used to, on what he produced. It was the turkey who 

 said about Thanksgiving time, better to be and to be eaten 

 than not to be at all. * 



To trace the struggles of the early settlers, has all been 

 minutely recorded, eloquently told, and illustrated in your 

 annual reports. We can take pride in remembering that 

 to Essex County belongs the credit of erecting in Beverly 

 the first cotton mill in America, it was built in 1787, in- 

 corporated February, 1789, visited by George Washington 

 in October of the same year. 



Today the total product of the manufactures of New 

 England is valued at <f 319 per inhabitant, that of old Eng- 

 land 1115, that of France 171, and that of Germany $63 

 per inhabitant. The manufacturing product of New Eng- 

 land has increased three times faster than the gi-owth in 

 population. The manufacturing product of the most pros- 

 perous country in Europe has barely kept pace with its 

 population. Yet of late years there has been a great deal 

 of talk about the depression of business in the United 

 States. The very atmosphere has been impregnated with 

 ideas about hard times. I remember of hearing of an army 

 officer, whose salary is always the same, who declared he 

 must begin to economize as he found the times so hard. 



During this period of increase of manufacturers' product, 

 the wages of workmen have been more than proportionally 

 increased. Wages are much higher than those in Europe 

 and the cost of food is less. The deposits in savings banks 

 are usually looked upon as fair indications of relative 

 prosperity of working people of the different countries. 

 Deposits of savings banks of New England are $151 per 

 inhabitant, Germany -$27, France $19 and England $18. 

 If we stop to investigate, the American people "notwith- 

 standing some of their own lamentations are not so badly 

 off after all. The savings banks show that the working- 

 man not only has more money to deposit than his Euro- 

 pean brother, but also more confidence in depositing it. 



