e our own. We have been very much impressed with your city
since we have been here. I am glad to see that colonial spirit, the
spirit of '76, which permeates your people here. Up in Saginaw, of
course, we do not have the same things to remind us of the past that you
have. You have your monuments and those things that call your attention
continually to it; but I am sure that our people are as patriotic as
your people. However, I think that the spirit of '76 which still
permeates the East helps to keep the whole country in line for the
patriotic upholding of our governmental institutions.

While most of the men here are interested especially in the scientific
investigation and promotion of the nut industry, my friend Mr. Linton
and I have been more particularly interested in road-side planting.
Along with the promotion and building of good highways we fell into the
idea of beautifying those highways. At the time the people in the East
were having their trouble in the colonial days, the revolutionary days,
our town was unheard of. It was simply way back in the forest and the
wilderness and it was not until very early in this past century that
Saginaw was even thought of. Mr. Linton and I talked last night about
different things connected with the history of our country and we spoke
of De Tocqueville, the great French traveler and explorer who came to
America way back in 1831. He wished to go into the wilds of this country
and see for himself what was here. He went to Buffalo and crossed the
lakes to Detroit. Detroit was then a city of about two thousand
inhabitants. And then he had the desire to go up into the wilds where
nothing but wild animals and wild people lived; so he went up on a trail
that led to what is now Pontiac perhaps thirty or forty miles northwest
of Saginaw; that was about the end of the trail. There were one or two
settlers who lived there. He picked up a couple of Indian guides and
started through the trackless forest, sixty or seventy miles up through
the northwest to what is now Saginaw. He had his desire fully satisfied.
He was eaten up by mosquitoes and rattlesnakes in the swamps and
marshes; he could not sleep nor anything else; so he came back. That was
away back in 1831, fifty years or more after your people were fighting
and struggling for the liberty of this country.

I wish to say in closing that we all highly appreciate the welcome that
has been extended to us on behalf of the Mayor of this f