Evening star., 1915-02-26
ty Of my friends rather than to any
personal qualities of my own.
Lauds Washington.

Lauds Washington.
II cannot let this opportunity pa So
without saying a word or two about
Washington. AS a member of Congress
/ have always felt that what I was doing
for the National Capital in the way Of its
| improvement and Identification was do
ing for the whole country, including my
own district. I deprecate the spirit
which would measure Washington, the
great mecca Of America. with the yard
stick Of the backwoods. which counts the
| pennies in adjusting the fiscal rela tions
| between the federal government and the
District Of Columbia and which would i'm
pose restrictions upon the social life Of a
city whose hospitality must daily be ex-
tended not only to the whole nation but
| also to representa- official and unof-
| fetal. of all the foreign countries on
| earth. Washington should be the pride
OF all American citizens. To make 1t so
and to render possible generous dis
| charge Of her duties as hostess OF the
nation. Congress should deal with her
| with true American liberality.
For these reasons. my friends. I have
always voted for the so-called half-and-
| half plan. opposed all measures for the
restriction of the personal liberty Of the
citizens and never refused to support any
worthy plan for legitimate Improvement.
do not say this boastingly but am mere
ly giving truthful account of my official
relations to the people of the District, an
accounting perhaps not altogether un-
timely on this occasion.
"And to complete the record it may
be proper to add that during the time
l had the honor to be chairman of the
committee on public buildings and
grounds that committee authorized. to
mention only a few of the big items,
the construction of the new city post
office. near Union station; of the new
department buildings on the south side
of the Avenue, of a new Office building
on ground owned by the government
west of the State. War and Navy
building. for the accommodation of
quite a number of government offices,
etc.
Suggests Independence Square.
"The erection of the Steuben monument
in Lafayette Square you must permit
me to claim as result of individual
initiative. And in this connection let
me say. If I had my way l would place
worthy monument of George Wash
/ ington in the center of that square and
call 1t Independence Square, because it
would then show the father of our
country surrounded by the great gem
erals who aided him in achieving the
independence of the colonies I hope
some of my congressional friends pres
ent may think we'll enough of this plan
to aid in its realization.
But I realize that tonight 1 must
speak the language of gratitude. and
that is language of very few words.
I crave your indulgence mere ]; to say
further that while I part from YOU as a
representa- tive, l shall not he away
from you long as private citizen. for
| 1 have come to regard Washington as
second home.
"From the bottom of my heart I
thank you for this great honor
Guests at Banquet.
The guests at .he banquet were:
Justice Thomas H. Anderson. Snow
den Ashford, r. ". Austin.
Representative A. ]. .Barchfeld. DR..
George Barthelme, Representative
Richard Bartholdt. Gustave Bender.
| George ]. Bessler, William Beuchert.
p F. Brandstedt, Marcus Braun. Au-
gust Brill, Henry Z Bush Brown,
Ernest Bruncken.
Arthur D. Call. Representative Philip
P. Campbell. Albert Carry, Charles A.
Carry. Speaker Ialse Champ Iar Clark; u n,.u
Carl A Droop, f. H. Droop. P. A.
Drury. Gen. H. H. c. Dunwoody.
Paul Eschner. John C. Eversman.
George o. Ferguson.
Herman E. Gasch, Ernest Gerstenberg,
Ernest Gichner, Henry NJ. Goldfogle.
William F. Guide.
John ]. Haas. S. F. Hahn. John Han
Jesse L. HeiskelI. Christian Heurich,
DIR. c. J. Hexamer.
Representative julius Kahn. Gus j.
Karger, ]. Karr, Carl S. Keyser, Charles
P Keyser, D. E. Kleps, Hugo Kuersch-
| ner.
| Albert Lepper. A. Lisner, Representa-
| tive c. O. Lobeck.
! T. r. Marshall, Moritz Mayer, Rep
resentatiye Herman A. Metz. William
F. Meyers, Representative Frank w.
Mondell.
| William Neuland
| G. c. Pauls, August H. P1ugge.
| Charles F. Roberts, Representative
Joseph J. Russell.
William H. Santelmann. Henry A.
lScheverman. August Schmidt, c. R.
Schmidt, r. Schneider. DR.. Herman
Schoenfeld. Otto Schoenrich, D. l..
Selke. Louis P: Shoemaker. Q. q. Som
neck, George W. Spier. P. H. Steltz
| George w. Taylor, o. H. Tittmann.
Representative Henry v. Vollmer
| John Waldman. John L. Weaver, Mar
tin Wiegand, John Wischhusen, Simon
Wolf. Adolph Wur11eman.
Jacob Xander.