Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-22
TRIBUTE TO SCHURz
DISTINGUISHED GATHERING AT
THE MEMORIAL MEETING.
Choate and Cleveland Eloquent in
Their Praise of the Civil
Service Reformer.


A dispatch from New York says: Per
haps he was the most cogent debater OF
his time. AS senator, fearless foe OF
every wrong, an Independent champion OF
every wise reform, setting personal con-
sequence always at defiance where public
service was concerned, he has eft to the
young American of the present generation
and the future an example of honesty,
courage and patriotism. Oh! for such a
senator in our present Senate! Oh. that
this state had one such man! Oh. that
this state had two such men,
These words, spoken with all tie eloquent
fervor for which Joseph H. Choate is IA
nous, caused a remarkable demonstration
when the former ambassador to England,
in his opening address a the Carl Schurz
memorial meeting tonight al Carnegie Hall,
eulogiEed the great German-American as a
scholar, soldier, statesman and citizen
Prolonged and sustained applause greeted
Mr.. Choates outcry for such another as
Carl Schurz as a senator from New York.
His plea was taken as one OF the most
biting invectives aimed at Senator Thomas
c. Platt and Senator Chauncey M. Depew
that they have received in their careers.
Mr. Choate closed his address, as ne had
commenced, by quoting the words of Pres
ident Lincoln. transposed He had faith
that makes right might. and he dared to
the end to do his duty as he understood it. J"
A Brilliant Gathering.
Probably never before in the history of
New York has there been so many notables
gathered on the platform of Carnegie Hall
as were there tonight The meeting was
under the auspices of the New York Carl
Schurz Memorial committee, which has
charge of the arrangements for the estab-
lishment of permanent memorial to Mr..
Schurz. To name those on the platform.
in the boxes and ii the audience would be
the roster of those who are famous in the
world of finance, literature and politics.
The chairman was former Ambassador
Joseph II. Choate, and the speakers were
former President Grover Cleveland. Presi-
dent Charles w. Eliot of harvard. Prof.
Eugene Kuhnemann of the University of
Breslau, Secretary of the Navy Charles
j. Bonaparte Prof. Herman Schumacher
of the University of Bonn. and Booker T.
Washington The music was by the New
York Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche
Liederkranz and the Arion Society.
The officers of the memorial committee
are Joseph II. Choate, chairman: Gustav
H. Schwab and George McAneny, vice
chairman; Isaac H. Seligman, treasurer,
and William Corigman, secretary.
The solemnity of the occasion was plain
ly manifest in the attitude of all present
and genuine regret over the death of the
distinguished patriot and statesman was
the keynote of every address.
Proposed Permanent Memorial.
In announcing the purposes of the schurz
memorial committee. Mr.. Choate said that
it was intended primarily to erect a per-
manent memorial to Mr.. Schurz in the
form of a monument of bronze. either a
statue or otherwise, to be determined later
and to be located either in New York city
or Washington.
From the residue of the fund collected
it is proposed, Mr.. Choate said, to provide
foundations for the advancement of some
of the public causes to which Mr.. Schurz
gave his most active interest These In
their order would be: The extension of
the principles of civil service reform. the
extension of the movement for Germanistic
culture in the United States and aid in
some form for the work for the advance
ment of the negro and Indian causes car
ried on at Hampton Institute, in which
Mr. Schurz was personally and deeply in
terested.
Mr. Choate said that the present me-
in the work by similar committees in Chi
cago, ST. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati,
Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston.
Cleveland's High Eulogy.
Probably the finest tribute of the night
was paid to Mr.. Schurz by former Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland, who extolled the
formers freedom of partisan bonds when
they hampered his freedom of belief.
ut would by no means be out of keeping
with the occasion to extol the courage of
the battlefield" said Mr. Cleveland, but
this physical courage is so much part of
our national character that its recognition
is universal, and its stimulation not among
our country's needs. What our nation
needs, and sorely needs, is more of the
patriotism that is born of moral courage,
the courage that attacks abuses and strug-
giles for reforms single-handed, without
counting opposing numbers or measuring
opposing forces.
I'm recognition of the affirmation that
ours is government by party he did not
disparage political organization or hold
aloof from party utilization. He assumed
party relationship as an arrangement for
united effort in the accomplishment of pur-
poses which his judgment approved, but
he never conceded to party allegiance the
guidance of political thought nor the die
tatorship Of political conduct.
Never Knew Fear.
81 believe that the man whose memory
we honor" said Mr.. Cleveland, never
knew moral fear, and never felt the a.ck-
ening weakness of moral cowardice. With
him it was only to see what he believed
to be injustice or error to hurl himself
upon It's defenses with the impetuosity OF
a zealot and the endurance of a martyr
He did not shun politics. He had no toll
Grafton for the over-nice foppery that drives
many who claim patriotic impulses away
from politics through fear of contaminat-
ing defilement. He entered politics because
he saw his duty there, and he founo i'm
munity from deflement in cleansing and
purifying his political surroundings"
Declaring that Mr.. SchurZ never con-
ceded to party allegiance the infallible
guidance of political thought. nor the un-
questioned disclaimership of political con-
duct, Mr.. Cleveland said that the din of
party could not deafen his ears to the
still small voice of conscience.
What the audience construed as refer
ence to the recent candidacy of Mr.. Hearst
was contained in Mr.. Clevelands state
ment that mo intelligently patriotic citi-
zen can be blind to the fact that very re-
Gently 1t was more conclusively established
than ever that the political independency
declared and illustrated by Carl SEIZURE
has become a defense and safeguard OF
the people against the evils that result
from the unchallenged growth of irrespon-
sive parties