Class .__£. lo\)4 Book JJlAj)ZlZ •,t>' CHAUNCEY M: DEPEW Birthday Addresses AT THE MoNTAUK Club of Brooklyn i8ci2 to 1899 The Montauk Club is a well-known social organization in New York which has attained great prominence and reputation under the Presidency of our distinguished fellow-citizen, Mr. Charles A. Moore. 5 ti 8 36 »03 Address of Hon. Cliauncey M. Depew, LL. D., at the Birthday Dinner given to him by the Montauk Club of Brooklyn, April 23, 1892. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I should be the most insensible of men if I did not deeply appreciate the great compliment which you pay me. While the occasion makes my heart beat happily and arouses an honest pride, it presents no subject for a speech. This is not a gathering of political friends, martyrizing themselves to become a medium by which the orator can get his views before the country. It is not a collection of reform- ers, ambitious to have the speaker sit down because each one in the audience thinks he could improve the subject much better than the man on his feet. It is not a convention to promote principles, float poli- cies or fresco men. Gentlemen of all political par- ties, of all religious creeds, of all professions and business pursuits are gathered in this room. That they meet to greet me is a distinguished honor; that the occasion is my birthday and decorates that natal hour with choicer flowers than ever have enshrined it before, this celebration, called for no public pur- pose or patriotic event or public man, is a tribute to the resources of friendshif) and the expansive prop- erties of club life. The twenty-third day of April is, of course, one of the most important in the calendar. On it St. George was born; also Shakespere and myself. St. George 6 belted the globe with his drum-beat and his flap:; he became our prooenitur. On account of his failure to appreciate the proper relations, national-wise, be- tween parents and children, we found it necessary first to thrash him and tlien to declare our inde- pendence. That we have since become the principal object of his admiration, is due to our exertions and not to his teachinj)ily, dilTers from other cities in that she retains the touch of neiuliborhdnd, which is the 13 value of villa.fi,e life, and well deserves its title of the City of Churches. The vigor and virility of Puritan origin, and the unquenchable thirst for knowledge about every one's life and affairs, have preserved through all immigrations the character- istics of the Yankee settlement. Brooklyn is the third largest city in this country, and the fourth, or fifth, in the world. It has all the elements of cos- mopolitan and metropolitan life. Its public-school system is most advanced. It is the home of rare culture, high intelligence and aggressive reform. It has broad avenues, splendid parks, magnificent pal- aces and stately churches. At the same time, Brook- lyn is rural and provincial. The odor of new-mown hay pervades all its streets and the clover-blossom is the perennial badge of its citizens. It has that per- sonal contact of families and neighbors, so rapidly disappearing, and so invaluable in dissipating class prejudices and giving opportunity to the helping hand. This very confidence and credulity have led to con- ditions which are exciting the amazement of the outside world. There is no more acute question than the problem of municipal government. It is inter- esting the best thought and talent for afiairs in every country. The drift of rural populations to common centers, and the concentration of multitudes who have no acquaintance or common interests in cities Avhere, as they increase in numbers, they in- tensify isolation, add fierceness to competition, and increase the difficulties of earning a living, have alarmed statesmen and sociologists. While the thought of the world is absorbed in efforts to solve 14 these problems and miuimize mob dangers, by ihe equal distribution of benefits, rights and justice, Brooklyn is exhibiting startling originality in its contribution. It has surprised the people of the United States and paralyzed the statesmen of Eu- rope. One of the idiosyncrasies of this municipality is that a portion of the public moneys, which are raised by taxing everybody, are absorbed by its pub- lic officials as their personal perquisites without pro- test or comment. This has become a habit so fre- quently condoned that the press does not comment upon it, or the people get enraged about it, or the reformer become unpopular by referring to it, except as a visitor and in a dress suit. Reforms are not accomplished in dress suits, but rather in fighting rig. This taking of money out of the city treasury is no longer called defalcation, or theft, or robbery, but misappropriation, or diversion to cluunuds not au- thorized by law. Recently this misapproiu'iatiou became so bold and bald that the criminal authori- ties had to move the machinery ly. Tlic unfortunate officials were ignorantly following established precedents, and therefore their thefts should be legalized, and their jicrsecutors of the District Attorney's otVuc c\\- joined, and that relief measure became a lavr. Rut Brooklyn's contribution to the municii>al (luestion during the past year has not been limited to the 15 exoneratiou of officials who liave appropriated its moneys. It has advanced to the distribution of fran- chises upon philanthropic principles. Other cities sell franchises, and the rev(Mines derived from the sale of these privileges help the taxpayers and re- lieve the people of the burdens of government. But Brooklyn scorns such sordid motives, and gives away her franchises. Greece and Rome decorated their distinguished citizens, but only those whose statc^s- manship or generalship, whose genius in art or lit- erature, had won tlie gratitude of the people. They crowned them with wreaths of laurel or bay. But Brooklyn decorates favored citizens before they are distinguished for anything, by giving them fran- chises. Certainly the action of the city government in refusing an offer of half a million of dollars for the charter for a street railway, and in the same hour giving it without money or pledges to unknown in- corporators, as has been done this week, surpasses the fabled generosity of Monte Cristo, with his fabulous wealth. I could not let this annual com- pliment, coming from gentlemen who represent so much in this community, pass without a serious word upon some question of the hour. I have only the highest respect and best feelings for the Mayor, who honors us with his presence. I have unbounded faith in the ca])acity of the people for self-govern- ment so conspicuously shown in our national and state and township affairs being equal to the new conditions of great cities. It is neglect by the citizc^n of the first duty of the citizen which has called the attention of the country so unpleasantly to your home atfairs and compelled me to utilize this occa- IG sion to hold up to the light these recent events. Self- government in cities is on trial, and Brooklyn should, as Brooklyn can, be in the front of well-governed cities. The men here to-iiight can rescue Brooklyn from the outlaws who are iu possession of her gov- ernment, restore her fair fame and make her an example of high purposes in official life and success in good government. A birthday speech is like the remains of Dennis McCann. When he was blown up by an explosion of dynamite a committee was appointed to break the news to his wife. After the spokesman had informed her of the tragedy as gently as he could, she asked if Dennis had been badly mangled. "Well, yes," said the spokesman, "his head was found in one lot, and his legs in another and his arms in a tree half a mile off." "That," said the bereaved widow, "is just like Dennis. He was always all over the place." This is a gathering of successful men, of men who have made their own careers in the professions, in the arts and in business. It is a glorious sensation when one feels sure of his ])res(Mit and master of his future. With his fears and anxieties behind him, the trials and struggles, the privations and hard- ships of his earlier efforts seem to him to have been the exercises which have trained and disciplined him, and he feels like tlie successful athlete, proud of the steps by which he has mounted, and coiitident of himself. If he is a university man he recalls his loi'dsliip of the woT-ld \Nlieii, as an undergraduate, his crew won the I'at-e, Iiis team carried off the honors of the li(dd and he took tlie ])rize in the debate, and he lias a fuller, broadt'i- and healthier appreciation of being a man. The boy born to for- tune cannot enjoy these exquisite pleasures which come to those whose falls and bruises have left the honorable scars which eloquently testify to their persistence and skill in climbing the ladder of fame or fortune, or both. Most successful Americans reach this position of masterj^ of themselves and of their vocations early enough to have before them years of enjoyment. Few of them embrace the op- portunity. They develop lust for power, and with it the cruelty of power. They become selfish, hard and grasping. They lose sympathy and touch with their fellows, and cultivate contempt for the less com- petent, the unfortunate and those who are moder- ately endowed. The real pleasures of life are denied such men, as they are to beasts of prey whose sole gratification is to kill and gorge. But the wiser man says: " With the leisure which comes to independence and the trained ability for great affairs, I will now know my library; I will take up and pursue the studies which were the de- light and ambition of my youth; I will become inter- ested in public affairs and take part in polities and work for good government; I will garner old friends and make new ones and feel the sweet recompense of doing something for others.-' In a few years we hardly recognize this man. He has grown broad and liberal. Without neglecting his business, he is felt everywhere. The church and the club, the parish and the hospital, the literary circle and the working- man's organization are receiving the help of his in- fluence and the inspiration of the resistless optimism of his buoyant health and success. He is experienc- 18 ing a happiness and fullness in living which is pro- longing and enriching his life. It has been said that during the middle ages the people were marking time, but making no progress. But this man is ener- gized and impelled by the movement of the century, and learns to enjoy the exhilaration of high speed. The pleasures of life largely depend upon the rela- tions existing between our subordinates, assistants and employees, and ourselves. Observation and long experience have taught me that we get better service from love than from fear. There is nothing in my career as a railroad president for which I have been so much criticised as in showing my faith in this theory by putting it in practice. An old-time executive officer said to me early in my career as a railroad president, " You have every requi- site for success, except the knowledge of how to treat men. You are too considerate, too familiar and too easy. Make them feel the impassable gulf between the executive and the subordinate officer or employee. Sentiment and pity have no place in business. Be just, but severe. Bemember that you are dealing only with the tools of the machine for whose working you are respon- sible. Distance inspires both awe and respect. Rule by fear; favors will be taken advantage of and re- garded by the recipients as weakness." I differ i)i toto from this method either for efficiency of service or comfoi-t of administration. When every man knows tliat if he does right the president is his friend; when he understands that the policy of the open door is for him and his grievances, and if he has any they will be instantly heard; when out of 19 the office and off duty he feels the camaraderie of candid recognition and hearty good-fellowshii) from his chief, he will protect in every way the interests and the reputation of the president. No detectives need Avatch him, for the company's business is his business and he is attending to it with his whole mind and strength. Loyalty and devotion to and affection for the president dominate every branch of the service, and results are obtained which are im- possible by the harsher methods. The officer who is thus surrounded experiences freedom from care, con- sciousness of success, and that indefinable and ex- quisite pleasure which comes from the incense of visible and invisible, external and internal applause. Though I have been the manager for years of one of the greatest corporations, with the largest number of employees of any company in the world, I have never had a labor trouble, and it has been due to the practice of these principles. -That to-night I have the healtJi, vigor and hilarious enjoyment of a boy and look forward hopefully to serene old age is the result of the same philosophy of life and its associations. I suppose there were periods when bigotry and venomous partisanship had their uses. They were the bleeding and the calomel of the old practice. But in our times there is infinite pleasure in the habit of tolerance. I have little faitii in the man who has no creed but is friendly to all. There is a healthy at- tachment to our church and our pai-ty, because we believe them the best. It is delightful also to think that our neighbor's path to Heaven, though more difficult, still leads to the pearly gates, and his party is admirable for critical and deterrent purposes in 20 the opposition, thougli dangerous in power. Give to onr friends tlie credit for as pure motives and un- selfish purposes as those which actuate ourselves, and our social atmosphere has the charm of health- ful differences, and in temperate discussion we all get nearer the truth. To be glad of the recurrence of birthdays is to rejoice that we have lived and humbly petition to live longer. To have our friends join in that celebra- tion, as you do to-night, touches with the tenderest emotion that pardonable self-consciousness which expands and asserts itself, because others so cor- dially shout hail and keep on. Address of Hon. Cliauncey M. Depew, LL. D., at tlie Birthday Dinner given to him hj the MontaukClub of Brooklyn, xA^pril 21, 1894. 3Ir. I^ reside Jit aiu/ Gentlemen : I deeply appreciate the compliment of these an- nual birthday celebrations which you tender me. After the feeling of gratification come the burden and responsibility of that inevitable incident of every American gathering — the speech. With no question before the house it is difficult to do it once, but when, before substantially the same audience, it comes the second, third or fourth time, the situation is critical to a degree. If the guest and orator indulges in rare pleasantries, pleasing plati- tudes and that ingenious collocation of words which says nothing and means nothing, he insults the in- telligence of his hearers. If, on the other hand, in an audience like the present, composed of men of all political faiths, all religious creeds, and all sorts of complicated associations and interests, he says some- thing, a section of his audience are sure to say that they are insulted. The speaker, under such condi- tions, is always in the position of the small boy whose enterprise pulls from the closet the family musket and points it at the head of his sister. Y\'hen the coroner's jury sits upon the case, his explanation is that he did not know it was loaded. Whether the meeting shall continue harmoniously or break up in a row depends upon whether the owner of the in- 22 diilged foot which got in the way of the trampling speaker groans and confesses his pleasure, or howls and acknowledges the corn. At the celebration last year the proper question seemed to me to be municipal reform. It appeared equally proper to indulge in caustic comments and peppery pleasantry upon matters affecting your city which had received the attention of the Goyernor of the State, the Legislature, the Grand Jury of your county and your courts. Had it dropped into the ordinary sea of after-dinner give and take, the ques- tion would have been dissipated with the smoke of the last cigar. But somehow or other, while I w;is innocently cavorting around the field, everybody grasped his neighbor's arm convulsively, and seri- ously remarked, " Chauncey has said something ! " The next morning from the Aldermanic chamber of the Brooklyn City Hall, from the court-room of the police justice where the blind goddess loves to dwell, from departmental chiefs and city contractors came the screams that the gun was loaded and everybody was filled with shot. Incidentally, pulpit, press and public-spirited citizens proceeded to inquire Mliat was the matter, and the result was one of tliose revo- lutions ^\'hich occur but once in a quarter of a cen- tury in the history of a municipalty, and which re- stored the weakening confidence in popular govern- ment in great cities. There should be no politics in the administi'ation of a city. It is a pure matter of bu^iness. It is whether the streets upon which the people travel, the water which the people drink, the liglits which illuminate the people's way, the police who protect 23 the people's lives and property, the courts wliich ad- minister justice for the people, are conducted in the interests of the people, and give the best possible results for the least possible expenditure. The only wonder is that the stockholder does not in the municipality show the same earnest and attentive interest that he does in the railway or the bank or the insurance company in which he holds his stock. It may be permissible to say in the freedom of the hour that all the fruits that were gathered by the great reform tornado of last year are neither ripe nor sound. Some of them certainly seem to require an amount of that tonic which is known as popular indorsement and public opinion to keep them straight upon measures of the greatest concern to the people of the state and of the localities. I have been led to remark, and wondered at dis- covering, that it was accepted as fault-finding, that there are about Brooklyn many of the elements of a great village, many of the characteristics of a New England town. We, all of us, with our experi- ence in the government of great cities, if we would consider seriously the question, would rejoice to find that more of that personal responsibility on the part of the voter, that individual espionage into public affairs by the citizen, which characterize the suffrage of Xew England, were the characteristics of the great cities of the country'. I heard an incident in my recent travels of a caucus held in a v/estern city, where an enthusiastic orator presented in glowing phrase the merits for the nomination of that grand soldier. General Mulli- gan. The speaker on the other side said he knew 24 all about the patriotic services of General Mulli;^an, for be was a private in the same company and tbe sentinel who stood at the door of the General's tent when a Confederate officer called; that be bent bis ear to listen to the colloquy, and he heard tbe Con- federate officer sav: '' I want that sword of your?:," and then tbe General said, " It is yours.'' Tbe friend of the General, unabashed by this exposure, arose to say that General Mulligan was a perfect gentleman, and when tbe Confederate officer expi*essed a desire for his sword why should be not give it to him when he could buy a thousand like it in Chicago ? The result was that the General was nominated almost by acclamation. It strikes me that the only platform left in this country for absolutely free speech is tbe after-dinner platform. All others are hedged about with con- ditions which make it impossible for tbe orator to speak his whole mind. At political meetings tbe audience is generally composed of those of tbe same \l faith, and they expect that the other party will ])e proved to be utterly bad, and their own to be en- tirely good. Tbe lecture platform was at one time the place where a popular man with convictions could express those convictions with effect, and have them reach the remotest corners of tbe earth. It was then that Theodore Parker, AYilliam Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips and I\al])li Waldo Emer- son, under the privileges of tbe lecture i)latfor!n, inculcated the most unpalatable truths of liberty. Wendell Pbillijts could bo bowled dov.ii in I'aiuMiil Hall, or niobbod in the liroadway Tabernacle, but on tlio lecture jtlatform, in describing tbe life and 25 deeds and the death of Toussaint L'Ouverture, he could drop the seeds of that truth -which bore fruit upon the plains of Kansas and flowered iu the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. The pulpit iu the old New Eup,iand days had abso- lute freedom iu the discussion of every state, town or county question. The judgment of the minister Avas the verdict of the people. This continued in some remote Connecticut villages even into the Civil War. I remember being once with that capital campaigner, General Bruce, when the Town Com- mittee said to him, as he was about to address a Connecticut audience in a rural neighborhood: '' General, our minister is very much disturbed by Lincoln's acts outside the Constitution. He says that his Bible teaches him that the law is ordained of God, and, therefore, he cannot see why the Con- stitution can be violated even to free the slaves or liberate the country." General Bruce, with his fine personal appearance, and his clergyman-like utterance, rose to the occasion. He said : " I under- stand that that eminent and eloquent divine, who is the pastor of the leading church in this village, has doubts about the rightfulness of Tresident Lin- coln's acts because they are not sanctioned by the Constitution, although they are for the freedom of the slaves and the safety of the Bepublic. I reply to him that when Moses received the tablet which contained the Constitution of the children of Israel directly from the bauds of the Almighty, and went to the foot of the mountain and found the children of Israel worshipping the idols, he smashed that Constitution into ten thousand pieces, though it l^ \y 20 was constructed bv God, and uoi by man, and drew his sword and rested not in killing the rebels until the sun went down." The minister arose, came forward, grasped the General warmly by the hand, and said: "General, the exegesis of that chapter which you have given is not in any commentary in my library, but it strikes me as very sound.'' To-day, however, the pulpit is not a force in the discussion of public affairs. Not but that it is equipped with as much courage, and as much elo- quence, and as much learning as ever, but for some reason, which I have not now the time to discuss, the public does not now accept from the pulpit its views upon municipal, state or national affairs, so we have left only the after-dinner platform. That is yet free from the chains of conventionality, custom or routine. At the annual dinner of the Xew England Society both in this city and in New York; at the ann-'nl dinner of the Chamber of Com- merce, in Xew York, men of national reputation, be- hind whose words stand a name and a record which men respect, whose lips utter truths, let on the light in a wa}^ which would not be permitted anywhere else. So far is this permitted that among that most sensitive people, the Irish, that genial and caustic genius, Mr. Joseph H. Choate, indulged in utterances which were received with laughter and applause; uttered anywhere else, Mr. Choate would have been compelled to leave the platform. I trust that for the sake of good morals, good government, good laws, good candidates, for the sake of all that goes to right living and right thinking, and right voting, the after-dinner platform ma}- continue free. 27 It is a peculiarity of the American people that they attend to but one thing at a time, but they at- ]/ tend to that with great thoroughness, and they have an almighty anxiety to settle it before they take up anything else. For a period the whole thought of the country was concentrated upon the interpreta- ' . tion of the Constitution which might mean the in- divisibility of the National Union or the sovereignty of the several states. When that was settled by the marvelous and unanswerable argument of Daniel Webster, in his reply to Hayne in the United States Senate, the next question was the spread or con- _^ tinned existence of human slavery. When that was settled, the next question, which called a million of men to arms, was the preservation of the Union free from slavery and upon the lines decided in the argu- ment of Daniel Webster. And when that was settled the American people took up the great ques- tion of the national credit, as affected by the sol- vency of the currency and the character of its industrial legislation. The exigent question of the hour appealing to every man, woman and child is prosperity and employment for the people. I do not speak of this in a controversial sense, but only as a condition which has produced an unusual de- gree of hopelessness and to ask you wiiether that hopelessness is justified and should end in despair. Had you traveled with me during the last vv'ei'k, when I covered all the territory from the Missouri to Xew York and from the Atlantic to the Canadian border, you would have felt your faith revived, if it had at all weakened, in the resurrecting power and the tremendous and resistless energies of the people L^ Y o J 28 of tlio Nation. Tbey stand by their mills waitin.ii to open them; they stand bv their shops waiting to work in them; they stand by their stores waiting for actiyity; they stand in the railway yards and by the railway depots Ayaiting for work. All they ask is that the question Ayhich suspends the actiyity of the business energies of the country shall be settled at once, one way or the other, "With a people like the people of the United States certainty is the assur- ance of success. There mux be greater success under one certainty than there is under another, but whatever the certainty the people will adjust themselves to it. On the other hand, doubt is death. A birthday anniversary reminds one both of the beginning and of the end of life. It suggests the inquiry, " Are you glad you started? Are you satis- fied with your career as far as you have gone? When and how will it end? " I never saw a man who had enough energy to crawl who was so tired and so disgusted with this Avorld that he was ready to climb the golden stairs. Granted a good constitu- tion and then a clear conscience and uncloudnlomacy, the human- ity of the American people and the mission of liberty 77 on this side the Atlantic has been written and acted by President McKinley. All our power and resources must be energized for a short, thorough and decisive campaign and victory in the war upon which we have entered. But with the Cuban irritation, which has imperilled our inter- ests, threatened our ti'anquility and been a constant menace to our peace for half a century, allayed, by Spain out and Cuba free, the future is brilliant with promise and hope for our country. The nations will understand an American position which the United States can maintain by overwhelming power. No complications upon which hostilities could be based can happen thereafter within the sphere of our influ- ence in the western hemisphere. The advice of Washington to his countrymen becomes both pro- phetic and mandatory — prophetic in the enlargement of its original meaning, that we should not become entangled with foreign powers by excluding from the word foreign everything American; mandatory in its prohibition of our meddling with the affairs of peoples on the other side of the great ocean, and con- fining our energies and our minds to the development of the destiny which God intended should be benefi- ciently worked out by isolation of the North Ameri- can continent and adjoining islands from neighbor- hood, association and traditions with the Old World. Our home difficulties and dangers brushed away, the mission of America is pre-eminently for peace. I know that this sentiment is vigorously opposed. I have a friend who is an earnest, enthusiastic and conscientious jingo. He is not of the noisy and ora- 78 torical sort, who try to promote war to be fought out by their neighbors while they stand in safe places and shout, but he asks nobody to follow where he is not willing to lead. My friend has been a gallant soldier, and has performed excellent service in pub- lic life. He believes that the national spirit, higher patriotism and pure and unselfish love of country must be stimulated by at least one war in each gen- eration. He thinks that the industrial disturbances and distresses which follow hostility are like the spring doses of blue pill in the old practice, neces- saiw to purge the body politic from gross material- ism. Following the lines of the old practice, he be- lieves that occasional blood-letting is necessary to political health. I say to my other and oratorical jingo friend, " Suppose you bring about your war in each generation — will you enlist? " He says, " Of course not; my mission is that of the statesman — to advise." " But," I persisted, " suppose your country- men follow your example. What then? " " Then," he said, " the Government should draft the beggars." But my friend, the Colonel, says, " I will head the enrollment with my own name and move at once into camp." I differ in foto from tliis theory of the mission of the people of the United States. I believe that the true greatness of our nation will be manifested by education, ait, science and industry. Let the con- ditions in our western hemisphere be established as I have indicated, and then let our financial situation be removed from the stage of often tried and as often exploded experiment unworthy our genius for com- merce and finance, and our past, wonderful as it is, will seem but the stepping-stone to the gTeater fu- 79 ture. There is no reason why we should have a panic inside of every decade which sweeps thousands into bankruptcy and hundreds of thousands into pauper- ism. There is no reason why every flurry of politics at Washington should suspend the purchasing power of the nation. There is no reason why the govern- ment should be at the mercy of speculators on its credit, and be subject to an accident to its specie payments of its notes which in a night and a day stops orders to the factory, and then from the factory stops orders to the mine, because the merchant dare not lay in stock and the customer dare not buy. We have experienced in the last seven years nearly an annual panic or industrial revolution producing misery and distress almost as great as those which are suffered in war. England spends a thousand millions of dollars a year to purchase food for her labor. We raise all the food needed for our seventy millions of inhabitants, and send abroad to other nations more than a thou- sand millions of dollars' worth of our surplus. The product of our factory meets all our necessities and most of our luxuries, and the perfection of our ma- chinery, the power given us in such abundance by nature, and the intelligence of our artisans are open- ing for our manufactures the markets of the world. The disturbance of these relations and conditions throws out of employment millions of people and puts into the dire distress of poverty, with all that means of deprivation of comfort and of the pleasures of life, many other millions who are dependent upon the wage-earners for their support. Call it gross materialism, call it cowardice, name it what you 80 please, I am heart and soul for the policy which en- ergizes the forces of production and promotes na- tional and especially individual prosperity and hap- piness. Keep the path clear by the application of the ordinary principles of prudence, thrift and, I will add, patriotism, then I predict that our country will be more tlian a marvel ; it will be a miracle. Tke farmer can lift his mortgage, and make his home the castle which neither the sheriff nor care can enter; the workingman can own his home and feel the inde- pendence of an unencumbered hearthstone, and every occupation, every employment, will be seeking those who are willing and capable. The successes of the men of mark in the past, which are the guides and inspirations of the boys of to-day and of the future, will be repeated in more frequent examples. This is not the peace of the army of Hannibal, losing stamina, nen^e and courage amidst the luxuries of Southern Italy; it is not the peace of sloth nor of enervating idleness, but it is the peace which makes strong, healthy and well-developed men and women; the peace which builds upon industry and hope, dis- ciplined, cultured and well-filled minds; the peace which makes the nation so consciously strong that with no derogation of dignity it can go to the limit of patience to preserve peace and promote amity and friendship among nations; so really powerful that if the conditions are intolerable, and a war of right and justice must be maintained, its might will be as re- sistless as its cause is right. Spanish history presents the interesting condition that she has never been conquered by an iu-my of in- vasion, and, with the exception of Cortes and Pizarro 81 in the New World, has rarely, if ever, succeeded iii her foreign wars. Her eighty-three years of contest in the Netherlands ended in defeat, and her famous armada was lost in the British Channel. Her con- tests with her colonies have always ended in dis- aster. Her wars have been frequent, and most of them for aggression or oppression. ' A curious incident in her history illustrates that war seldom settles anything, and especially illus- trates that any nation which goes to war should be sure that the facts upon which it bases its action are impregnable. When W^alpole was Prime Minister of Great Britain, the relations between Great Britain and Spain were strained on the question of right of search upon the ocean. Captain Jenkins, who was master of an English schooner, arriving home reported that while near the coast of Cuba he was captured by a Spanish cruiser; that the Spaniards cut off one of his ears, and then let him go with his ship, Jenkins had car- ried this ear around for some years wrapped up in cotton to exhibit to audiences. The House of Com- mons took up the matter, and Captain Jenkins testi- fied before its committee that, when his ear was cut off, he commended his soul to God and his cause to his country. The phrase took like wildfire, and all England was in a blaze. The Spaniards vigorously denied any knowledge of or connection with Jenkins or his ear, Walpole, the Prime Minister, did his best l^ to allay the excitement, to have the matter further investigated and to settle the trouble by diplomacy. Burke called the story " The Fable of Jenkins' Ear." Parliament, however, by an overwhelming vote, 82 promptly declared war against Spain. The war raged for three years. It cost thousands of lives, de- stroyed millions of dollai's of property and added millions to the national debt, upon which the people of England have been paying interest ever since. Peace was finally concluded by the combined efforts of all the nations of Europe. Then Walpole, the Prime Minister, in order to justify his opposition to the war, made an exhaustive investigation to dis- cover who had cut off Jenkins' ear, but where, when and how it was lost is still unsettled. One happy effect of the present crisis has been the removal of prejudice and the promotion of a better understanding between the United States and Eng- land. The friendship of the English people for us during the Spanish controversy has done more to arouse like sentiments on this side of the ocean than anything in the history of the two countries. Amer- ica and Great Britain are nearer to-day to that alli- ance of English-speaking peoples which has been the idea of many statesmen and the dream of all men of letters of both countries than at any time in a hun- dred years. This is a bright and beautiful world, and iu all ages men and women have tried to liud out how to escape misery and to secure happiness. Observation and reflection have taught me that happiness is possible to everybody who seeks it rightly. Xo one at least is anxious to climb the Golden Stairs, although we are often quite willing that many whom we know should try the experiment. I heard Horace Gi-eeley once remark to a clerical collector, who had inter- rupted his composition of an editorial, and was de- 83 manding a contribution on the ground that it would save several millions of human beings from going to hell, that he would not give a d cent, because there did not half enough go there now. Whenever I have spoken of the enjoyments of life, and the pleasures possible in every condition, the criticism has been made that my point of view was too narrow, and from a basis of continued life-long, personal prosperity which unfitted me to understand the limitations of the ordinary wage-earner. This is not the case. Happily for me my father, a successful man, with an iron will and a fixed purpose, having given me a university education and a profession, threw me out, with the remark that I would never have another dollar from him, except in his will. But for that apparent cruelty on his part we would not be here to-night. There was not a hard line pos- sible in the experience of early struggles which did not come to me. The old gentleman would sit in his room with the tears rolling down his cheeks at my difficulties and hardships, but he never relented nor rendered one particle of assistance. Twice, through over-confidence in friends and a fatal weakness for indorsements, my accumulations have been swept away, and a load of debt assumed. It was after all these struggles and misfortunes that a rule of life was suggested, the results of which have been so happy that they easily form a code for enjoying ex- istence applicable to every condition in life. Old Epictetus, the stoic philosopher, has laid the world under the deepest obligations. A man of genius, cul- tured and educated, the fortunes of war had made him a slave to a brutal Eoman. It irritated the 84 Eoman that a man in such condition could still get vastly more pleasure out of life than he did with all his wealth and the opportunities given him by being a favorite at the court of Xero. Seizing the philos- opher and slave by the leg one day he commenced twisting it, when Epictetus said: " Stop. You will break that leg and injure your property." The leg of Epictetus w^as broken, but his cheerful stoicism conquered. He w^as given his liberty, and founded one of the great schools of antiquity. The underlying principle of his faith and teaching is that God knows what is good for us better than we do. Therefore, doing the best we can to attain our end, let U3 accept his disposition as the wisest, and be cheerful and happy whatever our lot. Most of us re- member with veneration and affection a sainted mother, deeply imbued with the sombre doctrines of Calvin. By the sweetness of her nature she gave to this same sentiment, reproduced in another form in the Genevan theologian, the beautiful and inspiring suggestion that both our successes and our disap- pointments were special providences working out for us the career to which we were adapted. I know that all of you can recall in your own experiences crises in your lives which demonstrated the truth of this principle. Several times you have been at the cross-roads of a career, bent upon moving to this place or that, upon joining this firm or that corpora- tion, upon accepting this position rather than an- other, upon making this investment or that. Some- thing prevented your accomplishing your purpose, and you were in the depths of gloom sometimes and sometimes despair; but as you look back now you 85 find that had you been able to carry out your scheme or purpose, it would have so changed as to have prac- tically ended your prospects in life, and the choice which, against your will, j^ou were compelled to make, is the one that brings you here to-night, not only for this occasion, but to celebrate with thank- fulness and joy the good things which have come to you in life. Certainly my own career is rich in great disappointments which have proved significant blessings. The best informed, all-round man, and the most contented I ever knew^, was a barber. He was a success as a barber; he would have failed as a mer- chant. His shop kept him comfortably and furnished a surplus which, with great discrimination, he in- vested in a library, every book in which and every author in which was his intimate and familiar friend. He was the encyclopedia of his neighborhood to the preachers, the lawyers, and the students; and in- stead of wearying his customers with voluble sugges- tions as to his patent for restoring their hair on the outside of their heads, no customer ever left the chair without getting something of value lodged in- side of his head. Another man whom I watched from early boyhood to middle age was a carman in my native village who had a vital faith in the doctrine that whatever is is for the best and comes from on high, and though his troubles were many, his song in the street, as he trundled by with his load, was an anthem of joy ringing through the houses and fairly causing the clams in the bottom of his wagon to open their shells. -/ 86 His infectious hapi3iness, loudly proclaimed in the weekly prayer-meeting, lifted saints and sinners OQt of themselves to a closer contact with their better selves and a clearer vision of the Pearly Gates and the Golden Streets. One more instance is an old friend more than a quarter of a century my senior, who discovered thirty years ago that he had accumulated enough for his moderate wants. Investing it in securities which, though yielding low rates of interest, could by no financial convulsion cease to pay, he has resisted the most tempting offers to double his fortune. Released from the cares of his profession he has devoted his life to congenial literary pursuits, to music and art and travel. The most welcome of guests and cheery of companions, and hale and hearty near the nine- ties, he rejoices that he did not die as the fool dieth in the sixties. I have been often told that humor, anecdote, and wit are fatal to political progress or business appre- ciation. We all know that the solemn, the dull, and the obtuse man captures by the impenetrable dignity which walls in his mind and imagination popular plaudits for his supposed wisdom and strength of character. But looking back over my sixty-odd yeSrs, rather than anything of honor or fame or ap- plause that might have come from playing a false part, I rejoice in the belief that I never have con- sciously caused anyone to shed a tear, and have done my best, whether it was successful or not, to make people happy and cause them to laugh. The man who can honestlv laugh with his whole soul and his 87 whole being will never betray a friend, never defraud a creditor, never cheat his neighbor, never deceive a woman, but will go through the world making friends and, more diflScult still, keeping all the friends he makes. Carking care, of whom Ilorace speaks as always trying to ride behind us or on the game ship, has a hard time of it if we are determined to be cheerful and make others cheerful. It is pos- sible to carry home some good thing every day. It is a duty. The women of the family may have had great vexations and the children may be fretful with studies and other troubles. I have not for years passed the twenty-four hours at the office, or on the street, or on the cars that did not furnish the little drama or farce which carried off the home dinner and made the air ripple in the library after dinner. They need not be worthy of Thackeray, or Dickens, or Douglas Jerrold, or Artemus Ward, or Mark Twain. The honest intent gives infinite zest to an effort in the home circle. For instance, a Tammany Senator, who belongs to the school of Mr. Bailey, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, and had never worn a dress suit, comes into my office after the edict had gone forth that no Democrat could hope for recognition in New York unless he had on a dress suit in the evening, and says : " Mr. Depew, I went into the Democratic Club last night and one of our people, whose favor I value, said to me, ' Senator, I never saw you so well dressed in my life.' I said to him, 'Does it fit?' 'Splendidly.' 'All right in the back? ' ' Yes.' ' Then I'll buy it.' " But," the Senator sadly said, " when I went into 88 the dining-room the master of ceremonies remarked severely, 'What are you doing with them tan shoes? ' Hully gee, Mr. Depew, don't tan shoes go among the Four Hundred with a dress suit? " Two shopping ladies from the Oranges are discussing loudly in an adjoining seat on the elevated car at which of the department stores the best lunch can be had, and with the lack of sequence produced by constant shop- ping, their controversy ends, not on the lunch, but on the day on which they had it. One says that she always pays her bills in checks, because then the check is a receipt. The other says, " I don't bother about giving my name and address, and maybe have the things come home all wrong, but I pay In cash and carry the bundle away with me." The first throws up her hands in horror and says, " How do you know they will not send out to you for collection a second bill? " It is difficult to estimate how much daily happiness is increased if the order is peremp- tory that, after you get home in the afternoon and until the next morning, no bad news shall be re- vealed or discussed. The tendency of the female mind is to gather news, and most of it relates to the IM^rsonal misfortunes of friends and acquaintances. If told at the dinner or in the early evening, with the sympathetic picturesqueness characteristic of the feminine artist in word-painting, we have a funeral instead of a feast. But if the warning finger — which means the taboo — rises whenever the death, or the divorce, or the bankruptcy or the scandal shows Its head, good digestion attends the simplest as well as the richest fare, and sleep, which means heaUh and life, follows a bright and joyous evening. 89 We all have fads and know it not though they are familiar to others. Let our friends practice theirs without rebuke. They may bore us at times, but think of Ihe exquisite pleasure they give those who are the victims of these harmless lunacies. Listen for the hundredth time to the adventure or the story and remember that Joe Jefferson's Eip Van Winkle or Booth's Ixichelieu never tire. Your reward will come in the happiness you give, and often in substan- tial form. When I was a young lawyer in Peekskill a New York dandy visiting the village cut me out. The fad of the father of the young lady was a theory which would have given the victory to Napoleon at Waterloo. I had heard the story often as a prelude to the love scene which followed the old gentleman's retirement for the night. W^hen my rival appeared one evening I said, " By the way, Mr. Brown, our city friend has never heard your very original and re- markable story of W^aterloo." When I left at eleven. Grouchy, having defeated Blucher, was just deploy- ing his army in the British rear, and Mr. Fifth Ave- nue never called again. I do not intend to tell stories to-night. I have had a warning. We are putting four new stories upon the Grand Central Depot. The other day a careless workman let a brick fall from the top. It landed on ^ the platform just outside my window, banged through the glass and missed my head by a sixteenth of an inch. Professor Hadley remarked, " Even the Grand Central Depot will not stand four of your stories." When Pyrrhus was flushed with victory a philo- 90 Sophie friend said to him, " When you have con- quered Italy, what then?'' "I shall conquer Africa." "And when you have conquered Africa, what then?" " I shall conquer the world." "And when you have conquered the world, what then? " " I shall take my ease and be merry." " Well," said his friend, " why not take your ease and be merry now? " Gentlemen, we are all of us engrossed in the cares of business; we are all of us absorbed in the conduct of our affairs because of the hot competitions of modern life. But that man is more successful in business, has a better judgment in critical affairs of the bank, a readier apprehension of the kaleidoscopic perils of railroad- ing and a clearer grasp of the problems of law or theology or medicine who can find time, and will find time, no matter what the nature of his vocation, to " take his ease and be merry, now." The fools who give the twenty-four hours to business, and boast of it, may criticise the man who can expel business from his mind and enjoy his books, his friends, bis club, the theatre, the opera, the dinner, or the dance, but the cheerful man gets dividends out of life where the other gets trouble. Such people are the Bour- bons of business. They neither learn nor forget, but they sometimes get temporary reputations. Some years ago I was on an inspection tour over all of our lines with a party of railroad men. We lived on the car, and all of us worked hard all day, and when darkness interrupted work the card table carried off the evening. Cards do not interest me, and so one night I delivered a lecture to the students of a college in the town where we were stopping, and another 91 night I spoke at a supper of the Loyal Legion, and another at a Convention of Kailway Employees, con- tributing as best I could to the life of the places we visited. The writers on railway subjects in the press praised the skill and practical talents for their busi- ness and the scientific methods of my friends who found rest and recreation in the game, and lamented that such vast interests should be in charge of a theo- rist and speech-maker like myself. Our daily labors were the same and our methods of spending the even- ing were different, but no one ever heard of the card- playing amusements of my associates, and my speeches were in the newspapers. It was that prince of utilitarians, Lord Chesterfield, I think, who ad- vised that for success in life good form is better than good character, and appearances than merit. The gray matter of the brain is like a rubber band. Stretch it continuously and keep it strained and the elasticity goes out of it, and it rots and falls to pieces. Wise judgment must be fertilized by variety, versatility and travel. My graveyard of reminis- cence is full of the buried bones of those who gave out and failed in the '30s, the '40s, or the '50s, because they planted by night and reaped by day, because even the church service was simply helping to solve their business problems, and because they sedulously avoided and scrupulously denounced frivolous peo- ple like ourselves, who can frivol as we do here to- night. Gentlemen, the mortuary tables of the men who for eight years have gathered here on my birthday would enrich any life insurance company. None of 92 us grow old, none of us decay, and our sentiment to- night is, that better than medical faculties and phar- macopoeias and dispensaries and mineral springs are cheerful dispositions, persistently cultivated and kept alive, no matter what the obstacles in their way, and the joys of life extracted from every situation — public, business, domestic and social. Address of Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, LL D., at the Birthday Dinner given to liim by the Montauk Club of Brooklyn, April 22, 1899. Mr. President and Gentlemen : Since nobody wishes to die everybody must be glad he was born. It is a good thing to have a birth- day, but its pleasure is increased when your friends in this substantial way indicate their joy that you came into the w^orld. Artemus Ward said: "It would have been ten dollars in the pocket of Jeffer- son Davis if he had never been born." But the only limitation upon natal festivities is the necessity of making a speech. The difficulty increases when the occasion has called together a goodly company, the majority of whom have listened and cheered for eight successive years. Happily for me the life of an American is kaleidoscopic and the history of our country presents a perpetual succession of new and interesting pictures. Certainly the last twelve months form an epoch in the story of nations. Heretofore you have honored me as a private citi- zen. But to-night you greet me both as the same old friend and your representative in the Senate of the United States. I shall be most fortunate, if in this new sphere I am able, in a measure, to meet your partial expectations and predictions. Certainly I am absolutely free and untrammeled. I am proud of the railway profession in which I have spent my life, but I owe to it no obligations to favor it in any 94 way or to treat its interests in any other manner as a le^slator than all other questions which may come up for action. Public duty is very simple and not in conflict with any honest business. It is that what- ever is for the public good, is also for the good of every legitimate trade, occupation and business in the country. My long connection with the work and operations of the railroads has given me a healthy contempt for politicians who believe that they can fool the people by phrases denouncing the work and those engaged in it out of whom they make money in practice. The familiar form is the lawyer who de- rives his fees and his living from the retainers of cor- porations, and in legislative halls and on the plat- form covers them with indiscriminate abuse. An- other form is that which makes the vital business of legislation subordinate to stock speculation, the fluc- tuation of values and the undermining of credit. With an ingenious stock-broker, a shrewd lawyer and a skillful press agent the combination is com- plete. The bill is introduced, its advent heralded as a public boon and a patriotic effort in the interest of the people. The committee favorably reports, the stock of the company soon goes down, the investors become frightenei:y-6',:;^-<«',. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW Birthday Addresses AT IMP, MoNTAUK Club of Brooklyn The Monlaii clal organixatloa In New York which ha» utuined great prvum. ,,,,.1/,, m,^ n,-».M^,,..>. .^.- „,,,• .-•:c-ir