USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > Needham's bicentennial celebration; a record of the exercises and a memorial of the celebration at Needham, Massachusetts, on the two hundredth anniversary of it's incorporation. Pub. by the Celebration committee; > Part 10
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I have not anything to say at this time in criticism of Boston's city government, but I want to say that in
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my judgment it is a poorer government than that which exists in these localities here about you; that we get more for every dollar expended than they do in Boston simply because the average citizen does not lose his connection with expenditures and other details that make up municipal life, and when it comes for your body to maintain your individuality and your munici- pality as it is or go into the city of Boston I hope you will consider very seriously and gravely whether you will not be doing yourself and descendants an injustice if you join yourself with a community where the govern- ment is poorer than here simply because it makes a larger community there.
The mayor of the city of which I am a resident is here to speak for it, but I want to say just one word about your neighbors. Every man is somewhat influ- enced by what his neighbor thinks. If there is a man in this community who maintains his home and estab- lishment at a high standard it is an invitation, in a sense, for others to go and do likewise. The same things exists in municipalities, and it would be impossible for New- ton, Needham, Wellesley, and Dedham surrounded by the splendid municipalities I have named-it would be impossible to be any other than first class communi- ties in which to live. Therefore we as neighbors take an interest in you and your local municipal success, and in your sterling citizenship, and we wish you a continuation of all the good things that have come to you in the past whether you continue your present form of government or change it.
The fact is, whether you change your government is not the final consideration which will determine whether expenditures are wisely made or not, but it is the quality of the citizens to determine that, and it should be your first purpose to maintain the highest quality of citizenship. Keep your people interested in
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THE BANQUET-CONGRESSMAN WEEKS
local and governmental affairs; the man interested in in the church, in the library, eleemosynary institutions, if there are such, in the various things that go to make up our life in a community like this, is almost invariably a good citizen, and I say to you try to keep every citi- zen interested in those things whether he belongs to your party or denomination or your city or not. Every man, whatever his occupation, should be part of the life, a part of the community where he lives.
I want to say one word more, and that is to express to you my own appreciation of Needham and of the people of Needham. It is nearly eight years since I have tried to represent you in Washington, and I want to thank you for assisting me in the performance of my public duties. I say this without regard to the political appreciation or support in this community : I say it to every man, Democrat, Republican or Social- ist, because I have been allowed, so far as the citizens of Needham are concerned, to perform my duties with- out in any degree trying to affect my judgment of what the proper duties of a representative in Congress are. I have not been obliged to devote all my time to petty details of no importance to the general public or to the nation at large.
Naturally there are some of those things which every representative must at times give some atten- tion to, but I have been given opportunity to devote my time to the larger affairs of government, and if I have not done so successfully it is my own fault and not yours. You have given me the opportunity to be a good representative for you and for myself as an indi- vidual trying to make credit for myself; therefore there is due you my appreciation for the manner in which you have assisted me in performing my public duties.
I hope you will go on as you have the last fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years, and will continue a model
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municipality, trying to be the best municipality there is in this good Commonwealth" (very great applause.)
THE CHAIRMAN. "As our Congressman has well said, this is not a political meeting; at the same time I feel that there are those present who will be much pleased to hear from men representing the Common- wealth, and I will introduce to you Secretary of State Langtry."
REMARKS OF HON. A. P. LANGTRY
"Mr. Toastmaster, I cannot talk about Needham; I live a hundred miles from Needham, and I know noth- ing about your town excepting that it is one of the most beautiful of the many beautiful suburbs of Boston, and I do not blame any of you for wanting to live here, and I should not think any of you would ever want to leave here, and that none of you would ever want to be annexed to the city of Boston which is my temporary home. I should think that you would rather enjoy your own government and your own associations. Knowing nothing about the history of your town I cannot talk to you about it, but I am going to intrude a short political subject, a little political morality, if you please.
Every one of you has met the man who tells you that politics is a dirty game, and that all politicians are grafters. There is not one of you but knows the man who tells you that, and that man never stops to think that in this glorious republic the majority rule, and if politicians are grafters it means that the majority of the people are dishonest, and everyone of you at heart knows that that is not true and that every one loves honesty and hates dishonesty.
Did you ever attend the Bowery Theatre? I
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have many a time and there will be a melodrama on the churchman; we all sing the praise of the man who is stage and the gallery will be packed with the toughest men in the toughest city of the United States,-thieves, pick-pockets, black-legs and murderers perhaps. The hero comes on the stage and that gallery cheers that hero as you never heard him cheered when the tickets cost two dollars apiece, and they pay ten cents admis- sion. The villain comes on, and he is hissed on that stage. They love right and they hate wrong, and if you had one of them on the side and asked him why he lives the life he does he would in a sullen sort of way say that the world is against him and owes him a living and he has got to get it the best he can. Every man would rather be honest, and the man that tells you your government is dishonest, that the people are dis- honest, is libeling the people of this glorious Republic. We all sing the praise of the man who is a good church man; we all sing the praise of the man who is a good husband and kind father, but I tell you, Mr. Toastmaster, there is one other virtue that should be in a man's life. A man ought to be those things and he ought also to be a good politician, and I mean that in the highest and the best sense, and a good politician means a good patriot. He ought to take an interest in his government. There is not a man in this audience if he were a stockholder in a private corporation, and he believed there was graft or inefficiency in that corporation, who would not be around on stockholder's day with certificates in his hand, who would not have his neighbors and friends who were stockholders there to turn the rascals out. And yet you hear there is inefficiency in our government, in our state govern- ment, and every one of you who pays a dollar in taxes is a stockholder in Massachusetts which is a state corporation, but that is all that the state of Massa-
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chusetts is. It is a great big corporation doing a busi- ness of many millions of dollars a year; the Governor is the president, the legislators are the board of direc- tors, and if there is graft there, if there is inefficiency there, on stockholder's day, on the first Tuesday in November, you as stockholders owe it to yourselves and to your state and to your country to be at the stockholder's meeting and turn the rascals out.
In this great state but 60 or 70 per cent of the stockholders in this Massachusetts corporation vote every year, and that includes every man who tells you that politics is a dirty game and that politicians are grafters.
We have too much politics in Massachusetts. How many realize that but two states in the Union have an election this fall, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and if the people of Rhode Island should have an amendment to the constitution two years hence Massachusetts alone will hold an election. Every state in the Union except Massachusetts will elect its state ticket either once in two years or once in four years, and give the people a little rest in between. The cam- paign in this state started very shortly after the first of January, and it has been going on ever since, and I presume next year it will begin over again pretty close to the first of January, and so it is from year to year. It seems to me that the people of Massachusetts are en- titled to a rest every other year from politics, and it seems to me also that they are entitled to a rest from a legislative session. The present Legislature lasted nearly seven months-just think of it-nearly seven months, and there are twenty-five states in the Union that by constitutional enactment limits the legislative session in their states to from forty to ninety days, and there are only six states in this whole country that have annual sessions of the Legislature.
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THE BANQUET-HON. CHARLES E. HATFIELD
Now, Mr. Chairman, I am a born optimist, and I think the world is growing better all the time; I think we have better rulers today than yesterday, and I think better laws today than ever before. I think the sun will shine brighter tomorrow than it has shone today, but I do think it is your duty and my duty and every man's duty to be a patriotic citizen, to be inter- ested in his town, in his state, in his nation, and to do his part to give this country the best government in the world." [applause]
THE CHAIRMAN. "In speaking about the govern- ment of cities, and especially of small cities, I am con- fident the speaker did not have in mind any reference to our neighboring city of Newton, which we all know is a well governed city, and we shall be pleased to hear his Honor, Mayor Hatfield of Newton."
REMARKS OF HON. CHARLES E. HATFIELD
"Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen. I know it is late and you want to get away; I am sure you are not anxious to hear me speak any more than I am anxious to speak to you. I am glad however to come here and to bring the greetings to you of the city of Newton. Newton is proud of Needham; we are bound to you by many ties; we see many of your people in Newton in many of our different orders and organiza- tions, and we have come to love those men and to be proud of them. We get water from the banks of the river in Needham. Possibly in Newton they mix it with other things, but not during this administration [laughter]. Away back in the dark ages when Con- gressman Weeks was mayor of Newton they may have mixed water with other things, but not at present.
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NEEDHAM'S BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
But Newton is as proud of you as you are proud of yourself at this two hundredth anniversary, and I could not help thinking as I sat here that back of all these comes the opportunity of what two hundred years gives to these young men and women of Needham. It is the inheritance brought to them by their forefathers by the men who have made this possible, by the men and the women too, for the women have done their part. You remember Senator Hoar when asked to speak to the toast 'The Pilgrim Mothers' said this: 'The Pilgrim Mothers, they endured all the Pilgrim fathers endured, and also had to endure the Pilgrim fathers.'
Now, it is that inheritance, that many years of good town government brought down to these boys and girls that is going to give them an opportunity,-the opportunity which comes to an American citizen and gives him the chance to become as great and as good as any other man in the country. That is what freedom means here, it is what has been brought about by the kind of men and women who settled this town, and I assure you that Newton brings to you greetings and hopes that you may at the next celebration after an- other hundred years have as pleasant and even a pleas- anter reunion than this.
'May you be the same good fellow, genial spirit, man and friend
Till the shadows fall and lengthen, and life's beaten track shall end.'"
THE CHAIRMAN. "It has been said, I believe, by some one that a man's birthplace is largely acci- dental, and I presume we have a very little to say about it, but we have here a great many people who claim Needham as their birthplace, and who have a feeling of friendship and loyalty for our town, who take an
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THE BANQUET-HON. B. B. JOHNSON
interest in our town, and we have some of them with us during this celebration, and I assure you it has given me quite a feeling of inspiration to see with us from day to day friends and neighbors from different towns and cities.
Tonight we have with us a man well known to a large number of our townsmen, one who has occupied responsible positions and has been identified with the growth of the neighboring city of Waltham, and who comes to us tonight with a few words of good cheer and encouragement. I have the pleasure to introduce at this time the Hon. B. B. Johnson."
REMARKS OF HON. B. B. JOHNSON
"Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I was thinking today that I was almost the only native lands- man among these invited guests seated at this table. Almost all the gentlemen who have been here tonight, and especially those who are gone, and my eloquent brother here and one or two that sit at the table, are fishermen and they won't know what the catch is until next November. Another one over here is a fisher of men, and I presume you will hear from him.
Seventy-seven years ago next November I paid my first visit to Needham. Churches were scarce; now you have an abundance of them-have enough for every one. Your school houses were poor and scattered; you have splendid edifices now. But they had some smart boys and girls in Needham in those days. When the old parson made one of his calls on the Kingsbury family the little girl of the family had a composition she had just prepared on the cow. The pastor asked her to read it and she read it to him. The last sentence of it was-'The cow is the most useful animal in the
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world except religion.' The pastor understood that. A town which for two hundred years has stood faithful in education and civil and religious liberty, judged by the standards of the town of Needham, has a right to celebrate its Bicentennial. A town which has sent out its girls and boys imbued with those characteristics they have gotten here, who have made their mark in business and social life of this Commonwealth, such a town has the right to celebrate her Bicentennial Anni- versary with pride. I congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, on what appears to be a most remarkable success that your committee has achieved, and I thus publicly thank you for the invitation to this occasion which I consider a great compliment. I am glad to see so many here from abroad and I am glad that Needham has been honored by some of these talented ones in song, in verse and in service. I was glad to hear that poem last night; it was a credit and an honor to the town and to the woman who wrote it.
Let me, in conclusion, say that I trust that one of the lessons that will be learned today out of this celebra- tion will be that which has been thrust home tonight more than once-the duty of loyal good citizenship. Let every man and woman resolve that the moral standard of Needham shall never be lowered, and put your hands upon your hearts and pledge yourselves if you are wise that you will never let this town be en- gulfed by any other municipality, even Boston " [applause.]
THE CHAIRMAN: "We have with us tonight the representative of a family well known by reputation, and known also by a large number of our citizens, the representative of a family which has taken active part in making the history of Needham, and one which has always held a place of honor in our hearts. We remem-
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THE BANQUET-REV. GEORGE WHITAKER
ber them and we respect them, and it is with pleasure that I call upon Dr. George Whitaker."
REMARKS OF REV. GEORGE WHITAKER
"Mr. Chairman. I was about to say Fellow Citi- zens of Needham, for I hardly like to call myself now any other than a Needham boy.
I am reminded of a certain dignitary of the church who had occasion at one time to pass through a sparsely settled section of Missouri, and because of the scarcity of provisions found it necessary for his daily wants to make application wherever opportunity occurred. It is said that he came to the door of a pleasant appearing log cabin, with its garden attractive and beautiful about it, and he made a request for a meal. A well dressed lady of particular attractiveness gladly con- sented to supply his need. Everything there denoted the utmost thrift and housewifery. When the dinner was served a negro came in and took his seat at the table, and he proved to be the husband of this woman who had provided so well for her guest. Surprise was expressed that she should have married a negro, when she replied,-'My sister did not fare anything like as well as I did, for she married a Yankee.'
And I have come to consider the situation of that relationship, for the term 'Yankee' has grown to be wonderfully strong. It started well-at the foundation of the splendid characteristics the praise of which we have heard a good deal during this celebration. It was, to be sure, confined largely to England until a certain misunderstanding grew up a little more than fifty years ago, but it spread partly by emigration, and partly by a loyalty to the country's welfare, all over these New England states; and a peculiar ideal of
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righteousness, that profound devotion to efforts that this country should stand as the representative of abso- lute freedon for church and state, and should become a name indeed, as it had been a name in verse-'The land of the free and the home of the brave,' and that spirit marks genuine Yankeedom.
And so I love to think that this town, as we have heard over and over again, was settled by this kind of people. The fathers have done their share in giving us the characteristics of highest manhood of most splendid devotion, of heroic strife and glorious victory, and that has given the Yankee name immortality side by side with the best things of Greece and Rome. This term has become significant of our great American honesty, and is speaking to all generations as they come and go into the activities of life.
I am here for just a few moments to call your attention to the fact which must not be forgotten, that like old Greece and Rome that took into itself by a system of proselytism all the peoples who were pleased to accept its principles, so this America of ours invites the people of every land to come and take up our faith, take up our courage, take up our national prestige- seize upon all these appliances for the individual growth, for splendid development, for heroic achievement, for supplementing the ideal to which they perpetually aspire. It is this principle to which we invite the peo- ple of every land to become a part of our great nation- ality.
I cannot stop without calling your attention, friends, to this fact, that our Americans are fast becom- ing a mixture of half a dozen old bloods; and to accom- plish that there has been incorporated a little German, a little Scandinavian, a little of the Latin races, some North American Indian, some African blacks and some Aztec, and putting the whole together, consecrating
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THE BANQUET-REV. GEORGE WHITAKER
and moulding the same, to bring about at the last the conglomeration of a cosmopolitan American.
Now I must say a word very briefly on one or two points. First, I thank you for the privilege of being with you again, and because you are Needham people you will be interested tonight to go with me to the home of citizen Morgan. If you will, look with me out of his north window and see one house. That was the home of the Rev. William Ritchie, then the pastor of the church that stood a little farther away. Turn your eyes out of the west window and find the home of the Rev. Daniel Kimball. Both were uncles of Edgar K. Whitaker, my father.
Then turn your eyes out of the south window and you will see one house, now taken down, and I want to say that every nail we pulled out as we tore off the clapboards and timbers and boards was made of wrought iron, just as the blacksmith fashioned every nail that went into that house. Out of the east window, and nearly opposite the Baptist Church was the next house, the residence of Joseph Colburn, who has gone to his reward. A little farther away was Asa Kings- bury's, and just beyond the little school house where my own ideas were first taught to sprout. Just beyond was the little brick school-house-and that was Need- ham when I was a boy, and that represented every- thing in sight. This very spot where you and I now are is where I once got an awful sweating digging away with the hoe, or swinging the scythe to the best of my strength. My father had the notion that the best way was to bring a boy up with work, and I have found it well to be in league with work, to be overflowing with work, to be never wearied with work, and to determine that work was man's highest character and destiny was one of the good lessons taught me in my Needham home.
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THE TOWN OF NEEDHAM MASSACHUSETTS
will celebrate this year, with fitting exercises, its
BICENTENNIAL
You are cordially invited to be present Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, September 17, 18 and 19, 1911
The program will include a civic and trades parade, sports and children's entertainment, historic exhibit, reception, his- toric addresses, banquet and ball
There will be room for everyone, and the committee hopes that you will be able to join with them in making the obser- vance a success
The subscription to the banquet has been placed at two dollars. In order to determine the number of covers to be laid, notice of your intention to attend will be necessary
The tickets to the ball will be one dollar each
WILLIAM G. MOSELEY, Chairman THOMAS SUTTON, Secretary
THE BALL
THE BALL
A fitting finale to Needham's Bi-Centennial cele- bration was the grand march and ball held in the Town Hall Tuesday evening, September 19th. More than one hundred couples participated. The grand march was led by Henry T. Childs, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and Miss Bessie Childs.
The affair was in charge of a committee comprised of Selectman William A. Probert, Chairman; Henry D. Blackman and James H. Whetton. The floor was in charge of John L. Twigg. He was assisted by James H. Whetton, Francis J. Stanwood, Wallace G. Rae and Rodney S. Adams.
The hall was prettily decorated with pale blue and white bunting draped from the truss beams over- head. Artificial vines and flowers adorned the col- umns and walls, and pendants of vines and roses hung from the chandeliers and light clusters. The front of the stage was decorated with vines and bouquets of flowers.
Music for dancing was supplied by the Puritan Orchestra of Boston. The dance order comprised twelve numbers and several extras. Dancing was en- joyed until 12 P. M. Many guests were present from Dedham, Wellesley, Newton, Natick, Dover and other nearby towns. The beautiful costumes of the ladies together with the tasteful decorations of the hall com- bined to make the affair easily the leading social event in the festivities of the year.
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THE RESULT
THE RESULT
Throughout the entire celebration, held under un- clouded skies, not an unpleasant incident marred the success of Needham's Bicentennial anniversary, - a success so marked that in it the hardest worker on the committee forgot the hours given to the many details of the first steps. The general invitations to attend at some time during the three days, sent by citizens to absent ones, brought a most gratifying number of Needham's sons and daughters, as well as interested friends ; and the surrounding towns contri- buted their share of transient visitors.
A remarkable feature of the celebration was the prevailing orderliness in crowds running into the thou- sands. No extra officers were needed, and at no time was even the regular force a necessity, save as a pre- cautionary measure. Not an arrest was made dur- ing the whole time. That the real spirit of the cele- bration had been caught by all, was plainly shown by each one's effort to help make the event a joy to others.
Another noticeable feature of the occasion was the absence of all that would in any way tend to lessen the dignity of the celebration. Life and pleasure abound- ed, but the committee decided against the admis- sion of "side shows" and "fakirs", and the discor- dant cries and attendant unruly following usual on sim- ilar occasions were absent.
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NEEDHAM'S BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
It was gratifying as well as pleasant to see many of the same faces day after day, signifying that the event was not losing in its force as the program con- tinued, -and those who were obliged to leave before the end did so with genuine regret.
What will be the permanent effect of the celebra- tion on the civic welfare of the town cannot now be determined ; indirectly, at least, it must be beneficial ; but Needham's Bicentennial will not be forgotten by the present generation, and without doubt the record here preserved will be enjoyed by many in the future.
THE END
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