Morning journal and courier., 1894-04-10
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL
EVERY THURSDAY MORNING, Single Copfes 8 cents.

ZEAL, ACTIVITY. PBHslsTRRCE.
 4 hundred years Is Q long time, al time is measured in this swiftly-rollinQ world, and anything that lives hundred years has to have good deal of vitality in 1t. It need not be very active, but 1t must be persistent. So the New Haven Chamber of Commerce has done 8 notable thing in living g hundred years, even If it has spent large part of It's century in dreamless sleep. Per haps if 1t had been moro continuously act. i've 1t would have been dead and buried long ere this, interesting and useful only to the skilled resurrectionists and dissect- crs of the New Haven Colony Histor- teal Society. But 1t is not dead, and the president of that society was called on last evening not to curiously open its grave but to praise 1t, and to call attention to the fact that 1t has lived a hundred years and ia still slive. His task was nobly done in the main. He showed that the Chamber has lived through much that was exciting and important, and that too, without becoming unduly excited or important itself. Its long os- reer has been noticeably consistent, and 1t has had @ definite and traoeAbls character of its own. That character snimates it to-day, as 1t did in the early time whose records caused the historian to be struck with the zeal and activity with which the Chamber entered into every matter affect ing the interests of the city. It would be difficult to have stronger com mittees in any city of the Union than have been named by the Chamber, And in 1927 the Chamber invested $l00 in the purchase of three shares of stock in the New Haven Packet company.
 Next to the zsal and activity which will strike the readers of the record of the Chamber comes its persistence. This quality is even more striking than the zeal and activity. After about fifteen years of zeal and activity came about sixty-fve years of persistence. Dur ing this period the Chamber showed its staying quality in most remarkable way, and for the last twenty years of the sixty five MT. Harry Prescott, the heroic secre- tary, stayed on deck in a manner which cast into the ehsde the poetioslly celebrat- cd example of the son of Casabianca. He had h:s reward. He saw the persistence of the Chamber, as represented in him, again accompanied by It's zeal and activity. An tseus like, the Chamber rose from the ground, or from sleep, "refreshed to re- commence It's lsbors for the public good in 6 pew city and new ago." How faith fnl and efficient these labors have been we need not remind those who have been alive since 1879.
 We have thus but briefly touched upon the zeal and activity, the persistence and the great deeds of the Chamber, as set forth in Brother Baldwin's record. They could not hsvs been better set forth than they have been by him, SO far as he has gene. But we notice one surprising omis. sion from his record, and we are not willing to let this unusual occasion pass without calling attention to 1t,
  quite as much of the Chambers character ss anything he has set down. We mean the grand and impressive action of the Chamber when it stood up against mis guided public sentiment and declared itself to be in favor of individual liberty in the matter of wine drinking a the annual banquets. Of course th, Chamber is largely business body and is most at home in dealing with business questions. But it is cheer l ing to know that 1t can also deal with ques tions of public morality when there is neet of 1t. Brother Baldwin should have in oluded this action in his record of the nobl' and notable deeds of the Chamber. It vii be historical, and be needed not to leave 1 for the historian who will spread himsel at the two-hurdredth anniversary.