The record-union., 1896-04-19
Dinner Given in His Honor by the
Montauk Club Of Brooklyn.
The Guests Address on Questions of
Politics and Finances.
The Extreme Heat That Has Pre-
vailed in the Eastern States for the
Past Week is Unprecedented in the
Records of the Weather Bureau for
This Season of the Year.

BROOKLYN, April 1S.-A dinner was
tonight in honor Of Hon. Chauncey NJ
Depew's birthday. A large number of
distinguished persons were present
After an address of welcome had been
delivered by the Chairman, Mr.. Depew
was introduced. He was enthusiastic
ally welcomed, and spoke as follows:
I'VE are again, as we were four years
ago, in a Presidential year. We will all
admit that the conditions are reversed.
Then the handwriting was upon the wall
which marked the defeat of the party
which had held power in the Govern
ment for a generation. Then we all
felt that there was to be a condemna-
ton of the system Of protection as a
principle of public policy, and the trial,
in some form, Of the theory of free
trade.
I'VE all know that the cravings for
more currency would find expression
either in the debasement of the currency
or in combination of forces as power
full and so threatening as to endanger
the continuance of settled standards.
But the handwriting is equally clear
upon the wall to-day that there is to be
another trial, and a vigorous one, of
the principle and practice of protection;
that there is to be a defeat, and an
overwhelming one, of the friends of fiat
money, Of a debased currency, or Of the
free coinage Of silver.
The retirement from power of the
Republican party after thirty-three
years Of rule was an event of no ordi-
nary Importance. The advent into the
possession of every department of Gov
ernment of the Democratic party and
allies was an event of extraordinary
interest. These four years will be re-
markable for the elimination of the
acts and theories which have come to
the front since the civil war. Fifty years
from now the story will read like ro-
nance of the rise of the Populist party,
its wild, vague, imposing impracticable
theories, the singular public men whom
it threw to the surface, it's capture of
several States and it's ability to hold
the balance of power in the Congress
of the United States, and then it's dis
integration and disappearance almost
as rapidly as it was organized.
No less interesting will be the his
tory of the movement in favor of the
free coinage of silver and the great pro-
portions which it assumed While I
differ entirely from President Cleve-
land on almost every part of his public
policy; while I think his theories, so
far as they have been practically car
ried out, have been disastrous, and if
wholly carried out would have been
fatal to our industries, nevertheless, in
the frankness and the fairness of this
platform, it is due to him to say that
the rout Of the free coinage of silver
policy, and the energizing of the ma
tional credit by the triumphs Of sound
money, are more largely due to his
throwing upon the winning side with
magnificent courage and ability the
whole strength and power of his great
office and of his Administration than to
anything else.
While we have had a period of
distress which has brought so much
suffering to millions of homes and
while the cost has been more than that
Of disastrous war, yet the suffering
has not been in vain and the cost has
not been lost if it shall have gained
for US in education by discussion and
by the experiences of our people, the
death of the absurdities of Populism
and the triumph Of that sound money
and unquestioned currency which shall
keep this great trading, business and
commercial republic in honorable re-
lations with and in the lead among
the great trading, business and COM
mercial nations of the world.
But that will not be the only COM
pensation. The experience of the last
twelve months has enforced the lessons
of the necessity of ability in the diplo-
macy and of a Foreign Office which
shall have in it's permanency and its
power both the confidence of Congress
and the country, and the ability to
cope with dignity and honor with every
question which affects the relations of
the United States with foreign Govern
ments
we do not differ as to the Monroe
doctrine as explained by Monroe, JEFF
ferson, Madison, Webster and Calhoun
being the settled policy of the country.
to be sustained at every cost and every
sacrifice. we do not differ in sympa-
thy, and the practical measures possi-
bic to support it, which should be given
to the suffering Christians of Arme-
MIA and the stoppage of the horrible
massacres taking place in that terri
tory; we do not differ in the feeling
that we all have that the pro- Consular
Government of the Roman Empire of
the second century of its distant prov
inces, with it's despotic authority and
crushing exactions, ought no longer
to exist anywhere in the world, and
especially in our neighboring State,
the island of Cuba. But at Washing
ton these most delicate, most grave and
most difficult questions have been met
by resolutions and speeches which in
the language of diplomacy and the GUS
tom of Foreign Offices means a decla-
ration Of war.
THAT magnificent revival of busi-
ness, so hopeful for every industry,
which began in the fall. had become
paralyzed by March, by the country
daring neither to invest nor employ nor
to buy because of continuing refusal to
provide the Government with the means
for meeting its ordinary obligations in
the time of profound peace, or buying
great guns or building Notifications for