The silver lance., 1897-12-31

hundred members of the society and
their friends, including many distin-
gaehed men, were present.
Among those who sat at the guests
OF honor table were j. Pierpont Nor
gan, Joseph II. Choate, General Wes-
ley Merritt, James Whitcomb Riley,
Richard Olney, Senator Z. o. Wolcott,
Governor Frank Black, Senator George
=. Hoar, President Charles w. Eliot,
General Nelson A. Miles and Mayor
William L. Strong.
The dinner was made up of good, old
New England dishes, and during it's
discussion a quartet, assisted by the
greater portion of those present, sang
popular airs.
Ihe speeches began at 10 o'clock, and
Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott responded to
the coast, "Forefathers' Day" He de-
clar6t that If Puritanism reigned in
Massachusetts at the present time it
would not be safe for DR.. Eliot to re-
main there for moment, and he him
self would have to depart for New Am
ster6am
Governor Black responded to the
toast, "The State of New York"
Senator Edward o. Wolcott of Colo
radc received hearty applause when
he rose to respond to the toast, "The
East and the West"
MIR. Wolcott began with humorous
reference to the political resignation
with which the exiles from New Eng
land bore their banishment; then spoke
OF an alleged desire of the Canadian
government to acquire the state of
Ma Inc and portions of New Hamp-
shire and Vermont in exchange for ter
r1tory in western Canada. Serious
thought on the subject of possible
ce9sion of a part of New England, Mr..
Wolcott said. brought "a realization of
what it would mean to this people to
face the possibility of changing by the
slmdow of a hair the contour of these
states or the sacrifice of n chip of its
native granite. however barren
He continued:
Not only does this sentiment per-
wade the land, but we seem at times to
De developing an inclination to invite
some other country to differ with us
In order that we may demonstrate our
united aggressiveness.
In certain directions our domestic
dlnerences are crystallizing and not
Oisintegrating. For more than a gen.
Grafton we have waited for the day
when parties would divide solely on ma
tonal questions, and when the old sec
and the race problem would be buried
The time came. The parties met on a
broad economic question, and 10! we
emerge from the contest threatened
with another bitter sectional division
The far west, largely the child of the
east and pulsing with its blood, Joins
hands with the South. The new align
ment is not only debtor against cred
itor, class against class. but in a land
pervaded with equal devotion to what
its people believed is the truest well
fare of the country, great majorities in
one section face equally great majori-
ties in another
"The West is not decadent; its views
are OF men virile. industrious and gen
uine. and their beliefs are honest. They
would scorn any sort Of evasion of an
obligation. They are patriotic men.
There is in the whole Far West hardly
a northerner born who was old enough
to go to the war whom you will not see
on Decoration Day wearing proudly
the badge Of his old corps. They are
Americans; to a proportion greater. far
greater, than in the East. native-born
American citizens. The views they
cherish are held with practical unanim-
ity.
SO universal a feeling as that which
pervades the great West cannot all be
wrong. You cannot dispose of con-
viction held by. millions of intelligent
people by calling it a craze, and some
day you may find it worth your while
to look for the truth where it is usually
hidden-sOmewhere between extremes
Somehow 1t is not really recognized
In the West that ability to recognize a
western railroad and swell its stock
and securities several millions every
time 1t is fOreclOsed necessarily indi-
Gates an equal ability to determine the
wisest economic policy for the farmer
who lives along the right of way. And
men who would no more dream of en-
trusting their banker with the duty of
formulating their financial views than
they would of command of the armies
Of their country, are naturally in
clined to fear that in this part of the
moral vineyard there is tendency to
assume that the possession of great
wealth means necessarily the posses
sion of great wisdom.
''It II only few years that New
England was uncommon proud Of that
West which hei sons had so largely
peopled and her resources, lavishly
ventured, had done so much to develop.
Perhaps they are only super-sensitive
westerners who fancy they see in GER
tain quarters a subtle change, an incli-
nation to criticise, an inab ity to find
much to commend and a tendency to
look still further to the eastward for
methods and ideals fit to follow. l
hope 1t is all a-mistake. Contentment
cannot come to this land by sections,
and it can never come except under
conditions which bear equally on the
whole people. Only the other day a
Cabinet officer came over here to en-
tighten one Of your great commercial
bodies, and with a gifted Chicago i'm
agination, quoted Walt Whitman.
told you how our fathers, when George
TIE Third was king, dashed the cup
from their lips a precedent am glad
TO see has not been followed at this
and talked about obstruction