Message on the 50th Anniversary of the First Commercial Electric Lighting and Generating Station.

[Released September 12, 1932. Dated September 1, 1932]

My dear Mr. Cortelyou:

I will be greatly obliged if you will be so kind as to present my cordial greetings to those in attendance at the dinner on September 12th celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Edison service and the first commercial operation of the Pearl Street electric generating station for incandescent lighting, the conception, design and construction of which by the late Thomas Alva Edison was such an historic event in the development of electric lighting. The advance in fifty years from that modest beginning is nightly reflected in the splendid illumination of our cities and homes, which we accept by habit without thought of the enormous labors in technical research, business organization and manual skill which have gone into their production.

Yours faithfully,

HERBERT HOOVER

[Mr. George B. Cortelyou, President, Consolidated Gas Company of New York, 4 Irving Place, New York City ]