ng surrounded by the sordid congestion of an
industrial center, the Fore River Shipyard is in the midst of
practically open country.

While we are speaking of rapidity we must look over toward the Victory
Plant at Squantum, that miraculous marsh which was drained with such
expedition that just twelve months from the day ground was broken for
its foundation, it launched its first ship, and less than two years
after completed its entire contract. Surely never in the history of
shipbuilding have brain and brawn worked so brilliantly together!

In this way, then, the history of the ships that have sailed the seven
seas has been built up at Quincy--a dramatic history and one instinct
with the beauty which is part of gliding canoe and white sails, and
part, too, of the huge smooth-slipping monsters of a modern day, sleek
and swift as leviathans. But all the while the building of these ships
has been going on, there has been slowly rising within the selfsame
radius another ship, vaster, more inspiring, calling forth initiative
even more intense, idealism even more profound--the Ship of State.

We who journey to-day over the smooth or troubled waters of national or
international affairs are no more conscious of the infinite toil and
labors which have gone into the intricate making of the vessel that
carries us, than are travelers conscious of the cogs and screws, the
engines and all the elaboration of detail which compose an ocean liner.
Like them we sometimes grumble at meals or prices, at some discourtesy
or incompetence, but we take it for granted that the engine is in
commission, that the bottom is whole and the chart correct. The great
Ship of State of this country may occasionally run into rough weather,
but Americans believe that, in the last analysis, she is honestly built.
And it is to Quincy that we owe a large initial part of this building.

It is astonishing to enumerate the notable public men, who have been
influential in establishing our national policy, who have come from
Quincy. There is no town in this entire country which can equal the
record. What other town ever produced two Presidents of the United
States, an Ambassador to Great Britain, a Governor of the Commonwealth,
a Mayor of Boston, two presidents of Harvard University, and judges,
chief justices, statesmen, and orators in such quantity and of such
quality? Truly this group of eminent men of brilliance, integrity, and
public feeling is unique in our