CHAPTER XVIII

The President's Last Speech

HE Pan-American Exposition which was formally opened a

TH

Buffalo May 1, 1901, had, from the first, President McKinley's earnest support and enthusiastic encouragement. He truly saw that this great exposition would weld together more closely the peoples of North and South America by facilitating trade and commerce and making known to each the resources of the other. It was fitting, therefore, that there should be a President's Day and that he should honor the Exposition with his presence. Therefore he journeyed from his beautiful home at Canton to Buffalo accompanied by his wife, relatives and friends.

President's Day, September 5, 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition, dawned bright and clear, with the temperature sufficiently low to make the day all that could be desired. Business houses and private residences were gayly decorated with flags and bunting, and banners were stretched from windows and across streets, bearing words of welcome to the President and expressive of the sentiment which the great fair was designed to foster," Peace to Pan-America."

The time announced for the departure of the President from the house of Mr. Milburn, in Delaware Avenue, where he made his home and was most hospitably entertained in Buffalo, was 10 o'clock. Crowds had already begun to assemble in front of the house as early as 9 o'clock. A detail of police kept the crowd back from the sidewalk in front of the house; but those most eager to catch a glimpse of the President and Mrs. McKinley indiscriminately invaded the beautiful lawns of the adjoining residences, and some even went so far as to climb upon the verandas.

Promptly at 10 o'clock the President emerged from the home of Mr. Milburn, Mrs. McKinley accompanying him, walking by his side without assistance. A great burst of cheers greeted them, which the President acknowledged by bowing and raising his hat. The President and Mrs. McKinley entered the first carriage, and Mr. Milburn, President of the Exposition, and Mrs. William Hamlin, of the Board of Women Managers, the second.

GREETED BY A GREAT THRONG

An escort of twenty mounted police and twenty members of the Signal Corps surrounded the two carriages, and the cavalcade set out at a brisk trot for the Lincoln Parkway entrance to the Exposition grounds. The two carriages were followed by a number of other carriages and tallyhos, their occupants blowing fanfares and adding animation to the scene.

At the entrance to the Exposition grounds the President was met by detachments of the United States Marines and the Sea Coast Artillery, and the 65th and 74th N. G. S. N. Y. Regiments under General S. M. Welch. A President's salute of twenty-one guns was fired.

The President was escorted to the stand erected in the esplanade, where probably the greatest crowd ever assembled there greeted him with ringing cheers. The vast assemblage overflowed to the Court of Fountains. In the stands on each side of the President were seated many distinguished men and women, among them representatives of most of the South American Republics.

There was a most absolute quiet when President Milburn arose and introduced the President as follows:

"Ladies and Gentlemen: The President."

THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH

The great audience then broke out with a mighty cheer, which continued as President McKinley rose, and it was some minutes before he was able to proceed. When quiet was restored the Presi dent spoke as follows:

"President Milburn, Director-General Buchanan, commissioners, ladies and gentlemen :

"I am glad to be again in the city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger and with whose good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. To-day I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome to the foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence and participation in this Exposition have contributed in so marked a degree to its interest and success.

"To the Commissioners of the Dominion of Canada and the British Colonies, the French Colonies, the Republics of Mexico and of Central and South America, and the Commissioners of Cuba and Porto Rico, who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship, and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, education and manufacture which the old has bequeathed to the new century.

TIMEKEEPERS OF PROGRESS

Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of the people, and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and as such instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which

is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and even the whims of the people, and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and new prices to win their favor.

"The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to devise, invent, improve and economize in the cost of production. Business life, whether among ourselves, or with other people, is

ever a sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century. But, though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be.

THE EXPOSITION'S WORK

"The Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illustrating the progress of the human family in the Western Hemisphere. This portion of the earth has no cause for humiliation for the part it has performed in the march of civilization. It has not accomplished everything; far from it. It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and recognizing the manifold achievements of others, it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade and commerce, and will co-operate with all in advancing the highest and best interests of humanity. The wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the world's work. The success of art, science, industry and invention is an international asset and a common glory.

"After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world. Modern inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few years ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged as never before, and with increasing transportation facilities come increasing knowledge and larger trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world's selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We travel greater distances in a shorter space of time, and with more ease, than was ever dreamed of by the fathers.

'Isolation is no longer possible or desirable. The same important news is read, though in different languages, the same day in all Christendom. The telegraph keeps us advised of what is occurring everywhere and the press fore-shadows, with more or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the nations. Market prices of products and of securities are hourly known in every commercial mart, and the investments of the people extend beyond their own national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth. Vast transactions are conducted and international exchanges are made by the tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined.

The quick gathering and transmission of news, like rapid transit, are of recent origin, and are only made possible by the genius of the inventor and the courage of the investor. It took a special messenger of the Government, with every facility known at the time for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a message to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a treaty of peace had been signed. How different now!

THE TELEGRAPH IN WAR

"We reached General Miles in Porto Rico by cable, and he was able through the military telegraph to stop his army on the firing line with the message that the United States and Spain had signed a protocol suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first shots fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation.

"The first ship of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic harbor when the fact was flashed to our capital, and the swift destruction that followed was announced immediately through the wonderful medium of telegraphy.

"So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with distant lands that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary