REMARKS OF M. JUSSERAND

Your Excellency, Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: - It was impossible for me not to ask for a few moments in which to express my gratitude for the words of His Excellency the Governor and for his beautiful tribute to your sister republic across the water, France, your friend.

Of the many events in Franklin's wonderful career one appeals to me more than all the others, that is the alliance signed by him in 1778 the only alliance ever signed by America, her alliance with France.

When that document was sent to the Continental Congress, it was warmly received and unanimously approved, and the wish was expressed by the assembly that the friendship between the two states might be perpetual. That wish has been fulfilled and I am sure that the friendship wished for by the early Congress will be perpetual.

To-day is a notable day in France. To-day we are electing - in fact, we have elected at the moment I speak a new President for a term of seven years. Knowing my feelings and the feelings of my country for yours, I know also that you reciprocate them, and that you join with me in wishing the new President seven years of happy and prosperous administration, and doubt not that the friendship of the two nations founded during the days of Franklin will be continued day by day for all time.

ADDRESS BY THE MAYOR

THE CHAIRMAN INTRODUCES

MAYOR FITZGERALD

Great applause followed the felicitous remarks of Ambassador Jusserand, which were as much a surprise to the chairman as to any one in the audience, since it had been understood that M. Jusserand, owing to his engagement to speak at another gathering in the evening, was not to be called upon for any address at Symphony Hall. The warmth and sincerity of his words and manner and the spontaneous impulse which prompted their delivery made the episode most gratifying and impressive to all present. When the applause it created had subsided, the Chairman said:

We are also favored by the presence of His Honor, the Mayor, John F. Fitzgerald, who, like the Governor, is the publisher of a newspaper; and I would ask him to tell wherein the city is bigger and better than it was when Franklin was printing The New England Courant in what is now Court Street.

Mayor Fitzgerald heartily appreciated the suggestion contained in the closing portion of Ambassador Jusserand's remarks and gave it a practical turn before beginning the brief address prepared by him for the occasion. He said:

REMARKS OF HIS HONOR,

JOHN FRANCIS

FITZGERALD

It will be my pleasure upon my return to City Hall to send a cable to the new President of the French Republic, expressing the hearty good wishes of the six hundred thousand citizens of Boston for an administration of happiness, prosperity, and progress.

My honored predecessor in his happy introduction has asked me to explain wherein Boston is bigger and better to-day than she was in the time of Franklin. I do not think those of you who have eyes and ears will entertain any doubt as to her tangible growth. The Boston that Franklin knew was planted on three low hills which gave its first name to the peninsula. Dorchester and South Boston were dotted with farms; Cambridge and Charlestown were aspiring villages; a thin strip of land united the town proper with Roxbury; and along this neck, as it was called, three stages a week ran out of the capital of New England, which counted in all some twelve thousand souls. Contrast this picture with the interminable stretch of streets and houses, the glittering panorama visible from Great Blue Hill in early winter evenings, the trains running north, south, and west almost every minute of the day, the nightly exodus to the suburbs and the swinging back and forth all day long of the million persons, more or less, who now ply their occupations within our boundaries.

There is no doubt Boston is bigger and busier. I believe, also, that she is better, though not so good as she might be and will be, if we all give a little of our strength and enthusiasm towards making her so. Her laws are now framed by free citizens and not by a foreign parliament, owing allegiance to an imbecile king. Her children are well taught, her