June 29, 1917. 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 49 
BROTHERHOOD MEETING 
Henry G. WELLS, PRESIDENT OF 
Mass. SENATE, TALKS ON RE- 
SPONSIBILITY OF AMERICANS 
Henry G. Wells, president of the 
Mass. Senate, was the speaker at the 
meeting of the Manchester Brother- 
hood on Monday evening. It was the 
last meeting of the year and in addi- 
tion to a striking address it was mark- 
ed by a patriotic enthusiasm on the 
part of all present. As a climax to 
the strong address the members were 
surprised by a visitation of a large 
delegation from Allen Relief corps, 
headed by Mrs. J. S. Reed, the pat- 
riotic instructor, who presented the 
Brotherhood with a handsome Amert- 
can flag. About 75 were present. 
Mr. Wells was introduced as the 
honored president of |the Mass. Senate. 
“T don’t know about calling the per- 
sonnel of the Mass. Senate ‘honored,’ ”’ 
he said, “unless we go by the rule 
that ‘every knock is a boost.’ ” 
Telling of an incident he had re- 
cently observed, he said he was going 
to choose it as his text. Three boys 
were passing down a street and one of 
them slipped on a banana peel. He 
was caught by one of the others, 
and with the other boy proceed- 
ed on his way. The third boy 
stopped long enough to kick the peel- 
ing into the gutter. Mr, Wells said 
the incident illustrated about the pro- 
portion of people in every community 
who have developed a sense of re- 
sponsibility to others or themselves. 
“In every community we find that 
about two-thirds of the people have 
not developed a sense of responsibil- 
ity. We find cliques pulling against 
each other everywhere. There seems 
to be a good community spirit in Man- 
chester as I have observed during the 
few hours I have been here. Other- 
wise I would not have seen so many. 
men out drilling tonight, nor would 
I have seen such fine vegetable gar- 
dens as there are here, 
“Tt is the duty of every citizen to be 
interested in the affairs of the state 
and nation regardless of his political 
affiliations. We do not have a ma- 
jority rule in this state despite our 
contention that we are a democracy. 
If we have a minority rule it should 
be an intelligent minority. Only 65 
percent of the assessed polls through- 
out the Commonwealth are registerd 
voters. The American who has not 
registered as a voter is hard for me 
to classify at a gathering like this. 
There is no danger to America from 
the part of 35 percent that are so- 
called ‘hyphens’. The danger is from 
those men who are not American citi- 
zens at all—the men who come to this 
country and enjoy all the privileges 
and benefits America can offer and 
refuse to share in the responsibility of 
citizenship. 
“The man who takes out his na- 
turalization papers from choice and 
becomes an American citizen deserves 
as much credit for being an American 
as we who are Americans through no 
fault of our own, but because we were 
born here. 
“The public schools are going to 
help clear up that 35 percent of un- 
registered voters. The American 
children of foreign born parents will 
take care of the future of the hyphen. 
“We are now going through the 
process of having our constitution re- 
vised. One of the things much dis- 
cussed is the initiative and referen- 
dum, If we believe in the initiative 
and referendum lets know something 
about how it will work. If we are to 
place a check on the legislature let us 
be careful what kind of a check we 
place. We now have a referendum 
and what do we find when we make 
use of it. At the last election the im- 
portant question of holding a consti- 
tutional convention was placed upon 
the ballot and only 50 percent of 
those who voted, marked the question. 
“Our state legislature is not false 
to its trust as is charged by the sup- 
porters of the I. and R. A man in 
this state is elected for one year and 
is apt to be susceptible to the opinions 
of the men who elected him, if he 
cares about reelection. 
John F. Scott 
112 Pine St., : Manchester 
Plumbing and Heating 
HOT WATER JoUTLer 
Agent for 
Holyoke 
Kerosene 
Water 
Heater 
These are at- 
tached to boiler 
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and 
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Price for in- 
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Telephone 12 
“Now comes our national responsi- 
bility. So much has already been 
said that it seems as if the time for 
talk had passed and the time for ac- 
tion arrived, However, there is more 
of a disposition to hear about the dif- 
ferences between this and other coun- 
tries than there was a while ago. We 
in this country regard government as 
a means to an end. In Germany the 
(Continued on next page) 
Lehigh Valley Coal Sales Company 
GOAL 
SAMUEL KNIGHT SONS COMPANY 
32 GENTRAL STREET - 
- MANCHESTER, MASS. 
Tel. 202 
