The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-16
CHAMBER HOST
At GALA FEAST
CONTINUED From Page one.)

the Chamber of Commerce realizes the
debt owed to the United States, and
said it was with pleasure he asked all
to drink health to the President, and
asked Mr.. Bartholdt to respond. The
latter spoke as follows:
Speech of Hon. Richard Bartholdt.
The toast "The President of the Uni
ted States" was responded to by Hon.
Richard Bartholdt of Missouri, the dean
of the Congressional delegation, who
spoke as follows:
Mr.. Toastmaster and Gentlemen:
Whenever within the vast domain of
our great country whose geographical
center is now west of the Golden Gate,
the office of President of the United
States is mentioned, the after-dinner
speaker forgets his puns and the poll
tician his partizanship, and our hearts
and minds command US as Americans to
rally around the flag. While this may
be the reason why L have been nailed
down to this subject, it is nevertheless
true that, like all good Americans,
make every other mood or consideration,
temporarily uppermost in my mind, I'M
mediately give way to sense of patri-
otic pride at the mere mention of the
Chief Executive of the nation. My
friends, have you ever asked yourselves
why this is so? Surely it is not due
to a feeling of servility such as we find
in monarchical countries where rulers
have been idolized whether they were
wise or unwise, sane or insane. Nor can
this state of our minds be accounted
for by any partizan spirit, for we have
seen Republicans cheer Democratic
occupant of the White House and Dem
ocrats Republican. In sense, Of
course, it is the Office which we honor,
but we also remember-and this has to
do with personahties-no unworthy man
) of whatever party has ever held the ex-
allied Office of President of the United
States. But there are still other and
more important considerations which
control us. If Presidents official
functions were different from what they
are, if they were analogous, for in
stance, to those of an arbitrary ruler,
it is doubtful whether our enthusiasm
over the presidential Office would be
greater or more genuine than is that of
subject for his monarch. But it is
the reflection that a President merely
executes the will of the people, as de-
termined by Congress and the courts,
and that, in this carrying out of the
mandates of the people, he must conform
to their Judgment as to what is right
and wrong, which prompts us to not
only honor the office but to respectfully
bow to the man who holds it. And my
fellow citizens of Hawaii, as long as
that feeling prevails, and justly pre-
walls, just so long will our Republic be
safe
There are those who fear the posi-
BILE encroachment,. by the Executive,
upon the prerogatives of the coordinate
branches of the government, encroacn-
meuts, they say, made easier by the
willingness to excuse them on the part
of those who hope to profit politically
by the great power of the President,
but when we call to mind the direct
responsibility of the Chief Executive
to the people and the power of the
great American electorate to change
presidents at will, these misgivings will
soon appear powerless provided our
confidence in the sound conn on sense
if the plain people and in their abid-
ing fidelity to American traditions re-
mains mistaken.
Despite the constitutional lin tations
of his power the President of he Unit
ed States is the mightiest chief nagis-
trate in all the world. He stands for
and represents the homer ami glory Cf
the greatest flag that was ever born,
that flag to which, when the people of
other lands boast of national achieve
ment, Americans proudly point and
bluntly say to all the world: "Match
it, If you can, the peerless story of
human freedom, of broadminded, in
tellectual development told n the
mystic wedlock of the stars and
stripes!' He is not only the com
mander-in chief of the Army and Navy
of the United States, but also the con-
servator of the peace, the most price
less boon of a nation, and added
responsibilities have come to him on
that score. The civilized naSIons of
the earth have fast become one great
family, and what we do and what
others do in the national arena is
rapidly growing to be the concern of
all. In other words all national af-
fairs local to the individual nation,
are now subject to international con
siderations, and in such an era the
desire is quite natural to extend che
rule of law from merely local aud IA
tional to worldwide relations and to
substitute judicial decisions for the
arbitrament of the sword in all cen
troyersies between nations. Abraham
Lincoln put stop to man-selling, and
the civilized world now looks to Will
liam H. Taft to set the pace in a hui
name effort to stop man-killing and
thus inaugurate, amidst the plaudits
and blessings of all mankind, an era
OF more permanent peace.
We rejoice in the possession of a
President who is great jurist and
who, we know, will prove equal to al
responsibilities as well as to all legit-
innate expectations and will add new
luster to the American name the world
over.
To the toast of 'tCongress" Mr..
Scott responded, speaking from the
standpoint of the reporter in the press
gallery of the House of Represent
atives, where he worked for many