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HBW KHOLftftD'3 i'OaTAn Addresu by H&lph 8. Flanders
Financial advertisers /\Bsool&tion of He*? England
City Club, Burton. Mans*
February 8 1 ^
It I8 with a feeling of some heelt tion that I talk to you tonight
on the subject whioh I have ohonen. Hy hesitation does not come from
a fe*Xing that the rubjeot is not int^r sting or 1 portant, it arlsos
from the fear th t In your minds it may be an old story on ^hioh the
ohanges have been runp so many times that it has no particular appeal*
The fact is thnt I ntyaelf have said laoat of the thlnga I ara about
to say so many times that it would be natural for me to gftt tired of
repeating theo»
On the other hand the points we are to dlaousa are do important,
and so imioh remains to be done axmt them, that both you and I should
be willing to look once more at Hew Sngland*a present and future in
the hope th t ^e will find definite things which should be done, and
which re can do to assure the continued prosperity of this region and
&ft£ continued usefulness to the nation as a whole, as a source of
wealth, of ideas, and of men*
First, let us ta&e a look at our geogr&phic&l location.
bad that we cannot have a map here.
It is toe
??hen you go home take out an
atlas of the United State*? and see how nearly isolated we are fro© the
rest of the country,
we stic^ clear out to the northe at with longer
boundary lines on both Canada and the Atlantic Ocean than we have with
the St'ite of New York, which is our only land bridge to the rest of tb
nation*
That land bridge is itself broken by La^e Chaiaplain and by
a mountain ridge in western Mas^-chusatts and Connecticut, both of
which are in some sense obstacles to free land communication with our
fellow citizens to the west. This land oommnication runs through
m 2 m
narrow concentrated channels at Albany find New York*
By water we are in contact with all the nations of the e .rth; by
air we eoon will be.
If our loc tion h^s cut us off to sotoe degree
from the rest of our own country, it han at least had the advantage of
giving broader outlook and a livelier interment In world affairs, with
regard to *hich we may properly profeas a certain competence.
Our isolation given us certain other advantages and disadvantages.
On the side of advantage it haa given us a strong regional sense.
State of M&iners, V«rraonters and Connecticut people are proud of their
respective States, tout thiB atate pride does not destroy the regional
interest and pride which goeo with the terra "New England"•
•ense we are really unique.
term.
In this
The middle-west is a big area and a big
Th^re are doubtless certain raiddle-we«t types of thought and of
custom; the eaiae 1R true of the Pacific Coant or of the South, but here
our regional sense is sharpened into an active sentiment which is often
made effective 1 i action and ^hich should be made still more effective.
In considering our future, the first thing we should do is to take
an Inventory of the resources of this remote appendage to the United
States of America.
Our mineral resources ar * few and lie for the raost part in the
field of the quarrying industries,
we have excellent supnlles of granite,
marble, slate, linestone and talc, with some scattered deposits of other
minerals such as feldspar, mica and glmse-sand*
while these can assist
in the prosperity of Hew England, they nr<* not important nor extensive
enough toraafcea found-*tion for our future.
we wil I continue to
develop and use there depoaitB and to explore for new ones.
• Iwe have certain agricultural resources*
The high grades of agri-
cultural soil constitute unfortunately a small part of our total area,
acrsages-3rtt-*i£he potato growing areas in Maine, the central
section of the Connecticut Valley and of some of the other river v&lleys
hive many square railea of fertile, tillable soil, but of the greater
part of the region we must sadly adnait that it is too 8te«£,or too stony,
or the top soil too thin to be of Gruoh uae for agriculture*
we must make
good use of what we have and therewith be content.
Much, however, of the land not suitea to agriculture is adapted to
forest growth*
exploited.
In past generations these formats have been destructively
The possibility of tr** ting thera as a continuously harvested
crop is one of the new developments now underway.
Our extended seacoaat is the seat of important and extensive fisheries,
ranging all the way from clams^and oysters, to cod rand tuna fish.
These
fisheries are among the most important in our hemisphere and ve are
fortunately situated with reference to them.
There is one of -our resources which we have in the superlative degree
and th**t is the types of ooaot country and mountain scenery which attract
people for short vacations or auraraer residence.
It is adapted to sport?*
of all kinds, whether for sailboat, golf or winter skiing*
we need have
no sense of inferiority 1« this particular one of our natural assets*
The greatest of t**e«e assets ie yet to be mentioned, and that is the
human product of our rocky soil &nc ruggeti climate.
The great asset of
New England is in its men and women, its boys and its girls, and the rocfcy
soil and ruggf^ climate doubtless have something to do with the high
quality of this human product.
It is on a South Sea Island.
It le not so e^sy to g*t along here as
ve ^ve the children of ancestor*? rho
survived under difficult conditions and our children in turn <*111 descend
from those living in a region whose handicaps we have been describing.
In the long run and from tho standpoint of the development of capable
human beings these handicaps may well turn out to be assets.
Our population has had a wide variety of ©xperl&noe in a wide
variety of agricultural and industrial occupations*
while a consider-
able percentage of that population It urban rather than rural, yet
it has lived in urban communities in which the accent is on production
rather than on occupations, which, however necessary, are accessories
to the main work of the world in producing and distributing the means
of the world's livelihood*
To a very high degree also our population possesses ingenuity*
This is not so much the ingenuity of trade and of legal devices,
though these are not lacking, &B it is Ingenuity in devising products,
methods and institutions*
There is perhaps no statistical basis
for determining ingenuity unlesn it be patent office records which
cover a certain area of tho subject*
8ut our competence in this
respeet is gener lly recognized by people in oth^r parts of th« country,
TThere are other respectB in which our preeminence is generally
reoognized.
of education•
country;
Hev England has b«ien and «till remains the great foous
It does not have the largoat universities of the
it doee have an astonishing group of preparatory schools,
colleges and universities, to which some of th«? brightest and best
of the young people have be*jn eentt taA from which ©any of the leaders
of the nation in all fields of activity have gone forth*
More than
men and women have been exported from New England schools and colleges*
They have been a prolific source of ideas, whether in education, or
in politics or in other fields of motive life*
•I Related to our school* and college are our institutions of
scientific research,
^e have within our boundaries, even within gun
shot of the spot There we are holding this meeting tonight, some of
the greatest raeeayti-; institutions in the ^orld, recognized as suoh
all over the world*
These institutions have unfortunately been
more deeply appreciated, generously supported and actively used by
other parts of the country, than by New England itself•
• 6Such Is New Kngland,
As sucii «h© ha« played a p-irt of which ^e raay
all toe proud In this war period;
whether In the record of her eons in
the fighting forces or in the record of production on farm, in forest
and in factory* for the transportation of war materials on the land,
through the air or on the sea*
Nowhere have these things been done
more effectively than here. In particular, no part of the country h*s
a better record in that preeminently human aspect of our war work,
freedom from strikes, slowdowns and othfr types of labor trouble. Here
is where New England character hai showed itself*
be found in wsge~eamer and emp&gpyer alike*
Th^t character is to
Its existence has been
revealed by our steadiness of purpose in warfare.
We may reasonably
hope that the pe«ioe-tlae years ahead will show similar self respect and
self control*
Let us now look ahead to the postwar yoars*
What can such a rogion
as we have been describing, with such natural and human resources, look
forward to in the postwar world?
Some of the conditions nre especially favorable for ue«
For
instanoe, there has been comparatively little wartime expansion of such
a kind and amount as to require severe deflation*
In anly a few canes
has the growth of war industry been such, or the facilities us^d so
special, that they cannot be changed to peace-time activities.
In general, our textile and metal working plants are easily and
quickly adaptable*
It is true that in the production of airplane
engines and especially of ships in our shipyards, we will ha e to undergo
a severe reduction*
It will be a reduction not an extinction*
These
necessities have been foreseen in advance and will not come ae sudden
unexpected emergencies.
There is but one serious possibility that needs to be faced tin& met*
-7 There fcM been much talk gyad-^oryeNrpunfllMrce, particularly by
•
Senator lloCarron'a Committee, about closing up war expanded industries
In the north and e.'&st and tr&nsferring their peace-tiae activitieB
to the ne^er plant© located in the nouth and w<*st*
There <*ould seem
to bo little danger of doing this with our ehipyards, but there is
some danger of an endeavor to carry this out in our New England
airplane engine Industry.
Proposals of this sort &x*& b&ped on false and h*»pty assumptions.
Such a plant as that of the United Aircraft ghglne plant in Hartford
making the Pratt & Whitney airplane engines, is not a machine shop
all by itself without roots and connections.
Its foundations are
something beyond the cement walls built into the Connecticut soil.
Its real unseen foundations are the generations of mechanics who
have built up the apptitudes and experience of the community in which
the plant is located.
The operations of the plant itself depend
on ite ability to draw on the thousands of skilled toolmakers,
draftsmen and engineers who are to be found in scores of industries
located in the same rn ion, some of thera for many generations.
There are besides all the services af supplies in the way of small
tool manufacturers, tool designers, special machine tool builders,
and all of those oth r services.
Kaon in turn is based on legacy
from previous generation of skilled craftsmen and denignerft.
The shop can be ©ovod and its roots can be pulled from the
soil, but there is no corresponding soil to which these roots can
be transplanted without moving a whole culture fi»ora this region
to oth ra In which £t is not a native growth.
As WAi pointed out by ft recent speaker before a Boston audience,
li a psychological error Involved her® as well.
The main
• 8 -
excuse for this drastic transplantation is the assumption that it is
wise to get industry important to war production removed from our
coast and located far in the interior*
Line oomplex*
This is really a &eupg&ri&l
It is a dangerous state of mind for the American
people to allow themselves to drift into#
we should put our industries
even though related to war, where the conditions are best for doing
their asofit effective work and then with full confidence and our utmost
skill prepare to defend them wherever they are and ought to be.
The MoCarron proposal is a typical example of the situation
mentioned in the beginning of this talk.
N«r« England is located clear
up in the northe.HBt part of the United States. It is in a sense remote
from the re^t of the country,
we are not politically so strong that
we can look automatically for support in protecting our interests.
Our interests will be attacked and our only strength and safety lies
in our own efforts.
?hn rifrCfflrron prnp mm In urv -\ m n n VrTpoinft,
we must be certain th&t the measures we propose for our own protection
and advantage are alao in th&intereato of the nation aj a whole
and with that point assured we must fight our battles with vigor and
with faith.
No one will fight them for us.
So far, m% have heen talking about protecting Bei England's
•*e with to to sort than this*
osition,
we *ith to expand How England(i industry
and. -?itn it, improve h^r ooolal oonditions, the walfara of her paopla,
and th« contribution f?he oan mr-x&e to thi walfar« of th« whole nation*
It hai alre dy bf»er. said th t wa art not in riung&r of the extreset of
deflationary forces T?hioh eooie other parts of th^ country may have to
undergo,
we v«re vail preparad for ^fir production and did not hav^ to
build eo auoh ne . we, therefore, wili. not have to Aisoard fmollltiaa
ana shorte
tiona on anything like tho loaXa -Milch aoaa other parts
- 9of the country will have to undertake.
This solid, uninflated foundation It the right one on which to build
ne
expansion.
What are the directions In which ^e should be moving?
One of them has had much attention in the past t%m months.
Active
measures are being undertaken to revive and re-equip the facilities of the
Port of Boston,
Beyond this, plans are being made for organizing it and
operating it as a business entity.
Even beyond this, citizens of Boston
Ty^tAff
are laying .lane for expanding Boston's fj^nofhcial- interest and investment
in shipping,
Al-i of this promises well for the future.
Boston will go
dowhhill as a whole if it goes downhill ar> a Port, and when Boston goes
down, New England cannot have a healthy growth.
Among the other elements favorable to the expansion of Business
opportunities here is the fact that wt are the traditional home of small
industries*
A very few nation-wide corporations have some of their plants
here, but the great bulk of Nev/ Kngland industry is made up of comparative 1;
small and medium-si zed companies, and on the aggregate of the operations
of these small and medium-sized companies the prosperity of our region
depends.
This condition makes lie* England an especially favorable ground for
the planting and growth of new industries which, in turn, may grow from
the seed into small undertakings, and from small undertakings will grow
into more prosperous ones*
A B a matter of fact, we have not merely the
tradition and the present condition of a small industry region,
In addition to this,
KUCH
we have,
a flood of ne- ideas, ne^ projects, ne** inventions
seathing and boiling in the Hinds of Ne"- Englanders, that there should be
no lack in the coming years of business opportunities of the old*fashlonea
sort which build up the induntrlal strength of t is country.
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