Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-26
Wilson Compares Conditions
During Revolutionary Days
and Present.
SPEAKS At DEDICATION
OF OLD CONGRESS HALL
Gets Enthusiastio Reception From
Thousands Of Philadelphia
People.

| PHILADELPHIA, October 25.-Congress
| Hall In historic Independence square
! where the Senate and House of Repre-
| sentatives sat from 178O to 1900. where
George Washington was inaugurated for
his second term, adams was sworn in as
the second President and where Jefferson
presided over the Senate and Washing
ton delivered his farewell address. was
| rededicated today with patriotic exer-
cises. the occasion marking the compile
ton of the restoration Of the hall to al
most its original appearance. President
Wilson was the central figure In the
ceremonies and delivered a twenty-minute
address. in which he harked back to the
early days of the republic and contrasted
men and things Of those times with the
present.
President Wilson, who was accompanied
from Washington by Secretaries Wilson
and Houston. Speaker Clark, Ambassador
Jusserand, of France and a delegation
OF members Of the Senate and House. was
given an enthusiastic reception by the
people of Philadelphia. The railroad sta
ton was damned with an immense crowd
and the streets to the hotel where he was
a luncheon guest and the route from the
hotel to Independence Square were packed
with men. women and children.
Sits in Hancock's Chair.
The President was the last speaker on
the program. He sat in the high-backed
chair which was used by John Hancock
when he presided over the Continental
Congress. In front of him was the age
stained fiat-top desk on which many Of
the signers of the Declaration Of In
dependence attached their signatures to
that immortal document.
There has come over me since sat
down here a sense of deep solemnity,"
said the President, because it has SEEM
ed to me that l saw ghosts crowding in,
a great assemblage of spirits. no longer
visible to US. but whose influence we
still feel as we feel the moiding power
OF history itself. The men who sat in
| this hall. to whom we now look back
with a touch of deep sentiment, were
| men OF flesh and blood. face to face
with extremely difficult problems.
compulsion of examples which were
set US in this place. And of what do
their examples remind us? They remind
us not only of public service. but of
public service shot through with principle
and honor.
II can feed my own mind as happily
upon the circumstances Of the revolution
airy and constitutional period as you can,
the President continued, but l cannot
feed my thoughts with them In Wash
arise which wear some new face and as
pect I must fall back if I would serve
my conscience upon those things which
are fundamental, rather upon those
things which are superficial I ask myself
this question: How are you going to as
sist in some small part to give the
American people, and by example, the
peoples Of the world, more advantages,
more liberty, more happiness, more sub
stantial prosperity, Ind how are you
going to make that prosperity a COM
mon heritage. instead of self-possession.
Task More Difficult Now.
'The men Of the day which we now
celebrate had "a very great advantage
over us in this one particular: Life was
simple in America then: all men shared
the same circumstances in almost equal
degree. Our task is very much more diff
ncult. That sympathy which alone in
terprets public duty is more difficult for
public man to acquire now than ii was
then, because we live in the midst of cir
cumstances and conditions infinitely COM
pick.
1.-THE city of Washington Is in some re-
spects self-contained. 1t is easy there to
forget what the rest of the United States
Is thinking about l count 1t a fortunate
circumstance that almost all the windows
of the White House and its Offices open
upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to
the banks of the Potomac, and then out
into Virginia. and into the heavens them
| selves. AS I sit there 1 can constantly
forget Washington and remember the
United States. Not that I would intimate
| that all of the United States lies south of
Washington. but there is serious thing
back of my thought. If you think toe
| much about being reelected. 1t Is very
difficult to be worth re-electing. You are
SO apt to think that the comparatively
small number of persons, numerous as
they seem to be, when they swarm. who
come to Washington to ask for things, dc
not constitute an importont proportion OF
the population of the country; that it Is
constantly necessary to come away from
Washington to renew ones contact with
the people who do not swarm there, who
do not ask for anything, and who do
| trust you, without their personal counsel
| to do your duty. Unless one gets this
| contact he grows weaker and weaker.
Theme a Simple One.
my theme here today. my only
thought he said in conclusion, lis a
| very simple one. Do not let US go bach
to the annals OF those sessions Of Con.
gress to find out what to do. because we
live in another age and circumstances
are absolutely different. Let US be mer
OF that kind. Let us feel at every turn
the compulsions Of principle and Of honor
which they felt"
Speaker Clark. who preceded the Presi.
dent. made a patriotic speech. in which
| he said that If the political calendar had
saint days. the Fourth Of July would be
Speaker Clark's Address.
Speaker Clark said: I'm the history OF
America there are certain great special
events which we can all most heartily
| and enthusiastically celebrate. Among
| these are the discovery of the new world
| the first white settlement Of jamestown,
the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth
Rock. Patrick Henry's great lyric speech
| in the Virginia house of burgesses, which
precipitated the revolution and which
| still stirs the heart like strains of martial
music: the skirmish at Lexington, where
| the embattied farmers fired the shot heard
around the world: the Declaration of In
dependence. the surrender of Lord Corn
wallis at Yorktown, the adoption of the
Constitution and the purchase Of the
Louisiana territory which made US a
world power.
"Philadelphia was the scene OF two OF
| these vastly important and far-reaching
! tranSactiOnS-the prOmulgat of the Dec