19. In Boston State Hospital, there were 1572, where the
capacity was 1406. Westboro had 1260 inmates, with capacity for 1161,
and Medfield had 1615, where the capacity was 1542. These capacities are
given from official recorded accommodations.

This was not the practice of the past, and there can be no question as
to where the responsibility rests. The General Court has done its best,
but there has been a halt elsewhere. A substantial appropriation was
made for a new State Hospital for the Metropolitan District, and an
additional appropriation for a new institution for the feeble-minded in
the western part of the State. In its desire to hasten matters, the
legislature went even further and granted money for plans for a new
hospital in the Metropolitan District, to relieve part of the outside
congestion, but the needed relief is still in the future.

I feel the time has come when the people must assert themselves and show
that they will tolerate no delay and no parsimony in the care of our
unfortunates. Restore the fame of our State in the handling of these
problems to its former lustre.

I repeat that this is not partisan. I am not criticising individuals. I
am denouncing a system. When you substitute patronage for patriotism,
administration breaks down. We need more of the Office Desk and less of
the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight
oil for the limelight. Let Massachusetts return to the sound business
methods which were exemplified in the past by such Democrats in the East
as Governor Gaston and Governor Douglas, and by such Republicans in the
West as Governor Robinson and Governor Crane.

Above all, let us not, in our haste to prepare for war, forget to
prepare for peace. The issue is with you. You can, by your votes, show
what system you stamp with the approval of enlightened Massachusetts
Public Opinion.

VII

LAFAYETTE BANQUET, FALL RIVER

SEPTEMBER 4, 1916

Seemingly trifling events oft carry in their train great consequences.
The firing of a gun in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, Macaulay tells us,
started the Seven Years' War which set the world in conflagration,
causing men to fight each other on every shore of the seven seas and
giving new masters to the most ancient of empires. We see to-day fifteen
nations engaged in the most terrific war in the history of the human
race and trace its origin to the bullet of a madman fired in the
Balkans. It is true that th