The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1905-01-31
Quaker City Union Leaguers
Banquet President.
CLUB FOUNDED TO UPHOLD LINCOLN
Great President Taught Lessons by
which We May Proht-Federal
Government should Control
Large Corporations.

ihN RAilbli isNA SUI 4 Nv HAN'iNNAh '"fA'N
to this city over the Pennsylvania rail
road from Annapolis. An immense
throng greeted Mr.. Roosevelt.
The banquet room was "A marvel of
the decorators art. The national col
ors predominated in the floral and cleo
trical effects. and the tables were des-
ignated by letters in red, white and
blue, forming the name Roosevelt"
President Roosevelt occupied seat In
the center of the guests table, with
President Il. r. StOtesbury Of the I'm
ion League on his right and United
States Senator Penrose on his left
Seated at the same table were former
Postmaster General Charles Emory
Smith, Congressman Bingham, Surgeon
General Rixey, Brigadier General Fred
erick ID. Grant Lieutenant General s.
b. NJ. Young, retired; Governor Lea of
Delaware, Governor Stokes Of New
Jersey and Mayor Weaver Of this city.
Governor Pennypacker of Pennsylva-
mia was indlsposed and could not at
tend.
When President Roosevelt arose to
make his address he was greeted with
long continued applause Then the en-
tire assembly stood and sang THE
Star Spangled Banner
President Roosevelt in his address
said in part:
"This club was founded to uphold the
L.. % A h,a 4 tt,nnlp x.fh hn
stood as the great leader in the struggle
for union and liberty. We have a
right, therefore, to appeal to this club
for aid in every governmental or social
effort made along the lines marked out
by Lincoln. The great president taught
many lessons which we who come after
him should learn. Among the most i'm
portant Of these was the lesson that
for veal or for woe we are indissolubly
bound together, in whatever part of
the country we live, whatever our so
| cial standing whatever our wealth or
our poverty, whatever form OF mental
or physical activity our life work may
assume. Lincoln, who was more en-
phatically than any other president
we have ever had the president Of
the plain people, was yet as far re-
moved as Washington himself from the
slightest faint of demagogy. With his
usual farsighted clearness of vision he
saw that in republic such as ours
permanent prosperity of any part OF
our people was conditioned upon the
prosperity of all and that, on the other
hand, any effort to raise the general
level of happiness by striking at the
well being Of n portion of the people
could not but be in the end disastrous
to all.
THE principles which Lincoln mp
piled TO the solution of the problems of
his day are those which we must apply
If we expect successfully to solve the
different problems of our own day
problems which are so largely indus
trial. Exactly as il is impossible TO de
velop high morality unless we have
as a foundation those qualities which
give at least certain minimum of ma
teria prosperity, so il is impossible
permanently TO keep material prosper
lty unless there is back of it a basis Of
right living and right thinking. In the
last analysis, of course, the dominant
factor in obtaining this good conduct
must be the individual character of the
average citizen Given this average OF
individual character, then wise laws
and the honest administration of the
laws can do much TO supplement IT, If
either the business world or the world
of labor loses its head, then it has lost
something which cannot be made good
by any governmental effort. Our faith
In the future of the republic Is firm be
cause we believe that on the whole and
In the long run our people think clearly
and act rightly.
"Unquestionably however. the great
development OF industrialism means
that there must be an increase in the
supervision exercised by the govern
ment over business enterprises.
Neither this people nor any Other
free people will permanently tolerate
the use of the vast power conferred by
vast wealth, and especially by wealth
in it's corporate form, without lodging
somewhere in the government the still
higher power Of seeing that this power
In addition to being used In the interes
of the individual or individuals pos
sessing 1t, Is also used for and no
against the interests Of the people al
whole. Our peculiar form of gov
eminent. a government in which tn
nation is supreme throughout the I'm
ion In certain respects, while each o
nearly half a hundred states is su
: preme In its part of the Union in Ger
tain other respects, renders the tasl
of dealing with these conditions espe
cially difficult. No finally satisfactor
result can be expected from merel
!, state action. The action must com
through the federal government.
"All great business concerns are Ell
gagged in interstate commerce, and
was beyond question the intention q
| the founders Of our government tina
interstate commerce in all its branche
, and aspects should be under nations
and not state control. If the courts dc