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 Speech by 
 
 Hon. Chauncey M. Depew 
 
 On His Eighty-seventh Birthday at the 
 
 Montauk Club, Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 
 April 30th, 1921, Being the 
 
 30th Annual Dinner 
 
 Given Him by 
 
 This Club 
 

 
 speech by 
 
 Hon. Chauncey M. Depew 
 
 On His Eighty-seventh Birthday at the 
 
 Montauk Club, Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 
 April 30th, 1921, Being the 
 
 30th Annual Dinner 
 
 Given Him by 
 
 This Club 
 
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 By Tranoto 
 
 SEP 24 1923 
 
speech by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew on his Eighty- 
 seventh Birthday at the Montauk Club, Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., April 30th, 1 92 1, being the 30th Annual 
 Dinner given him by this Club. 
 
 Mr. President and Friends: All of our meetings and 
 greetings have been interesting. Some of them have had spe- 
 cial significance. This, the thirtieth, marks an epoch. It is 
 difficult to grasp the idea and visualize the recollections of 
 thirty years of continuous celebrations of the birthday of a 
 single individual. Necessarily, in the course of nature, most 
 who were at our first dinner have joined the majority, but their 
 places have been filled by their sons and new members, equally 
 loyal to this original idea. It is a tribute to the continuance of 
 friendships, under all conditions, favorable and unfavorable, 
 and it is a monument to good fellowship. 
 
 The Untruth about Growing Selfishness 
 
 We hear so much of the growing selfishness of com- 
 munities, of their jealousies, rivalries and competitions which 
 separate them into hostile groups that we get a general idea 
 that good fellowship and unselfish companionship have largely 
 disappeared. Like most generalizations from narrow data, 
 this is untrue. College fraternities for undergraduates were 
 never so prosperous and never so homogeneous as they are 
 now. The annual alumni meetings were never so largely at- 
 tended, and never with such admirable results, both for the 
 individual alumnus and Alma iMater. Our meeting here has 
 no political, religious, sectional, trade or personal purpose. 
 It is simply a significant proof that men of all creeds and 
 professions can meet together and enjoy each other with hearty 
 good will, and separate with better purposes for the welfare 
 and prosperity of the community in which they live, of the 
 state of which it is a part, of the country which represents it 
 entire and of their associates. 
 
 It is an almost forgotten memory how often the country 
 has gone to the dogs during these thirty years. The tragedy 
 at the time of the crisis was that so many of our people had 
 lost faith in the future. It is well that we are so absorbed in 
 the policies or measures or conditions of the hour that we 
 
 I 
 
visualize their dangers and concentrate ourselves upon their 
 
 remedies. 
 
 President Harrison 
 
 It was a happy promise for the future that we began 
 these birthday celebrations during Harrison's administration. 
 Harrison was among the ablest of our Presidents. He was a 
 great international lawyer and brought about a settlement of 
 the long pending and critical disputes with Great Britain in 
 the Behring Sea which satisfied American opinion and Ameri- 
 can honor. He strengthened the Federal courts by a selection 
 of judges for merit and in disregard of partisan claims and 
 political pressure. His appointments won from his successor, 
 Grover Cleveland, who also was a firm friend of the judiciary, 
 this praise, "I cannot see how he did it. I thought I recognized 
 the importance of the Federal courts resisting mere party pres- 
 sure and giving to my appointments jealous care, but I must 
 confess that Harrison has beaten me." 
 
 Dr. Cadman, the eloquent Brooklyn preacher, in a recent 
 address on orators, says, "Perfect taste in public speech was 
 as nearly attained by President Harrison as by any publicist 
 of the last thirty years." 
 
 President Cleveland 
 Our experiences with Cleveland were original and interest- 
 ing. He was a Chief Magistrate much misunderstood by 
 his co-temporaries, but has grown in reputation with the years. 
 Our country was going to the dogs and rescued twice during 
 his administration, and by his courage and statesmanship. The 
 strikes under the leadership of Mr. Debs tied up all the rail- 
 roads of the country and by paralysis of transportation threat- 
 ened to destroy all business and starve and freeze the people. 
 It was easy, without much exaggeration, to picture what would 
 happen in great industrial centers when such conditions were 
 created, but President Cleveland was equal to the occasion. 
 He said that if it took all the forces at the command or control 
 of the government, the mails should be carried and communi- 
 cation between the different parts of the country kept open. 
 He immediately mobilized the army and drew upon the navy, 
 the country responded and in a few days the national highways 
 were free. 
 
One of the singular and almost universal crazes of our 
 financial experience was the enthusiasm of that period for 
 silver as the standard of value. One of the great parties was 
 almost unanimously for it and the other so infected that at 
 least a majority were in favor of it. This led to legislation 
 which would have speedily resulted in the United States taking 
 its place alongside that of IMexico and China, and losing its as- 
 sociation with the great commercial and industrial nations of 
 the world. Mr. Cleveland saw the situation very clearly and de- 
 manded a repeal of these laws. He found the leaders of his 
 own party unanimously against him, and little help from the 
 opposition. Then he made an appeal to human nature. The 
 appeal demonstrated that Rochefoucauld, the great French 
 philosopher and creator of maxims was eminently correct 
 when he remarked, "There is a great deal of human nature 
 in this world." 
 
 Mr. Cleveland's party, for the first time since the Civil 
 War, or in a generation, was in control of every branch of 
 the government. The hunger of a quarter of a century had 
 reached an acuteness where it was ravenous. It was hunger 
 for that most alluring position to so many Americans, the 
 possession of ofhce. The masses came down on their Senators 
 and Representatives in Congress ; they crowded the capitol, 
 they invaded the halls of legislation, they were armed with 
 information who could be turned out and replaced and what 
 new places could be created. Mr. Cleveland met the Senators 
 and Congressmen with the calm statement, "My silver repeal 
 first, and then I will take care of your constituents." The 
 Senators and Congressmen sent their constituents to the White 
 House ; the President received them with cordiality and said, 
 "The places you want and which I want to give you are in the 
 hands of your Senators and members of Congress, as soon 
 as they repeal this iniquitous silver bill." These office seekers 
 were all silver advocates, but not at the expense of the office 
 which they desired. They bombarded their Representatives 
 in Congress and held up to them the certainty of their political 
 death unless they opened the gates so that they could march 
 triumphantly into the departments of the government and take 
 possession. The result was Mr. Cleveland's repeal bills were 
 passed, a financial crisis of the gravest peril to our industrial 
 
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and commercial situation was averted, a most distinguished 
 service was done to the country and the President became the 
 most unpopular man in the United States. He retired from 
 office almost by unanimous consent, and yet will take his place 
 when the roll call is made in the future of our Presidents as 
 one of the most courageous and wisest of executives. 
 
 President McKinley 
 
 Then we passed through the administration of William 
 McKinley. He was so cordial, so companionable, had such 
 universal interests, that he almost seemed present at our annual 
 gatherings. Without regard to party, he was popular with 
 us all. McKinley's disposition was so kindly that he could 
 not say no, and it is pleasant to recall what is now forgotten, 
 that he gratified all applicants for office by a phrase which 
 at one time was of national use, "My dear friend, I cannot 
 give you what you wish, but I will give you something equally 
 as good." If the aspirant wanted to go to Paris and received 
 an appointment of the same grade for Africa, he was mollified 
 but not satisfied. 
 
 The convention which nominated Mr. McKinley marked 
 another crisis. The silver forces had gathered, the other party 
 was committed to their view and it looked as if the Republicans 
 might equally be stampeded and the country return to a silver 
 basis. But by a combination of circumstances, more psycho- 
 logical than practical, a gold plank was inserted in the Repub- 
 lican platform. Very many of the delegates were frightened 
 when this was discovered. The result, however, very unex- 
 pectedly proved that the stone which had nearly been rejected 
 was the corner of the whole edifice. There were many planks 
 in the platform and the strongest was the tariff, but it turned 
 out that the most popular was the gold plank. It grew in 
 strength and in popularity day by day until election. It was 
 universally recognized as the source of McKinley's strength 
 and of his election. Then came this interesting episode. Every 
 statesman in the convention claimed to be its author. Senator 
 Foraker, in his interesting autobiography, devotes unusual 
 space to proving that none of these claims had any rights, 
 but that the committee of which he was chairman and which 
 he dominated, was the author. He was so angry because a 
 
well known newspaper proprietor, who had formerly been a 
 baker, claimed the authorship of the gold plank and was 
 asserting it constantly in his newspaper, that he published 
 with great glee a letter from the eloquent and sarcastic Sen- 
 ator Ingalls of Kansas in which he said, "I am glad you slit 
 the gullet of that pastry cook." I was overwhelmed with 
 requests for a certificate of authorship by many distinguished 
 and ambitious statesmen. 
 
 Presidents Roosevelt and Taft 
 
 It was a fruitful lifetime during the administration of 
 Theodore Roosevelt. I was in Buffalo when President Mc- 
 Kinley died. The next evening Mr. Roosevelt arrived. It 
 was thought necessary that there should be no interruption in 
 the government, that Mr. Roosevelt should be at once inducted 
 into office. A small party met in the parlor of the private 
 house where Mr. Roosevelt was staying and a United States 
 district judge administered the oath of office. Mr. Elihu Root, 
 then Secretary of State, in one of the most impressive ad- 
 dresses ever delivered, and with a voice full of tears, stated 
 to the Vice President the necessity for his at once assuming 
 executive duties because of the tragedy which had taken the 
 life of the President. I left the house with Mark Hanna. The 
 interview called to my mind Cardinal Wolsey's soliloquy in 
 Shakespeare's Henry VHI. A few hours before, Hanna was 
 the Warwick of the administration. His unrivaled practical 
 ability admirably supplemented and enriched for practical ad- 
 ministration the ideahsm of the President. He knew perfectly 
 well that with the forceful, masterly and aggressive Roosevelt, 
 there was no place for a Warwick. What promised to be 
 one of the most influential careers in American politics had 
 suddenly come to an end. 
 
 For seven years Theodore Roosevelt was President of 
 the United States. We never had a dull moment during that 
 period. His activity, versatility and genius for affairs were 
 phenomenal. The strike in the coal region threatened to stop 
 production, close factories and freeze people in their homes. 
 He brought the operators and operatives together and in his 
 masterful way forced a settlement. The whole country had 
 a thrill. The war between Russia and Japan threatened to 
 
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involve the world. Roosevelt saw the peril and acted in his 
 own original way, on his own initiative. Figuratively he 
 grasped each combatant by the neck and said, "In the interests 
 of civilization, you must get together." The command was 
 obeyed and Roosevelt received the Nobel prize. We had 
 another thrill. 
 
 Balboa, standing on the heights of the Isthmus dreamed 
 of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The world master, 
 Charles V, wished he might have the power to accomplish 
 that result. Four hundred years elapsed, with succeeding 
 nations and their rulers desiring to unite the two oceans. 
 It became absolutely necessary for the United States that its 
 eastern and western coasts should be brought together 
 commercially, and that they might be protected by one navy. 
 Roosevelt conceived the plan, presented it to Colombia and 
 after various agreements had been made and broken, in his 
 own original way he built the Panama Canal. To critics who 
 assailed him from various viewpoints, his only answer was, 
 "We got the ditch." And we had another thrill. 
 
 Then we had more thrills when Roosevelt opposed the 
 Kaiser in the Venezuela controversy and saved the Alonroe 
 Doctrine, and still more when he asserted the rights of Ameri- 
 can citizenship against the Moroccan bandit chieftain Raizuli. 
 It is too early yet to predict Roosevelt's place in American 
 history, but the cult is growing and when to picturesque and 
 romantic facts such as I have briefly stated, is added with 
 the years the force of tradition, Roosevelt may take his place 
 as the third of a triumvirate with Washington and Lincoln. 
 Every one of us knew him; he was our neighbor and our 
 friend. That is one of the great privileges of having lived 
 during this period. 
 
 We enjoyed Taft, his ability, his justice, his fairness, and 
 we basked and were merry and glad in the sunshine of his 
 resistless smile. 
 
 President Wilson 
 
 We cannot escape a brief review of our experience with 
 President Wilson. It was original. Mr. Wilson was for a 
 time the foremost, the most popular and powerful statesman 
 in the world. I have found in meeting intimately during my 
 
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long life masterful men in every department of aelivity, that all 
 of them if they continue in the same line until after middle 
 age, never escape or try to get rid of their training. Presi- 
 dent Wilson had a great mind and boundless industry, 
 and as a teacher soon reached the head of one of the great 
 universities of the country. For almost a generation, as a 
 teacher, he was bringing immature minds to a preparation 
 where they could enter fully equipped upon the competitions 
 and activities of life. He did not want from them either 
 advice or suggestion. That was natural. It was for him to 
 set them on the right path and keep them in it. One of the 
 most remarkable revolutions in our political history made 
 him President, with a large majority of his party friends 
 both in the Senate and House of Representatives. 
 
 What Democratic Senators Said 
 Democratic Senators, with whom I served for many years, 
 told me that Wilson never consulted them, nor would he ac- 
 cept their volunteered advice. They said, "We had free com- 
 munication with McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft, but our Presi- 
 dent presents us measures and says, 'Enact them into law.' 
 Our constituents accept him as the leader of our party. Pie 
 declines to discuss the matter and says simply, 'This is a party 
 measure, and I trust you will not make it necessary for me 
 to tell your people that you are no longer a Democrat.' We 
 all surrender our personal convictions and obey the order. 
 The few who have refused to do so, he has retired to private 
 life by simply so advising their constituents." So Mr. V/ilson 
 had more power over Congress than any of our Presidents, 
 not excepting General Jackson. His own reason for his per- 
 sonal policy was that he has a single track mind. To a railroad 
 man, that simile is very clear. A locomotive on a single track 
 cannot be passed by one behind it, nor have another move 
 beside it. If there is one coming in the opposite direction, a 
 collision necessarily occurs. 
 
 The League of Nations. What the Farmer Said 
 Mr. Wilson, with his great ability, threw himself whole- 
 heartedly into the formation of peace by the creation of a 
 League of Nations. Foreigners are unable to understand why 
 
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that proposed League of Nations was not accepted by the 
 American people. The reason can be found in Mr. Wilson's 
 favorite explanation of most difficulties, and that is — American 
 psychology. The whole American people wanted peace, not 
 only wanted, but were eager for it, and yet the League of 
 Nations was rejected on a direct issue by over 7,000,000 ma- 
 jority; over a million in our State of New York, and nearly 
 400,000 in our great city. Libraries have been written on the 
 subject, and yet the explanation is found in the remark of a 
 farmer to a journalist friend of mine. This reporter was out 
 for his paper, which was ardently for the League of Nations 
 as presented by Mr. Wilson, to get public opinion, and espe- 
 cially in its favor. He found a farmer in the fields and ap- 
 proached him on the subject. The farmer said, "Yes, I se- 
 cured a copy of the League of Nations* and I have read it 
 three times, and I am opposed to it." "Why?" said the re- 
 porter. "Because," answered the farmer, "there is no Bunker 
 Hill in it." 
 
 The Voice of Washington 
 
 In the psycholog}^ of the American people there is an 
 ineradicable sentiment of revolutionary patriotism. It may 
 be hidden by our national prosperity, by materialism, by the 
 obvious advantages of the present, but if the crisis is sufficient 
 and the appeal goes deep enough, the American citizen as a 
 rule is with the founders of the Republic. He may be called 
 isolated or provincial or behind the times or unequal to the 
 responsibility which the cable and the wireless have placed 
 upon the citizens of the world by making them one, and yet 
 when he hears or thinks he hears the voice of Washington 
 saying, "Be friendly with all nations, but have entangling al- 
 liances with none and keep out of European quarrels," when 
 he hears or thinks he hears that same sentiment repeated, 
 either in inaugural addresses or messages, by every succeeding 
 President of the United States, his mind is made up and his 
 position is fixed. 
 
 The Opinion of the Man in the Street 
 I have been actively in politics for sixty-five years, not 
 as an office holder, but as an American profoundly interested 
 in our government. When I used to take the stump for a 
 
few weeks, I could always tell how the State or country 
 •would go. It was because I sedulously sought the opinion 
 •of the man in the street. The man in the street is the every- 
 day fellow, just like you and me, and nine-tenths of the time 
 his mind is occupied with his personal affairs and associations, 
 but in a political crisis he thinks nationally. So going through 
 the State I interviewed everybody — the passengers on the cars, 
 not on the drawing-room but the ordinary cars, the conductor, 
 brakeman and the engineer on the train, the men in the shops, 
 the farmer in the fields, the casual acquaintance at the hotels. 
 It is curious, in a hardly contested fight, to notice how a wave 
 of similar sentiment will sw^eep over the country and impress 
 all these people the same way. The man in th.e street rules 
 our country, and makes mighty few mistakes. 
 
 President Harding 
 
 It was one of the privileges of a lifetime for me to be 
 at the same hotel at St. Augustine, Florida, where President 
 Harding spent most of his vacation. It was a rare opportunity 
 to judge our Chief Executive. He worked hard in the morn- 
 ing in conferences with party leaders and prospective Cabinet 
 officers. Pie played golf in the afternoon with the regular 
 players on the course, and captured all of them. Pie was 
 accessible to everybody and his mind transparently open to 
 suggestions. One of the leading southern Democrats of Flor- 
 ida said to me, "Senator Harding, by his good fellowship, 
 -camaraderie and cordiality with our people, has come mighty 
 near breaking up our party." 
 
 His first act in opening the gates to the White House 
 grounds and the doors of the White House is significant, as 
 was the ancient method with the temple of Janus, only with 
 a reversal of the process ; the gates of the temple were open 
 during war and closed for peace. Once in the White House 
 the President immediately summoned the leaders of Congress, 
 he called together the members of his Cabinet, he invited the 
 Vice President to sit with them, he consulted with the Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court, he saw men of leading minds 
 from ever}^ walk in life. Before he acts, he will have received 
 hospitably every suggestion, advice or information possible 
 on the subject, but the judgment he forms will be his own. 
 
 9 
 
I believe that judgment will be right, and that it will be ac- 
 cepted as such by the American people. One of the leading 
 Democratic papers in the South while I was there and after 
 the President had left Florida, said, "We have yet to find a 
 paper which is hostile to President Harding. The whole field 
 of journalism accepts the tremendous verdict of the country 
 and wishes the President a successful administration." 
 
 Production the Keynote of Industrial Salvation 
 
 There never has been a time in our history when our 
 entire population, men, women and children, were so immedi- 
 ately affected by the government as now. Out of the great 
 war to which we contributed unstintedly of our manhood and 
 our means, have come burdens which rest heavily upon us. 
 Relief can only be had by wise legislation and responsive effort 
 from the people. Productiveness is the keynote of our indus- 
 trial salvation. The older nations of the world, on account 
 of economic necessities, have taken finance out of politics and 
 treated financial questions with expert ability. Our system 
 has been a happy-go-lucky one, because our resources were 
 enormous and our needs not in proportion. All highly organ- 
 ized governments have had a budget for the year which de- 
 tailed what was required and then the taxes were distributed 
 and levied accordingly. We have appropriated the money first 
 in a haphazard way and tlien tried to find sufficient revenue. 
 The surplus of our tariff after taking care of the government 
 prevented right thinking upon taxation. 
 
 Different Ways of Taxation 
 
 When the war thrust upon Congress the necessity of 
 raising billions instead of millions, politics still governed the 
 situation. My old friend, Senator Tillman, knocked out 
 stamps upon checks, an easy method of raising revenue, by 
 shouting, "Every citizen v/ho licks a stamp will turn around 
 and help to lick us." Tea, coffee and sugar, which are the 
 large sources of revenue in every other country, were barred 
 for revenue because we must not touch the American breakfast 
 table. Alcohol for general use, another large contributor in 
 other lands, was knocked out on moral grounds by prohibition, 
 and tobacco treated vvith gentle hands. The national financiers, 
 
 la 
 
abandoning all the lessons of experience, finally adopted prac- 
 tically only one method for revenue. That was excessive 
 taxation of business and individual success. The returns from 
 these two sources are as unstable as the tides, and stability is 
 the life of revenue. 
 
 Employers and Employees Must Get Together 
 
 in the fluctuating conditions of domestic and foreign 
 trade, of demand and supply, of capital and labor, prosperity 
 in business one year becomes a deficit the next. Our first 
 need is for the whole population, rising to the occasion, as it 
 did in the adoption of the gold standard, to help the govern- 
 ment solve its problems and adjust the burdens, so that ade- 
 quate revenue may be received and business stimulated ; that 
 taxes be adjusted, not according to political popularity or 
 sectional favoritism, but upon sound economic principles; 
 that the different committees which have charge of many 
 branches of appropriation be willing to surrender the patron- 
 age and power of their position to a budget committee of su- 
 preme authority. The victory of the Allies in the great war 
 saved liberty and civilization for all future generations, and by 
 the extension of the debt they should bear their proportion of 
 the sacrifices which made them free. Employers and employees, 
 as never before, must get together. Daniel Webster once said 
 that the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and the law of 
 Love were part of the common law of the land. Employers and 
 employees who meet together in the spirit of this law can 
 arrive in their several industries and occupations at adjust- 
 ments which \vill promote mutual good will and the happiest 
 results. 
 
 Lenine's Communistic Principles 
 
 It has been difficult for us during this war to appreciate 
 its results. It is difficult for us now to grasp that we are in 
 the midst of the solution of the problem of the ages. One of 
 the most significant of recent utterances has been that of 
 Lenine, the autocrat of Russia, to the congress of his deputies. 
 For four years he has controlled Russia with an absolutism 
 the Czar never was able to enforce. Having command of an 
 
 II 
 
obedient army and all the sources of food and fuel he held 
 180,000,000 people, a singularly undeveloped people, in a grip 
 of steel. Property was ex-propriated, the intelligent and 
 educated classes exterminated. After four years, during; 
 which millions have died of starvation and tens of thousands 
 have been arbitrarily executed, he finds himself and his govern- 
 ment facing industrial and economic chaos, with no remedy 
 in sight. He therefore says to the few who with him own 
 the government, "Our communistic principles will not work. 
 We have given them a fair trial and they are a failure. We 
 must recognize property and its accumulation and protection. 
 We have destroyed capitalists and enterprises in Russia ; we 
 must import them from abroad. We must invite foreign 
 capital. We must let it enjoy enormous profiits and be safe 
 in its business and its accumulations. We must allow Russian 
 enterprise to make headway and furnish security for its suc- 
 cesses. We find the farmer will not produce unless he owns- 
 his farm and controls his product. We find the manufacturer, 
 must have the incentive of protection in his work and in its 
 expansion. If, after ten years of capitalism, in other words a 
 recognition of the right of a man or woman to what they earn 
 or make, has placed our country upon a sound economic basis, 
 then, or perhaps later, we may try again our communistic- 
 principles." 
 
 It Is Our Privilege to See the End of Ruling by Divink 
 
 Right 
 
 ??■■ 
 
 Going back millions of years, we find that the cave mart 
 fought first for his wife, then for his cave, then for his farm 
 and a patrimony for his children. With other cave men, he 
 formed a government and elected a chief, about whom was 
 thrown the mantle of divinity to protect his family and his 
 property. As he developed government and laws, they were 
 all for the safety of Hfe and property and the largest possible 
 liberties consistent with everybody's else's liberties. The 
 Rom.an Empire conquered the world because it carried every- 
 where a system of law and justice which the people craved. 
 Its corruption and the crimes of its emperors led to its de- 
 struction. The principles of Christ captured mankind. New 
 
 12 
 
governments were formed and divinity thrown around the 
 king or emperor, but under him the people secured protection 
 for their lives, their liberties and their property. In recent 
 centuries a few royal families governed Europe by divine right. 
 Their tyrannies led to the revolts of their subjects, who wanted 
 more liberties for themselves and more protection for their 
 property from confiscatory taxation. Napoleon shattered the 
 principle of divine right as he tumbled kings from their 
 thrones, but in 1816 the Holy Alliance was formed to extirpate 
 representative government and protect the divinity of sover- 
 eigns. The Monroe Doctrine prevented the Alliance from 
 •destroying the Spanish republics of South and Central Amer- 
 ica and Mexico. France, having thrown off the Bourbons, was 
 seeking a government of the people through universal suf- 
 frage, but the Hohenzollerns, the Hapsburgs, the Romanoffs 
 and the family of Abdul Hamid still governed by divine right. 
 The new factor, and the most revolutionary one, in the 
 scheme of governing the world was the Republic of the United 
 States. Its government began in the cabin of the Mayflower, 
 by proclamation of a charter which said, "We will form a 
 .government of just and equal laws." That evoluted into the 
 Declaration of Independence and was crystallized in the Con- 
 stitution of the United States. The quarrel between the Kaiser 
 and the Czar, when from the intimacy of Willie and Xicky 
 they became enemies, broke up the unity of the divinity of 
 kings. The Kaiser and his allies, the Emperor of Austria, 
 the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Bulgaria, staked the 
 doctrine of the divine right of kings to rule the world and 
 the overthrow of popular government upon the issue of war. 
 They have failed, the Romanoff family is destroyed, the Haps- 
 burgs and Hohenzollerns are in exile and the Sultan has lost 
 his power. For the first time in the ages, the divine right 
 of kings to govern is dead. There are a few kings, but they 
 have no power. Everywhere it is a people's government, 
 growing as nearly as possible in every case to the example of 
 the Republic of the United States. There is absolute stability 
 in the great powers of the United States, Great Britain and her 
 self-governing colonies, in France and Italy. Starvation and 
 economic cliaos threatens most all other nations. 
 
 13 
 
No Great Men Out of this War 
 
 We read the outlines of history so graphically presented 
 and condensed by H. G. Wells. He pictures the rise, pros- 
 perity and extinction of great empires. Babylon, Assyria, 
 Persia, the Mongols, Egypt, Greece and Rome occupy the stage 
 and become historic pictures, but they seem very local and 
 very small compared with the tragedy of our own time upon 
 which the curtain has not yet fallen. The singular phenom- 
 enon of the present is that it has produced no great and 
 dominating genius. More hu«ian beings have lost their lives, 
 more boundaries of states have been changed, more far-reach- 
 ing effects have been felt, from the highest civilization to the 
 most savage nations or tribes, than in all the past ages put 
 together, and yet it has produced no representative of the epoch, 
 and no historian, or poet, or novelist to picture in enduring form 
 its progress, its philosophy or significance. There is no Alex- 
 ander the Great, no Cassar, no Napoleon, no Bismarck, no 
 Washington, no Lincoln, no Gladstone ; no Dante to lead us 
 through hell, no Milton to take us through heaven, no Walter 
 Scott, no Dickens, no Thackery, no Irving, no Hawthorne. 
 It may be because the peril is not yet past nor the results of 
 the battle crystallized. Liberty and civilization are still facing 
 chaos and anarchy in a great part of the world. Happily, the 
 signs are hopeful, but for the solution there is still required 
 the maximum of Christian forbearance, of wise statesman- 
 ship, of universal helpfulness of the strong for the weak and 
 of the prosperous for the needy. 
 
 "How ABOUT Eighty-seven?" 
 
 I should fail to meet the expectations of this occasion, 
 so personal to myself, if I did not answer the question which 
 is put to me every day, "How about eighty-seven ; how did 
 you get there; how do you retain possession of all your facul- 
 ties, and how are you so healthy, so happy, so hopeful ?" At 
 the Republican National Convention at Chicago last June, I 
 w'as suddenly called upon to make a speech. There were 
 15,000 in the audience, the thermometer was 94, and the situa- 
 tion difficult. Happily, the speech was a success, and mine, 
 though by far the oldest, was with one exception the only 
 voice distinctly heard. From the crowds gathering about with 
 
 14 
 
their congratulations, I had an experience, which was one out 
 of many I have had, of what the average person regards 
 as the most encouraging thing to say. An enthusiast shouted, 
 "Chauncey Depew, I want to shake your hand ; I have wanted 
 to for twenty years, but I Hve up in the mountains, where 
 you never come, and we seldom get down. I was in the con- 
 vention hall there, on that platform up under the roof, two 
 miles from the stage apparently. I never heard a word any 
 other speaker said, but every word that you uttered. In your 
 eighty-seventh year, it was a miracle. But come to think of it, 
 my father on his eighty-fourth birthday was quite as remark- 
 able, just as strong and vigorous as you were wdiile making 
 that speech at eighty-seven, and a week afterward he was 
 dead." 
 
 Benjamin Franklin 
 
 We have had many anniversaries during the year, but 
 it seems to me, for every-day life and every-day people like 
 you and me, old Benjamin Franklin and his thrift carries the 
 most lessons. Matthew Arnold has put him on a pedestal 
 as the most remarkable man of his period. Certainly he is 
 the most inspiring. From nothing, he became of world-wide 
 importance. All his life he was working, and happy in his 
 work. He is the father of our modern successes with 
 electricity. He was the philosopher of getting on and success 
 who has inspired more people than all the libraries put to- 
 gether. He was an inventor and he was a statesman. The 
 rulers of Great Britain recognized his ability and he captured 
 the beauties of the court of Louis XVI, the king, the queen 
 and the government. Then along in the 8o's, and possess- 
 ing the levelest head among the statesmen of our coun- 
 try, he was the old man, eloquent and wise, in the Constitu- 
 tional Convention. 
 
 Franklin was always healthy, happy and had a good time. 
 The lesson of his life was of varying one's occupation. 
 It is the most valuable lesson for continuing intellec- 
 tual and physical vigor and for success in the career which 
 you have selected for your life work. The man who gives his 
 days and nights wholly to his business or his profession, with- 
 out any change of work or proper recreation or play, does not 
 
 15 
 
live long and his talent deteriorates. He can pTay golf, or if 
 that is denied him, baseball or football, or if that is too strenu- 
 ous he can walk or row, or instead of plodding away and 
 spurring a tired brain which has become exhausted by 
 continuous strain, he can put his gray matter upon something 
 else, learn to have an interest in that pursuit and turn to it for 
 relief, recreation and life. ^ 
 
 The Benefit of Variety of Occupation 
 
 With one exception, all of my co-temporaries are dead 
 who became railroad executives when I did. They died 
 because they were chained to their desks and to their task. I 
 found that I had no talent or taste for sport or physical exer- 
 cise, but some ability for public speaking and easy preparation. 
 My almost daily appearance before the public in the evening 
 changed the switch, freshened my mind, gave me sleep and 
 fresh brains for the morning's task, but it nearly lost me the 
 confidence of my stockholders. 
 
 One of the great crimes which shorten life is indifference. 
 As one loses interest in his church, in his political party, in his 
 club, in his friends and acquaintances, he dries up and the 
 grave claims one whom no one wants or laments. The two 
 most fatal phrases and the most common are, "What's the 
 use?" and "Why should I?" A hungry and a needy world 
 answers both with open opportunities for service, helpfulness 
 and good fellowship, I once applied a radical remedy to a 
 friend who came to my office broken in health and spirits and 
 despairing. I said to him, "Take nothing seriously." It was 
 hard for a serious man, in domestic grief and financial trouble, 
 but months afterwards, he came again to my office, cheerful, 
 happy and successful, and said, "Thanks for your remedy^ 
 but it has lost me the confidence of my friends." 
 
 Have a Hobby, Ne\^r a Fad 
 
 Have a hobby, but never a fad. I look over with interest 
 and amusement the fads of the past. When I was a young 
 man, the country went mad over the speedy end of the world. 
 A sect called the Millerites selected the day and the year. 
 The confessions of unhappy couples, so that they might enter 
 the next world at the assigned hour with a clean slate, led to. 
 
 i6 
 
many of them hoping and praying that Gabriel would blow his 
 trump at once. We all remember the blue glass cure. It was 
 a picturesque sight on going to one's office in the morning to 
 see in almost every house a big window through which the sun 
 could shine, covered with blue glass and a man or woman sit- 
 ting there, hoping for an early cure. We recall the enthusiasts 
 who walked barefooted in the grass in the park to get the 
 benefit of the early dew. We remember when it was generally 
 taught and almost universally believed that the eating of fish 
 increased one's brain power, and the enormous increase in 
 skin troubles from over-indulgence. I recall with delight the 
 story of the man who wrote his diagnosis to Dr. Oliver Wen- 
 dell Holmes, and said, "Will you please prescribe how much 
 fish I should eat a day for the improvement of my mind." 
 The doctor answered, "In your case, I think it will be sufficient 
 if you take for breakfast every morning a whale on toast." 
 
 The Story of Carnaro 
 Before Columbus sailed for America, a Venetian wrote 
 the story of his life, which centuries after was found in the 
 library of the University of Bologna and printed. His name 
 was Carnaro. His first pamphlet was written when he was 
 sixty. His story briefly is this : At forty, most of the young 
 men of Venice who had money, died of excesses. He re- 
 covered from his severe illness by the doctor putting him upon 
 a severe diet. He felt so well, that he continued it. It amount- 
 ed to about 12 ounces of selected food a day, with a pint only 
 of red wine. At sixty, his co-temporaries were all dead. At 
 eighty, he wrote another volume detailing the success of his 
 experiment. At ninety, another, when he had recovered his 
 fortune which had been lost by his grandson. At one hundred, 
 another pamphlet, when he was still as vigorous as ever and 
 "going some." History does not record what killed him at 
 one hundred and five; it was probably over-indulgence. The 
 greatest life-saver and health preserver is to be able to cut 
 out whatever disagrees with one, and to limit the quantit}' of 
 whatever agrees with you. 
 
 My Mother's Advice 
 I have investigated by personal experience spiritualism 
 and its various forms of faith and practice. I have never been 
 
 17 
 
satisfied that we really could get communication with the other 
 world though I have tried very hard. I cannot believe that those 
 we love who are there, and who would be delighted to com- 
 municate with us, have yet the power to do so, but I have 
 experienced two most helpful aids. Whenever great misfor- 
 tune or losses overtook me, as they have, my mother, who 
 was a firm Calvinist, has said, "The Lord has sent this to you 
 3s a discipline. It is for your own good. Receive it as such 
 and do the best you can, with renewed energy and hopeful- 
 ness, and this apparent misfortune will prove a real bless- 
 ing." In every case, this has come out as my mother pre- 
 dicted. I have absolute faith, from, repeated trials, of the 
 efficacy of prayer. While the answer has not come by voice 
 or letter or through mediums, yet in some way it has been 
 direct and positive. But the greatest aid is faith, faith in your 
 church, at the same time with a broad charity for all who 
 prefer other creeds ; faith in your government, when its foun- 
 dations and principles have been demonstrated, like ours as 
 the best ; faith in your fellow man and woman. You may be 
 often deceived, cheated and meet with losses and embarrass- 
 ment, but these are isolated, and very few compared with the 
 great mass of friends and acquaintances who are dependable 
 and valuable. Have faith in yourself and the guidance of God 
 for proper living, thinking, associations and ambitions. 
 
 Congratulations from President Harding 
 
 ■Mr. William H. English, President of the Montauk Club, 
 who presided at the dinner, read a letter from President Hard- 
 ing, in which the President expressed his regret that he was 
 unable to attend and said: 
 
 "I would greatly delight to sit beneath the spell of Mr. 
 Depew's utterances from his wealth of memories expressed as 
 none other is able to give expression. I should like for you 
 to know that I share your reverence and esteem for him and 
 I should be glad if I could contribute on this occasion some 
 slight expression of my affectionate regard along with my wish 
 that this celebration will continue for many, many years to 
 come." 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 789 193 1 H