' LIBRARY OF THE ' UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN IN MEMORY OF STEWART S. HOWE JOURNALISM CLASS OF 1928 STEWART S. HOWE FOUNDATION 381 C433d YjmZ? f/mj * ( Q)/, AM 4 » 1 / y DEDICATION •-OF THE. NEIW KJ ARD OF TRAD n -OF THE- BOARD OF TRADE OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO. Dedichtory sed Bmquet Addresses, Chicago, Wednesday, April 29, 1885. o>- STENOGRAPHIC REPORT BY PETTIT BRIOT & CO., 726 CHICAGO OPERA HOUSE JOHN MORRIS COMPANY, FRINTERS, CHICAGO, 3 Si < 0433 d OFFICERS —OF THE— BOARD OF TRADE —OF THE— CITY OF CHICAGO —FOR— 1885 . . E. NELSON BLAKE, President. GEO. T. SMITH, 1st Vice-President. JAMES H. MILNE, 2d Vice-President. DIRECTORS : Term Expiring 1880. G. H. WHEELER, GEO. D. RUMSEY, L. G. HOLLEY, J. M. BALL, J. J. BRYANT. Term Expiring 1887. W. S. SEAYERNS, J. C. HATELY, W. H. CROCKER. EDMUND NORTON, W. W. CATLIN. Term Expiring 1888. G. G. MOORE, GEO. J. BRINE, W. H. BEEBE, W. D. GREGORY, GEO. G. PARKER. GEO. F. STONE, Secretary. ORSON SMITH, Treasurer. THOS. WHITNEY, Asst. Secretary. BOARD OF REAL ESTATE MANAGERS : E. NELSON BLAKE, President. D. W. IRWIN, CHAS. COUNSELMAN, JOHN R. BENSLEY, WM. DICKINSON. R. S. WORTHINGTON, Secretary. * STANDING COMMITTEES. EXECUTIVE . FINANCE : G. T. SMITH, J. H. MILNE, G. D. RUMSEY. G H. WHEELER, J. C. HATELY, G. G. MOORE. MEMBERSHIP : ROOMS: W. W. CATLIN, L. G. HOLLEY, G. G. PARKER. W. S. SEAVERNS, L. G. HOLLEY, W. Ii. BEEBE. MARKET REPORTS: PROVISION INSPECTION : J. H. MILNE, J. M. BALL, J. C. HATELY, HENRY BOTSFORD, S. A. KENT, J. G. BEAZLEY, J. J. BRYANT. R. L. ROLOSON. ( FLOUR INSPECTION : FLAX SEED INSPECTION : W. H. CROCKER, L. G. HOLLEY, E. NORTON, ISAAC PIESER, C. REIFSNIDER. L. G HOLLEl r , W. H. BEEBE, A. M. HENDERSON, S. D. FOSS, A. C. LAUSTEN. OTHER INSPECTION : CLEARING HOUSE : W. S. SEAVERNS, E. NORTON, W. D. GREGORY. G. D. RUMSEl", J. M. BALL, W. D. GREGORY. COMMERCIAL BUILDING : RULES: E. NORTON, J. J. BRYANT, G. G. PARKER. G. D. RUMSEY, G. H. WHEELER, W. LI. CROCKER, W. W. CATLIN, G. J. BRINE. LEGAL ADVICE : COMMISSIONS. J. M. BALL, J. J. BRYANT, W. W. CATLIN. J. J. BRY"ANT, E. NORTON, W. D. GREGORY". STANDING COMMITTEES. TRANSPORTATION : J. C. HATELY, W. S. SEAVERNS, G. G. MOORE, A. M. WRIGHT, C. E. CULVER, WM. DUNN, J. H. NORTON. WAREHOUSES : WEIGHING : G. H. WHEELER, J. C. HATELY, G. J. BRINE. W. H. BEEBE, G. D. RUMSEY, W. H. CROCKER, DISTILLING SPIRITS : J. M. BALL, E. NORTON, G. G. PARKER. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS : G. G. MOORE, W. S. SEAVERNS, W. D. GREGORY. CLAIMS AND MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS: W. W. CATLIN, G. II. WHEELER, J. J. BRYANT, W. H. CROCKER, G. J. BRINE. INSPECTORS. Inspector and Registrar of Provisions, Inspector of Flour, Inspector of Flaxseed, Inspector of Sample Grain, Inspector of Hay, - Weigher of Packing House Product, Weigher of Other Commodities, C. H. S. MIXER. R. W. RATHBORNE. S. H. STEVENS. H. B. OWEN. JOHN WADE. C. H. S. MIXER. JOHN WADE. COMMITTEE OF ARBITRATION. Teem Expiring 18S6. WM. GARDNER, F. G. KAMMERER, J. C. MERRILL, G. W. PHILLIPS, F. G. LOGAN. Term Expiring 1887. W. B. WATERS, L. H. ASH, J. J. BADENOCH, J. R. HODSON, C. B. CONGDON. COMMITTEE OF APPEALS. Term Expiring 1886. J. B. HOBBS, Z. R CARTER, A. EDDY, Jr., P. B. WEARE, N. T. WRIGHT. Term Expiring 1887. JAS. C. ROGERS, GEO. H. SI DWELL, J. J. McDERMID. H. H. ALDRICH, JAS. L. WARD. PRELIMINARY COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE DIRECTORS IN VIEW OF DEDICATING THE NEW BUILDING. A. M. WRIGHT, J. C. HATELY. G. T. SMITH, H. W. ROGERS, C. L. HUTCHINSON, C. D. HAMILL, G. H. WHEELER, C. H. ADAMS. Upon report of the Preliminary Committee, an Executive Committee was appointed, consisting of the following named gentlemen: E. NELSON BLAKE, Chairman. H. W. ROGERS, A. M. WRIGHT, J. H. MILNE, J. C. BLACK, J. C. HATELY, J. H. NORTON, ALEXANDER GEDDES, J. H. DWIGHT, C. H. ADAMS, G. H. WHEELER, C. L. HUTCHINSON, G. J. BRINE, G. T. SMITII, ROBT. WARREN, W. S. SEAVERNS. Subsequently,the following Special Committees 'were appointed: COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. €. L. HUTCHINSON, J. C. BLACK, G. H. WHEELER. COMMITTEE ON PRINTING. J. C. HATELY, A. M. WRIGHT, J. H. NORTON, G. T. SMITH, G. J. BRINE. COMMITTEE ON BANQUET. G. H. WHEELER, ALEXANDER GEDDES, R. WARREN, J. H. NORTON, J. C. BLACK. COMMITTEE ON EVENING ENTERTAINMENT. G. T. SMITH, C. L. HUTCHINSON, W. S. SEAVERNS, J. H. DWIGHT, G. J. BRINE. COMMITTEE ON DEDICATION EXERCISES. A. M. WRIGHT, J. H. MILNE, J. C. HATELY, H. W. ROGERS, C. H. ADAMS. COMMITTEE ON MUSIC. C. D. HAMILL, C. H. TAYLOR, E. F. CHAPIN, D. W. BAKER, A. E. CLARK. COMMITTEE ON INVITATIONS. G. T. SMITH, G. H. WHEELER C. L. HUTCHINSON The following named gentlemen composed the f FLOOR committee: C. H. ADAMS, Chairman. H. H. ALDRICH, L. H. ASH, GEO. C. BALL, H. BAUSHER, Jr. W. F. BLAIR, E. W. BAILEY, H. H. CARR, R. G. CHANDLER, R. W. CLARKE, W. F. COBB, W. S. CROSBY, W. C. DUELL, J. B. DUTCH, B. A. ECKHART, S. D. ELDRIDGE, FRANK FLOYD, C. S. FRENCH, H. G. GAYLORD, A. W. GREEN, E. A. HAMILL, JNO. S. HANNAH, F. S. HANSON, J. B. KITCHEN, M. C. LIGHTER, F. G. LOGAN, J. M. LOVE, Y. W. MACFARLANE, F. J. MARTIN W. E. Me HENRY, \V. E. McQUSSTON, GEO. W. MONTGOMERY, G. W. MURISON, E. H. NOYES, P. P. OLDERSHAW, ARTHUR ORR, A. A. PARKER, C. A. ROGERS, J. W. RUMSEY, J. C. SHAFFER, J. W. SYKES, E. 0. SEYMOUR, GEO. WARD, JAS. WARD, S.B. WEBBER, W. R. WALKER, J. R. WINTERBOTHAM, E. T. WHEELER. The following is a list of the Trade Associations represented and the Delegates representing same: A TLANTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Atlanta, Ga. AARON HAAS, S. F. WOODSON. OMAHA BOARD OF TRADE , Omaha, Neb. MAX MEYER, P. E. HERR. LOUISVILLE BOARD OF TRADE, Louisville , A>. C. T. BALLARD, T. H. SHULEY. ST. PAUL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE , St. Paul, Minn. P. H. KELLEY, MAURICE AUEIBACH. COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE OF PHILADELPHIA, Philadelphia , Pa. GEO. W. ELKINS, J. 0. FOERING, WALTER G. WILSON, SETH Q. COMLEY, WILSON WELSH. R. D. WORK. ELGIN BOARD OF TRADE , Elgin, III. S. R. BARHOLOMU, R. P. GLINCY. PEORIA BOARD OF TRADE, Peoria, III. B. WARREN, Jr., SAMUEL WOOLNER. BALTIMORE CORN AND FLOUR EXCHANGE, Baltimore, Md. GEO. H. BALL, R. M. WYLE, F. A. WHEELER. MINNEAPOLIS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Minneapolis, Minn. G. A. P1LLSBURG, H. W. PRATT, JNO. CROSBY, M. W. YUXA, WM. GRIFFITH. BURLINGTON BOARD OF TRADE, Burlington , /ota. HON. T. M. BACHYDT, MAYOR ADAMS. DETROIT BOARD OF TRADE, Detroit , Mich. JNO. MENDELL, A. G. ELLAIR, E. M. BUSSEL, J. M. FLINN. I CLEVELAND BOARD OF TRADE, Cleveland, Ohio. R. T. LYON, H. D. GOULDER. BOARD OF TRADE, Sacramento, Cal. JOS. STEFFENS, GEO. E. BATES. BOSTON PRODUCE EXCHANGE, Boston , WALLACE F. ROBINSON, Pres. JAS. E. WHITTAKER, Sec’y. BOSTON COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE , Boston, A/«js. EDWARD KEMBLE, F. W. CHENEY. BOARD OP' TRADE, San Fransisco, Cal. JULES CERF, WALTER M. HAMLEY. ALBANY BOARD OF TRADE, Albany, N. V. D. C. BENNFTT, W. 0. ELMORE. MOBILE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE , Mobile, Ala. W. H. ROSS, T. FARCHIMER. TORONTO BOARD OF TRADE. Toronto, H. W. DARLING, W. W. MATTHEWS, E. A. WILLS, H. W. NELSON. INDIANAPOLIS BOARD OF TRADE, Indianapolis, Ind. E. B. MARTINDALE, D. BLACKMORE. DULUTH BOARD OF TRADE , Duluth, Minn. Hon. J. D. ENSIGN, A. J. SAWYER, T. B. CASEY, R. S. HUNGER. MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE, Memphis, Tenn. W. J. CffASE, T. B. TREZEYANT. BOARD OF TRADE, Des Moines, Iowa. J. H. WINDSOR, J. P. BUSHNELL. BOARD OF COMMERCE, Quincy, III. DELEGATES NOT NAMED. DENVER BOARD OF TRADE, Denver, Col. JAS. F. MATTHEWS. PRODUCE EXCHANGE, Wilmington, N. C. JAS. I. NEETTS, J. L. CANTWELL, J. R. TURENTIVE. CORN EXCHANGE ASSOCIATION, Montreal, Can. DELEGATES NOT NAMED. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Pittsburgh, Pa. JNO. F. DRAVO, JOS. B. SEIBENECK. NEW YORK PRODUCE EXCHANGE, N. Y. FRANKLIN WOODRUFF, J. H. HEINCK, FRANKLIN EDSON, J. H. HODGSON, E. S. WHITMAN, G. B. HOPKINS, J. L. HOPPOCK, JNO. SINCLAIR, S. A. SAWYER, FRANKLIN QUIMLY, ASA STEAVENS. BOARD OF TRADE , Newark, N % GEO. B. JENKINS. KANSAS CITY BOARD OF TRADE, Kansas City, Mo. B. C. CRISTOPHER, W. WITHERS, T. B. BELENE, J. J. SQUIRES, C. G. PERRIN. BOARD OF TRADE, Savannah, Ga. DELEGATES NOT NAMED. MERCHANTS’ EXCHANGE, Buffalo, N. Y. C. L. HEDSTROM, W. THURSTONE, T. LOOMIS, E. B. SMITH, A. J. WRIGHT. MERCHANTS’ EXCHANGE, St. Louis, Mo. S. W. COBB, E. 0. STANARD, W. M. SAMUEL, D! P. GRIER, C. F. ORTHWEIN, G. H. MORGAN. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE , San Francisco, Cal. D. 0. MILLS, C. A. LOW, C. B. STONE. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Milwaukee, IVis. JOHN JOHNSTON, HUGUS SMITH, CHARLES RAY, 0. J. HALE E. SANDERSON, C. F. FREEMAN. BOARD OF TRADE, Boston, Mass. A. H. HARDY, C. Y. CAMBELL. BOARD OF TRADE, Nashville, Tenn. Col. A. S. COLYAN, G. S. KENNY. BOARD OF TRADE, Dubuque, Iowa. W. J. KNIGHT, E. M. DICKEY. STOCK EXCHANGE, New York. J. D. SMITH, E. S. CHAPIN, C. W. STEAD, A. De CORDOVA. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Denver, Col. Col. J. F. MATTHEWS, Hon. T. M. PATTERSON. PRODUCE EXCHANGE, Toledo, Ohio. W. H. BELLMAN, W. F. CARRINGTON, H. S. YOUNG, C. A. KING. PRODUCE EXCHANGE, San Francisco, Cal. M. COSTIGAN. •COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE, Philadelphia, Pa. E. L. ROGERS, G. W. ELKINS. THE NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE. President, FREDERICK FRALEY, Philadelphia. Vice-President, FRANK FRICK, Baltimore. WILLIAM S. YOUNG, Baltimore. WILLIAM 0. BLANEY, Boston. ALPHEUS H. HARDY, Boston. OSCAR H. SAMPSON, Boston. EDWARD W. SEYMOUR, Bridgeport. GEO. M. HOW, Chicago. S. F. COVINGTON, Cincinnati. PHILO PARSON, Detroit JOHN H. HOLLIDAY, Indianapolis. E. P. BACON, Milwaukee. C. M. LORING, Minneapolis. AMBROSE SNOW, New York. JOHN P. WITHEREL, Philadelphia. JAS. W. KIMBALL, Providence. J. A.. PRICE, Scranton, Pa. N. D. SPERRY, New Haven. J. S. T. STRANAHAN, N.Y. JOSEPH N. DOLPH, Portland, Ore. JOHN F. MILLER, San Francisco- D. M. SABIN, St. Paul. JAMES BUCHANAN, Trenton, N. Y. BOARD OF TRADE, Providence, R. I. J. M. KIMBALL, W. R. KIMBALL. BOARD OF TRADE, Newark, N. J. J. B. JENKINS. PROVISION AND TRADE ASSOCIATION, Liverpool, Eng. STANFORD WHITE. GRAIN AND COTTON EXCHANGE, Richmond, Va. J. SPOTTSWOOD CRANSHAW, G. W. DONNAN. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Cincinnati, Ohio. W. W. PEABODY, ADOLPH WOOD, C. B. MURRAY, H. C. URNER, W. M. HOBART, S. D. MAXWELL. A T 10:25 o’clock President E. Nelson Blake arose from beside the Rev. Dr. Clinton Locke and Emery A. Storrs, advanced to the floral-crowned desk at the edge of the platform, loudly rapped the assemblage to order, and said : Gentlemen of the (Board of Trade of the City of Chicago and our guests :—The hour has arrived for opening these formal exercises dedicating this building, and I now ask you to unite in the dedicating prayer, which will be offered by the Rev. Dr. Clinton Locke. Dr. Locke, rightly chosen for such an occa¬ sion, being as he is the clergyman who has longest ministered to any single Chicago par¬ ish or congregation, advanced to the front of 6 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE the platform, clad in his clerical gown. Sim¬ ply and devoutly he offered the following prayer: Almighty God, maker of all things, judge of all men, look down upon us as we begin this day by confessing Thy Kingship and Thy Fa¬ therhood. We have met to dedicate to the trade and commerce of this city, this noble temple ; and as our forefathers ever did, and as we pray Thee our descendants may ever do, we would first ask Thy blessing on our work. We acknowledge that from Thee came the wealth and the energy and the skill which has enabled us to build this place for doing the work it has fallen to our lot to do. And now that we have built it, wilt Thou put it into our hearts to keep its courts clear from dishonesty and fraud, and sharp practice, and feverish, un¬ healthy traffic. May nothing be permitted to enter here that will stain the honor of the com- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 7 pany of the merchants of this city, or make us a by-word among the traders of the earth. Bless all our honest efforts to increase our wealth and extend our commerce. Thou lov- est to see Thy children striving in every way to better their worldly condition. It is good for man to work, to struggle, to contend in generous rivalry. Thou dost not bless the idle and the improvident. But help us, oh Lord, to make a good use of our gains, and may we, not caring selfishly only for ourselves, be ever ready to help a needy brother. Thou hast greatly blessed us, oh God. “We went through fire and water, but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.” No city in the world hast Thou prospered more than this city, and may we show our gratitude by striving to keep Thy commandments and walk in Thy ways. Keep us from vain boasting, from pride of riches, from over-confidence ; keep far from 8 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE us war and pestilence, and lawlessness, and atheism ; and as we begin a grander business life in this house, may we say: “Thine, oh Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, oh Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Riches and honor came of Thee and of Thine own have we given Thee.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit, Amen. (MUSIC.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 9 DELIVERING THE KEYS, BY JOHN R. BENSLEY. In behalf of the Board of Real Estate Man¬ agers, Mr. John R. Bensley, the Chairman, turned over the building to the President of the Board of Trade, making the following re¬ marks : Mr. (President: The Board of Real Estate Managers have completed the work assigned them, and by their favor I am delegated to make a formal surrender to you of this hall and all that part of the building designed for the use of the Board of Trade. This day marks an epoch in the annals of this, our sturdy commonwealth. It is not my purpose to give an account of the birth, the struggles and the triumphs of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. IO DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Its history is an essential part of the history of our city, of the great West, yes, of the country. It has passed the adolescent period, and stands in the full strength of its manhood, the foremost commercial organization in the land. Five years ago the necessity for increased facilities and better accommodations made itself felt, and steps were taken to meet these requirements. A year was spent in securing the property on which this building stands—a task fraught with more difficulties than those not fully ac¬ quainted with the circumstances can well com¬ prehend. Having obtained the property, the associa¬ tion created a new branch in its government, styled the Board of Real Estate Managers, giving into its control the real estate of the Board of Trade, and authorizing it to borrow CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. II money upon the credit of the association, and instructing - it to build on the property at such cost and in such manner as the managers should elect. The present members of the board were elected by ballot in the fall of 1881, and imme¬ diately entered upon the duties of their office. From that time until the present this work has required, and has received, their constant at¬ tention. Within the very nature of the case they had to be, in an important sense, the architects of the work. No matter how eminent the skill employed, no one not a member of the associ¬ ation could determine what its needs were. They called to their aid architects of experi¬ ence and renown, and enlisted the best obtain¬ able talent to construct and decorate. It has been their aim to present a building that would furnish abundance of first-class fa- 12 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE cilities for the transaction of business, be self- sustaining, and at the same time be a credit to the association, and an object of pride to our citizens. The result of their efforts is before you, and if it meet with the approval of those they la¬ bored to serve, they will have received their reward. If they have achieved success, it is largely due to the fact that the members of the Board of Managers, including the President of the association, have been in absolute accord, and have received the confidence and support of the Board of Directors. I should do violence to the sentiment enter¬ tained by the managers should I omit to ex¬ press their appreciation of the eminently valu¬ able services rendered in this undertaking by their architect, superintendent, engineer and secretary. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 13 There are many things connected with the removal of the Board of Trade to this locality, and the erection of this building that are proper subjects for congratulation. The citizens of Chicago are to be congrat¬ ulated because the removal has enlarged the business center of our ever-growing city, brought into requisition a vast amount of here¬ tofore unproductive real estate, added more than a score of millions of dollars to the value of property within a radius of half a mile, transformed a waste and desert place into a crowded mart, and called into existence as if by magic, long lines of lofty, peerless business blocks, the wonder and envy of the age. It is a subject of congratulation to the mem¬ bers of this association that they are to occupy a new and beautiful business home, equipped with all the appliances to comfort and cleanli- H DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE ness, and supplied with an abundance of light and air. Emerging from the cramped quarters that have heretofore fettered and galled us, and feeling the vigor born of a greater liberty, it is not unreasonable to believe that in entering- here to-day, we also enter upon an era of re¬ newed growth, of an enlarged usefulness, and of a more permanent prosperity. It is with feelings of unalloyed pleasure that the managers are able to surrender to the as¬ sociation, not alone commodious and magnifi¬ cent halls, with elaborate apartments attached, the maintenance of which might prove a seri¬ ous burden to our members, but to accompany them with a rich endowment in the shape of an annual rent-roll of more than #120,000, a sum of money not only sufficient to pay all in¬ terest charges and all the expenses of main¬ taining the property, but also to put into the CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 15 treasury annually a large sum to be disposed of as circumstances may hereafter dictate. This pfives to the association the use of these fine accommodations absolutely free of cost. And, now, sir, on behalf of the Board of Managers, it is my pleasant duty to surrender to you, the recognized representative of the Board of Trade, these keys and the possession of these magnificent halls of trade and their collateral apartments. Keep them well. Let the association guard with jealous care against every assault upon its integrity, whether it come from within or from without. Let it scourge from these floors as with a whip of scorpions all fraud, all extor¬ tion, and all that maketh a lie. Let this temple of commerce be a temple of justice. Continue to cultivate here that code of commercial ethics, and all those graces which should govern and adorn the enlight- i6 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE ened Christian merchant, and we may rest assured that prosperity will go hand in hand with enterprise all along a sure road to abun¬ dant success. THE ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT BLAKE. The President of the Board of Trade, the Hon. E. Nelson Blake, then spoke as follows: Chairman (Bensley: It gives me great pleasure as the representative of this Board of Trade, and personally to meet you here to-day for this purpose in this beautiful hall, and as the Board of Managers, for whom you speak and act, thus hand over to-day the result of your labors for the past five years, you may well feel proud of the efforts you have made, and we believe that every stick and stone, every brick and beam, is a true representative of an honest indebtedness. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 17 With foundations rooted deep in the solid earth, quarried and chiseled from the everlast¬ ing rocks, bound and girded with bands of iron and steel, shaped, beautified, and adorned by man’s most skillful fingers, it stands to-day a noble, elegant monument of business enter¬ prise, and proudly we ask, what other associ¬ ated body could have gathered, closely nestling to its side, such towering piles of magnificent blocks as here surround us? Not broader and more massive are its walls, not more elevated its tower, not firmer or deeper its foundation than should be the height and length, and breadth and depth and stability of the business principles that actuate this membership; and I do not hesitate to say that less litigation in pro¬ portion to the magnitude, and the immensity of the transactions, takes place among our mem¬ bers than among other people in any depart¬ ment of business in any place on earth, for no 1 8 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE man of questionable business or moral charac¬ ter can become a member of this body. It would be surprising’ when 1,935 selfish human beings meet in the hot strife for gain if there were not a few attempts at fraud, or extortion, or “theft maketh a lie,” but I can assure you, sir, that with this noble company of honorable men, to sustain your officers, the attempts will ' * * be futile. The mass of the people give right decisions, and come to right conclusions, and the growth of this Board from infancy to now shows its hold upon the business convictions of the world. It is not responsible for the abuses of its system that have grown up all over the land any more than pure and undefiled religion is responsible for hypocrisy. Its prosperity is based upon a sure foundation of right and jus¬ tice, its present position has grown out of its past life, its future is being made to-day, and its to-day is the foundation of its perpetuity. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 19 Permit me, sir, and you, gentlemen of the Board, all, to congratulate you that for the first time in our history we are at home, under our own roof-tree, a wanderer and a tenant no more; and we welcome to this, our house¬ warming, our brethren from all over the land, members of kindred organizations'; our elder and our younger brothers; and gentlemen from the Gulf, and from the great lakes, from the Atlantic and from the Pacific, we pledge you our best endeavors, and we crave yours, in a united effort to suppress all unlawful use of the quotations sent abroad from that telegraph booth. Soon this hall will resound with the w - strife of buyer and seller, for ever since Joseph stored the abundance of Egypt’s years of plenty, to enrich Pharaoh’s treasury from the people’s wants during years of famine, men have endeav¬ ored to forecast the future, and buy or sell as they were moved by their hopes or fears. 20 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE And now, sir, in behalf of these, my fellow members, I accept this trust, with all its privi¬ leges, its duties and its responsibilities. Mag¬ nificent hall! Splendid temple! Beautiful home! May peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy gates. (MUSIC.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 2 1 ORATION OF THE DAY BY THE HON. EMERY A. STORRS. President Blake introduced the orator as follows: Gentlemen of the (Board and Guests :—It seems almost out of place for me to introduce to you the orator of the occasion, and yet the duty devolves upon me to introduce to you one who is so well known as the Hon. Emery A. Storrs. Mr. Storrs addressed the assemblage as fol¬ lows: Mr. (President and Gentlemen :—It would be the merest affectation were I to attempt to conceal for a moment my appreciation of the distinguished compliment involved in an invi¬ tation to address such a body, and on an occa- 22 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE sion so notable. Gathered here to-day, one of the most famous mercantile and trade associa¬ tions on the continent, having for its guests representatives of cities everywhere, to cele¬ brate the completion of this wonderful temple dedicated to a broad and catholic commerce, it is indeed a matter of the highest compliment that, drawn from the ranks of a great profes¬ sion, is one unknown in the marts of trade, to signify as best he can the purpose for which you are to-day gathered, and the history of that wonderful body now known all around the globe as the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago. Forty years ago what is now known as the great West was farther removed from the city of New York than the remotest confines of Europe are separated from the great West to¬ day. What is now an empire in power, popu¬ lation and wealth, was then almost an unknown CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 23 country; and nothing more distinctively illus¬ trates the marvelous increase in population, wealth and power of the Northwest, than the growth, from its first humble beginning up to its present greatness, of the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1848, that Chicago was to be a great city, and that, seated at the head of the great chain of lakes, it was to command in a large measure the grain-growing regions, that it was to be the center where should be gathered their agricultural products, and from which those products should be distributed through¬ out the world, became manifest to those few hopeful and sagacious men, who, on the 13th of March of that year, met together for the establishment of a Board of Trade in this city. The call for the first meeting was signed by thirteen firms and individuals, and resolutions were passed, stating that the growing trade of Chicago demanded the establishment of a 24 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Board of Trade; a constitution was adopted, and a committee appointed to draw up by-laws, which were submitted to an adjourned meeting on the first Monday in April following, when they were adopted. The beginnings were very small. The annual rent of the rooms was $110. But, as small as the Board was in point of numbers, it immediately interested itself in public questions. The first annual meeting was held in April, 1849. Steps were taken to secure telegraphic reports of the Eastern markets, and the hour for daily meetings was fixed at 9 o’clock. This young association devoted itself at once to the regulation of tolls on the canals, the condition of the harbor, and the confidence which even at that early day was reposed in it is exhibited by the fact that the City Council, having a short time before made an appropriation of $i,ooo in bonds, redeemable in five years at 10 CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 25 per cent, placed these bonds at the disposal of the Board. In April, 1850, the general law relating to the establishment of the Board of Trade was read at the first meeting of the Board, and the members organized under the act passed Feb¬ ruary 8, 1849, the title of the association being the Board of Trade of the Crty of Chicago, and the admission fee fixed at $5. In 1850 a deficit in the Treasurers books was found of $146, and the annual dues were raised from #2 to $3. The Board during this year was active in pro¬ moting the free navigation of the River St. Lawrence. Notwithstanding the pressing invi¬ tations extended to the members to meet daily, but few of them did so, and the hour of meet¬ ings was changed from 12, M., to 1 P. M. The third annual meeting was held in April, 1851, and there were at that time but thirty- eight members in the association. The Treas- 26 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE urer’s books then showed a deficit of $165, to meet which the Treasurer recommended that each member be assessed $4, which would very nearly free the association from debt. Charles Walker, during this year, was elected Presi- dent, and a delegation of the Board was appointed to attend a convention to be held at Peoria, to consider the improvement of the Illinois River. A daily record was kept of the members present at the annual meetings, and that record presents the curious fact that day after day there were no members present, and on many occasions no one present but the faithful and able President, Charles Walker. In 1852 the membership showed an increase of fifteen names during the year. It is not necessary to trace through these in¬ tervening years the history of this Board. It is enough to say that up to 1858 its growth was exceedingly slow, but that in the meantime CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 27 it had interested itself in all questions of a gen¬ eral character affecting the interests of the city and the Northwest. In 1855, at the seventh annual meeting, for the purpose of securing a better attendance of the members, refreshments were served to them of crackers, cheese and ale, and a reading room projected. In 1856 the annual meeting was held in the ladies’ ordinary at the Tremont House. The year 1858 was a notable one in its history. Our honored citizen, Julian S. Rumsey, was its President, and inaugurated the present system of grain inspection, which has been substan¬ tially adopted throughout the country, and has become an authority throughout the world. During that year the first annual report was made. In 1859 the Board felt itself sufficiently strong to occupy more enlarged rooms, and to involve themselves in liabilities for the pay¬ ment of an annual rental of $1,200, which by 28 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE many of its conservative members was deemed to be very extravagant. From 1859 down to 1861 the growth of the Board was exceedingly rapid. In i860 the list of membership comprised 625 names. In 1859 a new charter was obtained from the Legisla¬ ture,, conferring upon the association privileges commensurate with the increasing growth of the commerce of the city, and this, together with the new sets of rules and regulations, were formally presented and adopted. In 1861 the list of membership had increased to 725, and the Board had a substantial surplus. In 1863 it commenced the erection of its new building on the southeast corner of La Salle and Wash¬ ington streets, which was finished and occupied by it in 1865. This building the Board con¬ tinued to occupy until its destruction by fire on the 9th of October, 1871. It was rebuilt within a year, and the new building has been CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 29 occupied by them since that time up to to-day. The list of membership has increased to nearly 2,000. The transactions of the Board attract the attention of the commercial world. The history of this magnificent temple, dedicated to an honorable commerce, has already been told you, and it is for the formal dedication of this splendid structure to so great a purpose that we are to-day assembled. The Board of Trade of the City of Chicago is worthy of such a home. Considering the magnitude of the interests which it controls and represents, and the fidelity with which, from its birth down to to-day, the great trusts reposed in it by the people have been discharged, it needs not to vaunt itself, but the truthful story of what it has done is all the eulogy which it requires. This much, and very hurriedly, by way of history. But the figures showing the increase 30 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE of its business until its transactions have reached their present colossal proportions are more elo¬ quent than any mere language of description can possibly be. When the Board was organized in 1848 the entire shipments of flour from this city were 45,200 barrels, but in 1884 those shipments had reached 4,808,884 barrels. In 1848 there were shipped from Chicago 2,160,000 bushels of wheat, but in 1884 those shipments reached the enormous aggregate of 21,046,577. The growth of the Northwest is well exhibited in these speaking and eloquent statistics. In 1848 the shipments of corn from Chicago were 550,460 bushels; but in 1884 they amounted to 53,274,050 bushels. Within the same period of time the shipment of oats has increased from 65,280 bushels to 34,230,293 bushels. Prior to the year 1853 we possess no records exhibiting the trading in pork, lard, butter or CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 31 wool. But the increase in the actual transac¬ tions in these products is something marvelous. In 1853 the shipments of pork amounted to 9,266,318, and in 1884 to 549,674,034 pounds. Of lard in 1853 the shipments were 1,847,852 pounds, which had increased in 1883 to 219,617,436. In 1854 the shipments of butter amounted to 577,388, and in 1884 to 90,660,374 pounds. The shipments of wool in 1853 amounted to 953,100 pounds, and in 1884 to 53,334,926. The receipts of live stock and the packing business since 1864 and 1865 show an increase equally great. In 1864 we received 338,840 head of cattle, and twenty years later in 1884 the receipts had increased to 1,817,697. Of live hogs there were received in 1865, 757,072, and in 1884 we received 5,351,967. In 1864 there were packed 70,086 cattle, and 1,182,905 in 1884. In the year 1865 there were packed 760,514 hogs, and in 1884 the 32 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE a gg re gat e reached 3,911,792. The capacity of our grain elevators is 26,175,000 bushels. The actual values thus represented in dol¬ lars and cents, may safely be said to amount to the enormous sum of #600,000,000 per year. In part, these products furnish the foundations upon which the transactions of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago are based. They are real, if anything is real, and are the most substantial and positive actualities. These fig¬ ures demonstrate that the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago does not deal in fictions, for if there should be removed from the world’s supplies for one year these vast quantities of grain and provisions, want, and hunger and famine, most positive and real, would follow, which would be no fictions, but realities of the most deplorable and calamitous character. Nor are the men who engaged in handling these products gamblers. As colossal as the values CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE I have named are, they represent but- a small fraction of the entire volume of the transac¬ tions on this Board. A thousand bushels of grain may change hands twenty times every day, but fortifying each transaction is the ware¬ house receipt; and a fictitious transaction, or one which bears the slightest resemblance to a gambling one, is, within the rules of the Board, an utter impossibility. I am not speaking of these facts, so greatly to the credit of the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago, as distinguish¬ ing it from other associations of a like charac¬ ter throughout the country. What I have said of this Board is doubtless true in the main of all other associations of a kindred character. That there are speculative operations in grain and provisions no one will undertake to deny, but so long as the nature of man remains what it is, and what it always has been, enterprises more or less speculative will characterize the 34 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE commerce and trade of the world. It occurred many years ago to Lord Kenyon, who was a great man within a certain judicial range, that he could regulate by judicial decision the cur¬ rents of trade. He conceived that buying grain and breadstuff's, and holding them for a rise for speculative purposes, was against pub¬ lic policy, and immoral, and he therefore, as Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, adjudged all such transactions void. But the King’s Bench, with all its judicial terrors, might as well have undertaken to change the course of seasons as to have checked enterprises of a speculative character in breadstuffs, and such a clamor was raised about the ears of Lord Chief Justice Ken¬ yon, that it was not long before his decisions were relegated to the limbo of overruled cases, and are quoted to-day, not as authority, but as demonstrating how far and how absurdly wrong even a great Judge may possibly go. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 35 While no rules can check, and it would be unwise to undertake to check speculative oper¬ ations, yet the declared objects of the Board are utterly hostile to fictitious and gambling transactions, and to corners. The preamble of its rules and by-laws expresses the general objects of the Board in this language: “To maintain a commercial exchange; to promote uniformity in the customs and usages of merchants; to inculcate principles of justice and equity in trade; to facilitate the speedy ad¬ justments of business disputes; to acquire and disseminate valuable commercial or economic information; and generally to secure to its members the benefits of co-operation in the furtherance of their legitimate pursuits.” The rules and by-laws of the Board are hostile to all such enterprises, and to the crea¬ tion and manipulation of corners; and its au¬ thoritative action on notable occasions has been 3 6 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE in entire harmony with the general purposes as expressed in its preamble, and in furtherance of its rules and by-laws. In the year 1874, desperate efforts were made to control the corn market, which led to serious losses to the trade and to extended litigation. The transactions involved the dignity, and the fair fame and character of the Board. Charges were pre¬ ferred against members of the Board for vio¬ lation of its rules, reciting that “the object of the association, as set forth in the preamble to its general rules, are in danger of subversion by the toleration among its members of acts contrary to the principles which should govern all commercial transactions.” An investigation of the efforts made to control the corn market and of those engaged in these efforts was de¬ manded. The parties were brought to trial, resulting in the expulsion of several of the accused by a large and decisive vote, furnish- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 37 mg thereby the completest evidence of the determination of the Board to exercise its dis¬ cretionary powers, to the end that the highest possible standard of commercial integrity might be maintained. No association of individuals has ever adapted itself to new and indeed to novel situ¬ ations more rapidly or more intelligently than the Chicago Board of Trade. It has shown itself equal to every emergency, and has devel¬ oped a positive genius for legislation. Under the old time methods of transporting grain in bags, and its delivery at the various railroad depots, or by canal or water ways, a general system of inspection was well-nigh impractica¬ ble, and was perhaps unnecessary. But the tremendous growth of production made a change in the method of handling grain indis¬ pensable, and to this point, years since, the transportation of grain in bulk superseded the 38 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE old method, and this change in the method of transportation necessitated a change in the method of handling and storing : and out of this grew our vast elevator system. It became impossible, therefore, to keep each shippers grain by itself, and there grew up at once a necessity for fair and equitable inspection— such a system as would save the producer and shipper harmless, and secure him absolutely against any deceits which might be attempted upon him by the warehouseman. I have al¬ ready had occasion to refer to this system of inspection, and the system itself, supplemented as it now is by State legislation, is one so ad¬ mirably adapted to the purposes for which it was designed, as to reflect the highest credit upon its author and upon this Board. This system of inspection, and the issuance of ware¬ house receipts, practically revolutionized the character of transactions on ’Change, and made CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 39 possible those colossal operations which have carried the fame of the Chicago Board of Trade all around the globe. Behind every transaction on ’Change stands the warehouse receipt, and this warehouse receipt is as con¬ clusive and unchallengeable evidence as to quantity and quality as the mint stamp of the government upon its coin, or the silver certifi¬ cate that the exact amount of silver is behind it which it claims to represent. One of the declared objects of the Board, as we have seen, is to facilitate the speedy adjust¬ ment of business disputes, and its rules, refer¬ ring controversies between its members to the Board itself for determination, and substituting arbitration in the solution of business differ¬ ences for the slow and tedious processes of lit¬ igation in the courts, have operated most satis¬ factorily, and resulted not only in the saving of expense, but in the encouragement of a much 40 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE better state of feeling between members of the Board, and the settlement of questions between those members, much more speedily than could have been achieved by the ordinary proceed¬ ings in courts of justice. It is a part of the history of the Board that failures which from time to time occur, accom¬ panied with a fair and honest showing, are speedily settled ; and it is claimed that there has been in all its history no instance of a fair and honest failure where the unfortunate mem¬ ber has appealed in vain to the good sense and fairness of his brother members for an arrange¬ ment of his difficulties. Compared with the actions of the courts, settlement of great claims which have been made by the Board itself illus¬ trate its business, fairness and sagacity. With¬ in a few years a failure occurred involving mil¬ lions, which would have required years for ad¬ justment had it been submitted to the ordinary CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 41 forms of judicial proceeding, and involved thousands of dollars of expense ; but within a period of thirty days a complete settlement had been reached, practically without expense, and substantially to the entire satisfaction of all the parties concerned. It would be utterly im¬ possible that in the ordinary prosecution of its business the vast contracts that are made upon ’Change should be submitted to writing ; and so it has come to pass that so high a level of personal honor has been reached, that but a motion of the finger, a nod of the head, or a word is all that is required in a transaction in¬ volving possibly millions of dollars, and the instances of a violation of contracts thus en¬ tered into are so rare and exceptional, that it would be difficult to recall even one of them. Whether entirely conscious of the fact or not, the members of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago represent not only thems.elves, 42 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE and act not merely for themselves, but stand between the producer on the one hand, and the consumer throughout the civilized world on the other. There is no great business interest in this city in which, either directly or indirectly, it is not interested. Its members are found at the head of, or intimately connected with, our great banking institutions ; and the safety and solidity of our banks are universally recog¬ nized. This Board, directly or indirectly, has settled legal questions of the largest impor¬ tance to the producing and financial interests of the country. It has demonstrated the fact that those customs which, for the convenience of business, merchants have established among themselves, are stronger than any mere legal technicalities, and that to those customs, when among merchants they become uniform, uni¬ versal and well-established, the law must bend, and if it does not it will break. Lawyers have CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 43 commented with great pride upon what they claim to be the fact, that the great jurist, Lord Mansfield, was the substantial author and founder of what is now known as the law mer¬ chant. I would not detract from the encomi¬ ums so justly for generations passed upon Lord Mansfield, for his part in giving form and strength to that splendid body of the law. But it is always to be remembered that the law merchant was not invented nor devised by Lord Mansfield, nor by any other judge or judges, but grew out of the necessities of trade as developed by actual experience, was a code which merchants had established for them¬ selves, and that the part which Lord Mansfield played was not that of creating this code, but was the perhaps equally wise part, for a great' judge, of recognizing the existence of these customs, and giving them, by his adjudications upon the bench, the authoritative force of law. 44 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE To the changed condition of things growing out of the different methods of transporting grain, the courts in this State, I will not say were compelled to bend, but freely adapted themselves. Not many years since by a com- ♦ bination between the railroads and elevators, a great danger was threatened in the monopo¬ lizing of the warehouse business; and when a resolute representative, and thoroughly plucky member of the Board, controlling an elevator, insisted that the railroad companies should deliver grain to his elevator as freely, and upon « the same terms and conditions, as they deliv¬ ered to others, he was met by a flat refusal on the part of the railroad company; and resorting to the courts, the old rule that the carrier was not compelled to deliver beyond the terminus of its line was appealed to as a justification. But the courts wisely held that the new system of transporting grain in bulk shifted the ter- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 45 minus from the freight depot to the elevator, and that every elevator connected with the main track was a terminus for the grain con¬ signed to it, broke up the threatened system of monopoly, and made the business absolutely free. This case was a pioneer one, and in¬ volved countless millions in its consequences. In its determination, and in the way it was determined every producer of grain and cereals in the Northwest was interested. But what was the pioneer case but a few years since in this State has now become the settled law of the whole country, and the old conflicts between the members of this Board and the railroad companies and the elevators have practically ceased to exist, for the elevators and the rail¬ road companies now have their memberships upon your Board, and, so far as possible, all interests are consulted. Beyond your mere daily transactions here— 46 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE far beyond them—do your duties extend; and far beyond these transactions do your influences reach. From the first the interests which this Board and its members have shown in all mat¬ ters of public moment and consequence, and the intelligent activities which it has exhibited in the promotion of public interests upon a large scale, have brought to the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago that general confidence to which we may look, in part, at least, for an exclamation of its marvelous growth and pros¬ perity. During its long and honorable career the efforts and influences and the achievements of the Board of Trade of this city have not been limited to merely commercial enterprises. It has for more than a quarter of a century been the nucleus around which great movements have gathered for many public and patriotic purposes. Perceiving the necessity of an undivided CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 47 nationality, it spoke at the very outbreak of the Rebellion in no uncertain tones for the preser¬ vation of the Union and the honor of the flag. It raised and equipped a battery of artillery, the fame of which adorns one of the brightest pages of our annals, and “which history will never willingly let die.” It contributed to the raising of two regiments, known as the Board of Trade Regiments. It was foremost in aiding the raising of men to fill our depleted army. It sustained with unflinching zeal and unwaver¬ ing faith the financial honor and integrity of the country. It stood by the greenback and the national bank note in the days of their adversity. It is fitting and proper that it should be largely endowed with them in the days of their honor and triumph. Money to the cause of the Union without stint it gave when money was required. Men, as I have said, from its own membership it furnished. 48 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Its courage and hopefulness never for a moment faltered. This Board saw, with undimmed vis¬ ion, the imperative necessity that the Mississippi should flow unvexed from St. Paul to the Gulf, and that it should carry, without tolls and re¬ strictions, on its bosom if need be, the com¬ merce of the world. When the war closed, with that keen breadth of sagacity which it has always exhibited, it sought the prompt settle¬ ment of all questions which grew out of it, and on a basis so firm that these questions could not thereafter be revived. It insisted upon a Union restored not only in name, but in fact, and it to-day greets the South and the men of the South as friends in no half-way sense; as friends in a broader and better sense than ever before; as citizens of a common country, sharers in a glorious destiny for the future. It welcomes New Orleans and Atlanta, Savannah and Charleston—every Southern city, and CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 49 greets every Southern man as a fellow citizen. It welcomes and rejoices over its and their pros¬ perity, and asks that in the future peace may be perpetual between every portion of the country, and that over that common country there shall float but one flag, that flag filling all the sky—a flag without stain or blemish on its ample fold. Its charities have been as broad as its patri¬ otism has been genuine. Behind the great sanitary commission it stood with its helping hand, and down the Mississippi to the Gulf has this Board scattered its charities and its bene¬ factions in an unstinted measure. These char¬ ities, like its commercial operations, know no limitations of State lines. There is no geog¬ raphy in the generosity of the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago. Wherever there is suffering or want, it recognizes the boundaries of no mountains, rivers, nor sea. It is a pow- 50 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE er felt not only in State but in National legis¬ lation. It will demand for the city of Chicago and through the city of Chicago for the great West, that the act of Congress making this city a port of entry shall be no dead letter. It will demand and insist upon it that the vexed question of transportation by sea or land be settled in the interest of the great producing industries of the country. It will demand that our animal industries be protected and cared for ; that our vast public domain be preserved from the rapacious grasp of monopolists ; that our currency be kept at a standard so high that it pass unchallenged everywhere, and that it suffer no debasement; that the exportation of our live-stock and our hog products be pro¬ tected by National legislation ; and that, in¬ deed, all the great interests shall, so far as in it lies, be made the subject of its constant, ear¬ nest and intelligent care. United with other CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 51 Boards of Trade throughout the country, in a National organization, it conceives it to be its duty constantly to influence, wisely and intelli¬ gently, Congressional action, and will see to it that that duty be religiously performed. The Chicago Board of Trade, and the city itself, of which this Board is so fitting a type and repre¬ sentative, stands between the producer on our great plains, and the thousands of millions of consumers in our own country and across the seas. Its great operators to-day reach by elec¬ tric currents all quarters of the globe, and every morning the Chicago markets furnish the cue for prices of cereals and provisions throughout the world. It is but natural that the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago should be thoroughly rep¬ resentative and cosmopolitan in its character. The architects of that mighty empire, which within half a century has been reared in the 52 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE valley of the Mississippi and the far West, have been drawn from every portion of our country, and, indeed, from every quarter of the globe. The thrifty self-reliance of New England, the commercial breadth of New York, the sturdy solidity of the old Key-stone State, the vigor¬ ous and chivalric self-respect of the South, all find their representatives on the floor of this exchange. Attracted by thousands and tens of thou¬ sands to these limitless and fruitful fields, the Englishman, the German, the Irishman, the Swede have made their homes with us, and merged their old nationalities with ours. And hence in greeting to-day the repre¬ sentatives of the great cities of our country and the Old World, we make no new acquaint¬ ances, but renew old friendships, and here assert the ties of kindred and common ancestry. 'I CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 53 As unconscious as the founders—still living, of this city—were of the stupendous propor¬ tions of the work in which they were engaged, are the members of this Board of the influ¬ ences under which they are acting every day. Its commerce is so extended that its fibers are interlaced with the fate of kingdoms. If you take the transactions in cereals and provisions on this Board and run out the lines to their last extremity, you will find they reach to Thread- needle Street, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Calcutta, to all the farms in Great Britain, France and Germany; you will find far-off Russia affected by and responding to our daily deals ; and as they are affected, so are you. Unconsciously or otherwise you are the agents and represent¬ atives of every food-consuming and money center in the world. This marks the extent of your power and influence. You are the clear¬ ing-house in these great products for civilized 54 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE mankind ; and the time is not so far distant as you may think when here shall be exchanged the products of the old, dreamy Orient for the products of the Occident. Your mission is to be worthy not only of your prosperity to-day, but of those colossal and resplendent results which Providence is surely working out for us in the future. It is not necessary to remind you how exalted is the character of the real merchant. The great master of English prose has said : “ There are not more useful mem¬ bers in a commonwealth than merchants. They unite mankind together in a mutual in¬ tercourse of good offices, distribute the gifts of nature, find work for the poor, wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great.” There is no greater civilizer than commerce. The wisest of modern thinkers and philoso¬ phers has said: “ Commerce tends to wear off those preju- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 55 dices which maintain distinction and animosity between nations. It softens and polishes the manners of men. It unites them by one of the strongest of all ties, the desire of supplying their mutual wants. It disposes them to peace, by establishing in every State an order of citi¬ zens bound by their interests to be the guardians of public tranquility. As soon as the commercial spirit acquires vigor and begins to gain an ascendant in any society, we discern a new genius in its policy, its alliances, its wars and its negotiations.” The most superficial observer cannot fail to see that as great as has been the merely mate¬ rial prosperity which has attended your history, your glory will not always be merely material, nor will you always be satisfied with a prosper¬ ity reckoned by the size of your warehouses and the volume and extent of your trade. A broad, splendid culture will come by and by— 56 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE it is coming. Out of this vast commerce have grown countless splendid homes; it has reared churches, it has established schools and col¬ leges. There is, I am sure, a wonderful chemistry at work on the shores of this great lake, and in this city, which will evolve from the grain ele¬ vator, from the stock yards, from the pork¬ packing establishments, splendid results in sci¬ ence, in arts, in literature. We have just seen what has never before been witnessed in this country, born almost in a day, a magnificent festival devoted to music in its highest form and development, successful beyond the wild¬ est dreams of its projectors. The Board of Trade of the city of Chicago knows no rival¬ ries other than the generous rivalries of a broad and liberal commerce. Glad to welcome here to-day the representatives from all over the country, from across the seas and from the CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 57 neighboring Dominion of Canada, it extends to those representatives, and to the people who are behind them, greetings the heartiest and most cordial. For them and others it bespeaks all the prosperity for which they could ask, knowing full well that New York, Boston, Phil¬ adelphia, St. Louis, New Orleans and Atlanta, Memphis and Mobile, Buffalo and Toledo, Montreal and Quebec, Liverpool and London, may prosper never so much, their prosperity in no sense detracts from the growth and develop¬ ment of the Northwest and of the city of Chi¬ cago, but, as we flatter ourselves, adds and contributes to it. In this feeling, deeper than I can express it, broader than I can describe it, are these exercises this day conducted. To a commerce inspired by such purposes is this magnificent temple dedicated; and so long as it shall endure, so long as its walls shall stand, will the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago 58 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE maintain for itself that exalted position which it has finally reached, and through the centu¬ ries we trust be worthy of the great future that is coming to us as a people, and of the honor¬ able achievements which illumine its past. (Tremendous applause.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE; 59 BOSTON. THE HON. EDWARD KEMBLE. When Mr. Storrs had concluded his admira¬ ble oration, delivered under auspices than which he had perhaps found none more honor¬ able and distinguished, and the subsequent applause had ceased, there ensued a slight intermission filled in by the performance of a selection by the orchestra and the departure of those constrained to leave the hall at that hour. Calling the assembly again to order President Blake said: Gentlemen of the (Board :—It will be utterly impossible for us to invite all of the visiting delegations to give us their greetings to-day, and I find it very hard work to select the rep¬ resentatives out of so many excellent ones. 6o DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE p --—-r ‘i We can only take sections, and not individual i boards. And now, surely, the New England representative ought to be able to bring us greeting in this hall, in this temple, built from the grahite from her old stern rock-bound coast; and while they have given us a stone you can rest assured and they can rest assured we will give them bread. (Applause.) I have the great pleasure of introducing to you now the Hon. Edward Kemble, of Boston. There are three bodies from Boston represented here; he must, of course, speak for them all. Mr. Kemble, in response to the invitation, arose and spoke as follows: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Chi¬ cago (hoard of Trade :—In rising, which I do with great diffidence, in response to that call with which I have been honored, I desire first to present to you the acknowledgements of the Bostjbn Commercial Exchange for the courtesies CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 6 1 extended to it to-day. I am requested to pre¬ sent also the acknowledgements of the Boston Produce Exchange and the Boston Board of Trade for similar courtesies, and I further ten¬ der to you the congratulations of the three ex¬ changes upon the completion and the posses¬ sion of this grand structure to-day dedicated to trade. It is at once not only a comfort and con¬ venience and an honor, but it is also a neces¬ sity of your Board and an enduring monument of your great prosperity. In attempting to say a word here, I am embarrassed before this large assemblage, I am embarrassed with its distinguished character and with the magnitude of the occasion, and I might well hesitate and keep silent, but I recognize the fact that the Boston Commercial Exchange, which I have the honor to represent in part here, has a pecu¬ liar honor on this occasion, and I myself feel somewhat reassured when I see in the chair 62 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE of your presiding officer and in the chair of your Secretary, gentlemen who were formerly members of the Exchange in Boston. They were prominent there and we find them prom¬ inent here, and, so far as they are concerned, to me the aspect is quite homelike. But, sir, I will not dwell too long at this period of your exercises. I shall, however, and I deem it not improper, as this is an occasion of congratula¬ tion, extend to this Board and to your officers, our congratulations also upon their elevation to positions of so much dignity and responsibility. I see too, here, the faces of gentlemen with whom some of us have been long connected— with whom some of us in Boston have been long connected in social or business relations, and, as your President has remarked, the very granite itself, which enters so largely into the composition of this edifice, has been trans¬ ported from the rocky shores of New England, CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 63 and over a line of railway of which our own Hoosac Tunnel forms a part. So that we who are here from Boston, or we from New England, cannot feel as strangers here to-day. Mr. President, we in Boston watch from day to day the course of your markets, and wonder at the growth of your business, and we would gladly participate with you, if such a thing were pos¬ sible, in the grand march in which you are leading all the exchanges of the country; but we do join with you; we can and we do join with you in thoughts and aspirations, and in your action, so far as we can—so far as that is possible, in pushing forward, with rapid strides, the grand developments of modern business. (Applause.) 64 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE LIVERPOOL. STAMFORD WHITE. President Blake next spoke as follows, and loud was the applause following the announce¬ ment of the speakers name and country: Our country can never forget that among our best customers is her mother land, Great Britain; (Applause.) small in territory, but large in all that goes to make up national greatness; and we welcome to-day a delegate representing Great Britain, Mr. Stamford White. Mr. White said: Mr. 'President and Gentlemen of the Chicago Poard of Trade :—It is with pleasure that we present to you the congratulations of the Liv¬ erpool Association upon the completion of the CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 65 magnificent temple of commerce, the opening of which marks a new era in the remarkable growth of this great city. Rejoicing in it as an evidence of the success which has attended the enterprise and the industry of your people, we express the hope that a still larger share of prosperity shall crown your efforts in the fut¬ ure. As an index also of the growing pros¬ perity of this great West, fertile in the produc¬ tion of the staples necessary to life, this event becomes a matter not merely of local or even national, but also of international interests. Electricity and steam annihilating distance, have brought our countries practically close together, and our interests have become so nearly identical that whatsoever affects the well¬ being of one is of the liveliest interest to the other. A prosperous season in this Northwest means a season of satisfactory employment for our great transatlantic shipping interest, and 66 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE an ample supply of cheap food for our people. A favorable season in the South means a large movement in cotton, bringing activity to all our manufacturing centers. Prosperity in Great Britain means large purchasing power for the surplus products of this great country. How great our commerce has grown and how closely our interests have become allied, may be judged from the fact that in maintaining the traffic between Liverpool and the North Amer¬ ican Atlantic ports, there are constantly en¬ gaged upward of 300,000 tons of high class steam shipping; and this, not to mention the smaller vessels and the craft which carry the product of the Southern fields to the great cot¬ ton markets of the world. Mr. - (President :—The sentiment which you have just expressed, and which has been so warmly received by this vast and representative assembly, is one which cannot but produce a CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 67 responsive feeling in the heart of every British subject. (Applause.) It is impossible to con¬ ceive that circumstances could ever arise which should cause a severance of the ties which bind two such nations so closely together, but rather as they are one in race, one in tongue, one in interest, they will ever work closely and cordially together, and with their commerce ex¬ tending in an ever increasing flood over every sea and into every clime, it is a proud destiny to wield a powerful influence toward the civili¬ zation and the material and moral advancement of every people throughout the world. (Ap¬ plause.) 68 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE SAN FRANCISCO. CHARLES B. STONE. President Blake introduced the next speaker as follows: “The wonderland of our country is our Pacific Coast; its mountains, its valleys, its mines, its trees, its fruits and its flowers are peerless. To-day this Board of Trade of the city of Chicago is ready to do honor to the representative of that wonderland, who has crossed the continent to join with us in this celebration. I have the honor of introducing to you Mr. Charles B. Stone, of San Fran¬ cisco.” Mr. Stone spoke as follows: Mr. (President :—You say our country is a wonderland. Yes, we in California believe, and CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 69 say, that everything- of our own is the greatest in the world; but at this time we are so im¬ pressed with the magnitude of your city and its business, with the magnificence of this building and this beautiful hall; we are so overcome by the hospitalities which the members of your Board have extended to us by your reception committee, that for a moment we forgot the wonders of our mountains and our valleys; we forgot the circumference of our trees; we forgot even the fragrance of our fruits and the fra¬ grance of our flowers. We are so impressed by all this magnificence that we cannot enthuse even upon what with us is a common thing, our glorious climate. Perhaps all this will re¬ turn to us as we return Westward. On behalf of the Pacific Coast delegation I will simply thank you for your courtesies and invite you all to visit us and view for yourselves our won¬ derland. (Applause.) 70 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE NEW YORK. J. H. HERRICK. President Blake next introduced the Presi¬ dent of the New York Produce Exchange, saying, “ Gentlemen of the Board, I now have the pleasure of introducing to you one of our sisters from the Atlantic Coast, our financial metropolis, our great seaboard city. She is too great to be envious; she is too generous to be jealous. Permit me to present to you the President of the New York Produce Exchange, Mr. H errick.” (Applause.) Mr. Herrick responded: The great seaboard city of the East to-day greets the metropolitan city of the Lakes, ever ready to congratulate her in her day of triumph, or to sympathize with her in her hour of trial. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 7 1 Bound together as these cities are by the closest ties of kinship of commerce, of amity and of mutual dependence, both alike share the benefits accruing from the success achieved by either. To the efforts of the merchants of these great cities is especially due their surprising growth in population and power; to the enter¬ prise and sagacity of this same class may be attributed the vast and rapid accumulation of wealth and luxury with which we are sur¬ rounded. This magnificent commercial temple which you have to-day gathered together to dedicate, is the fitting superstructure, whose foundations were laid when the present gener¬ ation was in its infancy, the completion of which both illustrates and emphasizes the im¬ perishable nature of the principles upon which your prosperity is based—commercial and national honor. 7 2 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE It is not beyond the memory of many men now living - when the children of the East took up their journeyings toward the setting sun; the parent stock was sound and the travelers bore with them those vigorous seeds of success¬ ful enterprise, self-denial, sagacity and perse¬ verance which implanted in the rich virgin soil of the West what produced so marvelous a harvest. The agriculturist and the merchant—his representative—in the history of the world have been the only real and permanent conquerors of nature. The real wealth of a nation is that which is won from the soil by the labor of the agricultural classes. Such wealth, apart from the distribution which your organization and others like it are able to effect, would be almost as useless to the country at large as is the gold lying in scattered grains among the sands of our river beds, or the nuggets enclosed in the CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 73 quartz of our auriferous rocks. Wealth is only truly wealth when it is in circulation. The markets, your far-seeing commercial instincts have discovered, form the incentive for the full development of the soil; consumption and pro¬ duction mutually interacting and stimulating each other, draw as with a magnet the surplus population of the Old World. When this country is old enough to have its philosophical history written, to the mercantile class will be ascribed the highest influence, to it will be awarded the greatest honor for its development. In the first rank of this royal class will be found the merchants of Chicago. The unequaled means of transportation which the country now enjoys has been stimu¬ lated, yea, almost brought into being by the demands of the commerce you have created and faithfully fostered. You first covered these great lakes with the white winged messengers 74 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE of domestic commerce. Your enterprise, seek¬ ing still greater facilities in all directions, has bound the country together by a vast net work of iron highways. Cultivating so assiduously physical and material prosperity, there was still room for the growth of patriotism. Whenever men or money or supplies were needed to preserve the national life, Chicago was foremost among her sister cities to respond with spontaneous enthusiasm. More than twenty years ago it was said the Northwest will never permit the mouth of the Mississippi to be held by a foreign power, and you know well this deter¬ mination was carried out. Who appreciated more clearly than the men of the Northwest the capabilities of the valley of the Mississippi, extending through so many parallel latitudes with a soil of unexampled fertility, a diversity of climate which encour- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 75 ages the greatest variety of products, and which will hereafter teem with a population superior to any the world has ever seen, in the ability to utilize the bounteous gifts of nature ? Commercial centers are intellectual centers, crystalizing the ideas which give shape and color to the sentiments of the people of the surrounding country. Chicago then occupied the proud position, and we cannot hope to measure the debt we owe to her patriotism and energy for the preservation of the Union, which combined the inherent right of self- government with the priceless gift of personal liberty, as Castilear well said : “A nation over which humanity will eternally shed its blessing, and God his benediction.” This grand temple then, which you dedicate to-day, is but the first fruitage from the tree of your great prosperity. Within these walls will be found the seed that shall cause the desolate 76 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE regions of our common country to blossom as the rose. Manufactures are the offspring of your genius, and what are called the professional classes are the fruit of your lawings and still draw their life from the sources from which they sprang. We are learning the as yet un¬ fathomed power of concentration and central¬ ization. The splendid exchanges which are springing up in our great commercial centers are the outward signs of the growing power of the merchants of this country in combination. I look forward, Mr. President, to the time when a larger number of merchants shall be found in legislative halls, giving practical shape to what is now too often rather theoretical and visionary than the practical legislation we need. If this country is peacefully to develop a pop¬ ulation of 300,000,000, it will be because our statesmen draw largely from the wisdom and CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 77 practical talents of our merchants in shaping the destiny of this mighty empire. As the sunlight of every morning gilds yon spire with the light and beauty of the opening day of your success, so may the brilliant and gorgeous colors of its setting glory symbolize your constant prosperity for ever and ever. 78 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE MONTREAL. HUGH M’CLENNAN. President Blake introduced the next speaker as follows: “Among- our honored guests are our Canadian cousins, and they are welcome in this land, explored by their La Salle, Joliet and Hennepin. I have the pleasure now of introducing to you Mr. Hugh McClennan, of Montreal/’ (Applause.) Mr. McClennan responded as follows : Mr. President and Members of the (Board of Trade of Chicago: Many of you are old friends that I am glad to see here to-day. My friends, who have accompanied me upon this delegation, have remitted to me the duty of extending the congratulations of Montreal and Canada upon this auspicious occasion. Can- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 79 ada, as has been stated in the introduction to my appearing before you, feels that the threads of its influence have been woven into the his¬ tory of this country and of Chicago from its very inception. Upon that memorable occasion in October, 1871, I stood here with a citizen of Chicago —then representing Montreal, as I have the honor of doing upon this occasion in company with others—amid the desolated ruins of this city; and he stated that he had seen the ground upon which we stood the undisturbed home of the prairie wolf ; that he had seen the city of his pride grow up upon it; that after that time it had become a desolation by fire, but that he hoped that he might see this city again rebuilt in its former greatness. I am free to say that I felt at the moment that, while the city of Chicago might be rebuilt, there were very many who would not see the accom- So DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE plishment of that fact. I am proud to see that my friend is still living and has seen the city rebuilt and its glory culminate in this building in which we stand to-day—Mr. Gur- don S. Hubbard ; and although we cannot claim him as a Canadian, it was in Montreal that during his three years’ residence there, I have no doubt he acquired his love of the Western frontier life and found his way to the city of Chicago. When this State took upon itself to pay #5,000,000 of money to construct a waterway to let out its products—an enormous sum of money at that time, and, by the way, it is a debt that won’t stay paid, but keeps constantly coming up again—the Canadians followed in the wake of the industry that was then initiated, and two of the men interested in that have become in¬ terested in the future growth of this city. Thus Canada has held its connection with this CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 8 1 great metropolis. When the first waterways to the upper lakes were completed there was some difficulty in regard to the passage of the first vessels that came here from Canada, but that was adjusted by the consideration of the Government at Washington, and subsequently our Canadian trade became of great importance in the history of the growth and development of Chicago. I will say one word, Mr. Presi¬ dent, in reference to this building which you have dedicated here to-day, and which should not be overlooked. This building- indicates not only the growth and the wealth of this city, but it indicates the development of this country, and I think that more than all, it indicates the conditions which have produced the prosperity which we see here before our eyes. I attribute it to the merchants who are engaged in trade in the city of Chicago. I attribute it very largely to the fact that when a man bought a 82 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE lot in Chicago he got what he paid for; when he bought corn he got that which the first summer season didn’t cause to heat ; if he bought wheat, he bought that which was not in danger of being posted ; if he bought butter, it was cow’s butter, and it was hog’s lard that he got in the city of Chicago, and he gets them yet; and I will say beyond that that its system of inspection is better than that of any other place in the world that I know of. There is another feature which has been referred to about which I would like to say a word, and it is this: That in all the transactions of this Board the litigation that has grown out of them has been so very rare as to form an ex¬ ception, for in an experience of thirty years I do not know of a single transaction that has ever been referred to a court of justice. These are the elements that tend to the success of your merchants. These are the elements CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 83 which make wealth valuable, and on which I congratulate the city of Chicago to-day. Coming as I do from a country that is not so closely identified with this, excepting in its trade relations, you will allow me a moment to refer you to the relations of Canada, and of England likewise, to this country. The assump¬ tion that all new countries necessarily have growth and prosperity in them ; the assump¬ tion that England has passed her greatest day, and that her energy and vigor are gone, and that necessarily it must fall upon other shoulders, I think is a mistake. I think it is a mistake to assume the position that progress of any description must have its counterpart in the decay of any other nation. Chicago to-day is to be congratulated upon the position she occupies in trade as compared with that which she occupied thirty years ago, and the men who were engaged in the wheat and provision 8 4 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE trade at that time attended to the details of work that involves much personal effort. Would we say to-day that there was decadence in Chicago because her merchant princes live in palaces, and because they are in communi¬ cation with all the people of the earth, and the children of Europe are learning their alphabet from the letters on the boxes and packages which come over from the city of Chicago, would we be justified in saying that there was decadence in the city of Chicago? It would be an unfortunate day, not only for Great Britain, but for this country, if Great Britain should degenerate in any degree; and it would be unfortunate for this country if Great Britain should pass through a condition of decadence. The destinies of the two countries are united, and it is apparent that the English speaking people of the world are to carry forward the conditions of trade, and to carry with them the CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 85 moral conditions and the religious conditions that make a people great and prosperous. It is as sure as that there is a Divine government, that we must carry those conditions to the ends of the earth, and that upon a union of the English speaking people will rest this great responsibility, and that while we know not what particular form it may assume to consoli¬ date these interests and to make the people one in sympathy and in effort, that day is surely coming, and I believe that many of us will see it. There is no question that in the past there have been lines of National distinc¬ tion, but as we have outgrown the old building with its narrower walls and darker appearance, as we left it yesterday and came into this brighter and clearer light here, so the English speaking people of the world are making their progress an aid in carrying out the destiny to which they are called. I therefore congratu- 86 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE late you again in the name of Canada, and I rejoice to be present upon this auspicious occasion. (Applause.) ST. LOUIS. THE HON. E. O. STANNARD. President Blake introduced the orator from St. Louis as follows: “In order that you may not get too weary I wish to state that we are reserving—with all due respect to those who have gone before— the best for the last. Situated in the heart of the Nation, in the rich valley of the Mississippi, is one of our elder sisters, a little haughty and proud in consequence of her age and position; still you will unite with me to-day in kissing her hand in token of our pleasure at her pres¬ ence with us. I take great pleasure in intro¬ ducing Gov. Stannard.” CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 87 Gov. Stannard spoke as follows: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the (Board of Trade of Chicago :—Yesterday evening, after I was informed that I was the St. Louis victim and was to speak upon this occasion, I wandered around the streets for about an hour, feeling very desolate, and thinking what I could say for Chicago, for St. Louis and for this great country of ours, and after I retired I staid awake about an hour trying to formulate something in my mind that I thought would be proper to say on an occasion like this. Since I have been on the platform I have made up my mind that that speech ought to be reserved for some other occasion (laughter and applause) and that what I say ought to be inspired from the grand speeches which have been made and the noble sentiments which have gone forth from this platform. St. Louis is exceedingly rejoiced to have had 88 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE the privilege of being here. St. Louis is proud of her own position, of her prospects for the future, but she no less rejoices at the success and prosperity which has come to the people of Chicago. (Applause.) We are not here, of course, to bow a humble knee at the feet of Chicago (laughter) and you do not expect us to do this. You are too grand and generous a people for anything of this kind. But we are here with our hands, and with the hands of the people of this great country to join in the coronation here to-day, which Chicago, as the queen of the lakes, will so proudly and gener¬ ously receive at the hands of the merchants from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the British possessions to the Gulf of Mexico. (Applause.) Something has been said of the history of the city of Chicago and of the great North¬ west here to-day. I thought while sitting here CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 89 that I was a pioneer of this Western country, although not as great as some of the venerable and honorable merchants whom I see all around me. A history which I cannot question, because in early life I was admonished not to question, says to me that in 1836, before I can remember, that my father and grandfather hitched up their wagons in New England and started for what now is the great State of Iowa, before it had a territorial organization, and when this great country off here was the North¬ western Territory undivided. That is less than half a century ago. We passed along in our wagon within fifty miles of Chicago. We took thirteen weeks to make the trip from New England to Iowa, swimming streams, camping at night, running across the country with a compass. This, gentlemen, was less than fifty years ago. I believe—this was your thought, my friend—I believe in the immortality of the 9° DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE soul. My longings reach out for the future, after we are through with these things, and I, too, wish, seeing what has been accomplished in fifty years, that fifty years from now I could look out of the battlements of Heaven over this country, and see then what shall be. Trade organizations are of ancient origin. We are told by the historians that in the chief quarters of Babylon, places were set apart for men to trade in corn and wheat and barley, etc.; that in ancient Athens men went to con¬ venient places and met, buyers and sellers together, and bought and sold. The oldest trade organization that I know anything about, or have read of, was in London during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, I think in 1566. It was a genuine trade organization. A century or so after that, we are told that the Royal Ex¬ change of London, under the patronage and through the enterprise of Sir Thomas Gresh- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 91 am. was erected, and of course that exchange has a world-wide reputation. Other exchanges alonof were organized, but of course I cannot wait to speak of them. The hrst exchange in the United States was organized in the citv of Xew York in 1768. About two or three years later it received a charter from the Crown of England. A few vears later Boston Boards of Trade were organized, and in Baltimore, and in Philadelphia, and I notice that we in St. Louis, long before my time, in 1S42. organized a Chamber of Commerce for the city of St. Louis These trade organizations of course are ancient in their history, but are exceed¬ ing! v familiar to ah of us. because most of us have been members of boards of trade or chambers of commerce for manv vears. I * * myself was a member of your old Board of Trade in 1S61. down here on the river some¬ where. and of course I have been observing 92 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE carefully the progress of the city of Chicago, having had some interest at some times during the last quarter of a century, in your city. I have always been proud of your merchants, proud of their enterprise, proud of the progress that you have made here, and I am proud of the fact that I, with you, live in an age and in a country where such progress as we see around about us and such grandeur is too possible. It is said sometimes that there is a good deal of rivalry between the city of St. Louis and the city of Chicago. We are about 300 miles apart. In this great country of ours there should be a rivalry in commerce as in everything else. I believe that rivalry is healthful; and St. Louis men wish you God¬ speed, I am sure, from the fullness of their hearts, and they must surely congratulate you upon the success which is apparent around you everywhere. With these remarks I will detain CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 93 you no longer, but thank you for your attention and for the opportunity which we have had of being here. (Applause.) MINNEAPOLIS. THE HON. G. A. PILLSBURY. President Blake introduced the representa¬ tive of Minneapolis as follows: “In the great Northwest there is a land of the Dakotas made memorable in song, and yet Poet Longfellow’s wildest dream is more than realized. Hia¬ watha’s hut has disappeared and given place to palace homes and to mammoth mills. Hia¬ watha’s hunting-grounds have become smiling farms, abundant in ‘No. i hard.’ I present to you the Hon. G. A. Pillsbury, of Minneapolis.” (Applause.) 94 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Mr. Pillsbury responded as follows: Jvlr. (President and Gentlemen :—I can sympa¬ thize somewhat with Gov. Stannard in the fact that I did not expect to be called upon to speak upon this occasion, until about 9 o’clock this morning. You have given me the land of the Dakotas. Let us contemplate what the land of the Dakotas consists of as compared with the territory comprising the United States. The land of the Dakotas includes more territory than Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connect¬ icut, Rhode Island—that great big State of Rhode Island (laughter)—New York, Pennsyl¬ vania, Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio; con¬ sequently, you have given me a big subject to talk upon. (Laughter.) The land of the Dakotas, as has been said, has been made memorable by our great poet, Longfellow, and it has been said that the brightest picture of it has been more than realized. I think that is CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 95 true in one sense. The two cities about the falls of Minnehaha, of which Longfellow wrote, contain probably 200,000 souls. They have all been planted there within the short space of thirty or forty years. I recollect that when the present State of Minnesota was a Territory, one of our delegates in Congress was pleading for a grant of two sections of land in each township for school purposes, which is not the case in many States, but we finally succeeded in getting a grant of two sections in each town¬ ship for educational purposes. While the ques¬ tion was pending, one of the representatives from the State of Michigan, who was on the committee that had that matter in charge—-and there was a good deal of opposition to it—- finally said: “It isn’t any use, that country up there. It isn’t of any use in God’s kingdom. We might as well give them two sections as one." (Laughter and applause.) But I think 96 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE the people of this country have found out that there is some territory worth cultivating up there. As I have said those two cities, one on each side of the falls of Minnehaha, contain at least 200,000 inhabitants, and within thirty years our population has increased from noth¬ ing up to probably not less than 4,000,000 of souls. So you see that the land of the Dako¬ tas has become an important part of this coun¬ try so far as its products are concerned. You have said that Hiawatha’s hut has given place to palace houses. Not only those two cities, fine residences and large manufacturing establish¬ ments, but all through the State of Minnesota and Dakota you will find cities and villages growing rapidly. You have said also that Hiawatha’s hunting-grounds have become smil¬ ing farms. Yes, in this country, where it was thought forty years ago that it was nothing but a desert, we raise in the two States of Minne- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 97 sota and Dakota alone not less than 75,000,000 bushels of wheat. Much of this wheat passes through your city of Chicago. We are tribu¬ tary in that respect. It goes from here to all parts of the world. We raise this amount of wheat, to say nothing of other cereals and stock. I represent the Chamber of Commerce in Minneapolis, and while we bow to Chicago as being the great place, not only in the North¬ west but in the country, we feel a little pride in being able to say that in my city we manu¬ facture more flour than in any other city in the world. Our grain trade is second to none in the United States, but still the flour that we manufacture and the wheat that we raise, most of it, passes through your city of Chicago. When you consider the newness of our coun¬ try, the fact that thirty years ago the city of Minneapolis had hardly a human being in it, that now we manufacture there 28,000 barrels 9 8 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE of flour a day, requiring 450 cars, or twenty freight trains a day to bring in the product and take it out, I think you will say we are a grow¬ ing city. We are growing in the Northwest. We are pleased to be represented here, Mr. President. The relations that have always ex¬ isted between our Chamber of Commerce and yours have been of the most intimate and friendly character. You, Mr. President, were kind enough, not long ago, to visit our city when we were dedicating our Chamber of Com¬ merce. It is not to be compared with this, but it meets our wants well, and we thought it was appropriate for our city to congratulate you, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Minneapolis and the Northwest, on your success in building this beautiful edifice, and we hope that the pleasant relations which have heretofore existed between us will con¬ tinue to exist in the future. (Applause.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 99 CINCINNATI. SIDNEY D. MAXWELL. President Blake then introduced the next speaker as follows: “We not only have a ‘ wonderland ’ in our country, and the land of the ‘ Dakotas,’ but we also did have a ‘borderland.’ Some of you remember well what was called the ‘Mason and Dixpn's line.’ That border line has been tramped out by the tread of ar¬ mies. (Applause.) It has been wiped out by share of plow and harrow’s teeth. It has been drawn out by express trains and fast freight, and tourists and travelers find but faint trace of it. It is fast passing from the memory of man. I had hoped to introduce to you to-day a gen¬ tleman from Louisville, but he is not able to respond to your kind invitation, at least the IOO DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE members of that body have not so reported. Mr. Sidney D. Maxwell, the superintendent of the Chamber of Commerce of Cincinnati, who represents the country where that line did ex¬ ist, I have the honor now to introduce to you.” (Applause.) Mr. Maxwell responded as follows: Mr. (President and Members of the (Board of Trade of Chicago :—In the name of the “bor¬ derland,” I salute you. In the name of that borderland that felt the. shock of battle and the marching and counter-marching of ar¬ mies; that felt the anxieties of impending con¬ flict, which sometimes are greater than the con¬ flict itself, I extend to you hearty greetings. I tender you the cordial greetings of that land— the “borderland”—which, since the war, has used its energies to bind up the Nation’s wounds (applause); to develop the great resources of the interior of this country, and to make the CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE IOI people of this land one in fact as well as in name. (Applause.) I congratulate you on what you have attained in the name also of the Chamber of Commerce of Cincinnati, which I, with others here, have the honor to represent—an organization which was heard in commercial councils before yours was born, and yet one which has been willing, and is now willing to learn from you. (Applause.) I may do more than this—I may congratulate the people of the whole country, for Chicago is eminently a representative of this country; she represents the ceaseless energy, the stu¬ pendous vigor, and the indomitable persever¬ ance of the people of this country as no other city in the land does. It is the expression of the commercial possibilities of an organization, whose founders have had the opportunity of laying its foundations away from the rubbish of past centuries. (Applause.) It speaks well 102 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE for the commercial bodies of this land that they are erecting for themselves and occupying houses worthy of their great mission—of their great constituency. St. Louis, New York, Chicago and other cities have houses of this kind, and now Cincinnati is also building a house for its own commercial home, and during our centennial year, if not before, we hope to invite you, gentlemen, to an occasion sim¬ ilar to this, and then, if it be found that the best wine shall have been saved for the last, I am sure that we shall receive no heartier congratulations from any direction than from the members of the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago. (Applause.) A man does not rise much above the house which he volun¬ tarily and permanently inhabits. I know no reason why the same rule may not apply to commercial bodies. Such being the fact, gen¬ tlemen of the Chicago Board of Trade, how CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 103 much this room, means. How its ambitious ceilings will constantly invite you to lofty pur¬ poses! How these great areas will suggest to you broad thoughts, liberal policies and mag¬ nanimous treatment of your fellows! How the beauties of this building will remind you of the fact that money in this world is only of value when it is subordinated to some public or pri¬ vate good (applause), or is used as a vehicle to carry its possessions up above the contest of merely money-making to that higher sphere of contemplating beautiful things—not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (Applause.) This magnificent structure, so honorable to you, gentlemen, may become to you a constant blessing. In the morning it will welcome you as you come to engage in the work of the day; it will encourage you in its trials; it will nerve you for the contest in this arena where the mer¬ cantile giants will measure arms, and after the io4 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE labors of the day—it may be after its trials, its reverses, and its losses—it will, if you will but hear it, say to you, “ Good night,” and bid you go to your homes to rest, as the sun, after urg¬ ing his chariot through the fiery hours of the summer’s day, passes the golden portals of the West and sets in peace. (Applause.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. !05 NASHVILLE. COL. G. S. KINNEY. President Blake introduced the next speaker in the following words : “ Gentlemen : I am going to keep my promise. We have a trop¬ ical land as well as a cold one. The North and the whole country extends a hearty greet¬ ing to the gulf. The children of the Sunny Land !—while our soils and our climes are dif¬ ferent, our interests are one—the Union for¬ ever. (Applause.) I now bring to you Col. G. S. Kinney, of Nashville, Tenn., who will represent the South.” (Applause.) Col. Kinney spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman and Members of the (Board of Trade of Chicago :—In pursuance of the courtesy of the invitation from that body—the io6 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Merchants’ Exchange of Nashville—I have the honor and am present as a delegate of that body to represent them here, and to bear their congratulations to you on this occasion, on the dedication of this magnificent edifice as a tem¬ ple of commerce. We know that whilst this is a great achievement you have accomplished, yet, when we know and look back and see what you have done, it is but a small atom of the labors you have performed. Chicago enjoys the reputation all over this broad land, and in foreign lands, of being the largest grain and provision market in the world. She is a fair epitome, a true index and representation of the great national reputation that we have for grandness and glory; a Nation, I may say, who in one century has gained from 3,000,000 people until to-day she has about 60,000,000 of people ; a nation whose aggregated wealth, and upon high CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. IO 7 authority, is estimated at the enormous sum of about $45,000,000,000; a nation whose indus¬ tries largely outrival those of any other civil¬ ized country in the world. Take, for instance, our railroad industry. This nation has built and successfully operates 125,000 miles of rail¬ road—enough to encircle this world five times, and equal in number of miles to the number of miles of railroad owned by the balance of the civilized world. This nation has done this. She has done this for the purpose of gathering in the produce of this country, and the Government, in order to enable her to do it, has furnished by way of grants of public domain.and loans from her treasury, possibly $500,000,000. That has been done and accomplished. The industries of our country, factories, mines, and mills and furnaces, are of a suf¬ ficient capacity to run on six months full io8 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE blast, and to supply the domestic demands of our country for twelve months free. That leaves us with a surplus on hand of an amount not equaled for the past two or three years. We must provide for this surplus if we wish to be a great nation. Now, it is quite necessary for the boards of trade all over this land to urge upon the Government the importance of establishing steamship lines and sailing ship lines both down the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, down to the coast of Mexico, Central America, the South American governments, and the West India Islands. There is a large and rich field for this country and for the merchants of this country. To give you some idea of the importance of that trade and the necessity of our efforts through the boards of trade throughout the country, I will state to you that our trade in I884 with the Brazilian Empire, was this : We purchased of her CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 109 about $50,000,000, and sold her only about $8,000,000. England sold her, in 1883, about - $34,000,000, and bought from her only $29,- 000,000. This shows you the importance of our getting hold of the trade that naturally falls to us ; and hence my reasons for saying you must not stop while you have achieved great glory as a Board of Trade here. Your mission must go onward and upward, and with the proper lines of steamships established to these countries there is no reason in the world why, in the next five or ten years we should not have, and Chicago should not have double the trade she has got to-day. And in that connection it will be well to urge upon the Government to lend her encour¬ agement by the use of favorable contracts for carrying the mails by steamship lines and in other ways to give us an outlet for the surplus that has been a drag upon our nation for two I IO DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE or three years past—as many of you know— even at the price below the cost of production. I remember back a few years ago when a keg of nails manufactured—ioo pounds in a keg— was sold in the market of Cincinnati, I believe, at about $1.70 or $1.75 a keg. That was be¬ low the cost of production. No later than last fall a good article of flour was sold in this country at $2.15 to $2.25 a barrel. What na¬ tion on earth can compete with us if we can only get the markets which naturally belong to this country and the government ? Then, gentlemen, there is something we can do within ourselves without asking the head of the Government of the United States for. It is well known to you all that the countries I refer to speak the Spanish language; it is also well known to you that in many of the States of this nation and many of the cities of this nation we have adopted the public school sys- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I I I tem. Now, upon this point it is necessary for you to urge the incorporation of the Spanish language into the course of study of our pub¬ lic schools in order to educate the youths of our country and render them familiar with the language. That accomplished, with the lines we will have established, there can be no pos¬ sible doubt but what it will turn the tide of commerce from European shores into our own laps. These are some reflections that have come to me, and I thought it proper to speak to you of them. I can say to you, as I understand these rep¬ resentatives from the Gulf States, knowing the Southern character as I know it, generous and noble, they never will forget the kindness of Chicago in coming to them just at the close of the war when the country was desolate; how fairly you came to them with a helping hand and sold them goods and placed them upon a I I 2 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE footing, and to-day they honor you for the good you have done in placing them upon a sound financial basis. Chicago as well as oth¬ er cities of the North did that, and the people of the South will never forget it in you. I tender you their congratulations to-day in the noble work of completing this fine edifice and temple of commerce, and we hope and trust that in the future your prosperity will be con¬ tinued. Gentlemen, it was not my intention to have made any talk to you to-day, and I was not aware that I would be called upon until after 10 o’clock. The orator of our delegation was late in reaching the city; in fact, I did not know he had reached the city until after my arrival in the building. I have seen him since I have been here. I hope you will excuse the desultory manner in which I have thrown out some thoughts which have occurred to me, CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I 13 that I believed would be of service to our great country, which I shall always honor and endeavor to uphold. There is one other thing I desire to call your attention to: There is the Clayton-Bul- wer treaty, entered into in 1856 between the Governments of England and the United States, which is a menace and a terror to our commercial and political prosperity in Central America. I believe that treaty contains one clause that provides that whenever notice is given by either party to the treaty, that it can be abolished in six months thereafter. Such a treaty as that ought not to stand in force. We ought to wipe it out at once without any fuss, and do it in a proper manner, and with that done there is no reason why we could not enjoy the trade of Central America, complete our canal through Nicaragua, put a road through to the Pacific coast, and get our goods DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE I 14 down on the other side. As that stands to¬ day we cannot do that without getting permis¬ sion from England. I say there is nothing to prevent it. It ought to be abolished, and our greatness depends a good deal upon whether we abolish that or not. I hope, gentlemen, you will go on in pros¬ perity and happiness from now on. I thank you for your kind attention.” (Applause.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I 15 PHILADELPHIA. WILSON WELCH. President Blake introduced Philadelphia’s speaker in the following words: “Gentlemen: At one time in our history the State of Pennsylvania held an October election, and I well remember in my early days being in Fan- euil Hall. Daniel Webster was to deliver a speech—a political speech—shortly after the 1 st of October. Faneuil Hall was packed to its utmost. Daniel Webster had hosts of ad¬ mirers. The first word he said, and it was the only word he could utter for a number of min¬ utes, was ‘ Pennsylvania.’ Her election had gone favorable to Webster. And in introduc¬ ing to you to-day Mr. Wilson Welch, of Phil¬ adelphia, all I have to say is ‘ Philadelphia.’ ” I 1 6 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Mr. Welch arose and addressed the audi¬ ence as follows : Mr. (President and Members of the Chicago (Board of Trade :—There are times and occa¬ sions when to be the most impressive is to be silent, and I have thought how utterly insignif¬ icant are any words that can be uttered here to-day as expressive of your city’s growth in all that constitutes material progress when compared with the evidence which the city itself presents of thrift, energy and enterprise, and with this magnificent and stately building now being dedicated to the service and re¬ quirements of your leading trade interest. Gentlemen, there are many important and val¬ uable lessons to be learned from the review of Chicago’s growth, such as we have listened to to-day, which future economy will not fail to utilize for the benefit of other nations and suc¬ ceeding generations. And if, as I hope and be- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I 17 lieve, the future will show great advancement made also in adapting her National, State and Municipal Governments to the changed and changing conditions of our civilization, this century and particularly this country will have seen giant strides toward its realization of those possibilities to the race which only the most enthusiastic could ever dream of. To what may we attribute this unparalleled growth, not only of your own city but of the whole coun¬ try? Let me suggest an answer to this ques¬ tion by making a comparison: The eyes of the world, and particularly the speculative eyes, have been turned for the past few weeks toward Russia. Has it occurred to any of you to compare the conditions of that country with our own? When the Declaration of In¬ dependence was adopted and the colonies or¬ ganized a government for themselves Russia was one of the leading powers of the world— 118 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE with an immense territory and great natural resources. How have they been improved, and what is the condition of that country and her people to-day as compared with our own? I do not intend to occupy your time with ex- / tended comparisons. Every one here to-day knows that Russia is the representative of all that is aggressive and despotic in government; that her people are ignorant and inapt, and that her resources have been but poorly devel¬ oped. Now, we know that there is much in race and blood, and very much in government to advance or retard a nation’s growth, and we believe also that a potent factor in the advance¬ ment of this country, as compared with Russia, lies in the cultivation of a commercial spirit in this country and its neglect or repression in Russia. The same causes produced similar results among the ancients, and we have an admirable exemplification of this law of growth CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. II9 in the industrial development of England and the success of her colonial enterprise. If, then, this commercial spirit is the basis of your city’s and of the Nation’s prosperity and growth, is it not of great importance that those who are most influential in its promotion should exer¬ cise a corresponding influence in the legislation of the country and in the administration of the government. Does any one believe that if the business men of the country had been influen¬ tial in its legislation for the past few years, we should have these contradictions in our com¬ mercial system that now exist, or that we should be suffering year after year for legisla¬ tion which is necessary to place our manufact¬ uring and shipping interests upon a healthy basis? I trust, therefore, that all of the com¬ mercial organizations of the country, as they increase in number and influence, will be found % acting together in improving or eliminating our 120 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE present vicious system of party government, and insisting upon being properly recognized in the legislation of the country. As a repre¬ sentative of the Commercial Exchange of Phil¬ adelphia, it will be expected I shall say some¬ thing of that city. Webster once said of Mas¬ sachusetts upon a memorable occasion: “She needs no eulogy; the past at least is secure. There stands Boston, Lexington and Bunker Hill, and there they will stand forever.” May I not say of Philadelphia, in a similar spirit at least, that from the time when the Declaration of Independence was adopted and promulgated from that old hall, whose memories she so much cherishes, up to the period when she car¬ ried to a successful fruition the centennial cele¬ bration of that event, she has been energ'etic and conspicuous in building up her manufact¬ uring industries, until to-day they are unrivaled in magnitude and variety in this or any city in CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 12 I the country. The coal, iron and capital of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia have contrib¬ uted largely to the development of this West¬ ern country, whilst her great Pennsylvania Railroad is certainly an important factor in the carrying trade of your city, affording as it does a choice of the principal markets of the sea¬ board over its line. But I have already occu¬ pied too much of your time, and have no taste for self-glorification. In conclusion, let me say that the Commercial Exchange of Philadelphia sends greetings to her sister organization of Chicago, and hopes that her future prosperity in the new hall will be equal to what it has been in the old. (Applause.) 122 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE BALTIMORE. GEORGE H BAER. / President Blake introduced the concluding speaker as follows: Maryland, my Mary¬ land/ will not let you go home until she makes her congratulatory bow to you in the person of Mr. George H. Baer, of Baltimore.” Mr. Baer addressed the assembly as follows: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the (Board of Trade of Chicago :—In the name and on be¬ half of Baltimore I offer you our hearty con¬ gratulations upon the erection of this magnifi¬ cent temple, which you have this day with such impressive ceremonies dedicated to all that was honorable and noble in trade. It is worthy, sir, of the great metropolis in which it has been reared, and may it stand for generations as a CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 123 monument to the men whose brains conceived and whose energies carried it to a successful completion. (Applause.) When one reflects that this great city of 700,000 people, with its great and imposing business palaces, its parks, its monuments, its industrial establishments, has grown up on the shore of this inland sea within the memory of men still living, who can tell what might not be predicted of the future of Chicago? You have gathered around you to-day the representatives of kindred institu¬ tions from all over the land and from beyond the sea, and I am sure that I speak the senti- ments of all when I say that we join with you in rejoicing at this evidence of your remarkable progress and prosperity. We feel a pride in the wonderful growth of Chicago scarcely in¬ ferior to your own, and claim it as part and par¬ cel of a common heritage, the common glory of our common country. (Applause.) Mr. 124 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE President, we of Baltimore are bound to you by a community of interests. Our own trunk line makes one of its western termini in your city, and we are so favorably situated naturally that our city/ is the natural gateway of a good portion of the cereal products of this great grain producing region. We intend to take no step back, but to keep her, as she has been for years, the second port on the Atlantic coast; and I trust the representative from New York will not be unduly alarmed when I say we have some hope of making her in the not distant future the first. (Applause and laughter.) When the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com¬ pany built the first railroad elevator after the Chicago model, when we reared its majestic front on the seaboard, we came to you and you sent us a Chicago boy to show us how to run and superintend it. And right here and now, in his old home, surrounded by his acquaint- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I2 5 ances and friends, I want to bear Baltimore’s testimony to the ability, the services and the character of Frederick A. Wheeler (applause), the superintendent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company’s elevator. If he were not present, Mr. Chairman, I might say more; I could have said no less. And now, sir, I con¬ gratulate you again. Allow me to express the hope that great as have been the success and achievements of Chicago in the past, we hope that the progress and prosperity of the future will be more grand and glorious still. (Ap¬ plause.) DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE I 26 REGRETS AND DISMISSAL. 1 THE CEREMONIES CONCLUDED. When the speaker had finished, President Blake said: “The members of the Board of Trade know what a ‘ticker’ is, and I have a private dispatch in regard to which I am going to betray confidence, and read it: Ui To the (President of the (Board of Trade , Chicago :—Accept my congratulations upon the opening of your new Board of Trade. No better monument to the enterprise and perse¬ verance of your merchants could be erected. Chicago is the metropolis of the great West, and is entitled to just such a noble edifice as an exchange, and I hope that the new build- ing, immense as it is, will prove inadequate to the business for which it has been constructed. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I27 Please convey to all my fellow members my best wishes for their continued health and prosperity, and my great regret in not being able to be present to join the dedication — Henry Clews.’ “Oh, I didn’t mean to give the name. For¬ get the name, please. (Applause and laughter.) “We also have a communication bearing regrets from the Manhattan Hay and Produce Exchange of New York. We also have from Denver, Col., the following: “‘The Denver Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade send congratulations. Let us all be thankful for that American stability which enables Chicago to celebrate in peace, while the commerce of the old world is shak¬ ing under the hazards of impending wars.’ “We have also this from St. Joseph, Mo.: “ ‘ Owing to the pressure of official business, the Hon. W. Harting, Mayor of St. Joe, and 128 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Col. A. C. Dawes, General Passenger Agent, Kansas City & St. joe and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, who were ap¬ pointed representatives of this board to your celebration, find it impossible to attend. Ac¬ cept congratulations and best wishes of the St. Joe Board of Trade.’ ” Having dispatched the business of the occa¬ sion, President Blake dismissed the assem¬ blage as follows : “ With this, gentlemen of the Board, our exercises close, except so far as the musicians will contribute to our pleasure and happiness, as they always do. Permit me to congratulate you upon this beautiful day, and upon the auspices and surroundings that are about to usher in trade on this floor to-morrow morn¬ ing. I don’t know who will buy the first ‘ five,’ or who will sell it, but he is a happy man, whoever he is. And now, gentlemen, CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I 29 these exercises of this dedicatory ceremony have closed.” (Applause.) Thus concluded the historical ceremonies attending the formal dedication of the com¬ mercial palace of the Chicago Board of Trade. BANQUET. At 10:20 o’clock President Blake rapped vig¬ orously for order, and having obtained an ap¬ proximate quiet, said: Gentlemen :—The hour is getting late; the Committee of Arrangements have invited quite a number of gentlemen to make brief ad¬ dresses to you here this evening, and in order to get through with our program we must now call you to order, and without any extended 130 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE remarks of mine we will now commence with our list. I know you would not pardon me if I were to open the feast of reason and flow of soul without referring to “Our Country.” Judge Gresham was invited by the Committee of Arrangements to be present here this even¬ ing and to respond to the sentiment. Secre¬ tary Stone will now read a letter of his in re¬ gard thereto. Secretary Stone then read the following let¬ ter: “Chicago, April 27. “ E. Nelson Blake, Esq., President of The Board of Trade. “My (bear Sir :—I have just returned from Madison, and find your polite letter, of the 23d instant, inviting me to attend a banquet to be given by the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago at the Grand Pacific Hotel on the evening of the 29th instant, and to respond to CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 131 the toast ‘ Our Country.’ I regret that a pre¬ vious engagement will compel me to be else¬ where on that evening. Thanking you for the courtesy of your invitation, “ Yours truly, “ W. Q. Gresham.” After Mr. Stone had read*the letter of Judge Gresham, President Blake announced that at a very late hour Postmaster Palmer had con¬ sented to respond to the sentiment to which Judge Gresham was to respond. He asked that the banqueters show to the Postmaster every consideration in consenting to reply at so late an hour, and in view of the brief oppor¬ tunity he had to prepare himself. President Blake then announced the sentiment: “Our Country—fortunate in position, in govern¬ ment and in natural resources. The best of the world here find a home to build man’s ideal ( empire, and to prove a universal brotherhood.” 132 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Postmaster Palmer arose amid applause, and spoke as follows: The sentiment which has just been read, and which, by your courtesy, I have been asked to respond to, is a deep and comprehensive one in itself. Our country is fortunate in its geo¬ graphical position; its shores are washed by two great oceans; its lakes are in themselves great inland seas; its rivers, some of which extend from outer boundary to outer bound¬ ary, swell to the proportions of lakes in their march to the sea. Its mountains are filled with precious and useful metals; its valleys teem with fertility; its position on the surface of the globe occupies, in that grandest of all positions, the temperate zone, and it lies in the great track of commerce between Europe and Asia; but with all these geographical advant¬ ages and these great natural resources, it would be as naught except for the system of CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 133 National Government under which we live. (Cheers.) That system of National Govern¬ ment is based upon the great doctrine of the equality of right of all men without regard to condition or color or nationality. The only exception there is to this is that discrimination in our laws against the almond-eyed children of the sun, so that only fifteen of them may come upon our shores at a time, as if safety and conservatism were connected with that number fifteen, and if there should happen to be sixteen there would be danger of possible dissolution, possible death. (Cheers.) I for one believe that the people are better than their laws, and that some day there will be such a change that this discrimination will no longer exist against any color or any man. (Wild applause.) We send missionaries to the hea¬ then, and if the heathen voluntarily see fit to come to the missionaries, in God’s name let 134 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE them come. (Cheers.) With this exception we invite the oppressed people of the world to come here and enjoy the benefits of this grand system of National Government, They come here, because here they can own their own consciences, they can own their own speech. Here they can have free labor and abundant reward for that labor. Here the industrious poor can establish their homes. Here educa¬ tion is free. Here every avenue to employ¬ ment and advancement in agriculture, in the manufactures, arts, sciences and professions, in the offices of emoluments and honor in Church and State are open alike to all nationality and all classes, the only test being the test of merit, the nobility of mind; the aristocracy of merit in this country being the only aristocracy there is, and which is the only one there ought to be here and hereafter. (Cheers.) Taxation here rests upon their shoulders so lightly, I mean CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 135 national taxation, that if they should judge by this alone, they would scarcely know that they had a government at all. They come here * because every man, politically, is the equal of every other man. It is because of this equal¬ ity in all the avenues and avocations of life that this country from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific seaboard has been peopled in less than 100 years, so that we have now a popula¬ tion of nearly 60,000,000 souls, outrivaling the growth of any other people or any other coun¬ try on the globe. (Cheers.) It is because of this equality of privileges that your own city has sprung up here from your prairies until it numbers nearly three-quarters of a million souls. It is because of this equality of privi¬ leges that your own association has grown in less than forty years from nothing to a mem¬ bership of nearly 2,000. It is because of this equality that you have been enabled to raise 136 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE this structure, which to-day you have dedi¬ cated, which has arisen as if it had been by the touch of Aladdin’s lamp, so that it is the pride of the Northwest, the pride of the Nation. My friends, I have tried to limit myself to ten minutes, so that those who may follow me may not be limited in their time. Let me say one thing in connection with what has been in the minds of thousands of people in regard to the history of the people of this country, and that is that at every great crisis in its history it has developed some great leader who has met that crisis. You may call it accident, you may call it special Providence, you may call it whatever you will. I believe it has come through the intelligence and the patriotism of the people in discovering the merit of that leader, and strengthening his hands, and supporting him through good report and evil report, so that he may be able to lead the people to success in CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 137 whatever exigency they may have been. Who else than Thomas Jefferson could have written that great declaration of rights which our fathers promulgated on the fourth day of July, 1776? Who else than George Washington could have led their armies through a seven years’ war? Who else than Alexander Hamil¬ ton could have framed that admirable system of finance, which has been incorporated into your constitution of the United States? Who else than Daniel Webster could have promul¬ gated those doctrines as to the constitution of the United States which have been followed constantly from that time to this? Who else than ‘‘Old Hickory” could have executed his construction of the constitution of the United States ? And so I might go on through all that list of great men—men who have met the great exigencies of the time, including U. S. Grant (cheers), including Abraham Lincoln (cheers). 138 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE A monument has recently been completed irf Washington, said to be the highest in the world, to the memory of one of the men whose names I have mentioned. If we should build monuments, which should be measured by the merits of the men, you would build one in Virginia to Jefferson; you would build one to Alexander Hamilton in New York; you would build one to Daniel Webster in New Hamp¬ shire; you would build one in Tennessee to “Old Hickory;’’ you would build one in Ohio to Edwin M. Stanton (cheers), and you would build two here on the prairies of Illinois; and if we should measure the merits of the men whom those monuments would commemorate, you would make them as high as Chimborazo. (Cheers.) I believe, my friends, that with the patriot¬ ism of the people, the intelligence of the peo¬ ple, to stimulate and encourage the great lead- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 139 ers which the exigencies of our Government have developed, it will be maintained down from father to son, in endless generation, and that it will continue to be the outer empire of the world. (Cheers.) [] 140 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE ILLINOIS. gov. oglesby’s regrets. President Blake announced the next toast: “‘The Nation first, the State next.’ “ Gov. Oglesby accepted our invitation to be present here this evening. The Secretary will now read a telegram just received from him.” Secretary Stone read the following telegram: Springfield, April 29. “To The Secretary of The Board of Trade: “ I very deeply regret to find at the last mo- “ ment that I cannot be present at the banquet “to-night. I congratulate the Board of Trade “on the dedication of that grand structure it “ has erected; an honor to the State and to the “ Nation.” CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 141 CPresident (Blake: —“The sentiment to which the Governor was to respond, of course, could be nothing else than “ Illinois—a queen among her sisters, an empire in herself; without a debt; wealthy in agricultural resources; pouring much into the Government’s coffers, asking but little in return, she whispers ‘Hennepin Canal.’” (Cheers.) 142 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE THE CITY. MAYOR HARRISON. f .President (Blake :—“The Nation, the State; what comes next? ‘Chicago,’ the young, vigorous, blooming daughter of the prairie, rising like a fair lily from her muddy home, her brow cooled by the lake and kissed by the prairie breezes; she is jealous of her Mayor- lover, who deserted her and broke his vow— after he went to Europe. (Laughter.) Who else could respond to that toast than Carter Harrison, the Mayor of the city of Chicago? Mayor Harrison arose amid great applause and said: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen :—There is much that is personal in this toast that has been handed me, and will force me somewhat CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. H3 to be what the papers say I am—egotistical. (Laughter.) It goes without saying that the Mayoralty of Chicago is a bed of roses. (Laughter.) You are all aware there is an old adage: “There’s ne’er a rose without its thorn.” (Laughter.) But Chicago’s Mayors have felt the prickling of the thorn. (A voice —You are right.) You who have read daily the Chicago papers know that the bed on which lies the present incumbent of the May¬ oralty is one where to each petal of the rose there are bushels of thorns. (Laughter and applause.) Those of you who read those pious editions of the Chicago papers published on Sunday (laughter), to prepare our minds for holy, religious thoughts (laughter), know that the present incumbent’s bed is like unto that which was made during the dark ages of Eu¬ rope, when the recalcitrant heretic was placed upon a bed heated to white heat (laughter); it 144 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE is a bed of dirt. Yet, my friends, there are brightnesses and beauties even in the position of mayor. Not the least of them is that which enabled me to be present here to-night, to mingle with you on this festive occasion, to participate in the ceremonies of the inaugura¬ tion of yonder majestic temple, erected in the name of Americans’ worship—commerce; dedi¬ cated to the American’s genius—trade. (Ap¬ plause.) We take from our mother’s milk a love of trade. Our New England cousins did not whittle more readily than they swapped jack-knives o’ Sundays (laughter); and our Western and Southern men take to swapping horses as naturally as they take to chawing tobacco. (Laughter.) Trade is our worship, and what locality in the world is such an exemplar of trade as Chicago ? This paper (the sentiment of the toast) says that Chicago is jealous of her mayor-lover, who CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. H5 went to Europe and took another bride. Ah, my friends, the present mayor is like Father Abram of old. who had Sarah, his beloved wife, but did not consider it very bad taste to dally a little with Hagar. (Applause and Laughter.) Chicago should not be jealous of mv other bride, for I sav to-night with boldness that I am a polygamist, i Laughter.) Chicago is my love, and a love that will never die out of mv heart; and the wife of mv bosom at j j home is not jealous of my love for my city. {Applause.) Mv friends, why is it that Chicago has such wonderful attractions? The ancient court of Rome said “ (Ditm viwmus, vivamus. While we live, let us live. Many have supposed that that was the expression of a sensuous mind, dreaming only of pleasures. The thinking man feels that it was philosophy—the philoso¬ phy of the man of action who does not wish to 146 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE vegetate, but wants to live and do and act. Thousands of years of mere vegetation is nothing compared with a few years of active vigorous life. I have felt myself that I was privileged to come into this breathing world in 1825, the self-same year that gave birth to the snorting, vapor-breathing locomotive. Now, sixty years have rolled over us since then, and in that sixty years what giant strides the locomotive has enabled the world to make; strides that in one year compass more space than in any past age had been done in a century. Need I say that I congratulate myself on another thing—that one-half of my sixty years have been spent here in Chicago. (Applause.) It is my boast that I am not yet thirty years of age. On the 12th of next month I will be thirty years old, for on that day I first appeared in Chicago thirty years ago. (Applause.) I remember well after CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 147 leaving my home—“My Old Kentucky Home”—in this month thirty years ago, seek¬ ing a new home in the Northwest, where there was no blighting effect of slavery, I passed along the villages on the Mississippi River—I hope the Mayor of St. Louis will forgive me. (Laughter.) I visited St. Louis, Keokuk, Burlington, Davenport and Rock Island. Not being able to decide in which I would locate, I started home, stopping in Chicago merely as a wayside station. I had not heard of it before. I got here at night. Ah, my friends, this toast says “ Chicago, the young, blooming daughter of the prairie, rising like a fair lily from her muddy home.” This is not my language—it is your eloquent President’s. (Applause.) When I woke up in the morning Chicago was lying in her muddy home—mud, mud every¬ where. Four squares north of this point, nearer the heart of the city, at the corner of 1 48 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE LaSalle and Madison, was a scantling stuck in the ground, and above it was fastened a board, on which was inscribed “No bottom found here.” (Laughter.) Four little streets had half way pavements of plank from which, when a wagon rode over them, the liquid mud would fly up into one’s carriage, and when the unlucky mule or horse got over the plank, the driver used the classic expression “ Facilis descensus Averni” (Laughter.) Close by here, only a block and a half away, was a pond, where men went shooting ducks on Sunday, and Dr. Locke, if he had lived in the center of the town, would not have known that Chicago was being desecrated on the Sabbath. (Laughter.) What giant strides have been taken since then. But to go farther. After wandering around awhile that morning, I dropped into a real estate office. At that time the Kentuck¬ ians had worked up a real estate boom in Chi- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 149 cago, and the Kentuckians had a corner on it. When I went into that office, I saw on the wall a great map of the United States. Around it was congregated a number of gentlemen, and one eloquent middle-aged man was descanting upon the map. He pointed out the great chain of lakes, and with his cane he marked on the map where would be the Welland Canal, which would allow ships from Europe to enter the port of Chicago. Out West, where now is Dakota, on the map it was marked “The American Desert,” and there was an angry body of Indians looking fiercely toward the East. Down on the edge of it, where now is Wyoming, was a small herd of buffalo snorting at a small railway that William D. Ogden and George M. Pullman and Marvin Hughitt had projected into the far West, and this gentleman was showing on the map the mighty acreage of the Northwest. Where then there was sup- 15O DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE I posed to be sterile plains, are now fertile fields. Where then were roaming buffalo, to-day the iron horse passes through hundreds of flourish¬ ing villages and cities. He pointed out with his cane a line on the map betwixt here and the Illinois River, and turning to me as I stood there in wild-eyed wonder, he said “Young man, you will live to see the day when Chicago will have over 1,000,000 of people, and ships will sail from Liverpool to Chicago, and steam¬ ers greater than the Eclipse will go from Chi¬ cago to the crescent city of the South.” That man was Chicago’s first mayor, William B. Ogden. (Applause.) The virus had its effect. I took the disease. (Laughter.) I was Chi¬ cago-struck. (Laughter.) In one week I in¬ vested all I had in Chicago dirt, and like many a Board of Trade man, I invested a great deal more than I had. (Laughter and applause.) Since then, my friends, what have we seen? CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I 5 1 Mr. Storrs to-day made you an eloquent speech over in yonder temple, and he gave you a good deal of delicious taffy. I like taffy (laughter) when taffy is good and taffy is deserved. I noticed that members of the Board swallowed the sugar plums with a great deal of pleasure. You deserve them, my friends, you deserve all the sugar-coated plums that you can get, for the Board of Trade has marched on from 1855 pari passu with the city of Chicago. Mr. Storrs told you that you had to be coaxed into your building down on the corner of South Water and La Salle Streets; that sandwiches and pie were necessary to get you to go “On ’Change.” That year 19,000,000 of bushels of grain were, I think, all that were received in Chicago, and the proud boast was that Chicago packed 55,000 hogs. Fifty-five thousand! Where is Phil Armour? One day’s pack¬ ing. (Applause and laughter.) How you l 5 2 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE have marched on since then. Your 70,000 people have become three quarters of a million. Then you had only four streets that were planked, and all else was mud. You have to-day 150 miles of the finest roads in America, and sixty-six miles of boulevards and park driveways. (Applause.) In the three past years you have built fifty miles of stately build¬ ings—fifty miles of frontage, at a cost of $25,- 000,000. You are taxed less than any city in America; less per capita than any other city. You get more improvements than any other city in a given year. Is it not enough to make the mayor of Chicago in love with his bride. (Applause and laughter.) I said that pari passu . with the march of Chicago was the march of the Board of Trade. You have done much to help us, but Chicago has done much to make you. Do not think, my stranger friends, that Chicago is great because she has CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 153 energetic men. Chicago is great because there is something inherent in her that makes men energetic. (Cries of ‘ Good, Good.’) There are men here to-night probably who, before they came here, were willing to sell tape by the yard, who are to-day selling dry goods by the car-load. There are here grocers who were satisfied in other cities to sell molasses in win¬ ter and measure it out by the gallon, who are to-day sending their special cars all over America. Why is it? It is because Chicago makes the man. (Applause.) There is some¬ thing in the locality here that forces men to be energetic. The man that stands still is run over. He is like the farmer in California who planted his pumpkin seed, and unless he hoed rapidly, the vine would cover him and destroy him. (Applause and laughter.) Men do not get tired here with a hard day’s work. They may be wearied, but they are not tired out. 154 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE When they go home to sleep at night, they do not swelter in the sheets, and wet them with their nervous sweat, but they wrap themselves in a blanket and go to sleep and wake up in the morning refreshed and healthy. Bob In- gersoll, who never said his prayers, uttered a wise saying when he said that it takes a blanket in the summer time to make a healthy man. (Laughter.) Chicago makes men energetic. Men cannot help being energetic here. While I congratulate the city of Chicago on having a Board of Trade, I congratulate the Board of Trade on having located itself in Chicago. (Applause and laughter.) The boy of sixteen said: “Who shall say what I may be? “ Who shall tell my fortune to me? “ For bravest and brightest that ever was seen “ May be and shall be the lot of the young.” Chicago is young; she is in her infancy. The eye of fancy can look into the future. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 155 Ah! We who are stepping off, my friends, going down the hill, can well envy these younger men who can see that limitless future. What shall Chicago be hereafter, made up of such vast agglomerations of men? Irishmen, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Spaniards, Italians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, all meet here and make one grand composite whole, a united composite structure which, I believe, will give tone to the civilization of America. Midway between two oceans, we do not have to go out and labor for our bread. The gar¬ den is spread around us, and our wives and handmaidens may go out in the fields that are around us and glean of the wastage and feed a million here, while we feed countless millions in the old world. You people of the Board of Trade are to-day making a war between En¬ gland and Russia. (Applause and laughter.) Mr. Storrs said to-day that you gave the cue 1 56 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE to all Boards of Trade, and say what the price of breadstuff's shall be throughout the world. You know, my friends, that in the last week you have declared war and made peace four different times. (Applause and laughter.) Do you wonder, my friends, that I am proud of my bride? (Laughter and applause.) Let her not be jealous of me or of my other brides. As I said, I am a polygamist. Chicago is one wife. To her my every vow is uttered and is sacred; and, as I said before, thank God, the little woman at home is not jealous. I thank you. (Applause.) (MUSIC.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 157 THE ARMY. GEN. SCHOFIELD. President Blake rapped the guests to order and said “About a year ago. it was my priv¬ ilege to represent Chicago as one of her dele¬ gates at the opening of the New York Board, and if I remember rightly, I then said that was not the day nor the place to sound Chicago’s praises, but that in the not far distant future Chicago would throw wide her doors and invite those persons there, and then would be her day. I appeal to President Herrick if I have not kept my word, and if Carter Harrison, our Mayor, has not redeemed my promise. (Ap¬ plause and laughter.) “ Gentlemen, the next in order comes ‘ Our National Army.’ It is but a handful of brave men with a continent to guard from savage 158 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE hordes and from selfish strife. All honor to the ‘brave and true.’ We expected Gen. Schofield to respond to that sentiment. His letter in reply is in the hands of Secretary Stone, who will now read it to you.” Secretary Stone here read the letter from Gen. Schofield as follows: Messrs. E. Nelson Blake, President, and George F. Stone, Secretary of the Chicago Board of Trade: (Dear Sirs :—I have received your kind and complimentary invitation to the banquet to be given on the occasion of the dedication of the new Exchange Building, and beg you to accept my sincere thanks. It is with regret that I find it impossible to meet the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago on this occasion, which marks an important epoch in the history of Chicago. I am under the necessity of visiting a distant part of the division, to attend to some CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. *59 important interests of the little body of men whom the sentiment you propose, “The army,” so justly and generously honors. It would give me pleasure to respond to so hearty a recognition of the merits of the body to which I have the honor to belong, and to assure you how highly they appreciate the good opinion which their fidelity to duty has won from their fellow citizens. There is nothing else which the army prizes so highly as the implicit faith reposed in it by the country ; that it will be true to every trust, and firm in defense of the right, by whomsoever the right may be assailed. Please accept for your¬ selves and the members of the Board of Trade, my congratulations upon the great prosperity which has characterized the business enterprise of the city of Chicago. Very respectfully and truly yours, j. M. Schofield. i6o DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE. PRESIDENT FRALEY. President Blake arose to give the next toast and spoke as follows: “Gentlemen: I give to you ‘Our National Board of Trade,’ the condensed wisdom of us all, ever alive to the best commercial interests of the entire Nation. We welcome their executive council to our table, and give honor to their President. Mr. F. Fraley, of Philadel¬ phia, will reply to the toast.” The venerable representative of the National Board of Trade arose from his seat by the President, and was received with deafening applause. He responded to the toast in the following words: CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 161 Mr. (President, and my friends of the Chicago ( Board of 'Trade, and of all the other (Boards of Trade assembled upon this floor: How is it possible for me to reply fittingly to such a toast? The National Board of Trade is com¬ plimented as “ the condensed wisdom of us all,” of all the Boards of Trade in the United States. We can not fit that mantle upon our shoulders, for we do not at the present time embrace all the Boards of Trade in the United States within the folds of our National garment. This I am sorry to say; but we hope the events which have been celebrated this day and which have been dwelt upon by so many eloquent speakers, will lead the strange sheep into the common fold, and that before another year the National Board of Trade will encircle at its table representatives from every organized commercial body in the United States. But, my friends, let me dismiss a topic which, per- 162 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE haps, our friends, assembled upon this occasion, are not at present disposed to receive in the full sense in which I utter it. But when I listened to the eloquent addresses this morning made in that magnificent temple of commerce, which has been dedicated to it, and I heard the utterance that the commercial men, the trading* men of the United States, ought to be leaders in the councils of the Government, I felt satis¬ fied that the good time was coming when their influence would be recognized, and when the concentrated wisdom of the country would be established in the National Board of Trade. (Cries of “ Hear, hear,” and cheers.) Leaving that topic, gentlemen, and entering upon one which is more congenial to myself, and which I hope will be more congenial to you. I refer to a passing remark of my esteemed friend, the Mayor of Chicago, who tapped me on the shoulder and admonished me that I was one of CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 163 those who are passing rapidly to that bourne from whence no traveler returns. (Cries of “No, no.”) I hope that that intimation of his will not be realized, but that I shall be permitted to live to see several celebrations of this kind in the different cities of the Nation, and to rejoice with my brother merchants in the great prosperity which is now overflowing upon our beloved country. (Applause.) I stand here to-night—I am afraid to say when my memory begins. I am afraid that some of my friends, who think that I am active and vigorous, will not realize that I was born almost in the begin¬ ning of the present century; that I have seen this country assume the vast proportions that it has been described to possess in the speeches which have been made to-day, and in that elegant speech which the Mayor of Chicago has just delivered. I have seen it pass from a population of 7,000,000 of people up to 164 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE 50,000,000 of people. I have seen all the changes from the caterpillar to the moth, from the moth to the beautiful illustration of what our country now is. I have seen the trade of the United States carried from Philadelphia to Pittsburg in Conestoga wagons of 2,000 to 4,000 pounds, and compared with what I see to-day in the whistling locomotives that are roaring from the prairies of the great West, the great advances which this country has made in population and civilization; and I look for¬ ward to that bright future when every valley shall be covered with bristling hamlets and with cities—not quite so vast, and not quite so well disposed, not quite so busy in the marts of commerce as the city of Chicago, but cities that make up the great whole of our common country and reflect upon the world the influence of our institutions, and of our civilization. (Cheers.) I marveled to-day—yes, marveled CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I65 to-day at what I heard of the rapid strides which Chicago had made in this great race of civiliza¬ tion and commerce. I recollected while I listened to the elegant words of Mr. Storrs and to the eloquent words that were pronounced by gentlemen from other sections of the country of what had been accomplished here and else¬ where, and I recollected during the war of 1812 when this country could not make a blanket to cover the shoulders of her soldiers, and that the men who marched through the streets of Philadelphia and New York in those days of peril and contest, upon this Northern frontier, for the liberties of the country, for free trade and sailors’ rights, and that shoeless and blanketless they went on to victory, which wrung from the sovereign of Great Britain an acknowledgment of the rights for which they contended and which opened to us the glorious future which we now realize. (Applause.) 1 66 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE - Isn’t it well, gentlemen, that we should be proud of such a country as this? Isn’t it well that we, who, as my friend tells me, are journeying toward the setting sun of life, should cheer on the young men in these great opportunities of trade of the great West, and point them to the past and show them what has come out of the struggles of the past and the great benefits and advantages that they enjoy from the con¬ tests of the past? It is for them to go on and perfect the great work that their fathers begun. It is for them to hold up the great banner of the Nation—the glorious flag which has passed through so many perils and which now floats over a united Nation and a happy people, from the North to the South, from the East to the West. To that West, as was proclaimed this morning, the right hand of fellowship is given and a welcome to every man who participates in the great struggle of trade, and that we know CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 167 no other thing than one country, one land, one flag, one happy people. (Applause.) THE PRESS. JOSEPH R. DUNLOP. President Blake then arose and asked the kind indulgence of the guests, as his voice was becoming very husky, and said: “Your committee on Banquet worked one morning, or rather all night till 4 o’clock in the morning, but we do not intend to keep you here quite so late to-night. “I now offer to you this sentiment: ‘The Press; the mightiest engine of modern times, bearing good or evil to a learning world; a daily visitor of whom we never weary; a house- i68 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE hold guest we would not spare.’ Mr. J. R. Dunlop, President of the Chicago Press Club, I now have the pleasure to introduce to you.” The announcement was greeted with ap¬ plause. Mr. Dunlop arose and addressed the Pres¬ ident and guests of the evening in behalf of the press in the following fitting words: Mr. Chairman , and Gentlemen :—I do not know that I fairly represent the press of Chi¬ cago in its character as a molder of public opinion. It might more properly be said that I represent the working forces of this great en¬ gine of modern thought; and it was probably with this end in view that the worthy President of your Board selected me to respond to the sentiment just read. I may, however, be per¬ mitted to say a few words relative to the press and its close connection with the commercial interests. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 169 It has been said that war makes history, but commerce is the real life of a nation; and. as we all know, hand in hand with commerce goes the press. It is the spirit of trade, whose rep¬ resentatives you are. which has pushed out into even.' comer of the earth where anybody has anything to sell that anybody else in some other place wants to buy. and as your achieve¬ ments are accomplished the press is always on hand to record them; and it is in a great meas¬ ure the restless enemy of trade that makes o * the newspaper of to-day possible. This morn¬ ing you dedicated a magnificent temple to the purposes of commercial life, and the press is glad ol the opportunity' to say that it is a far nobler monument to the o-enius of commerce o than any pyramid which towers over the dust of a lorgotten Pharaoh. Commerce and the press are in exceedingly close relations, and there is a striking similarity O J 170 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE in their extraordinary development. Before the mud is dry in the chinks of a pioneer log cabin in a new settlement the clank of the presses is heard advertising the wares of a backwoods grocer, whose customers pay him a buffalo pelt for a jug of bug juice, and get a couple of coon-skins and a snare-trap in change. Beside these rude beginnings, in a few years, the development of both is like that of a giant tree as compared with the tiny seed from which it sprang. Aside from the functions of the newspaper as a method of business, its mission is that of a public educator. It first gives the facts which form its premises, and upon those facts erects the fabric of editorial comment, so that the wayfaring man, even though he be a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, may not err as to the proper course to pursue. And in order to fulfill its mission the press has drawn to it- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 1 7 I self the resources of every department of sci¬ ence and art; it has utilized a thousand inven¬ tions, and, lubricating the machinery with brains and experience, it is indeed a mighty engine, pushing the world onward. Of course it sometimes inadvertently butts its head against a libel suit, but those are only minor mishaps to be compared with the splinters which one acquires in sliding down a hemlock board with the grain turned the wrong way. I am not speaking now of the reckless journal¬ ism which obtains in some parts of the country outside of Chicago, but of the course of news¬ papers whose managers are actuated by the best of motives. You must remember that each day’s issue is a history of the whole world for the preceding twenty-four hours, and ob¬ noxious paragraphs will find their way in, in spite of the most rigid censorship. In its mere mechanical part the modern 172 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE newspaper strikingly resembles the mechanism of the human body, From a central point it reaches out to the utmost confines of the earth, and draws in and assimilates all the informa¬ tion that it is worth while to know. Wherever your railroads penetrate, and far beyond, on every square inch of the ocean’s surface that throws up its spray before the cut-waters of your vessels, there goes the press, and with its thousand eyes and its myriad fingers it gathers up the scattered threads of the world’s events; and anything worth knowing must have oc¬ curred pretty deep in the jungle, or be of ex¬ ceeding unimportance, if you do not find it photographed in printer’s ink on the following morning at the maximum price of 5 cents per copy. The chalk figures on your blackboards are no more unseemly to the eye than the rude numerals which the boys used to make on the sidewalk in playing hop-scotch; but the mo- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 173 ment you hang them up the eager grasp of the press is upon them, and over mountain and un¬ der the sea they tear along the wires, carrying to every inhabitable part of the globe the quo¬ tations of the market which sets the prices of grain for the world. The influence of the press is almost univer¬ sally for good. If it is otherwise in particular instances, if its tone is low and vicious, it is so because its readers hanker after that kind of mental pabulum. The newspaper is as sensi¬ tive as the face of a mirror to the slightest breath of public opinion, and the happiest indi¬ cation of the healthy tone of public morals is the energy and heartiness with which the press grapples with cant, or any piece of moral wrong which thrusts its head into public view. In closing, permit me to say, Mr. President and gentlemen, that you have a great, an ever- expanding future of usefulness before you in 174 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE your new home, and in that future, in all your efforts to cauterize vicious methods and to fos¬ ter legitimate trade, the representatives of the press of Chicago are with you. The boys of the Press Club will stand by you. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 175 THE NEW SOUTH. GENERAL TREZEVANT. President Blake introduced the next speaker of the evening - , as follows : “ Peace hath her victories no less renowned than those of war. I offer to you to-night 'The New South; The victory of peace is there. You can hear it in the hum of machin¬ ery, and in the tread of the iron horse. You can see it in the rising palaces, and in the dust of the moving hosts ; and for you I welcome to-night their messenger, Gen. Trezevant, of Memphis, Tenn. Gen. Trezevant, rising to respond to the above toast, was greeted with applause. He spoke as follows : 176 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Gentlemen of the Chicago (Board of Trade: I congratulate you very sincerely on the com¬ pletion of the enterprise which this occasion celebrates. Your President might have said to you that he notified me but a very few mo¬ ments before I came into this hall that I should be expected to respond, and I therefore ask your greatest indulgence. Indeed, I am re¬ minded of an anecdote. There was a church in the far West, and in that church was an or¬ gan, and over the organ a sign which read : “ Please do not shoot the organist : He is do¬ ing the very best he can.” (Laughter.) Gen¬ tleman, I am going to do the best I can. In the name of “The New South,” I thank you for your generous hospitality to-night, and I assure you it would give us the greatest pleasure to return it at any time. I sincerely think that every one here must feel as I do, that Chicago has opened her heart liberally CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I 77 and generously to us all. Indeed, gentlemen, from the sentiment before me and from the banquet at which I have partaken, I am too full for utterance. (Laughter.) “The New South/’ that bright star, dimmed for a while by war, pestilence and famine, but destined to shine, gentlemen, with more splen¬ dor than ever. This new South, the land of my birth, the home of my boyhood and my manhood, I am proud of. I am proud to rep¬ resent her to-night. I am proud of the mem¬ ories that cluster around her, her statesmen and her warriors. I am proud of her brave men and her beautiful women—and I believe they are the fairest on God’s earth. (Ap¬ plause.) I am proud of her fortitude in war, and her energy in peace. Twenty years ago when we returned from the battlefields to our desolate homes—ah, gentlemen, even the roof trees were gone ! At that time there was no 178 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE regret, there was no repining ; with one sad tear for those brave comrades whom we had left behind, we truly put our hands to the plow and we made the waste places blossom like a rose. Our spears were turned into pruning hooks, and in the South land you now hear the industry of every kind which your Presi¬ dent has depicted more truly than I can. We are no longer a land exclusively of cot¬ ton. If you want iron, or wood, or coal, or anything from the bowels of the earth, come to us and we can give it you. We can sup¬ ply it in any quantity, at any time. We will take no step backward, but will push on with an energy that even Chicago shall be proud of. (Applause.) And now, gentlemen, allow me one word as to the war; allow a Southern soldier, in behalf of Southern soldiers, to pay a tribute to the fortitude of the great captain who celebrated CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 179 his sixty-third birthday the day before yester¬ day. (Great applause and cheering, many of the persons present standing up and enthusi¬ astically waving their napkins and handker¬ chiefs.) Gentlemen, that man conquered Fort Donelson, he conquered Vicksburg, he con¬ quered the immortal Lee, and it seems as if he conquered death itself. (Great applause.) Gentlemen, again I thank you, especially that you have not shot the organist. (Great applause.) President Blake asked that three cheers be given Gen. Trezevant, which were heartily given, and Gen. Trezevant arose again and spoke as follows : Gentlemen, again I thank you. This is a kind of shooting that is truly grateful. (Ap¬ plause.) i8o DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE THE VENUS OF THE LAKES. JOHN JOHNSTON, JR. President Blake : “ Gentlemen, I wish to say in justice to the gentleman who speaks next, as I should have said of Gen. Trezevant, that he, also, will speak at very brief notice. I offer to you, gentlemen, ‘The Venus of the Lakes ’—Milwaukee—too near to be a stran¬ ger, too far to be a part of us, and yet our beautiful sister. “The ‘Rich Land’ -55 ' of the Indian has re¬ deemed its name. ” Mr. John Johnston, Jr., arose to respond to the above toast, he being the President of the Milwaukee Board of Trade, and spoke as fol¬ lows : *The meaning of Milwaukee is “ Rich Land.” CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 181 Mr. President and Gentlemen :— : I thank you heartily for the kindly sentiments toward Mil¬ waukee which have been expressed in the toast just given, and for the enthusiastic recep¬ tion with which it has been received by this vast and representative assemblage. Be as¬ sured, Mr. President, that the members of the Milwaukee delegation here present esteem it a very high honor indeed to be the means of conveying to you, the members of the Board of Trade of Chicago, the most hearty, the most cordial, and the most unreserved congrat¬ ulations of the members of the Chamber of Commerce of Milwaukee, and of her citizens in general, on the auspicious event which we have met this day to celebrate. After listening to the eloquent speeches to¬ day, it seems like the baseless fabric of a vision to think that where this mighty city now stands, with its 750,000 inhabitants, that even 182 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE where yonder temple of commerce now stands erected by the munificence of the merchant princes of this great city, that but yesterday the wild beast roamed, and the red man waged his unrecorded battles; and I venture the pre¬ diction—a little more specific than the predic¬ tions that have heretofore been made—that in less than a quarter of a century Chicago will be the leading city of the American continent. (Great applause.) Now, Mr. President, some men who only look at the surface of things imagine that we in Milwaukee are fearfully exercised over the immense growth of Chicago. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Be assured that there is ample room on the western* shores of Lake Michigan for two great cities. (Applause.) Why, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, four of the greatest cities of England, outside of London, are all nearer together CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 183 than Chicago and Milwaukee, and when we contemplate that far beyond us in the West, tributary to these two cities, there lies a region unsurpassed in all the resources of wealth ; when we think of the iron and the coal, of the timber, of the navigable streams, of the water power, and, above all those, the gardens of the desert for which the speech of England has no name — the prairies —and when we think that a region larger than half Europe is tributary to those two cities, and that the iron horse, as he travels over these thousands of miles laden with millions of tons of merchan¬ dise, and tens of thousands of men and women, quenches his thirst first in the waters of the great lake at Milwaukee or Chicago, who can doubt that if there be a New York at the head of Lake Michigan, there may not be a Boston at the mouth of the Milwaukee River. (Applause.) 184 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE The toast speaks of our “Beautiful Sister.” Now, I approve of that good, solid sense. Your classical Mayor alludes in several Latin phrases to the ancients, and I would take the same liberty and allude to the fact that the an¬ cient Greeks and the ancient Romans called all the cities by the feminine gender, the same as we do now—sisters. Now, we estimate women not so much by their size as we do by their beauty. (Laughter and applause.) There¬ fore, when you say, “Milwaukee, our Beautiful Sister,” I feel that I can hold up my head here alongside of Chicago, with its three-quarters of a million. (Great applause.) Mr. President, on looking over that illustri¬ ous roll of names which composes the member¬ ship of the Chicago Board of Trade, we see a very large number of them, of the most distin¬ guished of them, who took their first lessons in trade in Milwaukee (applause), .and I CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. I 85 believe that yet they have a warm spot in their hearts for their alma mater , and when they are tired and fagged with the rush and the din here, they can come up to Milwaukee, where they will enjoy the comforts of peace and happiness and contentment, and spend the wealth which they here have won. The word “sister” is one around which clusters many hallowed associations ; and if commerce, whose ministers we all are, had its way, every city in the world would be a sister to every other city. The allusion has been made to you gentle¬ men making war and peace within the last week ; but I venture to say that if it was left to the merchants of the world, war would be banished forever. (Great applause). I venture to say that if the Boards of Trade of Chicago and Milwaukee had the settlement of this Anglo-Russian difficulty, they would refer it 1 86 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE to a board of arbitration, and in twenty-four hours it would be all settled. (Great ap¬ plause.) I believe, Mr. President, that the time will come when the sweet voice of commerce will forever drown the noise of contending armies. I believe that the mer¬ chant is doing more than all other agencies together to-day to disband the standing armies of the world, and to bind the nations closer in the bands of friendship. Every line of telegraph that is erected, every ship that crosses the ocean, every tunnel that is dug through the mountains, every lighthouse that is erected on the headlands—all tend to bind the Nations closer in the bands of universal brotherhood, and to hasten on the time when men shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and learn war no more ; and let us pray that the time may come, as come it will, for a’ that, when CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. .87 man to man the world o’er shall brothers be, and a’ that. (Great applause.) (MUSIC.) DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE 188 THE CLERGY. THE REV. DR. LOCKE. President Blake then said : ‘‘Gentlemen, I am saving the best for the last. I offer you now a sentiment that, hilar¬ ious, and happy, and gay as we may ever be, will always receive a hearty response with us. ‘The Clergy — breaking the Bread of Life, laboring in white J harvest fields, sowing in tears, reaping in joy, they are ever welcome to our Board.’ I call upon Dr. Locke.” Dr. Locke then arose and said : This is the third time you will have heard from me to-day, gentlemen, and I can say, like the last two speakers, that I also have to speak without much preparation. I suppose many of you were surprised at seeing a send- CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 189 ment to the clergy included among the others. I suppose there are quite as few clergymen operating on the Board of Trade as there are Board of Trade men operating in pulpits. (Laughter.) But one common bond unites us. I and you can say in St. Paul’s words, “We are citizens of no mean city.” He said it of a little city of Silicia, of which scarcely a pillar remains to mark its site. We say it of this queen city, in whose splendid crown we have to-day set so fair a jewel. Certainly the cler¬ gyman-citizen can neither be a good citizen nor a good clergyman unless he is interested in the weal and the woe of the city where his lot has been cast. Certainly he before all other men should re-echo that classic senti¬ ment, “Nothing human is foreign to my thought.” I can say for myself that I am heart and soul bound up in the interests of Chicago. (Cheers.) I staid once three weeks 190 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE in the house of a Boston man, and he said to me : “I am perfectly astonished that you have never bragged about Chicago.” (Laughter.) I was sorry that I could not return the com¬ pliment and say, “ Neither have you bragged about Boston,” but that would have been ex¬ pecting too much from a citizen of the “Center of the Universe.” (Laughter.) But because I did not brag does not prove that I do not love it. I love it with a love too deep for surface words. I love its energy, I love its charity. I have spent a great part of my life in trying to make its citizens better men and women, with more or less success (laughter), and there is a large band of my brethren to whom I am ministering, who give their lives and their thoughts to this one thing. There are splendid examples of Christian manhood in Chicago, very many on this Board of Trade. We labor to make you righteous and honest, and you CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 191 are doing very great things toward upholding the churches in which we labor. Each one is trying to do his part, and, I repeat, sometimes with very poor success, but at least with encouragement enough for both sides to go on. Chicago is proud of its churches, and its ministers are proud of Chicago, and all will say that there is no greater help to a clergy¬ man than a God-fearing, upright business man. They are the bone and sinew of the church, just as they are the bone and sinew of the Board of Trade, and a broad, manly, upright, bold religion must be preached to them, or else the churches will be abandoned to women and children. (Cheers.) Woe to our land, I say, when that day comes, for with the advance of irreligion will come the advance of immor¬ ality and communism, and everything that would drive this fair land down to the gulf of ruin and despair. (Cheers.) ig2 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE \ OVER THE SEA. WILLIAMSON. President Blake arose and said : “ I have now to propose to you ‘Our brethren from over the sea.’ Brethren by rights, and though in a strange land to-day, they can hear a friendly tone, and see a friendly face, for their friends and neighbors are here before them. A common ancestry, a common lan¬ guage, a common civilization unites us. I call upon Mr. Williamson, of Liverpool.” Mr. Williamson spoke as follows : I am sorry that the Liverpool Corn Association have not a more able representative to speak for them to-night; but this I can say, that no member of that association has ever received more kindness in any part of the globe than I CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 193 have received in all America, and particularly f in Chicago, and it is the greatest pleasure for me to be present on this occasion, and also to¬ day, when you dedicated the noble structure you have erected, beautiful and chaste in de¬ sign, and I trust it will add twenty years to the life of each member of the Board of Trade. We have never been able to catch up with you in Liverpool, and generally lag a good bit be¬ hind, but I trust that this new building will be a source of great benefit to both, financially and in every point of view. I thank you most kindly for the courtesies you have shown me, on behalf of my own country, and particularly Liverpool. (Cheers.) 194 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE OUR MERCHANTS. N. K. FAIRBANK. Upon the conclusion of Mr. Williamson’s remarks, President Blake arose and said : “ Gentlemen of the Board and PYiends : I know you will not forgive me if I do not give you a brief opportunity to hear from the author of ‘ Fairbank’s Cherubs.’ (Cheers.) I offer this sentiment: ‘Our merchants, drawn from the progressive, active, earnest young men of the East. They have carried Chicago’s trade and name to the uttermost parts of the Northwest. We welcome them as co-laborers with us.’ I call upon Mr. Fairbank.” Mr. Fairbank responded as follows : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I am bound to say that you ought to omit this toast,. CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 195 because our Mayor, with his comprehensive mind, has taken in and elucidated the subject that I had thought to speak of, and that was the idea of Chicago making the merchant, instead of the merchant making Chicago. I had built all my sentiment on that one thought, and had made it a very fine one, and I had asked the President to omit that toast, and I thought he would, but he didn’t. (Laughter.) That thought is a very true one, and speaking for the merchants of this city I cannot believe that they are the very able, extraordinary mer¬ chants which the toast and our friends think they are. It is because they live in this great city, among great things, and surrounded by a great country which has built up an enormous trade. They are peculiarly fortunate in having their lines cast in such a goodly city, and with such an enormous trade to drop into their laps. That they have met the responsibilities of the 196 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE occasion no one will deny. Chicago develops men. As our friend, Mr. Johnston, said, we have among our prominent merchants citizens of Milwaukee, who came down here and have grown to be the great merchants that they are. It is the effect that I heard of produced upon a very prominent member of the New York Stock Exchange. He was met in the street by an old friend from Baltimore, who had not seen him for a great many years, and he said to him, “Why, William, it seems to me you stammer more than you used to.” His friend replied, “Yes, it is a b-b-bigger city, this is.” (Applause and laughter). Chicago produces that same effect. A man is a remarkably good business man in Milwaukee, but he rises to be a great deal larger one when he gets to Chi¬ cago, because the necessities of the occasion make him a greater man. You have heard a great deal about Chicago, and about what we CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 197 think of it here. Our Mayor has told you of the glories of the future of Chicago, but still there is one thing about it which you may not have thought of. It was suggested by a distin¬ guished literary man—Artemus Ward—who, speaking of the different cities of the country, once said that New York was a great flourish¬ ing city, sitting at the gates of the commerce of the world, and was destined to grow to enormous size. San Francisco, too, was a great city, commanding the trade of the East, and must grow to a great, wondrous and beau¬ tiful city. Of Chicago he said, that, sitting here in the midst of these prairies and commanding the commerce which she would command, she would be a great city but for one drawback, and that was that she lacked confidence in her¬ self. (Applause and laughter.) You gentlemen from abroad who have heard the speeches here to-night from our Chicago friends will 198 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE appreciate this. (Laughter and applause.) But it is late, and I will only say a word further, and that is that I assure you, gentlemen, and our friends from abroad, that the merchants of Chicago appreciate their responsibilities. They appreciate the importance of the trade, and I pledge to you that they will guard strictly the integrity of their trade and their commerce, so that it shall be said in years to come, as a respected friend of mine, whom you all know, —Mr. McClellan, of Montreal—said to me here this evening that he had traded in Chicago for thirty years, and, in all the transactions that he had ever had here, he could say that no man ever wronged him of a dollar. (Ap¬ plause.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 199 GENERAL RESPONSES. President Blake— “There is one thing about lawyers—they possess great versatility of talent. ‘Our railroads/ bonds of iron and bands of steel, binding us to distant lands. Their warning tones are ceaseless on the Chi¬ cago air ; their mighty tread is ever heard in our streets, and we welcome their harsh music. Mr. Storrs has consented to say a few words in response to this sentiment.” Mr. Storrs —“Is it understood that this is to be the last speech ?” President Blake —“This is the last and the best.” Mr. Storrs —“And no limitation as to time?” Pi resident Blake —“No limitation.” 200 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Mr. Storrs responded to the sentiment as follows : Within the last three minutes I have been invited to respond to this toast, and with my limited knowledge of the subject, I shall be unembarrassed by the facts, and can “ Wander in maiden meditation, fancy free.” (Laughter.) If a man knows a little of what he is talking about, like our worthy Mayor, (laughter and applause), he never knows when he makes a mistake (laughter). That railroads are useful and worthy institutions I have no doubt, and that they are necessary to the growth of this city or any other city; but they are by no means beneficent institutions, and were never devised for merely benevolent pur¬ poses. They were organized because the necessities of commerce and trade and general traffic demanded them, and they are an essen¬ tial part of the civilization of this century. So CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 201 far as Chicago is concerned, the most notable feature in the history of railroads is that this night we have learned for the first time that the best Mayor Chicago ever had and the locomotive were born in the same year (laugh¬ ter and applause); and there is another coinci¬ dence equally remarkable in the lives of the two great institutions—that they have been blowing off steam ever since. (Laughter and applause.) I have now said all that I desire to say on the subject of railroads. (Laughter.) I propose for the next thirty or forty minutes (laughter and applause) to devote myself to more entertaining topics. First, as to some characteristics concerning the city of Chicago, a city about which you have heard some men¬ tion made to-day and perhaps yesterday, the leading feature of which was barely hinted at by Mr. Fairbank-—its lack of confidence in itself. (Laughter and applause.) 202 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE It is but rarely that we have an occasion to talk about Chicago. In view of its tremendous growth we are compelled to do it with bated breath. It speaks for itself. Its best story is its truest story. Its highest encomium is found in its record. Gentlemen, a city is not great merely because it is big. This city is great because of two or three things, neither of which have this evening been mentioned. The city of Chicago was not made entirely by Chicago men. In a majority of instances, accident and good luck have brought the pres¬ ent residents of this city here. This city of Chicago, great and strong and vigorous, is great and strong and vigorous because it em¬ bodies and is the spirit made manifest in the flesh of its citizens, of a great, active, dead- earnest Americanism (cries of “Good, good”) —a nationality of the very largest proportions. We have done better things than building CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 203 warehouses. We have achieved greater things than the increase of our trade in some directions five hundred fold. We have accomplished grander things, and which will live longer in history, than running- up . a population of 700,000. We have wrought results that will live longer in this world’s records than piling- up this mighty volume of our trade and com¬ merce. Let me tell you two or three of them. This is the only city, this is the only State in all the Union that filled its quota without a draft, and did it because of its splendid, exalted, public spirit. After the great fire the city incurred an in¬ debtedness of about twelve millions of dollars. It issued its certificates, and the courts declared them absolutely worthless in the hands of the holders. What did the city do? It let its streets go unlighted, reduced its 204 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE police force, left its streets unpaved, and the city of Chicago paid the debt binding nothing but its honor years and years before its matu¬ rity. (Applause.) That is what makes us proud of Chicago; and I submit to you, gentlemen from other cities of the country and from other countries, that we have a right to be proud. (Cries of “good, good,” and applause.) This was to Chicago and its magnificent merchants so natural a thing to do, that it remains for liter¬ ary men and clergymen and lawyers to make mention of it. (Laughter and applause.) And that is not all. It is not altogether true that the merchants have not made Chicago, and that Chicago has made the merchant. I am not a merchant, and I am a more compe¬ tent judge than the merchants themselves. Do you tell me that N. K. Fairbank has done nothing for Chicago? Will you tell me that CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 205 Marshall Field has done nothing for Chicago? Do you tell me that Phil Armour and Sam Al- lerton and George Irwin and that good old Hiram Wheeler—God bless him !—and George M. Pullman have not contributed to making this city what it is ? (Applause.) Why, these men have made the spirit of this city—these men and their associates in business. They have made Chicago. This is the honest truth about it. They have made the Chicago that the world to-day delights to honor. This country is not merely great because of its prairies and mountains and great lakes. Athens was great, not because of its popula¬ tion, wealth, trade, or territorial extent, but because of a few men — Socrates, Pericles, Demosthenes, Phidias — who have carried its fame down through the centuries. The same sky bends over Athens that did two thousand years ago ; the soil is about the same ; but 206 DEDICATION EXERCISES OE THE the men are gone ! Take the men out of Chi¬ cago, and it would not be ten years before we would be a sister city to Milwaukee. (Laughter and applause.) Take the men out of Chicago, and it would not be long before a comparative census between Chicago and St. Louis would tell another story. (Laughter and applause.) What makes the difference between Milwaukee and Chicago ? It is the fact that Milwaukee’s men have moved here. (Laughfer and applause.) What makes the difference between the East and Chicago? It is a fact that the men of the East have moved here. We have the Bible for it: “The wise men come from the East.” (Laughter.) The record is silent upon the subject of their ever going back, and the fair inference is that they remained. And so I insist upon it, that modest as the merchants here are, a truthful story might as well be told about them. The men of the CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 207 Northwest have made this empire. It was the men of New England who made New Eng¬ land, and not its gray, inhospitable skies. When more than two hundred years ago in that cold climate, in the worst month in the year, those few men landed on a rock covered with ice and snow, there was no country to welcome them. “What constitutes a State?” We have the old poem for it. It is “ men, high- minded men.” The fact is that the riffraff of the East are gathered here. (Laughter.) We are all carpet-baggers. We came here with noth¬ ing but the lessons of thrift and frugality that we learned at our old homes. But just think of it ; here in the valley of the Mississippi the carpet-bagger has planted a tree not quite yet in its fruit, but splendid in its blossoming, and its exquisite perfumes have floated all around the world, and inspired in all other nations a hope of liberty. So, I say, all hail to Chicago! 208 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE The men of Chicago elected our Mayor. (Laughter and applause.) It is the men of Chicago who have reared this magnificent structure which we dedicated to-day. Now, I take issue with another observation that Chi¬ cago worships trade. It does not. It follows trade ; it drives trade ; it does not worship trade. It pursues trade for a purpose and a laudable purpose. But let a period of trouble or real peril come, when great public interests are involved, and see how quick trade will kick the beam. The Chicago merchant would strip himself in a moment, and say: Perish busi¬ ness ; sink trade deeper than ever plummet sounded, in order that private and public credit be maintained. Moreover, it was only a few years since when great alarm prevailed throughout the East lest we in the West should be debauched by inflation of the currency. There was never CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 209 the slightest occasion for the alarm, and the key note for honest money was struck in this imperial city, and in the proud State of Illinois, so proud, so splendid in its history and in its men, when it buried the heresies of dishonest fiat money under a majority of over forty thou¬ sand. (Laughter.) And so, when you are in trouble down East, come to us. We were born there. Our heart¬ strings have been stretched, but they have not been broken. They run back to those thou¬ sands and tens of thousands of dear old fire¬ sides in New York, New England, Pennsylva¬ nia, and far away down South, and we will here rear a structure so splendid that its dome will catch the earliest dawn and reflect the sunshine of an honestly achieved prosperity. Every year we make pilgrimages most sacred in their character to those old hearthstones ; to those old firesides ; and how proud we are 2 10 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE no one can tell when we unfold the record and look the dear old fathers and mothers in the face and say : “Are we not worthy sons?” Into the current of our busy lives of to-day have been poured all the incentives to honorable am¬ bition, all the illustrious examples which have preceded us. Our national character is the crystalization of all our history. It is the equable poise of Washington ; it is the philosophical serenity of Jefferson ; it is the calm, tranquil good sense of Lincoln ; it is the sturdy resolution of Jack- son ; it is the indomitable will—-God bless him —of Grant (Cheers); it is the songs that have been sung by our poets, and the dreams that have been dreamed by our great thinkers. All these go to make up our national character. Gentlemen, we have passed through one mighty peril ; we may reach another ; but I believe we can rely upon our men to carry CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 21 I us through it. I believe that this city shall be made glorious by all that the arts and the sciences and the loftiest literature and the solidest and most practical piety can make it. The Board of Trade members do not come down town at first loving one another, but they are compelled by their rules to arbitrate their differences, and by-and-by they get to do from liking what they are compelled to do by their constitution and by-laws. And, gentle¬ men, finally, we do not forget that in the main we are citizens of a common country; that in the main we are pursuing the same mission ; that in the main we desire peace ; and that always we desire peace at home. But do not forget in the midst of this jubilant talk that we are American citizens. First, achieve for our own country all the prosperity that we know what to do with, and what is left over we will 2 I 2 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE agree to divide equitably among all the other nations of the earth. I will close by saying that there has been no over-praise, there has been no buncombe about what Chicago has done. You have not half told your own story, and I do believe that if you were to get the Mayor into a corner where no one could hear, ply him with ques¬ tions and drive him to an answer, you could get him finally with bated breath, and in whis¬ pered accents, to admit that probably he was the best Mayor Chicago ever had. (Laughter and applause.) CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE. 213 I THE LADIES. Mr. Hodson responded to the toast as fol¬ lows : I am reminded that twenty-five years ago with my mother I came to this very city, and resided here under mother’s influence two years. Then my fortune bade me leave. In an all-wise providential moment I was taken to New York. Frequently have I visited this city, but never once have I forgotten the words that my mother said to me when she left me twenty-three years ago. “I hope,” she said, “you will remember one thing, and never for¬ get it: the slightest dishonor, the slightest neglect to a mother, to a lady, will disgrace me, your mother.” (Applause.) 2 14 DEDICATION EXERCISES OF THE Gentlemen, the last speaker paid honored tribute to men. In my mind was the thought when the Honorable the Mayor of this city was speaking : what would we be but for the men ? but the powers behind the throne win us and move us more than any other consider¬ ation. Who does not feel their influence, their power, silently, sweetly felt so many times ? Shall we ever regret that we ever thought of mother, of wife, of sister, of daughter ? And I thought when in that elegant hall to¬ day, as I sat and wondered—wondered as I thought I never did before—and I don’t know, but I think if a proposition was made to me now it would not be very hard to win me back to Chicago ; but my lot is cast elsewhere. One thing occurred to my mind : before leaving- home I said to my wife, “ If I am dead and buried before I get back, you will know what killed me.” Well, she was a little bit startled, CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 2I 5 and looked up and said, “Well, what?” 1 said, “ It will be the hospitality of Chicago.” (Applause.) President Blake : Only one minute more will I keep you. It has been suggested to me that the gentlemen at these tables would like to offer a vote of thanks to our host, Mr. Drake. Do I hear a motion ? A motion was promptly made and seconded, offering a vote of thanks to the host of the evening, Mr. John B. Drake, for the generous, kind and hospitable manner in which he had treated the guests of the evening, and the response in the affirmative left no room for doubt as to the sentiments of the gentlemen present. President Blake then arose and said : “ Gentlemen, one single word before you leave this room. As the representative of the 216 dedication exercises of the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago I wel¬ comed you ; as the representative of the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago I now say to you, good night.” Three cheers each were given for Mr. Blake and Mr. Drake, and the banqueters left the hall.