Speeches

May days, bright days, talk days and lengthening evenings, were ceremoniously welcomed by many a speech. Some subjects :

Dawes' Senate-Reform. Democratic Senator Pat Harrison led off with a story: "It is said that once a fly lit upon the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. Crawling across one of the seamlike connections, he flew away to tell the other flies that he had discovered a terrible defect in this, the greatest work of Sir Christopher Wren. I commend this story to General Dawes."

Republican Senator Fess of Ohio objected to the Dawes plan for Senate reform because it might increase the amount of hasty legislation, but said he would favor a rule requiring a Senator to "stick to his subject." Republican Senator Moses flatly stated: "The Senate will not revise its rules."

Naval Policy. Rear Admiral William S. Sims, retired, told the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia that the Navy Department "has adopted no policy for the command of the air" and still underrates the importance of submarines.

The Law. Before the American Law Institute at Washington, Herbert S. Hadley, onetime (1909-13) Governor of Missouri, now Chancellor of Washington University, St. Louis, made two points :

1) Business men should not run out of the country to avoid court subpenas. (He was understood to refer to Messrs. Blackmer, O'Neil, Osler et alii who were not in the U. S. when they were wanted at the Mammoth Oil Co. trial.) "I regard a fugitive from [court] service as second only to a fugitive from justice." (Applause.)

2) Speaking as a member of the Committee on Criminal Law: "My conclusion is that in not more than one case out of ten is the commission of a major crime in the United States followed by an adequate punishment of the criminal. Of cases which go to prosecution, not more than 25 or 30% result in adequate punishment, and of those which go before juries, not 50%."

Peace. In Manhattan, Sir Esme Howard, British Ambassador to the U. S., concluded a speech on the Battle of Yorktown: "Thank God, all feeling of bitterness is forever past between us." In Pittsburgh, before the Carnegie Institute, Attorney General Sargent began : "The desire for peace must grow from within." Charles E. Hughes, about to return to Bermuda, was clamorously hailed by the New York Chamber of Commerce, "the greatest statesman in the world." Speaking of the U. S. abroad he said: "It would be unfortunate, indeed, if American capital stood aloof."

Prohibition. Arthur Twining Hadley, President Emeritus of Yale, emerged from his retreat to sling a stone at the Volstead Act: "The great difficulty is that it comes as a marked infringement of liberty and at the time when personal liberty is in danger. We must take account of where we stand or we shall go down as other nations have gone down." He reminded the country of two earlier laws which had been allowed to die-the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the Fifteenth Amendment.

Tariff. Secretary of Labor James J. Davis at the annual convention of the Glass Container Association of America at Atlantic City regretted that, despite a 55% tariff on glass utensils, $22,017 more worth of glassware was imported in 1924 than in 1923. He concluded : "We are determined to keep American labor employed at a wage which will enable it to maintain the high standard of living upon which American prosperity is based."

The World. For the 34th successive time, Chauncey M. Depew celebrated his birthday at the Montauk Club, Brooklyn. Said he: "I have come to the conclusion, after a long experience and many large observations with mature judgment, properly based, and properly buttressed, that the only sure guides to success are character, health and happiness."

In Baguio, the Philippines, General Emilio Aguinaldo, prize captive of 1901, made a speech in praise of Governor General Leonard Wood and the U. S. flag. He added: "When the time comes, the United States will grant you [the Philippines] freedom, but that time has not come yet."