Sept. 17, 1915. 
MiArey C, Foster. 
A member of this year’s house wio 
stood out prominently from most cf 
the membership because of his ability 
as a legislator and his knowledge of 
government was Rep. Harry C. Fos- 
ter of Gloucester, a republican, who 
represented the 21st Essex dist. 
Mr. Foster has been in the public 
eye for many years, he having: served 
ir, the house in 1808 and in tne senate 
im 1902 and 1903. Since that time ne 
has been mayor of his own city and 
made a remarkably successful chief 
executive. 
He was years ago one of the lead- 
ing republicans in the legislature and 
When he returned for the session 
which ended in June last Speaker 
Cox was so appreciative of the fact 
that he selected the Gloucester repre- 
sentative to head the important com- 
mittee on roads and bridges, one of 
the most arduous positions in the state 
service and one which this year en- 
tailed more than mere labor, for from 
it came two of the biggest controver- 
sies of the session. 
The most momentous bit of legis- 
lation enacted by the legislature of 
1915 was without doubt the $2,500,- 
000 highway appropriation bill. — Its 
enactment meant that Massachusetts 
has entered upon a new era of farm 
development, Beyond that it means 
that a long step is about to be taken 
toward solving a problem from which 
not only the farmers but the con- 
sumers have been suffering for years. 
Mr. Foster, as chairman of the com- 
mittee which drafted and reported the 
bill, had an important part to play. 
The appropriation of $2,500,000 in 
one bill is no light undertaking for a 
legislature. Much less is it for the 
INGA a I Hes ty Oph Hit Bekah eZ, 
ERY Be gy Ly 
aii ROR 2° ft 
; Bi i 
Neither rain, snow 
union of lead and oil is too 
strong. Such paint forms a 
solid, elastic film that does 
not crack, will wear long, 
and will keep smooth. 
We sell other good paint- 
ing requisites as well. Come 
in or call us about your 
painting needs. 
F.A. LANE 
Manchester, Mass. 
E and Reminder 35 
can penetrate paint made of 
Dutch Boy ©) 
Phoenix FF 
E White Lead 
and “pure linseed oil. The 
nor moisture 
committee that reports it:) The ext; 
gency must be pronounced of what- 
ever may be the problem, the cure 
certain. Mr. Foster and his col- 
leagues on the jcommittee grappled 
with it intelligently and the result is 
that the act is hailed from one end of 
the country to the other as hopeful 
of a plan to make farm lands more 
valuable, crops more certain of a 
market and consumers put in a posi- 
tion to secure the advantages in price 
that as, note been their's) inv recent 
years. 
Another controversy settled by Mr. 
Foster’s committee this year was the 
Quinsigamond bridge muddle, which 
has been bothering successive legis- 
latures for the last 20 years. 
Mr. Foster also was a tower of 
strength to the Essex county delega- 
tion on most of the matters that came 
from that section. He was an ardent 
believer in good waterways as well 
as in good roads and most of the 
harbor and river improvements pro- 
vided for by the legislature of 1975 
were helped to enactment because of 
the work he did for them, 
When the big general legislation 
was before the house he was one cf 
the leaders among the republicans, as 
he was all through the session, for 
the matter of that. He knew what 
was happening all the time, which is 
one sof the ‘fitst "qualiications: of ia 
high-class legislator and he was con- 
tinually on the alert to see that Glou- 
cester and Cape Ann were not ham- 
pered or injured through legislation 
designed to help other sections of tie 
state.- He was, in a word, a: first-class 
legislator and one of a type which, 1f 
all the district followed Gloucester’s 
example, would greatly improve the 
character of the state’s law-making 
branch. 
Mr. Foster was born in Swamp- 
scott.on Aug. 27, 1871, is “a civil en- 
gineer and graduate of the Massachu- 
setts Institution of Technology. He 
was a member of the republican state 
committee in 1899 and I19g00, is a 
Mason, an Elk, a Knight of Pythias, 
a Red Man and a Moose.—Sept. 
edition Practical Politics. 
Tomorrow is like the postman; 
there are so many good things the 
postman might bring, but usually he 
brings nothing except a few bills, a 
few one-cent envelopes, and a com- 
plaint or two. 
The chap who suspects his neighbor 
is not above suspicion. 
