gEttnockt Sf£«<:w oy seNt-nt. E 654 .04 D42 Copy 1 Congress, ) SENATE. J Document Session. \ | No. 518. BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR ( HArNCEY M. DEI'EW. Mr. Bradley. Mr. Pri'-suloiit, on the 28(1 of April hist the senior Senator from Now York [Mr. Depkw] delivorcd a most notable address at the uniuial dinner given him by the Montank Cbib, of Brooklyn, in eclebi-ation of his ])irthday. The address is replete with historical information of great value to i\\v people of the United States. The Senator on that occasion spoke in his usually entertain- ing and elo<]uent manner In view of the historical value of the address and the liiu'h standing- of the Senator from New Y'ork, I move that it may be printed as a Senate document. The Vice-President. Without objection, the re(iuest is complied with. ^I.w 2, 1910. — Ordered to be printed. Mr. President and Gentlemen: No language can express fittingly my pleasure at the renewal of your greeting. For nearly two decades you have gathered annually in honor of my ])irthd:iy. Members of all political parties, and all religious faiths, men in the })rofessions, in l>usiness, in journalism, in literature, in the multifarious activities and antagonisms of American life, lay their differences aside for this festive night, as they have done during all these years. This holding in abeyance and suspension the antago- nisms which divide men ui)on many lines is only ordinarily possible at a funeral. Even in that case, some go as far as did the late Judge Hoar, who detested Wendell Phillips, and when retpiested by the family to be a pallbearer, sent back woril declining, but with the remark, " I ai)pro\ (' of the proceedings." It is a refutation of the universal charge against us that we are so al)sorbed in materialism that we have lost all fticulty for the healthv enjoyment of association and that attri- tion of minds without rancor which promotes truth and longevit}', for to-night, whatever we were yesterday or will be to-morrow, is devoted whole-heartedly and unseltishly to comradeship and good-fellowship. BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW. ECCf At 76 the world ought to seem no different on its spiritual, its eth- ical, and its human side than it did at 46. A statesman and politician who had won man}- distinctions and been ])lessed with a multitude of devoted followers closed his career and his life with the pathetic inciuirv, '' What does it all amount to f If I siiould attempt to estimate what the world had all amounted to for me from the day 1 entered Peekskill Academy at 10 years of age until this hour, volumes would not suffice, and, therefore, I sum it all up in this, "For a long life, abounding in good things, in a capacity for enjoying everything, in reciprocal attachments and contributions with multitudes of men and women, in more than my share of lu^alth and of happiness, I reverently thank (lod both that I am alive and that 1 have lived." I read an account the other day of a Russian, named Ivan Kusman, who was admitted to the hospital in St. Petersburg at the age of 138. He remembered Napoleon's burning of Moscow, and the few incidents that occur in the career of a Russian peasant. He Avas an agricultural laborer for a mere pittance during this whole period, and could neither read nor write. That is not an experience to l)e envied. It enforces Tennyson's lines, ''Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.'' But, on the contrary, when you think of Auber composing his best operas at 89, and Manual Garcia still an instructor in vocal culture at 100, and Whittier singing immortal songs at 85, you are in contact with men who have li\ed and who know '"what it all amounts to.'' There is an eastern maxim that every man at 10 is either a fool or a physician. It is eminently true. That old Italian, Carnaio. who found all of his associates in Venice dying at 10, made up his mind that these tragedies were due to excesses. He had the strength of will to adopt a very severe but frugal regimen, both in eating and drinking. At 80 he published his experiences for the ))enetit of those who were still dying or likely to die at 10. At 90 and at 100 he repeated the pul)lication and enforced the lesson of the happiness which had come to him with health and longevity, declaring the same might be shared by every man. His plan was very simple. He selected out of the many things he liked a few for his table, masticated thoroughly, long before Fletcherism was known, and limited the (piantity by measurement upon the scales to half what he iiad usually devoured, reduced his wine to the minimum, and at that time tobacco had not been discovered. n. or n. z ■% BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR CllAUNC'EV M. DKFEW. 3 Fit"t\' -four years in piihlic iind sciiiipuhlic life ami upon tlir plal foiin all over this coiiiitrv and in Kiuopc for all sorts of objects in e\'ery department of human interest have *^iven me a lait^er acquaintance than almost anybody livinjr The sum of ()l)s«'ivatioii and experienco af gTOwing" out of this opportuiuty is that LTi'antetl normal ((niditions, nf) ^ hereditary troubles, and barring- accidents and pla<4ues, the man wIkj dies before seventy conmiits suicide. Mourninjj;" the loss of friends has led me to study the causes of their earlier departure. It could in\ariably be traced to intemperance in the broadest sense of that word; intemperance in eatintf. in drinking, in the gratification of desires, in Avork and in iri-eoularity of hours, crowning it all with unnecessarj" worry. Pythagoras said •" Beware of ballots if 3^ou wish to live long." In other words, the old philosopher advised keeping out of politics. In his time the defeatinl \r,\vty ran the I'isk of death, or imprisonment, or exile, and so the advice was good, " Bew^arc of l)al- lots." But, in our countr}' where the citizen is a sovereign and responsible for the government of his country, his state, his city, his village or his town, an active interest in public affairs and party man- agement gives health}' circulation to the blood, healthy exercise and activit}' to the nuiscles, and inspiration and enlargement to the nund, and satisfaction in results which all tend to length of years and use- fulness. The year of my bii'th, IS34. seems a long way oil' on the calendar but miglity short in the retrospect. The Koman Emperor Hadrian spent the revenues of an empire upon astrologers who should fore- cast his future from the conjunction of the stars at his ))irth. If you are so inclined, you can have that work done now for 5U cents. lUit, suppose we leave the stars to the astronomer and come down to earth. In 1884: Cardinal (libbons. Doctor Eliot of Harvard, President Benja- min Harrison, Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court, Colonel Robert G. IngersoU, and Edmund Clarence Stedm:in. the poet, also fell under the inHuence of the powers of Heaven and earth which started them on their careers. Every year has its distinction. Init this one seems to have brought forth more than most others of the things which have influenced the world. In it were organized the lirst National Tem- perance Association ami the first National Anti Slaver}- Societ}'. The idea of temperance at that time was purely voluntary. Statu- tory restrictions had not been dreamed of. At that time and for twenty years afterward drunkenness was our national vice. At a large 4 BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW. dinner like this a considerable portion of the guests would always be hopelessly gone, and at private dinners of fourteen, sixteen, or twenty it was common for several of the guests to be disgracefully drunk. This never occurs now, either at public or private entertainments, no matter how free the wine. The purport of the antislavery movement was perfectly understood by the slaveholders and their sympathizers. Meetings in New York and in Philadelphia were broken up by riots which sometimes lasted for days and in which many were injured and large amounts of property destroyed. In Connecticut a mob with a brass 1)and interrupted a lecturer for the abolition of slavery and drove him out of Norwich to the tune of "The Rogues' March." The legislatures of the South- ern States called upon the Northern States to prohibit the printing of antislavery publications and did prohibit their circulation in their Com- monwealths. President Jackson sent a message to Congress recom- mending the passage of an act for the suppression of antislavery lit- erature. The agitation begun by the formation of the National Anti-Slavery Society in 1834 continued with increasing volume and vehemence. The society preached the horrors of slavery and then on the patriotic side a sentiment that the Declaration of Independence should be true in spirit as well as in letter. After thirty years, at the cost of a mil- lion lives, and directly and indirectly of ten thousand millions of dol- lars, and up to date three thousand millions in pensions, slavery was abolished and the Declaration of Independence made true in our Country, both in letter and in spirit. In that year occurred the first record of a beat in journalism which has become the life of the press. The Journal of Commerce estab- lished relays of horses between New York and Philadelphia and secured the news of the White House and of Congress a day earlier than the other New York papers. There was great intellectual activity in the country resulting in breaking away from the old universities. A liberal education was thought impossible except at Yale, or Harvard, or Columbia, or Princeton, but in that ^ear there were twelve colleges founded in dif- ferent parts of the country, all of which are now successful and have done magnificent work in higher education. Andrew Jackson was President of the United States and William L. Marcv 2-overnor of the State of New York. The President gave his KTRTIIDAY SPEECIJ OF SENATOR CIIArXCKV M. I^F.PKW. 5 approviil to the party ])l!itf()nii. "That political woikrrs :ir(' to be rewarded with political otiices, and political parties are to l)e held together by the cohesive power of public plunder." That doctrine controlled the civil service of the United States without check or hin- drance for over tifty years. In that year the United States national debt was paid off and the country started with a clean slate. In that vear General Jackson gave his famous order for the icnioval of gov- ernment deposits from the banks. This was the begimiing of an agi- tation which threw our linancial system into ciiaos. It made impos- sible currency upon a scientitic basis, and was the fruitful mother of the countrv-wide and disastrous panics which have so often shaken our tinancial and industiial stability. The most delicate, ditiicult, and dangerous of all the functions of government, the one uj^on whose proper creation and administration rests the whole fabric of national and individual credit, the one which should be adjusted and settled by the lessons of the experience of highly organized governments for hundreds of years, has from that time to this been the sport of party warfare, political passion, and partisanship. The dead hand of that great, strong man still holds our financial system by the throat. Our institutions and political policy came from England and were so moditied by our ancestors as to meet conditions under a republican form of government and the expansive necessities of the new country. All power in the mother land was originally in the throne. By suc- ceeding revolutions the pet)ple gained more and more power until now they have it all, and in many respects Great Britain in its government is the most democratic of all countries. On the other hand, we began with a distrust of executive power and authority and our evolution has been the other way. Our first confederacy was a rope of sand. In our government under the Constitution we protected ourselves against the executive by a clear definition of his powers, by the right to override his veto by Congress, by the veto upon him from the Supreme Court, and the power of impeachment. ( )ur early Presidents who had taken part in the formation of the government were in thorough harmony with these limitations upon the President, and with the apprehension of kingly authority which had brought them al)out. With Jackson a new generation came into the government, a genera- tion removed from the experiences and opinions of the revolution. The leader of this generation was one of the strongest, most self- centered, autocratic and arl)itrary of men who have ever appeared in our 6 BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR CHATTNCEY M. DEPEW. public life. He not only defied Congress and the courts, but won the applause of the people and changed public opinion as to the powers and duties of the President. From his time until now there has been not only in the Central Government, but in the States, a growing dis- trust of the representatives of the people in Congress and in the legis- latures and an increasing confidence in Presidents and governors. The literature of our magazines and of a large portion of the press casts doubt upon and arouses suspicion of the actions and the methods of successive Congresses and legislatures and appeals to the President or the governors to control and lead them. The writers put their faith in the executive and justify everything that he may do on the ground that the only safety of the people is in the strength, integrity, and courage of the executive against their betrayal by their representatives. And yet, any competent man who will conscientiously and impartially study the question must come to the conclusion that the conditions of our National Congress are to-day infinitely better than ever before. There is no lobby at Washington. There are no interests there seeking to influence Senators and Members. For the times in which we live, for the varied necessities of our Government, for the legislation so much more diflicult than it was in earlier days, both Houses of Con- gress, in ability and patriotism, will stand favorable comparison with what are called the great days of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. With Grant began tiie system of not only recommending legislation to Con- gress but transmitting bills prepared to carry that legislation into effect, and this by evolution has become the common practice. In 183-1: Abraham Lincoln was elected to the legislature of Illinois and began his extraordinary public career. In 1834 Chicago received one mail a week, carried on horseback from Niles, Mich., and in 1834 the Whig party was formed out of the disruption of the old Federal organization and Democrats who were anti-slavery and believed in a liberal construction of the Constitution. We can go back to this period for the beginning of the extraordi- nary change which has taken place in our business methods and social life. A railroad was built from Jerse}^ City to New Brunswick and projected on to Trenton. A start was made on the Erie Road, The Harlem, \\ Inch extended through the fields from the present site of the city hall in New York to the end of Manhattan Island, crossed the Ilni'lem Kivcr. In other words, from small beginnings of a few miles for local traffic the expansion which began in 1834 has in seventy-six BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR CIIArNCEY M. DEPEW. 7 years covered the couiitrv with 28-l,0()0 miles of railwj'.y iiiilcjif^t' iiiid developed new territories with a speed unknown in th(> history of ini- ini.Lrration and settlement. It has transformed our laud from isohited eonunuuities in which individual initiative and enterprise supplied neiirlv all the manufactures which they required into jjfreat centers of industries wdiere mills and factories with enormous capital can, because of cheap transportation, oct their raw material from crroat distances and oive universal distribution to the maiuifaetured product and place their output upon the market at a cost so low as to make competition l)v th(^ individual impossible. More and more the United States be- cause of cheaper cost is bringino- into every department of human industry greater capital and larger employment. It has produced, on the one hand, the gigantic corporation, and on the other, in self-de- fense, the lal)or unions. The problems growing out of this development are the ones which this generation faces and of which the preceding ones were ignorant. There can be no reasonable doubt that the proper method of dealing with these great (piestions is not by government ownei.>hii) but gov- enuuent control. Corporations are to grow larger and com})iiuitions stronger. It is the inevitable tendency of the times. The safety of the i)eople is to be in having the hand of the government, through responsible commissions and courts, upon every process of organiza- tion and operation, in freipumt reports and publicity, in the ])ress constantly informing the people and in the President and Congress, governors and the legislatures, being in constant and enlightened touch with the situation. It is thus that we can promote beneficent expansion, give opportunity for individual initiative and prevent monopolistic control. Just now there is l)oth sutl'ering and alarm l)ecause of high prices, 1 have not much sympathy with those who say that this condition is due to national extravagance. There was tremendous complaint of high prices in 1835. There is on tile in the Treasury Department a copybook of the expenses of a clerk who wanted an increase of salary because of the unusually high cost of living. His family consisted of live persons and his food for the year cost him $388.10. The Bureau of Labor of the Government estimated last year that the food for a similar family now would be ^312.9:i. This clerk says that his boots cost him ^3.75. his cotton sheeting 10 cents a yard (both now are a])out the same), his lamp oil ^c^l a gallon (now 10 cents), ))lacking of 8 BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR CHATJNCEY M. DEPEW. shoes 25 cents a shine (now 5 cents), tlour SS a barrel (now |7), trans- portation for himself and wife from Washington to Martinsburg, Va., and return $32.03 (now $8.02), Martinsburg being 77 miles from Washington; an ordinary cooking stove $49 (now about $16.50), and a iirkin of butter $10.22 (now about $21.50). Extravagance is a relative, not a positive, condition. Nobod}' would live now as the whole country did in 1834 and 1835. Both men and women of that period were largely the manufacturers of their own clothes in their own houses. They cultivated their own little gardens without help. If they kept a horse, as many of them did, the care of the animal, the mending of the harness and the painting and repairing of the wagon were all done by the head of the family. The wife made the children's clothes, and ran the house and a kindergarten. The laborer who comes here from abroad and continues, as he will for a time, to live as he did at home finds that upon our wages he is saving money rapidly and accumulating, according to his ideas, a comforta- ble fortune. In fact, many, retaining their habits of living which they brought with them, go back in a few years to lives of ease on little places upon the Continent. That sort of thing is carrying out of the United States a hundred million of dollars a year, but those who remain to become citizens, and those who are born here and are citizens, desire to live as an American artisan should and will live, in housing, clothing, food, educational opportunities for the children, and surplus for travels, books, and pleasure, which make the glory of American citizenship. By our system of protection we have made it possible for the American workingman to receive wages in many cases double and in all cases nnich larger than in other countries. But we have not as yet protected him against competition by immigrants who will work for what he can not afford to work for and live as he will not and should not be asked to do. The most beneficent of the changes which have occurred during my time have been the laws granting rights to women. In my earlier days a woman's property was her husband's, his debts were hers, and it was not until 1848 that she could have her independent possessions or safet}' in any business she might undertake. It was still later that she was accorded the privilege of a higher education and her intel- lectual necessities as well as ability considered to be fully equal to man's. As I used to travel through the country on railway-inspection trips I noticed at every station a crowd of idlers. They knew the BIRTHDAY SPEECH OF SENATOR C'HAUNCEY M. DEPEW. 9 names of tlio trains, of the coiKliiclors, und t he ('iiL;iii<'<'is. mid were eager to toll the \vaitiiit>- traveler whether No, :i was hife or tlie Empire State P^xpress on time. I noticed that the\' disappeared at noon and at alxnit (). L'pon iii((uiry I found that they were supported hy their wi\'('s. These capable, hard-workiiiiif. enereetic women wei-e dicssiiiukers or milliners or kept little stores, and their worthless husbands hung around the depot because they had no other means of passin