Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-19
HAY .LAUDS ROOSEVELT
SECRETARY OF STATE SPEAKS AT
BANQUET
Given by the Ohio Society Of New
York on Saturday
Night. ~,

A large number of prominent people were
guests of the Ohio Society of New York at
a banquet Saturday John Hay. Secretary
of State. was the guest Of honor.
Colgate Hoyt. president of the society.
was POSTMASTER. He introduced Mr.. Hay
who said in part:
A distinguished American some time ago
leaped into unmerited fame by saying.
Some men are born great-others are born
in Ohio. This Is mere pleonasm for q
man who is born in Ohio is born great.
can say this. as the rest Of you cannot.
without the reproach of egotism. for
have suffered all my life under the handi-
cap of not having been born in that fortu-
nate commonwealth. Indeed when I look
back on the shifting scenes OF my life. II
am not that altogether deplorable creature.
a man without country, l am, when 1t
comes to pull and prestige. almost equally
bereft. as l am man without state. I
was born in Indiana, I grew up in Illinois.
l was educated in Rhode Island. and 1t Is
no blame to that scholarly community that
l know so little l learned my law in
Springfield and my politics In Washington,
my diplomacy in Europe. Asia and Africa.
have farm in New Hampshire and desk
room In the District of Columbia When
hook to the springs from which my blood
descends the first ancestors l ever heard OF
were a Scotchman, who was half English.
and German woman, who was half
T H. .,
mother was from New England and my
father was from the south. In this bewil-
derment Of origin and experience can only
put on an aspect Of deep humility in any
gathering of favorite sons. and confess that
l am nothing but an American.
lived little while in Ohio and was
very happy there. but. obeying call which
seemed to me Imperative, l went to WASH
ington some twenty years ago. might be
pardoned for thinking I had not left Ohio.
for every great department Of national &C.
tivity and power was under the direction OF
citizen of that masterful state. The
President was an Ohio man, equally distin-
guished in character and achievements; the
finances Of the country were in the strong
and capable hands of John Sherman: the
army gladly obeyed the orders of Tecnmseh
Sherman. with Phil Sheridan as second in
command; while at the head OF our august
supreme court sat Chief Justice Waite; the
purse, the sword and the scales Of justice,
all in the hands Of men coming from q
state which naturally breeds men who know
how to make war. to make money and 10
make laws.
And as I ought. before take my seat. to
say word at least bearing on the subject
of the toast to which am supposed to De
responding-what roll call Of great names
is found in the Presidents from Ohio. Inc
two Harrisons, old and young Tippecanoe;
Grant, one of those simple great men for
whom history has sure Partially;
Hayes, the ideal republican citizen; and
those twins in fate and fame. so like in
destiny and so different In temperament
and In methods. Garfield and McKinley-an
Ohio men by birth or adoption. all Illus
triouS in peace and war; citizens and SOL
diers, too, without reproach.
And the list. great as 1t is, Is still open
for indefinite expansion.
But 1 imagine your toast referred more
especially to our actual President, our
young, gallant, able. brilliant President
Roosevelt. I am glad to be called on to say
In his absence what few men would be
hardy enough to say to his face-for. like all
manlineSS
inhospitable to f1attery. In the great roll
of our Presidents-all of them men of mark.
of lofty character and ideals. not one name
among them smirched by the slightest stain
of personal corruption or wrongdoing, all Of
them showing to the world clean hands and
high aims-he holds now, he will hold for
ever distinguished place. A famous Ger
man has said, "A talent is formed in the
solitudes, character In the torrent of the
world" Our President has had the adj
vantage of both these environments. From
the cloistered life Of American college boys,
sheltered from the ruder currents Of the
world by the ramparts Of wealth and gentle
nurture. he passed. still very young. to the
wild and free existence of the plains and the
men grow to full stature, when the original
stuff Is good. He came back to the east.
bringing with him, as Tennyson sang, the
wrestling thews that throw the world"
His career since then has been singularly
varied. He has gone rapidly forward and
upward because that was the law of his
DelnS. lie QOeS NOT QlSQdln the garland OK
fame. but he finds his highest enjoyment in
grasping the tools that fit his hand. He
has his high ideal of public work set forth
by the greatest teacher and ruler that ever
lived, "Whosoever will be chief among you,
let him be your servant"
1t does not distinguish an American Pres
ident to be honest, nor to be brave, nor to
be intelligent nor to be patriotic They
have all been all of these. These qualities
postulates of the position. But the
nation is to be congratulated when all these
desirable attributes are heightened and
tinged with that ineffable light which, for
want of more descriptive term, We call
genius. 1t is this which makes honesty a
scorching flame against fraud or corrup-
ton; which makes courage an inspiration to
others in battle or in council; which raises
intelligence to the quick flash of intuition
and patriotism to a religious fervor of con-
secration, and it is this which makes Theo-
dore Roosevelt the man and the President
he Is.
And finally. I, whose memories are of
generation Of which few survivors remain.
young. in the words of the dying Voltaire
on the eve of the splendors and the marvels
Of the French revolution which he was not
to witness, You young men are going to
see fine things" In the six years which
remain of President Roosevelt's term-if
my arithmetic is wrong 1 am open to cor
rectton-you will see what a stout heart, an
active mind. a vital intelligence, a wide
range of experience. a passion for justice
and truth and devoted patriotism can ac-
compIish at the head Of a nation which
unites the strength of mighty youth to
the political sense which is the Inheritance
of centuries Of free government.
Anacostia News.