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| Thomas C. Platt. |
BANQUET TO MR. PLATT.
GREAT
DEMONSTRATION IN HONOR OF THE SENATOR-ELECT.
Distinguished
Republicans From This and Other States—Nearly a Thousand Guests at the Tables,
Many Spectators in the Galleries—Beautiful Decorations of Flowers, Flags and
Colored Lights—Strong Speech by Mr. Platt and Good Words by Others.
ALBANY, Jan. 27.—Hon. Thomas C. Platt was
last night honored by an assemblage of prominent Republicans from all parts of
the state and from other states. The occasion was the banquet tendered to the
senator-elect by the New York state league of Republican clubs. Harmanus
Bleecker hall was the scene of the festivities. A temporary flooring had been
constructed from the stage over the orchestra seats, upon which rested the
banquet tables, with a seating capacity for 990 people. The spectators occupied
the dress circle and the gallery, and the wives of the prominent guests and of
the state officers occupied the boxes on each side of the speaker's table.
The interior decorations and arrangements were
elaborate. The speaker's table stood upon a raised platform, resting upon the
stage, and had seating capacity for fifty-four. There were fourteen tables
extending over the orchestra circle and seven more in the rear of the main table.
The decorations were extremely tasteful. Each table was distinguished by
flowers of a certain color. Smilax interwoven with ferns formed the body of the
decorations, with celluloid baskets filled with roses, azaleas, ferns and palms
comprising the center pieces.
On the speaker's table were three massive incandescent
banquet ornaments. The decorations of the hall were a combination of bunting,
flowers, vines, tropical foliage and colored electric bulbs. Broad streamers of
the national colors hung from the dome to the balconies. From the proscenium
arch the state coat of arms was displayed, surrounded by American flags.
Draperies of silk and groups of shields and ancient armor were arranged before
the boxes and around the balcony rail.
Variegated trailing vines entwined the posts
supporting the balcony, intermingling with silk American banners. Curtains of
silk and lace and lambrequins of the American colors adorned the large windows.
Back of the stage was a representation of the American flag in colored lights.
There were separate tables reserved for the congressmen from this state, for
the members of the legislature, for state officers and heads of state
departments, and the members of the Republican state committee, nearly all of
whom were present. It took some time for the guests to be seated. They began arriving
at 6 o'clock, but the banquet did not commence until shortly after 7.
Mr. Platt was escorted to his seat at the
center of the main table by State
Treasurer
Addison B. Colvin, president of the league. Among those who sat at the same
table were: Governor Frank S. Black, Lieutenant Governor Timothy L. Woodruff,
General R. A. Alger of Michigan, ex-Senator William Pitt Kellogg of Louisiana,
D. D. Woodmansee, president of the National Republican league, General Benjamin
F. Tracy, General Stewart L. Woodford, Chauncey M. Depew, William Barnes, Jr.,
George W. Aldridge, Congressman B. B. Odell, Jr., Frederick
Easton, General E. A. McAlpin, J. Sloat Fassett, Louis F. Payn, ex-Senator
Frank Hiscock, Edward Lauterbach, Frank S. Witherbee, Congressman Rowland B.
Mahany, Cornelius Van Cott, George E. Green and J. Ryder Cady.
The menu card prepared by the league for the
occasion was a most artistic piece of engraving. Upon the outer cover there was
an excellent portrait of Senator Platt. In the upper left hand corner there was
a small American flag, executed in colors and gilt, with a blue streamer on
which was inscribed the letters "R. L. U. S."
The second page of the program contained
the portraits of Addison B. Colvin, president; George R. Manchester, secretary,
and William Barnes, Jr., treasurer, comprising the executive officers of the
league. [The Cortland Democrat called
the local chapter the "Silk Stocking Club"—CC editor.]
Among those who sent letters of regret,
which were printed in the menu card, were the following: Ex-President Benjamin Harrison,
Vice-President-elect Garrett A. Hobart, Governors Roger Wolcott of Massachusetts,
C. W. Lippett of Rhode Island, Josiah Grant of Vermont, John W. Griggs of New
Jersey, Daniel H. Hastings of Pennsylvania and Llewellyn Powers of Maine,
United States Senators W. B. Allison of Iowa, O. H. Platt of Connecticut,
Eugene Hale of Maine, John M. Thurston of Nebraska, W. J. Sewell of New Jersey,
and W. P. Frye of Maine, and ex-United States Senators Philetus Sawyer of
Wisconsin, John I. Mitchell of Pennsylvania, H. G. Davis of West Virginia, John
J. Ingalls of Kansas, Alvin Saunders of Nebraska, S. I. R. McMillan of
Minnesota, and George F. Edmunds of Vermont.
Telegrams of regret were received from
President-elect McKinley and Mark Hanna, chairman of the national Republican
committee. Mr. Hanna's telegram was as follows: "I find it impossible to
be with you this evening and send with my regrets my congratulations to your
honored guest, and best wishes to the Republican league of New York."
When
the president introduced the senator-elect, Mr. Platt received a royal greeting.
His remarks were well received and he was interrupted time and time again by the
vociferous applause of his friends. Mr. Platt said:
"It is not without hesitation that I
have again accepted the responsibilities of public office. Indeed, it seemed as
though the temptation to do so had been put by, and that the remainder of my
life would have no other relation to public affairs than such as become every
citizen. Nor could the situation have arisen in which I should
have sought even so high an honor as the one just conferred. I shall be
acquitted, I think, of any affectation about office seeking and office holding,
but it is a fact that I have not been a candidate for the senate. I have not asked
any member of the legislature to vote for me. I did not even intimate until
after the caucus that I should accept the office if it were tendered. That it has
come under these circumstances, and with such generous expressions of good will
and confidence from Republicans throughout the state, makes it a pleasing burden
and a rich compensation for all that I have done and tried to do in my party's
service. And so I shall go to Washington grateful to the Republican party,
devoted to the state of New York, and earnest in the resolution to exert whatever
influence I may have or may acquire, for the welfare of our incomparable country.
"It is especially gratifying to
re-enter the senate coincidentally with the inauguration of a Republican
president. The support given by the state of New York to Major McKinley's
candidacy abundantly testifies of the high hopes which our people base on his
patriotic wisdom. The success of his administration will be the success of the
Republican party, and no contribution that I can make to that great cause will
be wanting.
"Sufficient time has passed since the November
election to permit a close examination of its results. It can not be said that
they are wholly satisfactory. The bewildering program of legislation proposed
by Mr. Bryan attained so great a popular support as to forbid the idea that
agitation in its favor will be abandoned, and our Democratic friends, who without
giving unqualified adhesion to Republican principles, nevertheless, constrained
by their convictions on the money question to support the Republican
candidates, should give sober consideration to this fact, it is not yet certain
that any plan for the relief the treasury can pass the senate as it will be
constituted after the 4th of March.
"Capital will not invest, production
will not increase, labor will not be adequately employed until laws are passed
to insure the treasury against insolvency and to guarantee to the business
interests of the country a safe and reasonable permanent basis on which to
operate. If the changes in the composition of the senate now in progress shall
fail to produce a majority that can hold together for the enactment of such
legislation, we shall have the same fight out of which we have just come to make
again four years from now, under probably less favorable conditions.
"The lesson which this possibility
teaches to the sound money Democrats, and the duty it enforces upon them, seems
entirely clear. They can find no home in the Democratic party. Their presence
there is not wanted, whereas, with us, it is held in just esteem. They must
come into the Republican party, exert their due influence upon its politics and
accept their share of the responsibility for its work. And without abandoning any
vital principle, which they would not ask or expect, we must seek in all we do
to hold their confidence and support.
"People do not agitate themselves over theories
of finance when they are getting along comfortably. The clamor for the free
coinage of silver became serious only when an ill-considered tariff measure threw
the business of the country into confusion and left the treasury without an
income sufficient to meet its inevitable expenditures. It was then that capital
withdrew from investment. It was then that production was checked, that wages
were reduced, that profits and earnings fell off, that labor was thrown out of
employment and that the people began to lend an ear to the theorists who tell
them that there was something the matter with their dollars. It was not in
human nature for those who had enacted this mistaken law [Wilson-Gorman tariff]
to admit it to be the origin of the troubles which at once came upon the
country, and they cast about for other causes.
"One of these they found in the
greenback, and they fell to abusing that useful feature of the currency with
especial bitterness. It may be that the greenback is not an ideal form in which
to express a public debt, or to supply the people with a substitute for money,
and it certainly is true that no substitute for money should be legal tender.
But it was not the greenback that caused the demand for gold, nor was it the
greenback that shut down mills and reduced the opportunities of labor and the earnings
of investment. It was the Wilson tariff law which did these things, and there
would have been just as much gold to raise and just as much trouble raising it
had the burden fallen on the banks instead of on the treasury, and even then
there would have been an enormous treasury deficit. The trouble came with the
revenue law, and the remedy is to be provided in the same way. No legislation
is now necessary for the maintenance of the gold standard, and when we have
replenished the treasury, restored the public credit and set the country's
industries again on their feet, there will be time enough to look after the
legal tenders, and to revise our no doubt disordered currency system.
"There can be no pretense that the
American people do not desire to return to the protective policy. They gave a much
heavier majority in 1894 against the Wilson bill than in 1896 against all the
combined vagaries of Bryanism. The question is not whether they can adapt themselves
to a system of production which must be based on a larger standard of wages than
has heretofore prevailed. They do not want to adapt themselves to such a
system. The question is not whether revenues can be provided sufficient to meet
the government's necessities by patching up the Wilson bill with new internal
taxes. The people do not want the Wilson bill patched up. They want it
repealed, and in its place their plain demand to which the election of two
successive Republican majorities in the house of representatives sufficiently testifies,
is for the enactment of an intelligent and consistent tariff based in every
schedule upon the principle of preventing the foreign producer of goods which
compete with American goods from wholesaling his wares in the American market
at prices which compel the American maker of such wares either to go out of
business or reduce the wages he pays to his labor.
"If there is no other respect in which
the country is to be congratulated upon the result of Mr. Cleveland's
administration, it may be admitted that since the present secretary of state
assumed the direction of our foreign affairs, the position of our country
abroad has improved. It has been demonstrated again that the consistent
upholding of American interests in foreign lands does not necessarily involve
disagreeable relations with foreign governments, and that the just influence of
our country can be preserved without offense to our neighbors. I have had no
fair opportunity to examine the text of the arbitration treaty, or to consider
the possibilities that may arise under its various provisions, but with the
principle involved it seems as though all civilized men must be sympathetic. A
war with England would
be unspeakably wrong, and it ought to be rendered impossible. Indeed, as a
matter of fact, there is nothing in our situation to call for a war with
anybody.
"The
cause of liberty is
always noble. It always deserves to succeed. I look to see the time when the
people of every American [Western hemisphere] country will govern themselves
without theoretical or other interference from any European sovereignty, and the
attitude of our people is bound to be one of friendly interest whenever the
American subjects of a foreign power decide that the time has come for them to
establish a free and independent American state. The attitude of our government, however, can not always express
the sympathies of the people. It has its treaties to observe and its code of
public law to respect. Acts of intervention, moreover, involve
responsibilities, and these must be assumed with caution. We neither wish to
govern Cuba nor to fight Spain, and no act of government should be performed
that leads us in the direction of either of these enterprises.
"It is a long while, Mr. Chairman,
since such a celebration as this was possible. It is a long while since a
Republican governor of New York, a Republican lieutenant governor, a Republican
speaker of the assembly, a full line of Republican state officers, a Republican
United States senator and so great a body of Republican officials from the
counties and municipalities of the state could assemble at a public banquet.
Four years ago the thought of to-night's festival would have seemed absurd. Let
us take care that four years hence it shall have no such seeming. Let us prove
ourselves competent and honest and truly representative of the hopes and
impulses of the people."
Governor Black followed Mr. Platt and his
response presented the usual element of briefness. Ex-United States Senator
William Pitt Kellogg of Louisiana was the next speaker. President D. D. Woodmansee
of the national league of Republican clubs, responded to the toast, "Party
success." Brief speeches were made by Lieutenant Governor Woodruff, J.
Sloat Fassett and General Russell A. Alger.
 |
| Chauncey M. Depew. |
The last speaker was Chauncey M. Depew. He said:
"Mr. President and
Gentlemen—It
is always a pleasure for Republicans to meet with each other. It is especially
gratifying when we assemble to-night under the joyous and hilarious conditions
of a successful presidential canvass. The party of progress is now the party of
victory. After four years of trial of other principles and of no principles,
the country has turned again for relief to the time honored policies of
Republicanism.
"I am very glad to be with you and join
in your cordial congratulations to the guest of the evening upon the signal
honor which, with rare unanimity, the legislature has conferred upon him. I
have been in political accord or discord, more accord than discord, with Mr.
Platt for a quarter of a century, but during the whole of that period there has
never been any break or disturbance of our personal friendship. The scene
to-night recalls a memorable day sixteen years ago. Garfield's administration
had come into power, and Senator Conkling, the leader of the organization in
our state, was on unfriendly terms with the president, and had not spoken for years
to his secretary of state, James G. Blaine. It was in the air that the
administration was to be antagonized by New York. Vice-President Arthur came to
Albany with a candidate for United States senator, claiming also that he represented
the leader, and Mr. Platt appeared on his own behalf and equally divided the
organization's force. I did not want to be United States senator. It meant
ruin to a professional and business career which I meant to make a success, and
the selection would have been a personal calamity. But Mr. Blaine came to New
York with a message from the president, insisting that I should take the field.
My friends held the balance of power. I was a candidate only to represent the
Garfield administration. I said to Mr. Platt: 'You can have my strength if, as senator,
you will support the president.' His answer was 'I have done my best to elect a
Republican, and as senator I will support him.'
"Mr. Platt was nominated and elected. The
disagreement between the administration and Senator Conkling, which had been
anticipated came about, and Mr. Platt
had to face the difficult question of going with his organization under the
commands of its autocratic and imperious leader, or of keeping his pledge. The
pledge was not bond, nor letter, but the word of a man who I believe never
broke his promise, and rather than break that promise he resigned from the
senate and surrendered his commission. This little incident reveals the secret
of his success in politics. In the general break up which followed the
senatorial canvass, every representative in the state had the same
opportunities, the same constituency, the same future for effort and work as
the guest of the evening, and the result demonstrates that he [has made his own
career].
Our guest of to-night must surrender much to
be senator from the state of New York, but the state and the country will find,
in my judgment, that his ripe experience, his familiarity with public affairs,
and his ability and good judgment will be of the greatest service in that
august body, the senate of the United States. We have elected our president; we
have the house of representatives by an overwhelming majority, and the senate
by a narrow margin. Now that the bonfires have burned out and the shoutings
have died out, there rest upon the Republican party the responsibilities of the
government. Now that we are in power we can not satisfy the country with our
past, glorious as it is. Our past is our only inspiration but the country was
never in such good condition for good times. There is plenty of money, plenty
of waiting enterprises, plenty of glorious opportunities for capital and labor
all waiting upon confidence and upon an assured policy of peace and rest. Let
us not postpone the issues or the solving of them. Let us not leave the whole summer and the fall in doubt as to
what we will do. Extra sessions may be bad, but there are times when an extra
session is blessing. Let us formulate a moderate, sensible tariff, one which
will yield abundant revenues for the carrying on of the government; one which
will start mills and the factories that were legislated out of existence by the
Wilson bill; one which will give the farmer hope and courage; one which will
make America again America for Americans. Let us not fear the currency
question, but take the government out of the banking business and adopt a system
so elastic that in every community the national banks can be able to issue
currency as the needs of the community require. Let us give the world to
understand that the Monroe doctrine is an impregnable principle of American
diplomacy and international law, and be as we can be, the leader for the peace
of the world and the advancement of civilization by promoting in every possible
way the peaceful arbitration of international disputes."
J. Sloat Fassett was given a most
enthusiastic reception. He paid a magnificent tribute to the Empire state, the
Republican party and to the leadership of Mr. Platt.
He said it was due to his valiant fight at St. Louis, backed by the other New
York state Republicans, that the victory of last November was won.
Putting
in the Ice.
Messrs. Dye & Brown, owners of the cold
storage building near the Lehigh Valley depot, are now busily engaged in harvesting
their ice. The ice is being cut on the cove near the Wickwire mills and is of
the finest quality, clear as a crystal and ten inches thick. A dozen men are
engaged in cutting the ice under the supervision of Mr. Brown. Five teams are
kept busy in drawing the ice to the cold storage building, where ten more men
are engaged in packing it away under the direction of Mr. Dye. They expect to
store four hundred tons of the ice for use the coming season.
Burned in
the Lehigh Yard.
A Lehigh Valley combination car that was
formerly used on the E., C. & N. and had just been fixed up to use as a
caboose to run on a freight train between Ithaca and
Geneva was badly burned in the yard at Ithaca yesterday. Fires had been started
in stoves at each end of the car and then the car was left. The woodwork got
overheated. The car stood out of the reach of water and before an engine could
be secured to draw it where there was water it was nearly destroyed. Loss about
$2,000.
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| Black Diamond Express. |
A
GENUINE FLIER.
The
Black Diamond Made Up Fifty Minutes and Arrived on Time.
The Ithaca Journal of Tuesday says: The
Black Diamond express, conceded to be the handsomest train in the world, is becoming
also the most famous train as regards running time. Scarcely a week passes but
that good reports are heard of this remarkable train. No matter what delays
occur on the road, the Black Diamond is always given the right of way, because
the train has, since the day it was placed on the Lehigh schedule, arrived at
its destination on time, and this record is jealously guarded by all those connected
with the train from the general passenger agent down to the mechanic who taps
the wheels.
Yesterday the Black Diamond was delayed some
fifty minutes on the Van-
Etten
branch, owing to the temporary disarrangement of part of the mechanism connected
with the engine. When the trouble had been removed, the engineer knew there was
a task before him to make up that fifty minutes, but did not shrink from it.
The run from Cayuta to Sayre, a distance of twenty-four miles, was made in twenty
minutes, and from Sayre to Wilkesbarre, eighty-four miles, the run was made in
seventy-eight minutes. The record of the train on the balance of the run to New
York is not known on this division, except that a message flashed over the wire
last night that the Black Diamond had arrived in New York on time. As a genuine
"flyer" the Black Diamond is without a peer.
Well-Known Engineer Dead.
Michael Keefe, a well-known Lehigh engineer
of Elmira, died in the R. A. Packer hospital at Sayre, Pa., Tuesday morning, at
the age of 38 years. Deceased had been an engineer on the E., C. & N.
branch from Elmira to Cortland since 1884. Until about two months ago he had
run a passenger engine, but his health was failing and at his own request he
was transferred to a local freight where the work was lighter and the strain
less. Five weeks ago he had to discontinue work altogether on account of Bright's
disease which finally resulted in his death.
Mr. Keefe was a genial and companionable
man, and was well-known in railroad circles in Cortland. He is survived by a
wife and two children.
BREVITIES.
—The Lehigh Valley railroad company has 714
uniformed men in its employ.
—New advertisements to-day are—Chris
Hansen, Awnings, page 6; J . C. Brogden, Quinine Hair Tonic, page 2.
—Frank Rose of Binghamton has been engaged
by Chadwick & Potter to take charge of the third chair at their shaving
parlor in the Burgess block.
—Cortland Commandery, No. 50, Knights
Templars, are making preparations for a grand ball to be held In Taylor hall on
the evening of Feb. 22.
—Erastus Goodale of Homer this morning
bought at mortgage foreclosure sale in Homer eighty-six acres of land in Cuyler
for $700. There was a mortgage against the place of $770.70.
—We publish to-day on the seventh page a
synopsis of the report of the state prison commissioners which was to-day
transmitted to the legislature. It is full of facts that will be of general interest
and should be read by all.
—The Republican town committee met to-day at
1 o'clock at T. H. Dowd's office and made arrangements for the Cortlandville
town caucuses which will be held on Friday night of this week from 7 to 8 o'clock.
The call for the caucuses naming the places where each caucus will be held
appears on the second page at the head of the editorial column. The town
convention occurs in Fireman's hall on Saturday of this week at 2 o'clock.
HOMER.
Gleanings
of News From Our Twin Village.
The Republican of last week was quite right
in calling attention to Homer's need of some sort of town or village hall,
where the various municipal meetings could be held and where associations of
moderate size could meet at an expense within a reasonable limit. As it is
to-day there is no room of sufficient size except Keator opera house which is occupied
by the Grand Army post. It can be urged against both of these halls that even
if they were available they are reached only with a climb of several flights of
stairs. The Homer Floricultural association, a company of ladies and gentlemen
working voluntarily and solely for the improvement of the village along the
line of better lawns and care of the park and the trees on the streets and the
increased cultivation of flowers, has been compelled to postpone its annual
meeting and election of officers till some good-natured church offers its
parlors, because the village affords no place for such a meeting to be held. It
is to be hoped that The Republican will continue to agitate this matter until
something definite and permanent materializes.
Regents' examinations are in progress in the
Homer academy and the number of those trying them from out of town is unusually
large.
Mr. F. E. Shultz has left his position with
the Homer Manufacturing company and accepted one in the shippingroom of W. N.
Brockway.
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