New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-10-27
SEMI.ANNUAL BANQUET.
Hon. ". 5. Hammond Guest Of
Honor. Delivers Interesting
Speech.

banquet in the church parlOrS last
Thursday evening. Some sixty men,
bers and invited guests were present
and the meeting was of an unusual i'm
portance to the members of the club for
this reason that Cong. W. H. Ham
mond was the guest Of honor and
principal speaker of the evening.
The meeting was presided over by
:, Supt Critchett, who introduced the
speaker as gentleman who is we'll
known in this city and who, 40 doubt,
will be listened to with profound in
terest. The speaker had for his sub
ject "a Rock Foundation" and the
address which is given below, was a
mastery delineation on character
building. The speaker received a
hearty and we'll deserved applause at
the close. After the speaking the
guests were seated at banquet tables
in the new dining room in the base
ment of the church where they partook
of the finely prepared spread before
Hammond's Speech.
Gentemen: I think that it was a.
very excellent plan to announce that
after the speaking the refreshments
will be served. That insured me of
an audience to the end. II the refresh
ments would be served first and the
speech follow I would not feel in half
so sure position as I do feel in now
Coming down here this evening, Mr..
Critchett asked me what subject I
would have for my remarks this eve
ming. Thinking over the matter for a
few moments, 1 though of the man who
built his house on a rock and when
the high water came the house was not
washed away; it remained there, So
lltary monument to the wisdom of the
man who placed it on a rock founda~
ton.
A government, great nation, or
state, is surest to withstand the storms
that will at times assail it, suresv to
weather all kinds of weather if it Sc
established upon good, strong foun.
dation,-a foundation of rock and it
is we'll, altho we are not now estab-
fishing a nation or building state, to
think for a moment upon what kind of
a foundation we would build them if
we were to establish one or the other,
for perhaps now and then there will be
niche or a place that needs filling
Out--and it is we'll for us to fill it with
the right kind of material--the mater
ial to stand for all time-a found alton
of rock.
If the stranger we're coming to this
country, gentlemen, and he should in
quire as to the character, the sy stem
of our government, and we should tell
him, he might we'll ponder over the in
formation given him, and I fear that
he would not readily understand it..
We would tell him that we live in a
great country, made up, as it we're, of
number Of states; that every four
years we elect one of our fellow citi-
zens to rule or to govern this great
country OF ours; that we have body
of men in the capital of this great
ment of the people of this great count
we would say, We also live in a state
the state, we elect a man to rule over
us, and in the capitol of the state we
have bodies of men passing laws to
govern US. The stranger might we'll
be somewhat mystifed and it might
occur to him that we at times would
be confused and know not just where
our duty might direct us, one body of
men in one state passing laws pre-
scribing course of action for US,
another body of men in another state
prescribing laws for our course of
conduct. We cannot be true to one
and false to the other: we must be true
to both. OF course it would seem easy
enough IT these laws never c. lf1ictef
if one body OF Legislators did not pass
law saying that thing must be done
in another way, but we do know that,
in truth, sometimes these laws do %
pear inconsistent.
For illustr alton, Some men invest
their capital in a railroad and they
run the tracks from city in one state
to another city in another state, and
traffic is carr::23 to sad from. l. Ill Of
that railrC ad is in one state, and, as
we have supposed, subject to the laws
of that state, and yeS the railroad as
whole passes lite tie 5. = to 0.
two states and so the traffic upon it is
Interstate traffic and so it is control
led by the other body of legislators,
and so it is possible to conceive OF one
train to pass, loaded with PRACTICAL y
the same kind of merchandise and one
sovereignty claiming jurisdiction, over
it because it is intrastate commerce
and another claiming jurisdiction over
it because it is interstate commerce.
This is one OF the most common con-
hicts that has of late arisen between
the laws of the two sovereignties.
We have other instances that shall
not tonight take time to mention, simp-
ly asking you to bear in mind that we
have a divided allegiance, as it were.
that we owe duty, the duty of q
citizen to a sovereign to support and
obey the laws of a nation and also the
duty of a citizen to his sovereign to
obey and support the laws of the state
and so that we may do our duty, and
so that it may be possible for all good
, citizens to do their duty, it is neces-