The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-21
Broadway & Nineteenth Street
NEW HISTORICAL SOCIETY HONE.
Pvor. sloane OF Columbia Reads the Ad-
dress NJ the Opening.

The New York Historical S0ciety's new
building, which occuI les almost the entire
block front on the west side of Broadway
between Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh
streets, and which was erected at a cost
of 800 900, was formally opened yesterday
on the lO2d anniversary Of the society's
foundation.
President Samuel Verplanck Hoffman
made the or ening address. welcoming the
200 attending members to the hall and pro-
%nouncing a eulogy on Henry Dexter. a ratron
OF the society. who contributed $3.50 900 20
the building fund as a memorial to his con
Stanley, who was shot in the Maine woods
six years ago.
Prof. William VI. Sloane Of Columbia
read a paper entitled Proportions and
Nalue in American History
"All true written history he said, hes
within a hundred centuries OF time. less
than a hundred and fifty successive possible
lives, and throughout most Of its duration
within a continental mass Of space covering
the fringes only of the smallest continent
Of this globe. PERHAPS = ten-thousandth of
the surface of this little earth. Vt is = rea-
sonable estimate that of all the beings in
the for IN and semblance Of NAV. those
who were and those who were not ins,irad
W it'll the breath Of divine life. all upward
gazing biz eds who have existed since The
ter tiarv eToch OF geology, rerhars ten
thou sane million in number, not more than
one in a hundred thousand has lived under
a system which by the broadest stretch Of
the tenn could be called historic. OF such
petty dimensions approximately il history
and all that 1t embrace.
And where then come into reckoning the
Amer cans Of this United States with their
three centuries Of total life. their one cen
tury OF national life. and their less than half
a century of world power Exhausting
with dizzy speed the mineral and agTicul-
tural resources Of their great land. until the
end OF coal, lumber. iron and even water
supply are already, if the stripping of forest
and mine continue. in full sight, reapin9
and scattering wealth like Sybaris Of old
their future bids fair TO be as short as their
past
Later in his spaech he said.
The Commonwealth has been managed
by the common people for the extraction of
riches from earth and land, the exploitation
OF both land and people for the creation of
boundlcss money power. Most of this
money power il well divided into moderate
and even modest fortunes. rhe day lahorer
Of a century ago woul i think the dlv Jaborer
Of to-day a pampered child Of fortune, a
swollen aristocrat. Some of the money
is concentrated in a few hands. which use II
for personal and class advantage. and This
fact obscurcs the other. Bur with this OK.
ccption, the common folk ave Inherited the
common earth, and the plutocTacy is not
v a governing oGgarchy; in the main il
ls a badly intrenched camp TO be despoiled
10y INSCRIPTIONS demagogues and free.
hooters, who endanger the public morals in
the process. There never was a time OF
place where greater pity was due for the
sorrows of the rich.
The meeting was opened with a prayer
by the Rev. DR.. Russell Of the General 1heo-
logical Seminary, and at the end the bene-
dlction was pronounced by the Rev. DR..
Van De Water Of St. Andrews Church.