The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-12-15
Significant Words
OF President Baer

| Niu IOl RECEIVE the utSItt VI
| in the press reports that II would have
| received had 1t occurred earlier In the
| evening. was the extraordinary demon.
| stration of approval elected by the
concluding portion of the speech oil
| President George r. Raer. The even.
| ing's flow of oratory had been without
| especial incident up TO the time that
the reputed head of the alleged Goa
trust arose to speak of the principles
OF government in Pennsylvania. Up &c
| that time the toasts had been largely
! in the vein of pleasantly and humor
| When Mr. Baer began there seemed tc
pass over the large and representative
company, including many of the fore
| most men in the commercial. industrial
| and professional life of New York, an
intuition that something out of the or
| dinary was coming
Mr.. Baer made no fents at playful
ness. He plunged ut once into the
| midst of his subject tracing the influ-
cnce Of William PENIS doctrine Of toll
erance upon the development Of Penn
sylvania's colonial institutions and upon
the great charter upon which her state
hood was builded, a fundamental prop
osition in which was the right to ac-
called attention to the fact that one
OF the doctrines Of constitutional lib
erty as eSemplitled in the constitution
OF Pennsylvania. and the constitution Of
the United States was the right of the
state TO regulate her own Internal af-
fairs, without outside Interference or
pressure. and he predicted with solemn
emphasis that the modern attempt to
take from the states this local auton-
ony would be rejected by the final judg-
lnent Of the american people after the
return of sober thought and the reas-
sertion Of their common sense. Then,
speaking with intense earnestness and
fairly quivering, he continued:
Il remember when a boy in the ffties
coming out of school one day as an
excited populace was shouting In
graham!' 1ngrallam!' and hearing on
street corner the late jeremiah s.
Black haranguing an audience of 5000
townsmen i'll passionate eloquence,
amidst thunderous applause ! asked
my father what it meant, and he told
me how Captain 1nsraham, on the war;
ship st. Louis, in the harbor of Trieste.
had demanded of the Austrian govern
ment the surrende! of Martin KosZta
who. two years before, had declared his
intention Of becoming an American cit
izen and Who upon returning to Aus
tria. had been arrested and thrown in
to prison. koszta, though foreign born
and only started on the way toward
American citizenship, was deemed en-
titled to the protection of his govern
ment in far off place to such an ex-
tent that gallant Captain 1ngraham,
against the guns of the Austrian forts
and fleet. cleared ship for action and
would have fought had not the Aus
TRANS thought discretion the better part
of valor and surrendered their prisoner
peaceably.
Again, only few years later, /
marched through the greatest war in
history, in which men by the thousands
fell on every hand for the purpose of re-
moving the one great blot on our ma
tional escutcleon caused by holding
working black men in bondage. And it
was reserved for one Of the children of
the plain people, who rose by virtue of
his own resources and merit to the po-
siton of chief magistrate Of his country
and greatest of all the great Americans
OF his time or any time, Abraham Lin
coin, to put his pen to the immortal
document which forever secured, as was
supposed, the freedom Of American la
Dor.
"How is it today? With shame do I
say that we have recently seen, not one
man foreign born put into duress be-
fore the requirement Of full American
citizenship. nor black men held in slav-
cry. but hundreds, yes thousands of fell
low citizens, free-born here at home.
and supposed to be assured of the full
protection of our constitution and our
laws, denied the right to earn their
honest living while the government of
pennsylvania. and even the government
of the United States stood idly by. and
politicians paltered. I say to you TO-.
night that this right 10 work,
among the smallest of the nat
ural rights for the protection
of which government was founded.
must be re-established and re-de Tended
and that if necessary the whole power
of the government must be used to
strike down the hand that would de-
strOy it,
The scene which followed will long be
1t was dramatic and en-
citing to an extraordinary degree. The
volume OF applause which followed the
development of Mr.. Baers argument
rose at his climax to regular torrent
oil, din, Men rose and stood on chairs
waving handkerchiefs and shouting
The applause lasted for minutes and
then repeatedly renewed itself amidst
calls of "Baer.' "Baer." Those fanil-
lar with the history OF after r-dinner
speaking in the metropolis say that the
demonstration has had few parallels
The dinner itself was notable one
aside from this dramatic and uneXpect-
ed feature. The Pennsylvania Society
Of New York, although only four years
youngest, in fact, of the state
societies formed among men drawn to
the big city by business reasons-has
become in size and character of men,
bership easily on a par with the oldest.
It's 45O members, with their guests,
filed the spacious ballroom of the
and, amidst hand
some decorations in foliage and flow
ers, and beneath the gaze of beautiful
and beautifully gowned women spec
tators in the balconies, presented a
spectacle not easily forgotten.
The souvenirs, too, We're unique
aluminium coal pals apparently filed
with imitation anthracite. but really
Il delicious confection, for
which there were distributed dainty
spoons. This clever idea was
the contribution of the society's inde-
fatigable secretary, Mr. Barr Ferree,
who supervised all the arrangements,