The San Francisco call., 1899-05-14

dence on California street From every
point from which a banquet may be
viewed 1t was pre-eminently a success.
The decorations, the music, the menu,
were perfect, and reversing the usual
order, reason played quite as large a
part in the feast as did the flow of soul
and other things. William II. Mills as
POSTMASTER had his lists excellently ar
ranged and the speeches of Mr.. Stubbs
Mr.. Sproule, Rabbi Voorsanger and the
others were of the highest order, Mr.
Huntington's speech was, naturally
the effort of the evening. and as have
been his other speeches at his ten other
annual banquets that of last night was
remarkable. His speech in full was as
follows:
1t gives me pleasure to welcome you to
my house at another of our annual din
nerS and to express to you my apprecia-
tion of your continued friendship, which
is so gratifying as well satisfying to
me. We have seen another year pass and
again we are together to give way in our
brief hours of social reunion to the feel
ings and the thoughts which I know must
occur TO each of you as they occur to
me. How many more times, if ever again,
we shall join hands none of us can tell
With the year passes the century. May
we all live to see the new one and to en-
ter upon it in good health and happiness,
determined to see to it that we will bear
our earnest part in the great work that
is yet to come.
To you young men. who have much of
your lives before you, the twentieth Gen.
tury opens with a grandeur of possibili-
ties almost beyond conception. We have
seen our splendid republic within the
short space of one year make a stride
forward that is to-day the wonder of the
civilized world. There are misgivings
abroad lest we should fail to solve the
great problem we have laid out for our
study; but it is only natural that these
misgivings should exist. Those who look
with jealous eyes upon American ad-
vancement find it easy 10 be apprehen-
sive of our ability to succeed, and to fear
for our future, for their apprehensons
and doubts, l imagine, are born of their
XpreSsed-perhap unconscious-hope
that we will fail: in short. ii is quite
father to the thought. The world recog-
nizes in the struggle now going on across
the Pacific the rising of star which is
likely to outshine them all. They see to-
day the oldest and the youngest nations
face to face-the United States and China
-one drawing the feeble breath of old age
and impotent to raise vigorous arm
against the aggression of those who seem
ready to tear her to pieces and divide the
spoils; the other flushed with the blood
of youth and strength and just emerging
from a century of triumphs in invention.
commercial enterprise, education and ex-
perience which have prepared her to be
the leader of the nations and the master,
If she will. of the worlds destinies.
The door to Eastern Asiatic trade can
not now be closed. for the American re-
public has her foot upon the threshold
The United States are beginning to under
stand the significance of that phrase so
sphere of influence'-and they are going
to exercise that influence. Strange peo-
pies are to come more into our life, and
these peoples are, by-and-by, going to
trfn hA
greatest question before the American
Government to-day is, How shall we deal
with them? In France, liberty, equality
and fraternity have been but names It
will be the test of our success whether we
can make them facts. | hope and believe
that our flag will continue to have the
meaning of it's past wherever 1t may
waVe-whether in the mainland of the
United States or over its islands of the
seas | hope that il will stand for an hon
est and just government, in which every
individual. without distinction OF race or
creed will be equal before the law, for
only under such a banner can American
citizens hope to gain happiness and en-
during success. The history of the world,
| think shows that where the rights of
the humblest citizen are not equal before
the law to the rights of the highest the
trend of a nation is surely downward, and
no one is safe. Rome was once the master
of the world, but when she reached that
point in her career where her slaves con-
stituted the great majority of her popula-
ton her decline began and continued to
her fall. Russia was nation or bar
barians and serfs. She emancipated the
latter and opened a path of progress for
the former; but her present ruler is try
ing to take step forward and a step
backward at the same time. Before l
left. New York received information that
the Car had by imperial decree abrogated
the constitution under which the people of
Finland have been allowed within the Rus
sian Jurisdiction, to maintain their special
national character and that he had turned
down this peoples petition for mercy.
The result is that they are preparing to
emigrate to some other country.
| at once wrote to our people in San
Francisco for it seemed to me that here
lay a great opportunity for California,
which needs more citizens. 1t has been
calculated in recent statistics that the
Russian and English tongues are to be
the ruling languages of the future, but
I believe the language that we speak here
tonight will be the commercial language
of the world, for it is the language which
has created the best type of government
and of citizenship. To-day we nave the
spectacle of the Car of Russia trying
to thrill the universe with a brilliant
vision of a great peace congress which
shall put an end to the horrors and cru
elites of war, and at the same time turn
ing a deaf ear to appeals from represent
atives of more than 900 or his peo-
pie who are to-day, in consequence OF IL
casting about for new homes under an
alien flag, where they can enjoy the right
to live lives of peace and happiness ac-
cording to the dictates of their con-
science!
France, as is well known, is declining
in population and in real power. She is
a republic, but a republic in uniform
Her wise men look with great alarm
upon Anglo-Saxo superiority, and are
asking anxiously what is the reason tor
1t.
The answer, / take it. lies largely in
her methods of education, which may be
! called a process of forcing the young ir
order to prepare them for the govern
mei1t service The nation is beG-ridder
with officialism. AS for Germany, an EN-
| inent French writer, speaking of the fail
| ure of the French school to fit men FOL
! the struggle of life, has said contemptu
| ously: Germany need not rail at France
| for her decline. We are only preceding
her" The German Emperor himself has
said in recent years, speaking of the Ger
man method of education: our school'
have failed from practical point OF
view that is, they do not form man tc
| succeed" and he urged that the youtf
of the country ought to be educated SC
as to fit them for the struggles OF life
| And he says further: 'Our schools nave
! given us too many learned men. They
! turn out more learning than is good FOL
the nation at large and more than is gooc
| for the individual
Now this is a preface to a remark thai
| l want to make, and that is that regre'
one tendency in our country. admirable
as are her institutions. 1t is almost here
sy to say 1t, but / do not mind taking the