The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-27
SECRETARY LONG.

SECRETARY LONG.
No words can utter the override of
feeling with which I acknowledge this
cordial welcome-the welcome not
merely Of political gathering, but of
fellow citizens, of friends and neigh
bors, who have known mesand with
whom have lived MY daily. life now
these many years.
I cannot stand before you and not
think of the men and women of Mas
sachusetts who have called me to their
fellowship and service, who gave me
whatever I have had of honor in pub
lie life, and whose cordial helpfulness
and confidence / can never forget 1t
is we'll worth while to endure exodus
from the dear old commonwealth to
receive such a hearty greeting on re-
turning to it. I sometimes think, how
ever, that public men, holding posi-
tons of responsibility and stationed at
the heads of various departments of
the public service, get either more
praise or blame tlSsn they deserve.
Not all the successes that come there
in are by any means due to them. Nor
on the other hand, all the shortcom-
system of the American institution.
If its functions are performed with ac-
curacy and success, it is because it's
system is right and because every per
sonIal and material factor in it is equal
to the task. If it fails in any respect,
| the fault must be looked for not only
| at the head, but all along the line-in
| the organization, in the subordinates,
| in the perhaps unavoidable obstacles
and sudden exigencies of the situation.
| When, too, you praise your public
servant-H it be praise he receives
let neither him nor you forget how
much more the public service does for
him than he for it. All honor to the
| illustrious names of our history; all
recognition of the sacrifice and service
of men who have accepted and held
! high office! But, think also of the sur
passing reward they have received in
the fortune that gave them the honor
of that sacrifice and Service. 1t must
be remembered that the greatest among
| them are not so much individual ex-
| ceptions as types-even Washington
and Lincoln-types of the best prevail
I ing character, manhood and quality Of
! their time.
| When Hobson rendered his life on the
forlorn hope of the Merrimac, the
decks of the ships at Santiago We're
crowded with heroes, whose names are
written in water but who We're eager
| to give their own lives to win the
same high need of praise and to do
the same noble service for their coun-
| try. Even our friends of the demo-
cratic party, who, here in Massachu-
sets, have accepted the still forlorner
! hope of lending their names, for this
| one performance only, to the demo-
4 cratic state ticket, will also have their
reward in the fieeting fame of bravely
carrying the banner of their honest
| faith, whatever that is, even though
they carry it to defeat.
| / come to you from the seat of gov
eminent, and yet l realize that that l
can bring you nothing in the way of
I information that the nimble genius of
the press has not already given you
| and nothing certainly in the way of
political instruction that you do not
have in generous measure from those
better able to furnish it than l am In
deed, If ] may frankly tell YOU So the
position of the head of a department is
not in all respects favorable to his de-
velopment along the larger and more
comprehensive lines of political science.
He is the slave of details to an extent
beyond anything you can imagine. He
deals far more with matters of per-
sonal interest than with matters of
government policy. The four or five
hundred letters which the secretary of
4 the navy signs each day mainly have
reference TO the complaint of a dis
charged workman at the navy yard;
the appeal of some friend of the Gull
prit of a court martial, or the procuring
Of a comfortable billet for an ensign,
rather than the settlement of any ques-
ton of colonial expansion or the best
form of a national currency.
Nor are these details, though they do
not sound the depths of larger themes,
Ia y mi.
| the close relations in which the man
in deputed power is brought with the
great mass of the people, whose selv-
ant he is, and whose interests, humble
| or high, are dear to them, and there
fore, imperative upon him. None the
less, my experience in the cabinet has
| confirmed the impression that l have
long cherished, that cabinet officer,
with or without a vote should have
a place upon the floor of congress-
where he shall at once be subject to
question in all matters of his admins
tration and have the opportunity to
present in person the needs and de-
mands of his branch of the public serv-
flee. So might he best get larger
growth.
I can not stand in this generous pres
ence and not be keenly alive to the
fact that 1t emphasizes not the kind
ness of personal friendship, not even
| the Splllt VI pGJliSdn Htdl, pul the
warm, enthusiastic pride of the Ameri-
can citizen in the administration of the
! American government; pride in his
country; and pride especially, I am
sure, from your welcome tonight to me,
| in the glory of the American navy.
Were there ever such pages as that
navy has written, not in water, but in
letters of light on the armament of his
tory. Why should / speak for it, when
| the navy speaks for itself?
! Is it not enough to say that it has
maintained the glorious standard to
which it rose in the war of the Ameri-
can revolution and in the war of 1912
and in the war for the Union? It's
achievement during the last six months
| have been one blaze Of unprecedented
| triumph Not only the triumps of bat
| tie. but the finer triumph of the highest
professional skill. of scientific achieve-
! ment and of that preparation and fore
| sight which make the public service
| efficient, accurate and successful. 1t
/ has added new names TO the already
! glittering constellation of heroic stars.
! The marvellous victories at Manila
and Santiago, where Dewey and Samp-
/ son only led a list that ran without a
break in its merit from the admiral to
/ the humblest sailor and marine. have
made the naval power of the United
States master of the sea. The almost
entire freedom of the navy during the
war from loss of life, from sickness and
disease. and from even ordinary casual
1 ties. is the best evidence OF the thor
Ioughness of its preparation, the intelli-
0enca NJ fte direction and the skill. effi-