The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-05-10
TAFT CHUCKLES OVER THE WIRE
AS HE TALKS TO NEWSPAPERMEN

telephone magniher, in the balcony
of the banquet hall, to carry back
their applause to him. And the wires
did both.
Borden Also Speaks.
Similar telephone connection had
been established earlier in the even
ing between the diners and Premier
n. L. Borden of Canada, who was at
Hot Springs, Va. The premier's voice
vas almost as clear and distinct to
the diners as the voices of Lewis
Waller and Jose Collins, actor and
singer, who addressed the diners in
rhyme and song from the Savoy Thea
ter, not quite so far away as Hot
Springs. It was distinctly telephone
evening for the men of the press.
President Taft may have had
strenuous day of it attacking the col
oDel in the Bay state, but he seemed
in fine mood and in his brightest
humor as he twitted the newspaper
men over the telephone from the safe
distance of Boston.
Hello! ''Hellol" he shouted into the
ears of the 500 diners amid an untter
silence of the Waldorf ballroom. Cd
y hear? D. y get me? Are you
there?"
They were, and they told the Pre-
sident so in thunders OF applause
duly and instantly transmitted to Bos-
ton. The President chuckled like a
big boy enjoying new game. Then
he talked his speech into the weirdly
unresponsive telephone transmitter in
the Bean city, talking for the most
part in loud, laughing voice, less
like the President Of the United
States than like one Bill, cheerfully
shouting after one Teddy, after toss
ing him across a creek in a glorious
fishing expedition that ended in a
fight. Time and again he had to stop,
as loud laughter and applause from
the Waldorf tables reached his ear in
Boston.
Address Of President.
This is what he said:
"The committee representing your
two associations seems to be dread
fully afraid that there is one banquet
in New York out of 100000 l have at
tended which 1 shall miss, and it is
attempting to break the blow to you
and to me by giving me an opportun
ity to speak to you by long distance
telephone from the home of the sac
red cod, and to convey to you my
deepest regret that am prevented
from being with you to enjoy the sub
stantial part of the feast.
II have been detained in Boston by
an exigency which l shall be glad tc
explain to you confidentially, but, as
the wires leak, shall keep it to my
self until can safely communicate
= it to you in the bonds of confidence
II shall not weight my message to
you with an expression of my respect
for the concentrated power in this
country that you gentlemen represent
The safety of the countries lies in the
fact that you neutraliSe each othe"
and in the growing conviction CT the
country that the truth is not in you
! hut that it lies between you. am
rot thereby consigning you all 70 al
ADanias Club, however strong your
? desire for close association under
some banner, but am explaining tC
you how each one of you saves the
country from the rest.
81 shall stop now, in order to avoid
any fancied explosion of my boom, fol
wish to give no one of my support
ers any excuse for treating me as {
dissolving view and kissing me fare
well with sweet compliment.
E. my dear fellow-craftsmen, engaged
with me in uplifting society at 81
much per, goodnight. Pax vobsicum.
J Guests at Dinner.
At the guest table of the dinner las
night Representative Victor Murdoch
of Kansas, who, when he is not IL
. public life is discussing it as publish
or of the Wichita Eagle, sat as toast
master, with these speakers: Bruce
Haldeman, president of the American
Newspaper Publishers Association
and publisher of the Louisville CouT
b ier-Journal Talcott Williams, dean o
, the Pulitzer School of Journalism
President John H. Finley of the Cit
) College, and Augustus Thomas, pre-
,sident Of the American Dramatists