The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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I62 death struggle with Spain, they in some manner maintained it. In 1595 they had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in r 598 sailed through the Straits of Magellan. They came, not as pirates and freebooters, but as merchants, who sought nothing more than an exchange of products. When the seventeenth century was in its infancy, there came into existence the two great trading companies of the Dutch East Indies and the Dutch West Indies, and to the latter we owe the discovery of our noble river and the founding of New York. CApplcmse.D It has been well said that New York is the true child of Amsterdam, and it inherits from Amsterdam the two things which have made it greatest-its cosmopolitanism and its commercialism. 5 I have mentioned this because the brave Hol- landers have proved beyond possibility of con- tradiction that the noblest spirit of self-sacrifice and the most enduring courage were possible with an -essentially commercial people. In our time there are not wanting jeremiahs, who declaim ,against the spirit of our time, and who affect to feel that men, inspired by the lust of gold, are rushing down to an abyss of dishonor with the insensate fury of the Gadarene swine. If I shall, in passing, say a word with reference to this mat- ter I trust that I shall be acquitted of any dis- respect to Mr. Bryan. In common with many Americans, I have very great- personal respect for him. You will remember that when, in Twelfth N ight, Malvolio was imprisoned, as a supposed madman, and when the curate and his mischievous followers were mocking him, theyasked him what was his opinion of the doctrine of Pythagoras, and

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'I6I of the World. They Were the first manufacturing, agricultural, and commercial people, This was the more astounding because, apart ffom the poverty of their country's natural resources, they were obliged to create the very land upon which they lived. The immemorial folly of Canute, who had vainly told the Waves of the ocean to stand back, was With them an inspired reality, for at their sublime determination, the Waves of the all- conquering ocean did recede and left this little alluvial strip of territory, Which, like Palestine and little Greece, Was so memorable in the annals of human progress. Having thus ,conquered the sea, it was not unnatural that they early made it their obedient vassal. They became the best sailors and the greatest merchants of the World. Their manufactures of Wool, silk, linen, and lace were the first in Europe, and did much to lift the European peoples from their condition of squalor and poverty. Their sails Whitened every sea and brought drugs and spices from the East, Wines from France, furs from Russia, in exchange for which they gave not merely the products of the soil, but the Wonderful results of their artisan in- genuity. Their manufacturing enterprise can be measured by the fact that as early as 1340 there .Were in Ghent 4o,ooo Woollen Weavers, While a few years later the goldsmiths of Bruges were so numerous as to form an entire division of the na- tional army. In the ivvake of commerce followed art, learning, and science, and, best of all, those free institutions upon which the early coloniStS of America' built to such manifest advantage. Com- merce Was so much the very life-blood. Of the Dutch people, that even during their hfe-and-

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I 6 3 Malvolio, who in no ,way suspected the cruel joke which was being played upon him, replied: I think nobly of the soul, but in nowise approve of his opinion. And so there are many Americans who think nobly of Mr. Bryan, but in no respect share his political views. With this disclaimer of personal disrespect, let me say that I noticed that last Week he said the coming struggle was to be be- tween man and Mammon, between the plain people and organized wealth, and he especially condemned the spirit of commercialism, by which we under- stand the spirit of colonization. He could have pre- ferred the same indictment against the Hollanders, for with them commerce was the passion of their lives, and, as an incident to commercial enter- prise, they were, in -their time, the greatest col- onizers of the world. They wrested from' Spain many of her wealthiest possessions in two hemi- spheres, and even to-day this little kingdom, hardly 13,000 square miles in area, governs colo- nies which are 766,ooo square miles, or nearly sixty times greater, while this little country, whose population is less than that of either New York, Pennsylvania, or Illinois, governs wisely and justly in two hemispheres colonies whose population is 32,ooo,ooo of souls. Cflpplausej Holland paved the way, for both England and America, for com- merce and colonization. We are but following in her footsteps, and if we are wrong to-day, Holland has been ,wrong throughout her history, for her Eighty Years' War, which commenced as a purely religious struggle, soon became a death struggle between Spain and Holland for the commercial supremacy of the world. Was this spirit of com- me,-Ciahsm, in her Case, inconsistent with the