ONE NE of the rarest abilities encountered in life is the ability to think in terms of the future. The man or woman who can see around the corner, is, to hop into the vernacular, a rare bird. All the mistakes of life, all the crimes, all the sins of omission and commission, would never be recorded if our foresight were only as keen as our hindsight. The power of imagination The power of imagination yoked up with common sense is a combination so unusual as to constitute nothing short of genius. Where the ordinary man saw nothing but a sandy waste uninhabitable forever Collis P. Huntington saw the Southern Pacific railroad bringing civilization in its train years before a rail was laid across the great American desert. Great as Napoleon was in war, he saw in the Louisiana Territory only a vast wilderness peopled by naked savages, a drain upon the resources of France. after its acquisition by us, few American statesmen realized its productive possibilities, and it was not until a practical demonstration came in 1849 in the shape of the discovery of gold in California that this Nation as a whole realized what an Eldorado we had west of the Mississippi river. Even The imagination of Dante furnished the Bible with an additional chapter and pictured the torments of the damned with an artistry that was so diabolic that the race is still held in shivering thraldom by it. There is absolutely no authority in Scripture for the hell depicted by Dante and yet his conception and his alone is the one generally accepted by more than 90 per cent of the Christian world. The imagination of Galileo, of Newton and of Columbus revolutionized the thinking of humanity. And the material elements of our modern civilization are based entirely upon their assumptions and their discoveries. Every century from the fourteenth century to the twentieth has furnished the race with at least one great dreamer, either in the realm of thought or action. Lincoln's famous declaration in 1858, that this Nation cannot exist half slave and half free was not the idle thought of a passing moment but was the deliberate expression of years of conviction that this Nation inevitably would some day be all free. There was absolutely nothing in human conditions at that moment to warrant the belief that his dream would ever come true. There is a profound lesson in all this to New England people and to the people of Worcester. The only criticism that can justly be made of this community is that it lacks the power of imagination. It acts sometimes as if it were thinking of itself in the terms of 1811, rather than 1911. There is but little real comprehension of the fact that we have 150,000 people here and that we shall soon have 200,000. Many men in middle life reading this article will live to see this community with more than 300,000 souls. What are we doing to provide for them? Absolutely nothing. If an attempt ever is made to remedy the existing conditions the universal cry goes up that the improvement will cost money, and, if it costs money, that means an increase in the tax rate. As a matter of fact if the improvements so unerringly called for in this city are not made, the tax rate will go up and will never come down. It is axiomatic that we owe as great a duty to the future as the past owed to us. Reckoned in those terms are we measuring up to our forbears? Have we provided for the next generation anything like the material comforts provided for us? We found here a city laid out with nearly 250 miles of streets with gas and sewers and street cars, with schools and parks and water and all the machinery of government necessary to enforce law and order. An equipment in short sufficient to provide. for a community of 100,000 people. We still have the same old equipment and we have 150,000 people to care for. Will the same watershed that only took care of 100,000 people take care of Worcester, now that we have 150,000? Will appropriations and methods that were sufficient to care for our streets when nothing but horse drawn vehicles passed over them serve now that they bear daily the wear and tear of scores of five-ton electric driven trucks? In the obsession of our daily cares and daily life we think little and care less of our responsibilities as citizens and our obligation to transmit unimpaired to our successors the municipal plant which we are temporarily operating. We perform our duties on election day and damn the city government the remainder of the year. The fact of the matter is that Worcester is going to be just as good a city as we are willing to have it; just as good as we are willing to pay for, and no better. The money appropriated by the city government is not squandered nor stolen. It may not and does not produce the results that the same amount of money would produce if it were all owned by one man and he was sufficiently energetic and brutal in the use he made of it. But as cities go, Worcester gets as much out of a dollar as most others and always has. No, the trouble is that we lack imagination and lack courage to plan for the future. We act as though we were frightened at our own growth. Like an overgrown boy who wakes up in the morning to find his trousers too short we are afraid to ask father for new ones. We This article is not a fire alarm and is not intended as a reflection upon anybody; it is simply a sober statement of the condition that now confronts this community. have arrived at a period in the life of Worcester when we must plan for the future. And our plans will involve the outlay of great sums of money. But they will not involve as large sums as will be necessary if the improvements imperatively demanded are much longer delayed. He is not a great citizen of Worcester who clamors that the tax rate shall be kept low no matter what suffers; he alone is a good citizen of Worcester, who says that the city shall have the money it needs for its legitimate development no matter what the taxes are. That policy and that policy alone will enable Worcester to keep abreast of the twentieth century as she kept ahead of the nineteenth. And any other policy will not only reflect upon Worcester but will reflect upon you and me. We have received in this community a sacred heritage straight from the hands of a hard working, self sacrificing, far sighted body of men who loved Worcester and who sacrificed for it more than any of us have ever done that their dream might come true. The question is, shall we, the residuary legatees, laze away our years in undisturbed repose or shall we try to justify our rights to existence by improving upon their work? One Master or 46? Complete control of the railroads of the United States by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the practical elimination of every state railroad commission in this country was mirrored in a decision handed down Oct. 30, by the Supreme Court of the United States, which held that hereafter all locomotives, cars, or other equipment used in any railroad which is a highway of interstate commerce must comply with the Federal safety appliance act. The Court held that compliance with Federal law is compulsory on all railroads which are engaged in the transportation of persons or freight, from one state to another. Elaborating this, however, it held that the cars or equipment on such roads, even if engaged in such transportation within the confines of a state must be considered as part and parcel of the road and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Federal Commission. It is said that members of the Interstate Commerce Commission, who have frequently been embarrassed by conflicts with state commissions were jubilant at the ruling and well they might be for it nationalizes the railroads with a vengence and marks the end of purely state control. There is nothing at all revolutionary or remarkable about the decision however. It has been apparent for months that every tendency of government was to place the control of our railroad systems, whether intrastate or interstate, in the hands of the Federal Commission. A very excellent bill enlarging the scope of the railroad commission in this state was drawn during the last session of the Legislature by Mr. Robert M. Washburn of this city. It failed of passage but had it become law and the Massachusetts commission in its new form collided at any point with the Interstate Commerce Commissions its sponsors would have had to suffer the humiliation of seeing its decrees set at naught. Of course this decision does not settle the great point aimed at in Mr. Washburn's bill, viz., the regulation of railroad rates within this state by our own state commission. Not until next January when the so-called Minnesota and Kentucky rate cases come up will we know what the Supreme Court has to say along that line. But entirely aside from the outcome in the cases yet pending nothing is more certain than that no law can be passed by any state and enforced that shall impose burdens upon the railroads in that state that they do not bear in other states nor give the shippers and receivers of freight of that state discriminations and privileges that are not open to everybody everywhere. The courts are too handy, lawyers too plentiful, and the ability and incentive to initiate litigation too common, to permit of any injustices being practiced hereafter, especially against the railroads. The shipper not knowing just where to go to seek relief may have to stand it longer. Nothing is more certain than the fact that the Interstate Commerce Commission is available to every man who wants to make a complaint and it has this added advantage over every state commission, even the best of them, that it has the power to immediately enforce its decrees. The railroads are coming to recognize that fact and are planning to do what the Commission asks. Now that they have found out who is boss they intend to be good. In the long run will not the shipper be better off also with the railroads responsible to one master rather than to 46 as is the case at present? Hitching Wagons to a Star The annual convention of the American Association of Commercial Executives held last month at Louisville, Ky., marked an epoch in the commercial life of this Nation. It was the first time since the civil war, or before it for that matter, that the representatives, not only of the business world of the North and the South, but of Canada as well, had gathered in one great group to devise ways and means to make life more worth the living for the entire Anglo Saxon race. Not only were state lines ignored and sectional lines wiped out but national lines were obliterated and the whole world was treated as one great entity. It would have been a revelation to many a cheese-paring politician of both the Ottawa and Washington governments to have participated in the constructive conferences that constantly went on during the three days' session. Here was nothing of despair and pessimism and alarm, nothing to conceal, but on the contrary every man brought forth every fact, every experience, every assistance that he felt would contribute to the best solution of the problems under discussion. The only low note struck during the convention was the confession wrung from more than one secretary that when he contemplated the immensity of the tasks confronting him he realized bitterly his own inadequacy for the work that he had set himself to do. The convention did many important things, adopted a new constitution, obtained a new strangle hold upon the forces menacing our commercial life, tapped a new rock from which gushed forth streams of inspiration and courage and unselfish devotion, furnished a vehicle for laughter and song and jest and adjourned to meet in Washington another year under the very shadow of the Capitol, ready to call the attention of the Congress to this sick man known as "Business" who so constantly seems to need treatment at the hands of government physicians. And now let it be said in conclusion that what the National Council of Commerce and the National Board of Trade has signally failed to do the American Association of Commercial Executives, confidently hope to bring about, namely, a union of all commercial organizations, of all business interests, into one grand whole not only for their own protection and their own development but for the protection and development of our entire civilization. We boast of our progress but the truth of the matter is that we are still nearer the indefensible barbarities than we are the Golden Era of which the prophets tell and the angels sing. The horse sense answer to every bigot, to every reactionary, to every timid and despairing soul now conspiring to wreck or weaken the republic can be found in the slogan of these Kentucky colonels of 1911, who declared emphatically at Louisville that "We will hitch our wagon to a star but we will keep our wheels on the ground." Sept. 20. Entering class at Clark College numbers 82. 21. Rev. Dr. L. J. Birney, pastor of Park Avenue Methodist Church, in 1901, becomes dean of Boston University. 23. One thousand two hundred people participate in dedication of Spencer Wire Co.'s new factory on Webster Street. 24. Entering class of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, numbering 190, exceeds former records. 26. Prof. A. D. Butterfield, secretary of the General Alumni Association, announces that fund of $48,134.88 has been raised for athletic field and gymnasium at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 27. Arthur B. Racine, 8 Sever Street, appointed instructor in languages at Rugby Academy, New Orleans, La. 27. Opening concert of 54th annual music festival of Worcester County Musical Association in Mechanics Hall. 27. Frank A. Drury, president of Merchants National Bank, elected director of Pope Manufacturing Co., Hartford. Oct. 1. Sales of Worcester postoffice for September, 1911, amount to $37,009.29, a gain of $2,172.12 over September, 1910. 2. Postmaster-general Hitchcock orders establishment of postal savings bank in Worcester, to open November 4. 2. Parishioners tender a farewell reception to Rev. Thomas J. Cross, retiring pastor of Pleasant Street Baptist Church. 6. J. W. MacDonald, agent of State Board of Education, addressed State Association of School Superintendents at meeting in City Hall on high school problems. 6. State Highway Commission gives hearing at Courthouse to Worcester County towns on highway needs. 9. Registration for night courses at Worcester Trade School exceeds 400 names. 10. New England branch of Women's Foreign Missionary Society of Methodist Church celebrates 42d anniversary with service in Trinity Church. 12. Columbus Day celebrated with parade of Catholic societies and banquet in Mechanics Hall. 12. Worcester City Guard, A Co. 2d regiment, celebrates 71st anniversary of organization. 12. Heaviest steel girder ever shipped in one piece for railroad construction, weighing 108 tons, placed in position at Franklin street bridge. 16. French speaking citizens form Notre Dame Credit Union and elect J. B. N. Soulliere president. 19. Massachusetts Society of Sons of the American Revolution are guests of Worcester chapter. 19. National Bank Cashiers' Association of Massachusetts meets in State Mutual restaurant. 19. Frederick W. Taylor, efficiency engineer, and John F. Tobin, president of Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, address Economic Club at 49th meeting. City Affairs Sept. 21. Annual inspection by city officials and city council of sewer system and purification plant. 28. Annual inspection of Home Farm by city officials and city 14 council. Oct. 2. Five hundred and fifty pupils attend opening of night high school. 2. City Council receives report of special committee proposing new traffic regulations. 3. School Committee makes request that City Council provide for addition to south or west side of Classical High School building. 4. First police automobile ambulance put into use. 5. Special state commission on Lake Quinsigamond Reservation hold first public hearing in City Hall. 6. Dr. C. A. Baldwin, professor of economics at Boston University, appears before special sub-committee of finance and police committees of City Council to explain pension systems. 10. Sub-committee of police and finance committee of City Council vote to recommend acceptance of pension act of 1911 providing pensions for all city employees. 10. Worcester Public Library directors commend to City Council purchase of Thomas lot on Southbridge street for branch library building. 13. Joint meeting of police and finance committees of City Council vote to reject pension act of 1911 for city employees; recommends order to have city solicitor draw up pension act for patrolmen. 16. City Council votes to increase pay of patrolmen 25 cents per day. 19. Tentative plans for police station at Waldo and Exchange streets, to cost $100,000, submitted by architect George H. Clemence to committees on police, public buildings and finance of City Council. Industrial Sept. 20. Annual meeting of Worcester Gas Light Co.; old officers and directors reelected. 20. J. W. Bishop Co. awarded $7443 contract for masonry and wharf construction at New Bedford. 20. R. L. Whipple & Co. secure $4500 concrete contract at United States Naval Training Station, Newport, R. I., and $5250 concrete bridge contract at Spencer on State highway construction. 20. Worcester Club secures permit to enlarge clubhouse at cost of $40,000. Fred D. Smythe, Boston, to build. 21. Plans completed for erection on Mower Avenue of Masonic Temple at cost of $125,000. 22. Standard Foundry Co., Gardner street, awards contract to E. D. Ward to erect addition to plant for pattern shop. 27. Oliver M. Deane, broom manufacturer at 170 Austin street, secures permit to erect factory building on Shrewsbury street. 27. Henry C. Henchey, assistant manager of Logan, Swift & Brigham division of United States Envelope Co. promoted to manager of W. H. Hill Enevolpe Co. division of same company. 28. James Miles & Son secure $10,000 contract to build brick storage building for Harrington & Richardson Arms Co. on Abbott street. 30. Morgan Construction Co. completes new merchant mill at Buffalo for Lackawanna Steel Co. Oct. 2. Marcus L. Foster, Jerome R. George and Paul B. Morgan incorporate for $100,000 under Massachusetts laws as the Ravenel Co. to develop 6000 acre tract of timberland at Ravenel, S. C. 5. Spencer Wire Co. starts work on new factory building to cost $40,000. 7. Boston & Albany Railroad plans expenditure of $1,000,000 for bridges in connection with grade crossing elimination in Wor cester. 9. Merrifield Trust awards contract to J. W. Bishop Co. for brick factory building at 171 and 173 Union street, to be occupied by Boston Pressed Metal Co. 9. McDermott Bros. secure $18,000 contract to build church of the Ascension on Vernon street. 10. Worcester Bleach & Dye Works suffers heavy loss by fire in plant on Fremont street. 10. George W. Dunlap, superintendent of power of Worcester Consolidated St. Ry. Co., resigns to accept position as electrical engineer of First District Public Service Commission of New York. 11. J. W. Bishop Co. awarded contract to erect brick addition to freight house of Boston & Albany R. R. 11. Worcester Electric Light Co. at annual meeting adds Thomas H. Gage, Frank A. Drury and Willis E. Sibley to directorate and elects Robert W. Rollins to succeed John C. MacInnes; Mr. Rollins elected president. 13. C. W. Bowker & Co. incorporate under Massachusetts laws for $25,000. 16. J. W. Bishop Co. awarded contract to build residence at Bridgehampton, N. Y., for John E. Berwind at cost of $110,000. 16. Frank M. Finlayson, chief engineer at Millbury power station, appointed superintendent of power of Worcester Consolidated St. Ry. Co. Sept. 24. Henry Z. Whittier, of Hamilton & Whittier, grocers, 67 years, 5 months and 10 days old, of arterio sclerosis, at his home, 63 Highland street. 24. Mrs. Aldus C. Higgins, 218 West street, aged 41 years and 28 days, at Hanover, N. H. 25. Stephen E. Greene, 68 years old, of gas poisoning, at his home, 73 Merrick street. 25. Lyman Morse, retired grocer, 80 years and 10 months old, of valvular heart disease, at his home, 27 May street. 25. John A. Hay, 21 years superintendent for John C. MacInnes Co., aged 67 years and 1 day, of kidney and bladder trouble, at City Hospital. 30. Alexander C. Munroe, of Munroe & Ingraham, insurance, 80 years, 1 month and 9 days old, of diabetes, at his home, 30 Hollywood street. 30. Dr. Carl Crisand, 52 years old, of apoplexy, at the home of Dr. J. E. Willis, 5 Hawthorne street. Oct. 1. Edward L. Hancock, professor of applied mechanics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 38 years, 3 months and 3 days old, of sarcoma, at his home, 21 Catharine street. 12. John F. Prentiss, 76 years, 1 month and 22 days old, of apoplexy, at his home, 1075 Pleasant street. 13. William T. Bishop, vice president and general manager of J. W. Bishop Co., 39 years, 8 months and 8 days old, of brights disease, at his home, 1212 Main street. 19. Nelson H. Wood, 52 William street, former superintendent Chicago division, Baltimore & Ohio, R. R., age 82 years and 5 months, of arterio sclerosis, at City Hospital. Saxon Medal for Faithful Employees Since the year 1866 the royal Saxon ministry for interior affairs has conferred upon workingmen for long and faithful service to the interests of their employers a silver medal on which is inscribed "Reward for Industry," and since 1875 a silver medal for " Faithful Work" has been given for thirty years' faithful service in the same place. In 1906 it was decided that instead of counting the time of service from the twenty-fifth birthday of the worker it should be reckoned from the eighteenth birthday, and further, that military service in the case of the male worker should not be deducted from the total service, provided he returned to his former place at the conclusion of his military service. Co-operation with Consuls "The officers of the consular service are continually answering trade inquiries of both general and specific nature. Often special attempt is made to interest particular parties thought to be suitably fitted for taking up American products. "It has occurred to the writer that if the American houses so served would be good enough to put the consulate thus serving them upon their "follow-up" file and at some period afterwards report, even briefly, the result of the negotiations it would enable consular officers to criticize their methods and selections, eliminate the 'useless' and would lead to greater efficiency of their work in that direction." The suggestion quoted above occurs in a report published in the Daily Consular Reports and typifies the new spirit that pervades the Consular service a spirit that finds expression in real service to American Manufacturers. Worcester's New Hotel The Board of Trade Which Has Been Instrumental The October Directors' meeting of the Worcester Board of Trade was held at the rooms of the Merchants Association, Thursday, Oct. 26, at 8 P.M., there being present the president, Edward M. Woodward; the vicepresident, Albert H. Inman and the following directors: Frank S. Fay, Gustaf A. Berg, Arthur C. Comins, Franklin B. Durfee, Louis H. Buckley, Earle Brown, Charles T. Tatman, Herbert H. Fairbanks and S. Foster H. Goodwin, a quorum. The records of the last meeting were read and approved. Ex-president Charles T. Tatman then presented a complete report of the proceedings up to this time looking to the erection of a new hotel in this city, under the auspices of the Bancroft Realty Company, said project being one that this Board has fostered from its inception. Mr. Tatman not only gave a lucid history of the enterprise and its present status but also exhibited floor plans of the proposed structure and explained in detail the arrangements of the rooms, etc. At the conclusion of his remarks it was on motion of Mr. Louis H. Buckley unanimously Voted, That the Directors of the Worcester Board of Trade endorse the plans of the Bancroft Realty Company, as outlined by Mr. Tatman. The report of the Committee with reference to the investigations it had made into the subject of establishing a traffic bureau in connection with the work of this Board was presented by the chairman, Mr. Louis H. Buckley. As a conclusion to the report the following recommendation was made: Your Committee would recommend to the Board of Trade that a special traffic committee be appointed by the president to investigate the possibility of establishing a traffic bureau in Worcester; that this committee be allowed sufficient funds to make a careful survey to ascertain if enough support can be pledged to maintain such a bureau; that this committee report to the Board of Directors their recommendations as soon as practical." The report was accepted and the recommendations adopted, and on motion of Mr. Inman it was voted that a sum not exceeding $100 be appropriated for the use of this special traffic committee in its investigations. The president, Mr. E. M. Woodward, stated that he would announce the personnel of the committee after he had had a chance to confer with Mr. Buckley. At the same meeting of the Committee on Transportation, at which the vote calling for the appointment of a special committee on traffic bureau was passed, the matter of securing as large an attendance as possible at a Demurrage hearing to be held in Boston, Friday, Oct. 27, was decided upon, and the secretary was instructed to get in touch with all the shippers possible with the understanding that they should be constituted delegates from this Board. The secretary reported that he had secured the promises of fifty-six individuals and concerns that they would either be present in person or send representatives to the hearing. The list being read the president thereupon appointed them all as delegates. The Committee on Transportation, through the secretary, then presented the correspondence incident to the settlement of the Metropolitan Charcoal Co. case, so called, a side track agreement with the New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R. which has been in process of adjudication since last February. The property in question is leased by the Metropolitan Charcoal Co. of Edward K. Hill, and after they had taken possession of the premises they were tendered an agreement by the New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R., which operates a siding running into the property, which they considered inequitable. Notwithstanding the fact that this sidetrack has been in operation some eighteen years the New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R. refused to operate it longer unless the Metropolitan Charcoal Co. signed an agreement, according to whose expressed terms said company would be held responsible not only for its own acts, but for any and all acts of the servants of the railroad in the operation of said siding. This the Metropolitan Charcoal Co. refused to do and appealed for relief to this Board, which referred the whole matter to the Committee on Transportation for investigation and report. Since last February repeated conferences have been held between the Committee, Mr. Hill, representatives of the Charcoal Company and officials of the New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R., especially Mr. W. H. Seeley, manager New England Lines Industrial Bureau. As a result largely of Mr. Seeley's activities a satisfactory basis of agreement has finally been reached between the railroad and the Charcoal Company. A new and equitable contract has been |