CLASS OF 1894

We quote from an editorial in the Boston Herald of February 3: "The facts, figures and illustrations of the annual report of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company are interesting enough, but not nearly so much so to the average person as the remarks of President Matt B. Jones of the company on the future of the corporation and of this whole section. 'lt is our belief,' he says, 'that any retardation in the growth of our business will be only temporary. In consequence, it is the policy of your directors to carry out in 1930 a larger construction program than has been put through in any previous year.'

"This report is a message of hope, expectancy, and courage. President Jones goes back to an old, old Boston to emphasize the futility and vanity of doctrines of despair. In a 'Discourse showing what Cause there is to Fear that the Glory of the Lord is Departing from New England,' Increase Mather said, 228 years ago: '0 New England! New England! Look to it, that the Glory be not removed from thee. For it begins to go. It is come to the Threshold of the House, if not to the East Gate. And inasmuch as it is on the Departure, it may be gone suddenly.'

"As Mr. Jones says, similar views were probably expressed at a much earlier date, and 'have been continuously dinned into the public ear ever since that time. What really happens is that the spiritual and material progress of New England is about as regular as the procession of the years.' His views of the present situation are contained in the sentence: 'We believe it to be prudent to forget this 'decadence of New England' talk, and to be ready with some additional plant to meet the greater demands for service that will be made upon us.' "

Editor, Claremont, N. H.