The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-31

The programme of speeches COM
menced at 8 o'clock. after the COM
pletion of the elaborate menu. The
plan of beginning the dinner at $50
seems to have met with general ap-
proval. 1t enables the guests to get
home before daylight the next morn
ing.
Music was furnished during the
evening by steinberg's orchestra Be
fore beginning the programme OF
toasts, President Dell Valentine read
letters and kilograms Of regret from
Chester I. Long, William Allen White
and Charles F. Scott.
Alexander d. Cochran of st. Louis,
vice president and general solicitor OF
the Missouri Pacific railway, was one
of the distinguished guests from out
of the state. He was called upon for
a speech and made a few appropriate
remarks. Mr.. Cochran was formerly
a Democrat, but is now a Republican
P w. Goebel, the leader of the
Democratic side of the house of rep
resen tatives, was also among the
guests.
At each place was laid pink car
nation, which were provided as a
memorial to the late President Nc
After the dinner was over, chairs
were moved in to all the available
space around the edges of the rotunda,
@
other outsiders listened to the
speeches.
There seems to have been no
ground for the fear" that the pres
ence of William 4. Vernon as one OF
the speakers of the evening would re-
suit in the presence of a large num-
Der of colored people as guests. Only
one or two colored men were present
Mr.. Vernon sat at the left of President
Valentine, with Imri Zumwalt on the
other side. W. R. Stubbs and Gov
ernor Hoch sat at the presidents
right. After the banquet a good many
co4ored people were on hand TO hear
Mr.. Vernon's speech from the out
skirts of the dining hall: After the
banquet many came up and shook
Vernon's hand.
Advocates New Ideas.
President D. A. Valentines address
was an able presentation of the new
problems which confront the Repub-
Hcan party, and an advocacy of the
advanced position taken by the
younger element of the party.
He opened with a brief history of
the origin of the Republican party,
which he attributed to the prevailing
demand that Kansas should be a fret
state.
'*While engaged in retrospecton.'
said Mr.. Valentine, cit is proper to
note that this day marks the birth in
1S43 of William Mckinley. Hence we
celebrate this evening the birth Of the
state we love, the organization of the
Kansas Day club, and the natal day
of a president whose memory we
revere"
Mr.. Valentine said that the three
questions of importance for the Re-
publican party to settle are the trusts.
the control of the railroads, and the
tariff He said:
Concentration in business is one of
the tendencies ofSthe age in which we
live It cannot be held in check by
and the courts. Some
times beneficent, Ofttimes the re-
verse; sometimes helpful, ofttimes
harmful it should be accepted as a
condition to which the laws of the
land must be adjusted. Our duty IS
not to overcome the tendency but to
its exercise so that its ad-
vantages may remain and its evils be
counteracted-
s'Competition in its last analysis
may mean anarchy or at least the
survival of the fittest which is civilized
barbarity. Control by law in its last
analysis may mean socialism which is
to individual progress
Somewhere between the two is COM
mercial right. AS a political party en-
-rusted with the destinies of a proud
people whose dreams of conquest and
possession end only with the earth, it
is left to the Republican party to find
the right and enforce it without favor
or discrimination.
"The second great question now up
for discussion and due to early settle
nent is the control of railroads. Pres
ant laws may be nearly sufficient to
grapple with the evil which has it's
birth and being in cupidity predicated