Long before I saw the light of day such sons of Georgia as Crawford W. Long, and your first president, Dr. Ford, were drinking deep at our fountain head of education. And today there are few members of the Medical Association of Georgia who do not consider themselves bound to Athens by strongest ties. Here they come as did the pilgrim at the holy shrine to pay homage to their Alma Mater.

Why waste your precious time in telling you of Athens? To know Georgia and her place with the nation is to know Athens and recount in song and story the men who have made Athens their home at some period of their lives. Athens of today is no longer like the Athens you saw a few years ago. Aside from being the educational centre of Georgia, she has oaught the spirit of the industrial age; aside from her surrounding territory, the finest farm lands in all our southland, she can boast of factories, machine shops, banks and commercial houses that rank high up in the scale of progress. These institutions of thrift and industry coupled with her colleges and schools have made Athens grow as perhaps no other city in Georgia has grown during the past ten years. We are glad that you have come to note our progress and to rejoice with us in our good fortune.

Athens is known to be one of the healthiest cities in Georgia. Epidemies are here unknown. Her low death rate is not only attributed to her pure water, sanitation, health-giving atmosphere and uniform climate, but also to her magnificent coterie of physicians--forty or more in number-all happy--all prosperous-all making money fast-making it by treating a fast growing people for growing pains, and it can be truthfully said. (Dr. Goss being my authority) that no one has ever died, so long as they "lived in Athens."

Athens is proud of her doctors, they belong to and take interest in our business organizations, they always

put their shoulders to the wheel to make this great commercial machinery fairly hum with life and activity.

We are glad that you have come to Athens, for here the great Crawford W. Long lived and was loved. He lives with us today. His work will journey on from generation to generation, the golden harvest of his discovery all ages will reap.

In welcoming you to Athens I would have you feel that you are at home. Athens is home to every true Georgian.

Here you will find the sweet song of welcome chanted by a thousand birds. Wecome breathed into sweet odors by our garden of flowers. Welcome kissed into melody by our glorious sunshine. Welcome made manifest in

that heavenly song without words-the warm handgrasp of friends.

Welcome: twenty thousand sons and daughters of Athens join me at this moment in bidding you a most hearty welcome and with it I extend to you the freedom of the city.

Hon. W. F. Dorsey welcomed the Association as the President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. I. II. Goss welcomed the Association, as the representative of the Clarke County Medical Society.

DR. GOSS'S ADDRESS

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Medical Association of Georgia:

In the name of the Clarke County Medical Society, is gives me unfeigned pleasure to bid you welcome. Welcome to the good fellowship, appreciation and hospitality of Athens.

All that you see in the Classic City is yours to use and enjoy in unstinted manner.

Among the many conventions it has been our honor to entertain, none will find a heartier welcome or warmer

place in the hearts of our people than this body of largebrained and unselfish men.

It may be as a general rule, comparisons are odious, but I venture to trench upon this falacious proverb by calling your attention to some striking similarities, as well as points of difference in the city of ancient Athens and this modern city of ours.

The architecture here cannot be compared with that of Praxitiles.

The Parthenon once the pride and glory of the Grecians has no counterpart with us.

These monuments of ancient skill have long since crumbled into ruins under the touch of relentless time.

There has been wonderful progress along the high road of the vanishing centuries, since the day when the sculptor chiseled with deft and masterful touch the perfect human figures from the cold incensate marble.

We have transferred the emphasis from the expenditure of force upon inanimate material to man. We spend our time and talents in the cultivation of his imperial intellect and the development of his moral character to fit him for the achievements in science and civic right

eousness.

We have learned the difference between the passing and the present and we are building monuments in the lives and character of Georgia's youth that defy the elements of decay.

Twenty-seven years ago when it was our good fortune to entertain this distinguished body, you found us a struggling village. Today we are a little city, with with all the comforts and conveniences that modern invention and liberality can give. But these are not our riches. The atmosphere is rich in the tradition of a noble and heroic past.

This city and community have furnished distinguished men in every department of human endeavor. The Cobbs, Ben Hill, Henry Grady, and among the living

we have our Speer and Joseph Henry Lumpkin and many other conspicuous figures that have adorned their professions and added the wealth of great personalities to the permanent possessions of our common country. But to one we owe a debt of graditude and in our own profession, Crawford W. Long.

This illustrious son of Georgia, as a physician, the exemplar of his profession. As a scientist, great by reason of what he accomplished, but greater by virtue of the achievements he made possible. This man was too great to be localized, he belongs not to Athens, not to the United States, but the world. The prince and the peasant, prophet and priest, civilized and savage are all indebted to him for the alleviation of pain and prolongation of life.

Among the places of interest in our city there is one little home in which we all feel a peculiar interest for the reason it was here that John Howard Payne visited his sweetheart, Mary Harden. He, as you know was the author of that immortal verse, "Home, Sweet Home," that touches the tender chord in every heart.

In speaking of Athens' charms, I must not forget the ladies. From the blushing school girls of Lucy Cobb and the fair maidens of the State Normal to the lovely women who grace our homes-all add their share in making Athens beautiful and attractive.

We all welcome you, gentlemen, and the old saying, "the latch-string hangs on the outside of the door," is appropriate when you reach Athens. A hearty welcome is yours.

RESPONSE TO ADDRESSES OF WELCOME

Responses to the Addresses of Welcome were made by Dr. H. A. Mobley, of Vienna, and Dr. M. F. Ridley, of LaGrange.

DR. MOBLEY'S RESPONSE

To the Hon. Mayor, President Board of Trade, Local Medical

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Profession, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The warm words of welcome spoken by you are deeper and more significant than the usual formal greetings extended to assembled organizations. I wish to assure you that this large and representative body of Georgians appreciate the true spirit of hospitality you have expressed, and feel that they are fortunate in being your favored guests.

Many of us are in Athens for our first time and are impressed with the evidences of thrift and prosperity. To many others it is like a visit to an old home and recalls tender memories of the years spent here in their early ambitions youth, when the future to them was bright with promise and rosy with hope.

We are delighted to be in Athens, the city for so long a time the center of Georgia culture, which means the essence of Southern culture. One of the leading cities in the effort to foster the ambition of the youth of our beloved State and lead them to more elevated planes of education and advancement along all helpful lines, moral, social and political. From this city, and her institutions, have gone out young men who, having caught inspiration to encourage them to nobler efforts, and received training to meet and cope with life's prob lems, have in this State and all over the South, acquitted themselves like true men in every contest in which they have engaged, and proved themselves equal to every emergency they have met.

We are glad because of your lovely homes, famed for their culture and hospitality and presided over by your mothers, wives and daughters, who have been and are regarded with pride as models of pure womanhood. The names of your families for generations have been familiar upon the pages of history, both in state and nation, and many of your citizens as scholars, statesmen and