Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-01-13
SUNDAY,JANUARY T3, 1883.
4 Glowing Tribute TO This state.
"Forefathers' Day" is a Plymouth

"Forefathers' Day" IS Plymouth
Rock institution 1t is usually in its
gatherings a great mutual admiration
affair, where the m,sh mutu scdbunt
policy is applied in a most unlimited
manner. Well, it may be. There is
certainly something substantial for the
pilgrims of the Mayflower to point with
pride to. All roads ran to Rome, and so
the heart of nearly everything American
centers with New York. Thus it came
about that last Forefathers' Day was
celebrated in the continental metropolis
more enthusiastically than it was under
the shadow of Bunker Hill, or where
the sad sea waves break against the
Yankee Blarney Stone at Plymouth.
1t was gathering of notable men, it was
q company of brilliantly witty men.
Chauncey Mitchell Depew, the greatest
of living post-prandial orators was there,
and 30 were great many other men
whom to hear had been treat. Among
these gentlemen was one known in the
halls of Congress, on the stump in nearly
every State in the Union, and particu-
larly in this State, as notably brilliant
and witty speaker. He visited California
during the political campaign of last fall,
and spoke at San Francisco and at Los
Angeles. His we'll rounded periods flowed
with unrufiied movement, and fell with
winning sweetness on the ears of great
audience, right here by the west wall of
the HERALD building. We could sit
here in the editorial rooms and hear his
argument, whose logic was hard to re-
fute, whose syllogisms we're forged like
strong links of steel, and to answer which
the dialectician would be forced to 60
back and attack his major premise, for
there was no flaw in the reasoning as
Hon. Thomas B. Reed of Maine treated
the tariff question.
He was at the New England
Society's dinner at New York on
Forefather's Day, and responded
to the toast, "The Mighty West"
He was peculiarly prepared for
the duty, as he had just returned from
visiting many of the Western States, and
from studying with that close attention
for which he is noted the various phases
of western life, the rapid development of
the several sections he passed through,
and the resources and promise of the
future which he saw. So much interest
is there for as in this speech that the
HERALD does not hesitate to lay it before
its readers in somewhat elaborate form.
Mr.. Reed said:
81 am going to try to talk about the
"West tonight not SO much because l
''know a great deal about it as because
''this audience probably knows less.
"[Laughter.]
''It is on the we'll known scientific
principle that ive-year-old boy can
"teach four-year-old boy more than
"Plato or Aristotle or st. Paul, and pos
"sibly more than the Professor of Politi-
zeal Economy of New England College.
"My residence also is advantageous. AL
''most everything is west Of Maine
"(laughter), and if it should be desirable
"to have fine and expansive peroration
''the whole boundless, continent might
"easily be ours.
Zone of the strongest and most power
"ful men of California, land of vigorous
"men, not long ago declared to me, and
81 venture to shock the New England
"Society with his declaration, that had
"the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the
"Paclfic slope instead of on Plymouth
Crock, civilization would never have got
''east of the Rocky Mountains. Laugh
"ter.l These people, after California,
'would never have thought our
''part of the country worth
"the trouble of settlement. Who.
sever amid the warmth of the al
"most unending summer and standing
''on the rich soil of those sunset lands,
''thinks of the rock-bound regions and
"sterile coasts of the Northern Atlantic,
''may we'll indulge day dream of the
''teeming empire which would have been
"west of the Sierras had all the energies
(which have made this Republic great,
''been concentrated on those wonderful
"valleys. Nevertheless this day dream,
"enticing as it is, is all a mistake. What
s'seem to have been the chances of his
story are always the DEGREES Of higher
claw. And this is no exception.
wherever within the temperate zone
mature is the most bleak, there she lie
s.the weakest, and there must be the
Isfirst successful attack. New England
"soil yielded little, but it yielded that
s'little to labor without capital. And
"capital is never q first settler. Jap
'plause.] Had these men, equipped
"only with the labor Of their hands and
"the scanty knowledge Of Europe been
dropped upon the San joaquin valley,
"they would have perished miserably
'samid the riches which our generation
ssfinds to be without stint or limit. II
stock all the wealth which the Atlantic
"Coast could garner or attract in a
hundred and fifty years to begin the
of the West" [Applause. ]
Mr.. Reeds visit to California was not
without results to his own mind. He