to handle statistics and teach them the value of well-sustained fiction. (Laughter.)

"I cheerfully resign all my presidential aspirations to the Senator from Massachusetts, and if he is nominated, I do not care who they put up on the other side, with all respect to my friend Fitzgerald, he will find me working for him.

"I am glad to get back in this delightful company. I have been traveling around for the past three or four months, risking pneumonia, and I am glad to say that the spirit of this organization is throughout the West. I am glad to say that I found it in individuals out West. When I got into Duluth, I had a terrific toothache. I went to a dentist and he pulled the tooth. I said, 'Now, sir, how much do I owe you for this?' He said, 'You don't owe me a cent.' I said, 'You are a professional man and I am a stranger to you.' He said, 'You are no stranger to me. I have been reading your books for the last twenty years, and it is a positive pleasure to pull your teeth."" (Laughter and applause.)

President Fish. "It is very fortunate that this wild and woolly Westerner who had the pleasure of pulling that tooth, did not take advantage of his opportunities and pull them all, and I trust that Mr. Bangs has a few left.

Thursday, March 11

DEDICATORY EXERCISES

(Singing: "America.")

(As President Fish arose to address the members, he was greeted with loud applause and cheers.)

PRESIDENT FREDERICK P. FISH

"Gentlemen of the City Club. We are more than 1200 strong here to-night and good men and true, but we stand for more than 5200 good men and true who go to make up the City Club of Boston. (Applause.) We are proud of this wonderful building which we are dedicating tonight, but I am glad to say that our pride in the building is really secondary to the pride we have in the Club. The Club was worthy of our admiration in the old quarters where we lived for so many years, and where we accomplished so much. This new building, the largest club, as I believe, and the finest club in the world, as I believe, only accentuates the power and the capacity of the Boston City Club, and its ability to develop along the lines established by the inspiration under which it was founded. It was founded to develop in this city of Boston many of the simple, underlying virtues and beauties of humanity. Good fellowship was at the base of it, a friendly regard for our neighbors and friends. A desire to extend our knowledge, our acquaintance and our appreciation of the good men about us, all led to the organization of this Club.

"It is truly democratic to the core, in that each and every man is

equal to each and every other man in the Club, and knows it, while at the same time there is that cooperation between the various members which enables great results to be attained by developing on the part of each member that capacity to help in the club work which seems greatest in him. So that from the start the success of the Club has been based on the fact that we all cooperated, that we found good men to do our work, that we loyally supported them.

"Gentlemen, we are the same club to-day that we were in the old quarters on Beacon Street. We are the same club in our desire to promote good fellowship, in our desire to establish and maintain friendly relations among the large body of picked men in the city of Boston, representing diverse interests and characteristics, and we shall never depart from that standard. We shall not be spoiled by the fact that we are in a palace, and it is a palace, gentlemen,—a palace adapted to our needs.

"I hope that every man here will study it and find out for himself what we have found out, its beauty, its simplicity, the taste, the economy that has been shown in all its appointments and in all the methods which have characterized its development and its fitness for our purposes.

"Gentlemen, I can only speak for myself by way of congratulation for what has been accomplished in the past, and for what we may reasonably look forward to as the accomplishment of the future. We have a problem to solve as to which we have, up to the present time, made no mistake.

"We have gone along definite straightforward lines, and have never departed a hair's breadth from the spirit upon which the Club is based. We propose to promote good fellowship, we propose to make life easier for our members, we propose to play the part of students and thinkers and investigators in all respects which pertain to our members, and the interest of our community. We propose to be an illustration of what can be accomplished in this day and generation, when men get together, when they sink all differences and work for the sake of the common good. We are not doing that in a very small way. Fifty-two hundred members is a pretty large crowd to deal with. But we propose to handle this Club, which will grow even larger than it is to-day, in such a way that it will be an example, an example which should spread throughout this country, not only in club life but in our general organization, an example for good, an example of that kind of necessary selfsacrifice which leads to good, and which at the same time leads to the utmost satisfaction on the part of those who participate in the enterprise.

"Now, gentlemen, we have a long program before us to-night and I do not propose to take up another moment of your time, I simply wish from my heart what every man in this room is wishing and hoping, and that is an everlasting life to this Club, an everlasting development from good to better and to best, and that is exactly what I and all who know the situation are looking forward to. (Applause.)

"During all these years we have not only had the firm and strong

support of each other, but during all these years, not only has every department of the Club, every officer of the Club, every man in the Club, stood shoulder to shoulder for development for the common good, but we have had the support and the friendship of those about us, and we are under eternal obligations to every department of the life of our neighborhood which by its sympathy and its support has helped us to develop to our present position; and there never has been a time when the citizens of Boston and the city of Boston have not recognized that we were a worthy institution which should be promoted and helped, with which there should be a keen and close sympathy, and the Club has had no better friend from the beginning than the present Mayor of the city of Boston who represents that great community, and as such will speak to us to-night. His Honor, Mayor Curley, Mayor of the city of Boston."

(Mayor Curley was received with prolonged applause, the members standing.)

HONORABLE JAMES M. CURLEY

"Mr. President, Invited Guests, and Fellow Members of the Boston City Club. I believe I would be remiss in a duty, an obligation, and a pleasure, if I failed at the outset to say a word of appreciation of the two great forces in the life of this organization, perhaps more responsible than any other for this splendid and enduring monument of good fellowship and advanced Americanism,-Frederick P. Fish and Addison L. Winship. (Cheers and applause.)

"Every great movement in the world's history has been typical of the men at the head of that movement. Great legions who followed in the triumphant march of Napoleon reflected the character, the determination and the courage and brilliancy of the great leader. And the great forces that followed in hardship, in defeat and ultimately in victory, the Father of our Country, General Washington, reflected the patience, the determination, and the courage of the greatest American General, George Washington. (Applause.)

"As it has been in the case of individuals, in the case of great business organizations, so it has been in the case of this splendid American institution which is distinctively patterned after the desires, the wishes, the hopes, the aspirations, and the ideals, of two great Boston citizens, Frederick P. Fish and Addison L. Winship. (Applause.)

"No decade in the history of Boston has been more replete with monuments testifying to the progress, to the prosperity, and to the genuine human sympathy of a people than the last decade. Our splendid institution, dedicated within the last six months to the suffering children of the community, the Forsyth Dental Infirmary, is an institution which will be patterned after in every progressive section of the entire United States.

"This organization, as the President has pointed out, with a memship of 5200, with a waiting list of 2000, means something more

than mere fellowship. I witnessed the gathering here when the admonition was given by the photographer to remove glasses, and one of every eight men present removed glasses. That indicates what? That the eye, that most important organ of the human system is overworked, and the eye in the intelligent human view is only overworked in increasing the capacity of the mind, and with the development of the mind is the opportunity presented to an organization of this kind to solve the great economic problems that to-day are crying aloud for solution, not only in this country, but in every country throughout the entire world. The hope of future America lies in organizations of this character, lies in leadership of this character, and as the chief executive of Boston I say: 'God speed the great work of this organization and its present great leaders.'" (Cries of "Good," cheers and long applause.)

The President. "Gentlemen, the Boston Quintet will now favor us." (Singing by Quintet.)

"Those who, like myself, have been a member of the City Club from its organization know, and all of our brethren who have joined of late years should know, that the Club has had from the beginning a succession of loyal servants to whose indefatigable energy and intelligence has been due its success, and its standing at the present time. The three Presidents, Mr. Lehy, Mr. Tilley, and Mr. Elder, are entitled to the greatest gratitude from the Club. (Cheers and applause.) A long line of hard-working committees, house committees, entertainment committees, art and library committees, and of late years an executive committee, and finance committee, are entitled to the everlasting gratitude of the Club.

"I do not think, gentlemen, that you realize how much you owe to the Finance Committee and I am not going to tell you. I would like to have you ask and find out for yourselves. But during all this time there have been men working indefatigably and without reward, except the consciousness of good service, for your benefit, for our benefit. We must not forget that. Neither may we forget the men further back before there was any Club, who had the imagination and the foresight to see that such a club was possible; for, gentlemen, it was an original idea.

"There had been city clubs before, but none had ever started with such aspirations as this, and none ever developed as has this Club, or along the same lines, or with the same result. And, gentlemen, we must feel constantly the gratitude to those men who, before the days of the Club, had the imagination and the foresight to recognize that such an institution was possible. And one of them is here to-night.

"I won't say how much he had to do with the establishment of this Club. I think that most of you know a great deal about it. But he was one of those who did believe that such an institution might be successfully developed, and that when developed it would be a power for good, as I think our Club is, and I believe that it will be more and more so in the future. I want to hear from him. I want you to hear from him, bearing in mind that he, from a position of isolation, looked forward,

perhaps to not such a brilliant result as we see here to-night, but with the firm belief that great results would follow. Mr. Edward A. Filene.”

EDWARD A. FILENE, ESQUIRE

(As Mr. Filene stepped forward, the members rose en masse, cheered and applauded to the echo.)

"Mr. President and Fellow Members. I tried to side-step this, not out of any native modesty, but because it is true that any really democratic institution ought to come to the time of complete reorganization. Men have imagination, as the President has said, and perhaps I was one of the group that had more imagination than anything else when we started this Club. And they builded as good as they knew.

"Then comes the time when success is coming. And in a club like this there comes a time when there are over 5,000 members, and then if it has been wisely planned there must be the fullest scope and the natural road for reorganization, not to allow a club to go along the way those men thought it ought to go, but to allow it and make it go along the way its 5,000 members now want it to go. (Applause.)

"And that is what this Club is doing. And this building to-night is the expression of what the 5,000 members want, and the officers and the members of the committees who built this Club are entitled to the evening by right, and it will help every democratic institution that is yet to be born if we bear that in mind. And that is the only reason I did not want to come here to-night. The evening ought to have been given over entirely to the Finance Committee, represented by Mr. Fitzgerald, the Building Committee, and the officers who have made this environment for the Club.

"For, after all, friends, environment does fashion the man. Men who live their lives in the mine where they have to stoop at their work all the time, when they are away from sunlight, become sallow bent men. Men who have a place in the sun, in this country at any rate, become broad, good citizens. And so as your officers and committees have fashioned for you and for me and for all of us a better environment, they are entitled to our heartfelt thanks, because the better environment will make us better men, and having the ideal of the Club in mind, that it is the City Club, it will make a better club as time goes on.

"Now, I am looking forward, as far as my mind is able, to the next great occasion. I don't know whether it will be a bit bigger building. Even my mind finds it hard to understand how we can know more than 5,000 of each other. But I suppose there will be a way found. The quality of the education of this city will perhaps educate men so that to remember 5,000 men will not be any harder than to remember the few hundred with which we started.

"Thinking of the next great occasion when perhaps some of us here at the beginning will be here no more, and when perhaps in your gratitude or for imagined help you will quote us, I wondered this afternoon,