This spirit of optimism is not found in all parts of our country,
and yet it is of high value. In New England for instance, in each
state there is a state pride, but perhaps not to the extent that
we find in the larger cities and in the west. Here we are more
interested in the success of our various branches of activities.

Vermonters have been notably free to go beyond state boundaries in
the acquisition of trade or profession and in practice, but
optimism, which is the parent of enterprise, has an excellent
chance for existing in our state.

The early history of industrial development shows it followed
along the avenues of transportation--seaports and lakeports and
railways. With the railways the industries spread to other states,
notably Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Now there is setting
in a readjustment and the time is ripe for Vermonters to use some
of their spirit of enterprise within the boundaries of the old
state. Goods may be shipped to the best market from the top of our
highest mountain at lower cost than it could be shipped from some
remote competitors. There is every angle favorable except the full
knowledge of the situation and the elements on which industrial
success can now be achieved.

The coming and use of machinery has been a most potent force in
determining the economic rating of city and state, and it is in
this respect that Vermont has now its great opportunity, and it is
in the field in which invention, the use of machinery, the right
methods of building up an effective group of workers that there is
the surest reward for the energy put forth by investors,
organizers and workers.