CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 101 



I think I have never met a man, woman or child in my State 

 who was not a firm believer in good roads, and who desires to have 

 a betterment of the highway conditions. But the obstacle that has 

 confronted my people, and confronts many of the States in New 

 England, is, how to get the money to make these improvements. 

 My State has taken this matter up, and we have gone into these 

 little towns having a small grant list, appreciating the fact of 

 their financial poverty, and are now paying, on the part of the 

 State, seven-eighths of the cost of construction of all highways 

 that are taken into the possession of the State as " State aid roads." 

 I firmly believe, as I look over the situation here in New England 

 to-day, that, if we are to have a system of trunk lines through New 

 England, and one that we can see and use to-day> and not put 

 ofE into the far dim and distant future, it is for the State, in its 

 pride and its desire to increase in population and wealth, to pay 

 out of its treasury the money necessary to build these trunk lines 

 throughout the length and breadth of New England, and then we 

 shall have them; otherwise, the day will be deferred an indeter- 

 minate length of time, in my judgment. 



God has wonderfully blessed New England in her men, in her 

 history, in nature's best handiwork, and made of it the garden 

 spot of the country, where we have that to offer which is not pre- 

 sented by any other part of the country; a great people, noted 

 for their refinement, noted for educational advantages, noted for 

 commercial privileges; situated on the seaboard, where the waters 

 that wash the shores of New England ebb and flow and touch the 

 shores of every country on the civilized globe; a great commercial 

 center, with great mountains lifting their mighty heads to God, 

 and where God's magic finger has painted on the hillsides, the 

 valleys and plains of dear old New England pictures more beautiful 

 that any that emanate from the brush of the master artist, for 

 in the one instance it fades from the canvas and is lost to memory, 

 while in the other it endures throughout all time. 



