University of Virginia Library

XI
AT THE BANQUET OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, AT
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 11, 1902

Mr. President, gentlemen, and you, the guests, whom we
welcome here this evening:

I do not wish to speak to you in the language of idle
compliment, and yet it is but a bare statement of fact to
say that nowhere in our country could there be gathered
an audience which would stand as more typically characteristic
than this of all those qualities and attributes which
have given us of the United States our commanding position
in the industrial world. There is no need of my
preaching to this gathering the need of combining efficiency
with upright dealing, for as an American and as a
citizen of New York I am proud to feel that the name of
your organization carries with it a guaranty of both; and
your practice counts for more than any preaching could
possibly count. New York is a city of national importance,
because its position toward the nation is unique,
and the Chamber of Commerce of New York must of
necessity be an element of weight in the commercial
and industrial welfare of the entire people. New York is
the great port of entry for our country—the port in which
centres the bulk of the foreign commerce of the country,
—and her welfare is therefore no matter of mere local or
municipal, but of national, concern. The conduct of the
Government in dealing with all matters affecting the financial

and commercial relations of New York must continually
take into account this fact; and it must be taken into
account in appreciating the importance of the part played
by the New York Chamber of Commerce.

This body stands for the triumphs of peace both abroad
and at home. We have passed that stage of national development
when depreciation of other peoples is felt as a
tribute to our own. We watch the growth and prosperity
of other nations, not with hatred or jealousy, but with
sincere and friendly good-will. I think I can say safely
that we have shown by our attitude toward Cuba, by our
attitude toward China, that as regards weaker powers our
desire is that they may be able to stand alone, and that
if they will only show themselves willing to deal honestly
and fairly with the rest of mankind we on our side will do
all we can to help, not to hinder, them. With the great
powers of the world we desire no rivalry that is not honorable
to both parties. We wish them well. We believe
that the trend of the modern spirit is ever stronger toward
peace, not war; toward friendship, not hostility, as the
normal international attitude. We are glad indeed that
we are on good terms with all the other peoples of mankind,
and no effort on our part shall be spared to secure
a continuance of these relations. And remember, gentlemen,
that we shall be a potent factor for peace largely in
proportion to the way in which we make it evident that
our attitude is due, not to weakness, not to inability to
defend ourselves, but to a genuine repugnance to wrongdoing,
a genuine desire for self-respecting friendship with
our neighbors. The voice of the weakling or the craven
counts for nothing when he clamors for peace; but the
voice of the just man armed is potent. We need to keep
in a condition of preparedness, especially as regards our
navy, not because we want war, but because we desire to
stand with those whose plea for peace is listened to with
respectful attention.

Important though it is that we should have peace
abroad, it is even more important that we should have
peace at home. You, men of the Chamber of Commerce,
to whose efforts we owe so much of our industrial wellbeing,
can, and I believe surely will, be influential in
helping toward that industrial peace which can obtain in
society only when in their various relations employer and
employed alike show not merely insistence each upon his
own rights, but also regard for the rights of others, and
a full acknowledgment of the interests of the third party
—the public. It is no easy matter to work out a system
or rule of conduct, whether with or without the help of
the lawgiver, which shall minimize that jarring and clashing
of interests in the industrial world which causes so
much individual irritation and suffering at the present
day, and which at times threatens baleful consequences
to large portions of the body politic. But the importance
of the problem can not be overestimated, and it deserves
to receive the careful thought of all men such as those
whom I am addressing to-night. There should be no
yielding to wrong; but there should most certainly be
not only desire to do right, but a willingness each to try
to understand the view-point of his fellow, with whom,
for weal or for woe, his own fortunes are indissolubly
bound.

No patent remedy can be devised for the solution of
these grave problems in the industrial world; but we may
rest assured that they can be solved at all only if we
bring to the solution certain old-time virtues, and if we
strive to keep out of the solution some of the most
familiar and most undesirable of the traits to which mankind
has owed untold degradation and suffering throughout
the ages. Arrogance, suspicion, brutal envy of the
well-to-do, brutal indifference toward those who are not
well-to-do, the hard refusal to consider the rights of
others, the foolish refusal to consider the limits of beneficent

action, the base appeal to the spirit of selfish
greed, whether it take the form of plunder of the fortunate
or of oppression of the unfortunate—from these and
from all kindred vices this nation must be kept free if it
is to remain in its present position in the forefront of the
peoples of mankind. On the other hand, good will come,
even out of the present evils, if we face them armed with
the old homely virtues; if we show that we are fearless
of soul, cool of head, and kindly of heart; if, without
betraying the weakness that cringes before wrong-doing,
we yet show by deeds and words our knowledge that in
such a government as ours each of us must be in very
truth his brother's keeper.

At a time when the growing complexity of our social
and industrial life has rendered inevitable the intrusion
of the State into spheres of work wherein it formerly
took no part, and when there is also a growing tendency
to demand the illegitimate and unwise transfer to the
Government of much of the work that should be done
by private persons, singly or associated together, it is a
pleasure to address a body whose members possess to an
eminent degree the traditional American self-reliance of
spirit which makes them scorn to ask from the Government,
whether of State or of Nation, anything but a fair
field and no favor—who confide not in being helped by
others, but in their own skill, energy, and business capacity
to achieve success. The first requisite of a good
citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and
willing to pull his weight—that he shall not be a mere
passenger, but shall do his share in the work that each
generation of us finds ready to hand; and, furthermore,
that in doing his work he shall show not only the capacity
for sturdy self-help, but also self-respecting regard for the
rights of others.

The Chamber of Commerce, it is no idle boast to say,
stands in a pre-eminent degree for those qualities which

make the successful merchant, the successful business
man, whose success is won in ways honorable to himself
and beneficial to his fellows. There are very different
kinds of success. There is the success that brings with it
the seared soul—the success which is achieved by wolfish
greed and vulpine cunning—the success which makes
honest men uneasy or indignant in its presence. Then
there is the other kind of success—the success which
comes as the reward of keen insight, of sagacity, of resolution,
of address, combined with unflinching rectitude of
behavior, public and private. The first kind of success
may, in a sense—and a poor sense at that—benefit the
individual, but it is always and necessarily a curse to the
community; whereas the man who wins the second kind,
as an incident of its winning, becomes a beneficiary to
the whole commonwealth. Throughout its history the
Chamber of Commerce has stood for this second and
higher kind of success. It is therefore fitting that I should
come on here as the Chief Executive of the nation to wish
you well in your new home; for you belong not merely
to the city, not merely to the State, but to all the country,
and you stand high among the great factors in building
up that marvellous prosperity which the entire country
now enjoys. The continuance of this prosperity depends
in no small measure upon your sanity and common-sense,
upon the way in which you combine energy in action
with conservative refusal to take part in the reckless
gambling which is so often bred by, and which so inevitably
puts an end to, prosperity. You are men of might
in the world of American effort; you are men whose
names stand high in the esteem of our people; you are
spoken of in terms like those used in the long-gone
ages when it was said of the Phoenician cities that
their merchants were princes. Great is your power and
great, therefore, your responsibility. Well and faithfully
have you met this responsibility in the past. We look
forward with confident hope to what you will do in the
future, and it is therefore with sincerity that I bid you
Godspeed this evening and wish for you, in the name
of the nation, a career of ever-increasing honor and
usefulness.