The Washington times., 1902-02-23
WESTINGHOUSE BIRTHDAY
At CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
Commissioner MacfarlandDe'
liVerS Address.
Influence of the First President on
American Policy of the Tween
tieth Century.

was delivered this year by Hon
Henry B. F. mcfarland, chairman
of the Board of District Commissioners
in the assembly room, Mcmahon Hall be
fore large and distinguished audience.
These lectures are an institution at the
university. and an effort is made each
| year to secure some man who is well
known in national and political life. The
selection this year was a very happy one
Mr.. Macfarlaud keeping the close atten-
ticn and interest of his audience until
the last sentence.
Mr. NacfarIand's Address.
Among other things Mr.. Macfarland
said:
This is the one hundred and seven
tieth anniversary of the birth OF George
| Washington. On that birthday. the only
one which is national holiday, it is diff
cult to speak OF anyone else. Yet more
than a century has passed since he was
buried at Mount Vernon
The wonderful nineteenth century,
| with all its mechanical and scientific dis
coveres and all its material progress.
the greatest of all the centuries in these
other respects. knew not Washington in
the flesh. and now we have entered an
| other century.
The time of Washington is almost as
far distant in scientific. mechanical. and
| economic things as the time OF Chris
| TOPPER Columbus. In spite of Frankln's
experiments. the applications of cleo
tricity for mechanical purposes would
seem almost as strange to the one as to
the other. We are separated from Wash
/ ington by thought in some matters far
more distantly than by time. He belongs
to a different period of civilization. an
! older order of society.
The political and the social conditions
| in the United States today would seem as
| strange TO Washington as the telegraph
/ or telephone. the national bank system
or the latest hypothesis of science. Mount
| Vernon, made sacred by his home and
! his tomb. and preserved by patriotic wo-
men. is unchanged. but otherwise the
most familiar scenes of Washington's ex-
, periences would seem strange to him, SO
rapid and so great have been the changes.
still Factor.
| yet Washington has not faded into the
/ dimness of an irrecoverable past. He is
not receding from our view into the dis
| tance beyond a great flood of time. He
is not simply remembered as one OF the
| ancients, a great force in a bygone age
| who must be honored, but need not be
reckoned with. He is not locked up in q
book or a statue or picture, an object of
veneration but with no relation to pres
ent day affairs.
| 'If he were, the ceremonies in his
honor would become perfunctory and
would soon cease. Men, women and chill
dren would no longer meet to celebrate
his birthday, and his Farewell Address
would not longer be read 20 the Senate
of the United States on the twenty-sec-
ond of February.
THE fact, of course, is that George
| Washington is in the twentieth century as
much as he was in the eighteenth cen
fury. Such unique greatness as his. great
ness of mind and greatness of spirit, lives
through all time, and makes its influence
felt in distant centuries as in its own day
of action. II is like the Washington mon
ument, not only in its simplicity,
strength, and superiority but in that it
endures. And, as the Washington monu-
| ment dominates the scene appears at
| every view. and impresses its idea on
every hour. SO Washington looms before
our eyes and grasps our minds today.
Our Foreign Policy.
Being dead he yet speaketh, or. rath-
er. being alive here. as well as in the
other world, he still commands as when
| he was here in the body. 1t is admitted
that our foreign policy is that which
| Washington laid down for us. 1t is ad-
| mitted that. in this important regard, the
nation which he established mas advanced
steadily and securely to its present proud
| position in the field of international re-
| lations.
THE wisdom OF his principles for our
dealings with foreign nations, so Sharply
questioned in his time, is Low universally
acknowledged al home and abroad. Thanks
to that wisdom our Government. through
| all the changes in its administration has
maintained an equable friendliness toward
all other Governments and has made no
| entaugling alliance with any of them.
THE recent diplomacy cf the State De-
partment by Secretary Day, in the Span
ish war, and Secretary Hay in the nego-
tiations to preserve the integrity of the
Chinese Empire. and the open door" for
our commerce in China. under the direc
tion Of President Mckinley and President
Roosevelt, furnishes a striking illustTa-
ton of the vitality well the value
of Washington's principles. for our for
eign intercourse: while ii must be remem-
bered that the so-called Monroe Doctrine
was the natural outgrowth of those prin-
ciples.
Our Internal Affairs.
at is not generally admitted that Wash
ington's principles govern the administra-
ton of our internal affairs, but in a large
view this ought to be acknowledged
Washington's greatest thought was that
the United States ought to be a nation and
not a confederacy, and that it was to ex-
pand indefinitely, and not to be kept be
tween the Atlantic and the Alleghanies
His great mind had no little thoughts
for his country. He thought continental
ly,' as has been said, when most men
thought otherwise, and did all his work
even to the planning OF magnificent city
for the National Capital, in the faith that
this nation would endure and enlarge
without limit.
The Constitution OF the United States
and the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall
which made its great powers operative,
are the reflection of WashingtOns polit-
cal Purpose, and while it took the costli-
est and the mightiest war a country ever
knew to Ca-:y cut that purpose fully it
has been done. The nation, it cannot be |
doubted, is proceeding now in its own al |
fairs On the lines laid down by Washing
ton.
incidentally, but essentially, 1t must |
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