The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1909-09-30
BANQUET Given In Honor
Of President lanes ]. Hill
WIVES OF BANQUETERS
DO The SERVING
Senator Purcell Master of Cere-
monies. Eloquent Respons-
es to Toasts.

=
es to Toasts.
Last Friday evening about
seventy.five members of the
Commercial Club gave ban
quet in honor of James. ]. Hill
in the Masonic Temple.
The hall was prettily decor
ated with autumn leaves and
the favors were carnations.
Dinner was served drS s.-n Il by
Mesdames Alh-NlsMstek = i e n,
Lane, FiivNaA., Wichman, Wolfe
Meckstroth aud Gamble.
A chef from Minneapolis pre-
pared the banquet which was
served in courses. After the
feast was over Senator Purcell
acting az master of ceremonies
after stating the cause for such
an event called upon Attorney
Divit to respond to the toast
empire Builders" Mr.. Divit
responded as follows:
About fifty years ago the
spirit of progress ever present
in the heart of the American
began to assert itself in q new
direction. A few of the ao-
vance guard of the ever restless
pioneers had passed Westward
beyond St. Paul, pressed on
across that strange river dis.
charging its waters to the
North, and returned to their
homes in Wisconsin, Iowa, Hi
nois and Michigan with infor-
nation of Il great prairie land
of natural pasture aud needing
only the plow to prepare it for
cultivation. In consequence
thereof the eyes of>the people
of the middle North were cent
cred upon great virgin wilder
ness vaguely known as Dakota.
Soon the more venturesome
began to look to that western
country as a new land of prom
ise holding forth an invitation
to all to come and partake of
it's bounties, and energetic
young men, inheriting perhaps
the spirit of fathers who in turn
had moved West from Ohio,
Vermont and New York, for
sook their old haunts and be-
gan following the star of en-
pire Westward.
This movement was not con-
fined to the farming class, but
on the contrary the advance
guards of capital were also on
the march and the scoutin g
parties of the captains of in
dustry were carrying back to
the financial centers of the
world reports of a great country
of undeveloped wealth needing
their touch and aid to make it
available for the use of man.
Thus it was as the agricultur-
al regions were sending their
sons westward to subduc the
soil far seeing men of finance
were pushing their surveying
parties into the same land,
marking out the highways of
commerce that should link the
new empire with the old. While
the one force was seeking to
call forth from natures bosom
her products the other was
straining every resource to pre-
pare the means Of transporta-
ton for the product, sure to
come.
So in the seventies and early
eighties this wilderness of
rairie was invaded by
two separate lines of influence,
approaching It from different
angles, but inevitably leading
to a common point, the up
building and development of
the country: The forces back
of each necessary to the other,
the settler and the railroad
builder.
This community of interest
was not always recognized by
all the people and it was quite
the common thing in some
communities to look upon the
railroad as the natural enemy
of the people. Or the other
h a d the railroad builders,
more far seeing and closer stu
dents of economic conditions
always recognized the truth
that the prosperity of the car
riers of the peoples produ cts
and that their interests were