l6 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



heat producing waves in the air. and finally to sound waves, 

 and then to waves produced by electricity, there were perhaps 

 none who realized that he was doing anything of value. Buc 

 one day a Marconi took up the work that Hertz had done, 

 carried from the point to which he had brought it, and gave to 

 the world wireless telegraphy, the greatest invention that we 

 have had in many ages. We need to see in a larger field that all 

 the work that men of intelligence and honesty are engaged in, 

 will either now or ultimately contribute to the progress of us 

 all. 



We have been slow, in America, to realize that our progress 

 is tied up. in the knowledge that becomes common to us all. 

 We have not paid, in America, very high tribute, as a rule, to 

 men who know. We ihave been slow to believe that the man 

 who is devoting his life to the finding of new knowledge, to the 

 jmshing out of the boundary of knowledge, is a man of any 

 interest to us. But we are beginning to realize that. You have 

 in this hall tonight a splendid exhibition of fruit, largely because 

 men in Maine and elsewhere for years have devoted them- 

 selves with great zeal to the discovery of truth, because they 

 have hunted down disease to its very foundation, and found 

 the methods and means of combatting it, — because they have 

 traced this pest and that to its lair, and understood its life his- 

 tory, and found out how to control or exterminate it. 



What is true in fruit growing, is true in a thousand indus- 

 tries today. We are only beginning, however, to rest, as we 

 ought to rest, upon this foundation of knowledge. If, somehow 

 or other, we could as a people increase our faith in knowledge, 

 it would mean much for our progress. That means a unity. 

 It means that all of us must unite in believing that there is 

 such a thing as truth, that there are men who by devoting their 

 lives to the search of truth may find some of it, and in being 

 willing to follow their control. 



Perhaps the two greatest words linked up with the progress 

 of the future are the words "'honesty" and "cooperation." It 

 was suggested here by one of the speakers a moment ago that 

 this society whose meetings we are attending stands for a barrel 

 of apples or a box of apples that is uniform throughout. Most 

 of us can remember, not very far back either, when in the 

 business world there was not much honesty, when you could 



