The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1901-11-21
HAY ON DIPLOMACY.
Notable Speech at Chamber
of Commerce Banquet.
A TRIBUTE TO HIS FALLEN CHIEF.
Secretary of state Says Our DipIo-
matte Intercourse Is Governed
by the Monroe Doctrine and
the Golden Rule.


was attended by many distinguished
men, not only of This city, but of state
and nation as well Among the speak
ers were Senator ]. l.. McLaurin of
South Carolina. who spoke on THE
Monroe Doctrine of the Nineteenth
Century" Governor Elect Cummins Of
Iowa, who took for his theme THE
Present Prosperity of the Republic"
and Secretary of State Hay. Mr.. Hay
paid n glowing tribute to the late Presi
dent Mckinley. The major postion of
his address was upon the subject of
diplomacy. Among other things he
said:
Let me advert but for moment to
one aspect of our recent bereavement
which is especially interesting to those
engaged, as you are, in relations whose
scope is as wide as the world. Never
since history began has there been an
event which so Immediately and so
deeply touched the sensibilities of so
vast portion of the human race. The
sun which set over Lake Erie while the
surgeons We're still battling for the
presidents life had not risen on the
Atlantic before every capital of the
civilized world was in mourning. And
1t was not from the centers of civillza-
ton alone that the voices of sorrow
and sympathy reached us. They came
as well from the utmost limits of the
world, from the most remote islands of
the sea; not only from the courts of
Christendom, but from the temples of
strange gods and the homes of exotic
religions. Never before has the heart
of the world throbbed with a sorrow so
universal. Never before have the king
doms of the earth paid such homage
at the grave Of citizen.
"One simple reason why the millions
of this country mourned him as If they
had buried brother and why all the
nations of the earth felt that his death
was loss TO humanity at large was
that he loved his fellow men, There
were literally no bounds to his lavish
good will. In political genius. in wis
dom for government, in power of con-
trolling men, he was one of the elect of
the earth-there We're few like him.
the most perfect democrat | ever met.
He never knew what it meant to re-
gard another man as his inferior or as
his superior. Nothing human was
alien to him. Even his death was in
that sense significant. He was slain
in the moment when, with that de-
lightful smile we knew so well. which
seemed like the very sunshine of the
spirit, he was stretching forth a gen
erous hand to greet the lowest and
meanest unit in that crowd of many
thousands.
"Others will rise and labor and do
good service to the republic. We shall
never lack good men when the emer-
gency calls for them. Thank God, we
do not lack them now! But it may
well be doubted if in any century of
the glorious future before us there will
ever appear two such sincere high
minded, self respecting lovers of the
people as the last fifty years have
shown us in Abraham Lincoln and
William Mckinley.
II am asked to say something about
our diplomacy. You want from me
nothing but the truth, and vet if
confine myself to the truth / cannot
help fearing | shall do my profession n
wrong in the minds of those who have
been in the habit of considering diplo-
macy an occult science, as mysterious
us alchemy and as dangerous to the
morals as municipal politics. 1t must
be admitted that this conception of
the diplomatic function is not without
a certain historical foundation.
''As to the measure of success which
our recent diplomacy has met with it
is difficult if not impossible for me to
speak. There are two important lines
of human endeavor in which men are
forbidden even to allude to their sue
cess-aifairs of the heat and diplo-
matte affairs. In doing so one not only
commits vulgarity which transcends
all question of taste, but makes all fu-
| ture success impossible. For this rea-
J son the diplomatic representatives of
the government must frequently suffer
in silence the most outrageous imputa'
tions upon their patriotism, their in
telligence and their common honesty
TO justify themselves before the public
they would sometimes have to place il
jeopardy the interests of the nation
They must constantly adopt for them
selves the motto of the French revolu
ZIONIST, Let my name wither rather
than my country be injured
but if we are not permitted to boas
of what we have done we can at leas
say Il word about what we have trie,
to do and the principles which hav,
: guided our action. The brlefest ex
preston of our rule of conduct is per
: haps the Monroe doctrine and the gold
en- rule.
. "The attitude of our diplomacy ma,
be indicated in text of Scrptur
=, which Franklin, the first and creates
of our diplomats, tells us passe
through his mind when he was pre-
sented at the court Of Versailles.
: was a text his father used to quote {
+: him in the old candle shop in Bosto
when he was boy, 'Seest thou ma
diligent In his business he shall stan
!, before kings Let us be diligent in OF
business, and we shall stand-stan,