Say, fellows, when it was announced in the Edison home seventy-three
years ago that a boy was born, and his name was Tom, it was a great
day for the world. It was a great day for you and for me--though we
were not yet born. Think a minute how it would be without the electric
light, now illuminating every city and town in the world--at the touch
of a button in millions of homes and halls and offices and factories
turning darkness into day. It is wonderful that the birth of one boy
named Tom should mean so much to the world. Yet who can say that had
Edison not been born none would have discovered the incandescent lamp?

It was another wonderful day when Mr. and Mrs. Watt announced the
birth of their son James--a wonderful day for the world and for you
and me. Think of how many ways steam power, through manufacture and
transportation, adds to our comfort and pleasure. Yet who can say that
no man would have discovered and harnessed this giant to serve mankind
if James Watt had not seen the light of day?

Still another wonderful day it was when the Bells announced the birth
of a boy whom they named Alexander Graham--a wonderful day for the
world and for you and me. How would we get on without the telephone?
Yet who can say that no one would have invented the telephone if
Alexander Graham Bell had not been born?

But, oh, fellows, the supreme birthday of all time was that which was
announced by the angels to the shepherds watching their flocks by
night in the Judean fields; it was that birthday signalled by a
glorious star to the Wise-men who came to Bethlehem with gifts of gold
and frankincense and myrrh. The birth of Jesus means more to the world