New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 Part 11

"I am very sensible of the honor conferred upon me, but will be unable to fulfill the duties, except in a most perfunctory way. It is very much to be regretted that the Honorable Martin W. Littleton is not able to be with us to-day. As the official head of the government of the borough, he was to have presided on this occasion. In his absence Major Peter J.

Collins, who was at the head of an important department, will respond for his chief. I now introduce to you Major Collins."

SPEECH OF MAJOR COLLINS

"_Your Honor, Mr. Francis, and ladies and gentlemen:_ In responding as the representative of the administration of the borough of Brooklyn, I feel that you must realize the unenviable position I occupy of appearing on such brief notice and of acting as the mouthpiece of our president, the Hon. Martin W. Littleton. Mr. Littleton instructs me to convey his most sincere regrets to your honor, to Mr. Francis and to the ladies and gentlemen const.i.tuting the Committee of One Hundred, on his enforced absence on this occasion. As some of you are aware, there has been an election in this land. Previous to this election there was carried on what some of us supposed was a political campaign. This campaign engaged the interest of every worthy citizen and public and private affairs of business have been neglected to some extent as a consequence. In the business of the borough Mr. Littleton is confronted with a vast acc.u.mulation of matters of greatest importance to Brooklyn, both in the local work and in the various boards and committee meetings in Manhattan, and he has reluctantly concluded that his absence from the city at this time would amount to an almost criminal neglect of his duty. He asks me to convey to you the congratulations and good wishes of the many thousands of our people who are unable to be with us to-day.

Brooklyn has had a deep sympathy with your fair city in this tremendous enterprise, and has watched with keen interest and satisfaction your success in overcoming the many difficulties that lay in your way.

Brooklyn herself has awakened from her sleep of almost ten years, and the sound of the hammer and the saw and the ring of the trowel are heard on every hand. Owing to the enterprise, energy and self-sacrificing efforts of many of the men who are with us to-day, she is astonis.h.i.+ng the country by the wonderful increase in population. Brooklyn can no longer be regarded as the bedroom of Manhattan, for Manhattan is rapidly becoming only the workshop of Brooklyn; we can no longer be regarded as the little brother of Manhattan, for we are rapidly becoming a very big brother. Consequently, ladies and gentlemen of St. Louis, we feel qualified to appreciate the satisfaction and joy you may justly feel in this your hour of triumph, and we extend to you the right hand of fellows.h.i.+p and congratulate you on this wonderful creation of yours, that must go down in history as the greatest exposition in the history of mankind."

Mayor Wells was unavoidably detained by an important engagement. The Chairman then introduced Mr. Schieren, and in doing so said:

"This is no fairy story, yet I will commence it that way. Once upon a time we of Brooklyn had a city all to ourselves. We were proud of our city and very desirous that it should be well governed, and were careful in the selection of men to fill its highest office, and thus it came to pa.s.s that one of our most successful efforts in that direction was the choice for mayor of our city of the gentleman whom I shall now present to you, Ex-Mayor Charles A. Schieren."

Mr. Schieren was warmly received and spoke as follows:

ADDRESS OF EX-MAYOR SCHIEREN

"In the name of the Brooklyn delegation I thank you sincerely for your cordial greeting and the hearty welcome extended to us. We fully appreciate your kind hospitality. We have come here to enjoy this glorious Exposition which already has attained such a great fame. Its magnificence and grandeur, both as to the magnitude of its buildings and their exhibits, is a surprise to every visitor. You may be proud of your achievements.

"This Exposition seems to exceed all others held in this country, and in many respects those held in the world.

"The Centennial Exposition of Philadelphia, commemorating the foundation of our government, gave our people the first idea of the extent and scope of our labor-saving machinery and the advance made in the manufacture of our American goods. It stimulated the manufacturing interests in our country.

"The Columbian Exposition at Chicago commemorated the discovery of America. It was noted for its excellent foreign exhibits. It gave our people an opportunity to compare the products of America with those of other nations. The so-called White City had a peculiar charm and made a deep impression upon every one. It seemed a perfect dream, ever to be remembered. People declared that it could not be excelled, but hardly a decade has pa.s.sed when the enterprising, energetic citizens of the commercial metropolis of the great southwest arranged another World's Fair to commemorate the historical events of the famous Louisiana purchase, even upon a larger scale and overshadowing all others in this country. We may exclaim justly--Will there ever be another Exposition greater and more important than the one just about to close?

"We seem to marvel at nothing in this progressive age. We always wonder what other marvellous inventions may be in store for us to necessitate another Exposition upon a gigantic scale, to be held somewhere in this country. Perhaps within another decade, when the Isthmian ca.n.a.l is finished, the golden stream which will connect the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, we may celebrate at the national capital city the greatest event of the twentieth century, bringing to the commerce of the world peace and plenty. At the same time we may hope to celebrate the establishment of our American merchant marine, the one thing needed to carry our American products and goods into the harbors of the world, floating the Stars and Stripes now so seldom witnessed upon the ocean vessels. This country seems to forge ahead at a rapid pace, not only in its material wealth, but in everything that tends to the happiness of our people, even the humblest citizens sharing in the general prosperity. Every section has cause to rejoice--the South with its cotton, the North with its financial resources, the West with its farm products, the East with its industries, all seem to partic.i.p.ate in the general welfare of the country. In conclusion let me thank you again for the courtesy extended to our people, and we wish you great success in this stupendous enterprise."

At the conclusion of Mr. Schieren's remarks the presiding officer said: "For many years the _Brooklyn Times_ was owned and edited by the late Mr. Bernard Peters. He was a man of strict integrity, high moral ideals, and a forceful writer. The editorial chair of the _Times_ is now occupied by his son, Thomas P. Peters, a worthy son of a worthy sire. Ladies and gentlemen, I take pleasure in introducing to you the orator of the day, Mr. Thomas P. Peters."

Mr. Peters was greeted with hearty applause as he arose. His oration in part follows:

ORATION OF MR. PETERS

"To speak a word for Brooklyn at this time, I was not the first choice of the Committee of Arrangements. Unanimously that honor was a.s.signed to one of Brooklyn's favorite sons. But sickness of a most serious nature overtook him only a few days ago, and after a brief illness, he was early last Wednesday morning called to his final rest. Although upon pleasure bent, our hearts are sorrowful because of this loss to Brooklyn.

"Joseph C. Hendrix had been prominent in Brooklyn life a quarter of a century, prominent enough to have been nominated at one time for mayor of the old city by one of the great parties. He served Brooklyn for many years as president of its board of education; was its postmaster, and also represented one of its districts in the halls of Congress. Of recent years he had withdrawn from public life and devoted himself to the financial world. There he soon a.s.sumed a commanding position as bank president, and his organizing abilities were constantly in demand. He was one of Brooklyn's great men, and I regret that he is not here to-day to fill the position for which he was so well fitted. Our borough is rightly in deep bereavement because of the taking off of this, a faithful servant.

"This party of Brooklynites has come over 1,000 miles to celebrate at this magnificent exposition a day set apart for itself. We come not from a sovereign State. Neither do we come from an independent city. We come from but part of a great city. I will venture to claim that Brooklyn Day at the St. Louis Exposition will be the only day set apart for any munic.i.p.al body holding a place by law of less dignity than that of a city. Why, then, does Brooklyn send us out to make her name known here and to extend her greetings to St. Louis? Because for years Brooklyn was a city, and with more independent citizens to the total population than were to be found in any other part of the known world, and she is still true to her history. She had then a spirit that was the very personification of munic.i.p.al patriotism. She could tear down a dishonest political rascal with greater celerity than any other city in the land.

She kept her two great parties equally balanced; each a foil to the other, each a stimulant to the other for good government, and upon the average she enjoyed better service than American cities usually obtain.

"It is almost seven years since Brooklyn lost her cityhood. During that time she has been a dependent borough within the great city of New York.

Many thought that when that transition took place Brooklyn would lose her old-time spirit, her pride would be humbled and she would sink into the slough of despair, but we are here to-day to make known to these United States that Brooklyn's old-time courage is as high, her spirit is as heavily charged with munic.i.p.al energy and her pride is the same pride as of old.

"Brooklyn is a peculiar community. She differs from all others. The wits have long fed upon her. General Horace Porter has called her a city of 4,000,000, 1,000,000 of whom are alive. Another has said that there are two places to which every dead New Yorker goes, either to heaven or to hades and to Brooklyn. He may escape one or the other of the two former.

He cannot escape the latter. Simeon Ford has declared that Brooklyn lies midway between the quick and the dead, midway between reckless, extravagant and wicked old New York and sober, sombre and serene Greenwood. McKinley ran for President upon the issue of the full dinner pail. The students of Princeton College recently a.s.serted that Roosevelt was running upon the issue of a full baby carriage. The President must have secured his inspiration from the manner in which the cartoonists always pictured the Brooklyn man, behind the perambulator. We ourselves recognize that Brooklyn is peculiar and unusual. Her like is not known to the world. That fact is proved to an extent by my former a.s.sertion, that Brooklyn is the only community without munic.i.p.al rank that will have here a day of her own. The fact that we are here in body and that she is here in spirit clearly shows that the old courage is still in her heart. Brooklyn may be only a borough, she may be only an 'abutment for bridges,' as President Littlejohn once feared she would become, but she is to-day the same independent Brooklyn she was back in her cityhood, and she is as proud of the things that make her great as many of the cities of the things that make them merely flashy.

"Her former spirit lives; it lives because since consolidation Brooklyn has a.s.sumed a commanding place in the councils of the greater city.

Brooklyn has chosen as her three borough presidents men of force, who have been recognized as leaders by all the boroughs. At first the borough government was a mockery of a government. It was only a government in name. Our first president, Edward M. Grout, chafed under its restraint. He demanded that the boroughs be allowed a voice in city affairs, and that local improvements be given into the charge of borough officials. To him the State Legislature listened, and his successor in that office found himself with something beside the shadow of power, and his administration was a marvel to Brooklyn in what it achieved. Other boroughs looked on in envy, while J. Edward Swanstrom set a pace so rapid that its like will be difficult to produce. Our first president, Mr. Grout, became the comptroller in the second administration of the greater city. The comptrollers.h.i.+p of New York city is as important as that of Secretary of the United States Treasury. Brooklyn was then and is yet the dominant force in the life of the metropolis. The entire city recognized Mr. Grout to be a man acquainted with even the minutest details of the city's government. Brooklyn's place at the table of the board of estimate was a commanding one with Swanstrom and Grout in their seats, and to-day her representation there is equally good. Mr. Grout is still there. In the place of Mr. Swanstrom sits Mr. Martin W. Littleton, and by him the name of Brooklyn has been made famous from ocean to ocean, and throughout the entire South, for in him Brooklyn has a mouthpiece that thrills, and through him she speaks with a tongue of eloquence.

"Since consolidation Brooklyn has been the second borough in point of population and of wealth, but in statesmans.h.i.+p, in oratory and in achievement she has stood pre-eminent. And while many believed that after consolidation she would lose her independent spirit, she has rather increased her old pride in herself, and this pride has been fostered and strengthened because of the worthy sons who have represented her in the government of the great city of New York, two of whom we have brought with us, that St. Louis, at times herself deceived by those she trusted, may look upon their like for once at least. Loyal to Brooklyn have been Grout, Swanstrom and Littleton, and thus inspired, has Brooklyn proved loyal to herself and faithful to her traditions.

"Brooklyn is a gigantic borough. She is three times as large as Buffalo, the home of the Pan-American Exposition. She is twice as large as St.

Louis, the home of the present Exposition. Brooklyn territorially is large enough and properly adapted to hold a population of 7,000,000, and still remain less congested than the present borough of Manhattan.

Brooklyn is devoid of many of the characteristics that mark other great cities. She is almost totally lacking in hotel life. A city of one-tenth her population would have more hotels. But munic.i.p.al greatness never rested upon hotel life. It breeds corpulence, not courage. It discourages the rearing of children, a thriving industry in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn has not the wealth in proportion to her size that she should have. Brooklyn sat for long years under the shadow of old New York, contributing to the wealth of the metropolis, but obtaining nothing in return. Her population contributed to the real estate values upon Manhattan island. Her factories and forges made many of the fortunes that were spent across the East river. Only since consolidation have we received any dividends upon that ever increasing investment. We now pay $14,000,000 into the city treasury and take $17,000,000 out annually.

Brooklyn has often been described as the bedroom of old New York. The description was apt, for Brooklyn has always been a city of homes, a city of those of moderate means, a city of respectability. Brooklyn has never been able to boast of her wealth, as other cities, nor has she had to blush for her poverty and depravity as some other cities have.

"She has, however, been able to vaunt herself in the matter of those things which by nature are companions of the home. She has always been noted for her great churches, and has had the finest pulpit orators of the day, and now she is as strong in that direction as she ever was in the past. Her private schools have been known far and wide, while so long as she controlled her public schools, they, too, stood extremely high. Since consolidation they have fallen somewhat behind the march. In dividing government among the boroughs, Mr. Grout achieved much. Where the greatest good was done was where centralization was left with the least sway. In school matters centralization rules absolutely, and to that extent the schools have been forcibly drawn away from the people, and the development has lain in the direction of complexity of educational system, rather than in that of perfecting the children in the rudiments of scholars.h.i.+p. Of late years we have taught our boys how to sew, even if we did neglect their spelling. This increases the number of special teachers, adds to the city's bills, but enables the school superintendents to read splendid reports of new and special courses when they attend pedagogic conventions. Your Exposition loaded New York's educational authorities with medals and prizes and honorable mentions. I would not censure you for this. No men ever worked harder for such honors. The trouble is they work too hard over frills and neglect the essentials. Were your judges to-day to hold an examination among our grammar scholars upon the three subjects, reading, writing and arithmetic, I am inclined to believe that you would send hurry orders for the return of many of those prizes.

"In school matters Brooklyn is at a loss no further than are the other boroughs of the greater city. She is at a loss because Mr. Grout's advice was not taken. In short, we so highly prize our sewers, our streets and our pavements that we directed that they be given directly into our own charge and under our own borough president, and then we held our children in such light esteem that we surrendered them into the keeping of a centralized board of education, which is in turn in the keeping of the board of superintendents, in which body Brooklyn has but a small voice. It has reminded me of those people who personally care for their own dogs and horses and leave their children to servants and hired tutors. The system has been wrong. The wrong system has been made top-heavy. The results have been poor.

"Brooklyn has developed the home life of America to a greater extent than any other city has done. She has few palaces. She has few hovels.

She has a great army of American mothers and fathers that are bringing up the next generation of men and women, and she is rearing them in thousands of comfortable homes, where body develops with mind and where the spiritual welfare is an important factor.

"Brooklyn has a park system of which she is proud to-day, and of which she will grow prouder. In Prospect Park she has a jewel, in the very heart of the community. In Forest Park she has a promise of great future development. That new park lies upon high ground overlooking a vast section of the borough and exhibiting to the eye the bay of Jamaica and the ocean beyond. Forest Park is richly endowed by nature, and it will in the days to come be in beauty above either Prospect or Central.

Brooklyn has great driveways leading to the ocean along her harbor front and out into Long Island, and she has laid out many small parks and is still engaged upon that work.

"In library matters Brooklyn to-day is well supplied. The system is most extensive and has been rapidly developed. It is another indication of what can be done when a department is decentralized. The Brooklyn Public Library is under the control of Brooklyn men. The board of estimate makes it an annual allowance. Andrew Carnegie gave to Brooklyn $1,600,000 for library construction. With that money twenty branch libraries are to be erected in time. Five are up; one is in operation.

To-day there are over twenty branch libraries; most of them are in rented quarters, and they circulate over one million books a year among the people.

"As another indication of the life of Brooklyn brief reference should be made to the Inst.i.tute of Arts and Sciences, the great college of those beyond school years. It has been referred to as the intellectual bargain counter of Brooklyn. It offers at very moderate prices literary, historical, musical instruction and entertainment and lectures in all the sciences. It is well supported, and the city is building it a central building that will be the Mecca of the ambitious and the cultured. No other city in the land supports such an inst.i.tution, and it is a great credit to us.

"Brooklyn's spirit is due in a great measure to the nature of the press that caters to her. Her newspapers are intensely local in character.

They give to her inst.i.tutions such support as is not given to the inst.i.tutions of any other city in the United States. It is this that has encouraged an intelligent and independent breadth of mind in Brooklyn.

She keeps alive the old New England custom of a close watch over her government and of a constant discussion of all public questions.

Englishmen are noted for their unremitting guard of their personal rights. They are not to be compared in this with Brooklynites who, in spite of a callous railroad system, still persist in demanding their rights.

"Her press has called into being all over Brooklyn numerous boards of trade and taxpayers' a.s.sociations, and they, encouraged by the attention given to them, devote themselves to their neighborhoods. Edmund Burke referred to the journalists as a fourth estate. Aptly might we regard these trade boards as a second government. Highly are they respected.

Many reforms, especially in transportation matters, have they achieved.

"I have outlined to you some of the features of Brooklyn life. She is in truth the place where the home life of Greater New York is developed, where it may be seen in its simple beauty adorned with its rugged virtue. I have not boasted of her rich men, but of her intellectual gifts; not of her social leaders, but of her clear-minded men and women; not of her wealth, but of her mental attainments. It is from such a community that we come to-day to write upon your visitors' book the name of Brooklyn. In our way we are as proud of our homes as was the old Roman matron of her two sons, although we may be as poorly decked with tawdry jewels as she was. We are as proud of our independence in politics as Philadelphia should be ashamed of her regularity. Boston is credited with being the Athens of America. Brooklyn deserves the t.i.tle, but would leave to Boston her pedantic ways. We are sincere in our speech and simple in our faith, and when we say we rejoice in St. Louis'

success, are glad to be here and are honored in having a day set aside for us, we but echo the sentiments that our hearts suggest."

At the conclusion of the oration the Chairman introduced Henry Sanger Snow, LL.D., who read the following original poem:

POEM OF DR. SNOW

I

Hail! city of the West, from ocean's strand Afar we bring thee greeting. At thy gate, Wide-thrown in welcome, gathered nations stand And praise the deed ye grandly celebrate!

The imperial star that rose from eastern seas, Marking the new-born nation in the West, Rides in _thy_ zenith now--by slow degrees The march of Empire takes its westward quest-- And over scene more fair, sure star could never rest!

II

Worthy thy festival of that high deed-- Louisiana's treaty--greatest act Of all that came from our great Jefferson: Nor king nor statesman sealed a n.o.bler pact!

And worthy the _deed_ of this fair festival, When the young land whose life had scarce begun, With lofty courage doubt could ne'er appall, In the one act a finer victory won Than war in all her scarlet glory e'er hath done!