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

Page 239 text:

185 We age bglad tlfiat M r. Beck made his eloquent plea for free a or an individual liberty against the labor oligarchy which will not let even the dead be bwied ve frequently spoken without the union label. We 'ha of the tyrannyof the boycott and the closed. shop, which ought to be utterly unendurable to ree s respecting American citizens.. We are glad: tedbc, that Mr. Bryan spoke of the corresponding tyranny of the great corporations that plunder the people, corrupt the citizenship, and defy the laws of the land. I t is especially worth while for such an audience to hear this, for the abuses of trusts do rnore to rnake honest wage-earners tolerant -of the abuses of labor unions than all the walking delegates and derna- gogues under heaven. , A I t would be well likewise if those who focus. their attention so exclusively on the abuses of trusts could hear with their spiritual ears the truths which M r. Beck declared. I f each could listen to the other side with open rnind, thousands who are now bound by prejudices of occupation and condition rnight be brought to co-operate for the preservation of true, historic American liberty. p g The New York Arnerican, formerly the New York ffournal, says : Labor Assailed at Banquet by I. M. Beck-Former Assistant U. S. Attorney-General Qnee1'S at Unions and Talks of Slavishness to LabO1' S Oligarchy. More than usually distinguished was the assileiiii- hlage last night at the annual dinner of the f . tri - land Society, held in the Astor GallefY 0 e

Page 238 text:

184 I did n't have much chance to see you in the last campaign, said he. You thought we were radical. We were not. We simply asked for that which we thought to be right. Beware the radi- cals who come after us--the men who will not be content to stop the wrong, but who will demand that you go back and restore the wrong. . This ended Mr. Bryan's apparently unpremedi- tated outburst--an outburst doubtless prompted by Mr. Beck's brilliant arraignment of what he deemed to be an overreaching and wicked spirit of organized labor. But for Mr. Beck's positiveness and for Mr. Bryan's rhetorical pugnacity, the palm of adding the greatest degree of spice to the speaking pro- gramme would have rested with the Rev. Dr. George C. Lorimer, of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, whose toast was Holland-Our Ally in the Revolution. The clergyman gave the descendants of the dike--builders a shaking-up by eulogizing Presi- dent Roosevelt,--a second Peter Stuyvesant, 'he called him,-and warning Wall Street to be wise in their day and generation and stop the warfare on him. It was all said in a good-fellowship vein' and with consideration for the amenities, but, after all, it was a significant and daring admonition. w It comments editorially as follows: TVVO PRoPHETs. Mr. Bryan and Mr. Beck both spoke the trnth at the Holland Society dinner, and both spoke it im- pressively. Each dealt with one side ofa great evil threatening the perpetnity of American institutions. The apparent antagonism between them is only .the antagonism of emphasis. - p . .

Page 240 text:

186 Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The eloquence of the ora- at the function, moreover, attained a rare tory standard of brilliancy. Last and principal orator of the banquet was William Jennings H Bryan, whose subject was Peace. On entering the magnificent dining salon' the Nebraskanwas given a cordial reception. No more spontaneous or louder storm of plaudits, no more enthusiastic waving of handkerchiefs and napkins were ever heard or seen in the big room where so many great dinners have been held. But the sensational speech of the evening was supplied by james M. Beck, formerly Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, and now prominent at the bar as an attorney for the trusts. Speaking under the title of Our Hero Ances- tors, Mr. Beck so developed the address that it turned into an attack on labor. While deploring the thought that there had come a time of struggle between the plain people and organized wealth, the trust lawyer scored labor organizations and denounced what he termed the e' 'tyranny of the boycott. . . . T The N ew York I-Ieralal prints the following, ac- companied by a sketch of Mr. Bryan speaking from his place at the guests' table: Hollanders Fly Dove of Peace-Society, at Annual Dinner, Hears Orators in Pleas for an End of Wars in All the Earth+Chinese Minister and Bryan Speak-Former Eulogizes Tsar and Latter .would Listen to Still Small Voice . A-iPres1dent's Regrets-Wishes He could join His Fellow Dutchmen '-Orators All Talk on One Theme. ' I X p Peace, here, elsewhere, and for all time was the dominant note of half-a-dozen well-known speakers at the Nineteenth Annual Dinner of the Holland I