The annual meeting of the Norwood Business Association had some notable features. The business relations of Norwood to other towns showed some features of the Greater Norwood in a new light, even to the members of the association themselves. F. O. Winslow, Rev. C. S. Locke and Charles S. Bird of East Walpole were the principal speakers of the evening. The general moral of the meeting would seem to have been that wise conservatism and progress go hand in hand.
In the speech making Mr. Locke may be said to have represented the past and Mr. Bird the future. Mr. Locke spoke of the time when there wore very close and intimate business relations between the farmers of West Dedham and the people of South Dedham. The speech showed how much Norwood's earlier growth and prosperity had opened on the old timers, the Thayers, the Wheelock's, the Bakers, the Ponds, and others.
Mr. C. S. Bird's speech turned especially toward the future, of how Norwood's interests reached out to other towns, and of the mutual interdependence of country towns upon each other.
The society considered it a rare privilege to listen to Mr. Bird, who showed himself a practical businessman, with ideas which were broad, liberal, and advanced, and were not confined to the desk and the counter. His ideas of a future electric light plant for the townships of Walpole, Norwood, and Westwood, and of an advanced High and Latin school for the young people of the three towns, opened to his hearers new views of possibilities of material progress, and social and moral culture.
If Mr. Bird and the village of East Walpole, in which he is so manifestly a leader, shall conclude at some future time to cast in their corporate fortunes with the town of Norwood, it is idle to think that the new village of South Norwood (now East Walpole) would be without voice or influence in the older town. Men like Mr. Bird are not apt to remain long without voice or influence in any town.
It certainly looks as if Norwood's relations with East Walpole would become very close indeed in the great future. There is an attraction between affinities. There is a repulsion between too pronounced opposites. East Walpole is a progressive, wide-awake village. Norwood is a progressive town. What mutual interest and confidence does not join together circumstances will be pretty apt to keep asunder.
(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)
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