The herald., 1897-01-21
WHENUNCLE sam WAS YOUNG
The Theme of Henry Waiter.
sons OratOry
HENRY LOVES MONEY WELL
Which Is Why he Scents the National
Danger
HENRY LOVES MONEY VEL
The Philanthropists of the New York
Board of Trade Eat
and Talk.
Associated Press Special Wire

Associated Press Special Wire
NEW YORK, Jan. 20.-The twenty
fourth annual banquet of the New York
board of trade and transportation was
held in the banquet hall of the Waldorf
hotel tonight. Senator John NJ Thurston,
who was to have responded to the toast,
The West was detained in Washing
ton. William H. Parsons acted as toast
master The principal speaker of the
evening was Henry Watterson, who re-
sponded to the toast, When Uncle Sam
Was Young The southern Journalists
address teemed with wit and the flowers
of rhetoric that have done as much to
make him famous as the profundity of
his logic. He began with comparison
of the conditions century ago with the
present, making playful illusions to the
popular fads and vices of the day. OF
early American times ne said: "Those
were brave days. gentlemen, and, what
ever else we may say of them-of their
primitive conditions, their provincial
limitations and their clumsy, upright
business methods-they laid the founda-
tions of a type of civilization which has
come to be known and respected, and is
beginning to be feared. throughout the
world as American manhood, and which
of all our possession is still the best we
have.
IF we can hold to this manhood we are
safe, and, whilst no one can exceed me
in admiration for the secretary's latest
diplomatic achievement, am not so sure
that it will eliminate war"
After a rather flippant discussion of
the universal peace idea. he said, more
seriously: There are dangers and dam
gers. and those that menaced the repub
lie when its titular saint was young are
not those that menace 1t now We were
a nation of individuals. We are nation
of institutions. The lion across our. path
was the institution of African slavery.
We survived it. The wolf at our door is
the institution of professional anarchy.
We shall survive that too. We have had
our new birth of freedom, but before we
can come out of the fiery ordeal, per-
feet nation, we must have a new birth
of morals.
1T is for you. gentlemen, to set the
pace. If the intellect and the aspiration
of the country insist upon placing the
smassing of riches above all other con-
sderations, leaving the administration
of the public business the hands of
charlatans and incompetent men, who,
though i'll paid are overpaid, you need
should begin to say, Since statesmen
come so cheap, why not we?'"
He then proceeded to warn his hear
ers that carelessness of corruption in
high places and blindness of greed may
lead to the overthrow of all law and
the downfall of the government. He re-
futed the idea that corporations are
things to be condemned or feared. If
justice and equity control their actions.
but" said he, 'if the custodians of
the nations wealth go on hugging their
riches under the d,aluson that when the
danger line is reached they can buy their
election, it is only a question of time
when the hordes of disorder will sweep
over the barriers that now restrain
them"
Gen. Simon S. Buckner responded to
the toast. Patriotism, Country and Par
ty; Lieutenant Governor Woodruff to
the toast, The Prospective Benefits to
Trade and Transportation Incident to
the Creation OF the Greater New York;
Postmaster General Drayton to the
toast, The Postal Service; Rev. Madison
{. Peters to the toast. immigration.
Mr.. A. D. Thurber moved that the as
semblage express by rising vote its
sentiment in favcr of the arbitration
treaty just promulgated between the
United States and Great Britain. All
rose and cheered.