ANNUAL CLUB ELECTION AND MEETING

Monday, November 19

On Monday, November 19, the annual election of the Club and the annual meeting will occur. The polls will be open from 12 M. until 7.30 P.M. for the annual election.

The annual meeting will occur at 8 o'clock, when the report of the tellers and the annual report of the Board of Governors will be made.

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The official call of the meeting and the annual financial report of the Club will be mailed to each member previous to the meeting. The Board of Governors desires a full participation of the members in the election and in the meeting.

JAMES E. DOWNEY, Secretary.

REPORT OF THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE BOSTON CITY CLUB:

OCTOBER 19, 1917.

The Nominating Committee elected last year herewith reports the nominations to be voted upon at the annual election of 1917. For the convenience of the members of the Club, we have added the business of each candidate.

For the Board of Governors for three years, the following sixteen members, the eight receiving the highest votes to be elected:

JOHN L. BATES, ex-Governor of Massachusetts.

CHARLES B. BREED, Professor of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. GEORGE A. FLYNN, Assistant Corporation Counsel, City of Boston.

W. CAMERON FORBES, ex-Governor of Philippines.

DAMON E. HALL, Lawyer; Member of firm Hurlburt, Jones & Cabot.

H. S. KELSEY, President Waldorf Lunches System; Chairman of Hospitality Committee.

FRANK D. KEMP, Chairman Highway Commission of Massachusetts.

TIMOTHY LEARY, Medical Examiner, Suffolk County.

JAMES E. MCCONNELL, Lawyer; former Chairman Massachusetts Pension Committee. CHARLES J. MARTELL, Lawyer; Chairman of Entertainment Committee.

GEORGE VON L. MEYER, former Secretary of the Navy.

WILLIAM B. MUNRO, Professor of Government, Harvard University.

W. E. SKILLINGS, with William Filene Sons Co.; Member of House Committee. FELIX VORENBERG, President of F. Vorenberg Co., and Vice-President Gilchrist Co. HARRY R. WELLMAN, Vice-President Walter M. Lowney Co.; Member of Entertainment Committee.

ALEXANDER WHITESIDE, Lawyer; former Director of Boston Chamber of Commerce.

REVIEW OF RECENT EVENTS

CONCERT BY THE BOSTON OPERA PLAYERS

The season of 1917-18 opened on Thursday evening, October 4, with a concert by the Boston Opera Players, under the direction of Elmer Wilson. The concert was of the usual high order and was highly appreciated by the large gathering of members. About one hundred Naval Reservists were guests of the Club, and occupied the front rows during the concert.

LINCOLN STEFFENS ON RUSSIA

Lincoln Steffens brought into strong relief the economic meanings of the Russian revolution during his talk before the Club on October II. "You are going to have a republic, are you?" he asked in Petrograd. "Why a republic?" was the reply. "The United States is a republic. We are going to have a democracy."

Reforms are Economic

"In Russia," said Mr. Steffens, "they are doing the thing all the people in the world have got to learn to do. They are not dealing with political reforms so much as they are dealing with the economic reforms underlying government.

"The Czar in Russia, as I found the situation, was not an autocrat. There are no autocrats. The Czar was supported by the privileged business of Russia-the grand dukes, the bankers, the landlords, the men holding mines and lands. If you want to remove the Kaiser, you must remove the things that support his government."

"The soldiers' and workmen's council," he said, "is the real power in Russia. The council did not care for a particular form of government, republic or monarchy. It is after a democracy. It is talking about an economic democracy in which all men shall have equal opportunities in the natural wealth of the country.

"With your help they are going to work that out so as to produce a different civilization from ours. There must be a change in the basis form of a government before you can prevent war, and you cannot have that while you allow people to go out, buy more land than they want and can use, and use the excess to corrupt your colleges, your churches, your press, and your life.

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Every observer has seen and wondered at the perfect self-control of the Russians. The people came into power suddenly, yet in spite of their wrongs they did not kill or destroy. Their position was the one taken by Kerensky that the people must not do any of the things the government had done to them. The first act of the revolution was a decree against capital punishment. They started their democracy one step ahead of us.

----

Want a Civilizing Peace

"In Russia you have to deal with public opinion, with the nation and people. The Russians were talking peace all the time, but I never heard the phrase about a separate peace. They regard only a general peace as possible. They want a civilizing peace, and are afraid we won't get it.

The Russians say that the cause of empire, the excuse for empire, one of the causes of war, is the right claimed by the great powers to follow their citizens abroad, and under pretext of protecting investors and settlers to invade, conquer, corrupt, and exploit the weaker nations of the earth.

"The Russians ask for a public opinion, not a diplomatic opinion, to the end that when we settle this war we shall settle it so that, while the earth is free to migration, the man who migrates shall leave his flag and his men of war behind him.

They want us to agree to adopt a policy of free trade in the world. so that the different countries, specialized for various industries, shall not be dependent, but so interdependent that they cannot go to war. It is for us to lift our patriotism up to internationalism so that we may have, as is beginning in Russia, a universal brotherhood."

Prior to the address Mr. Steffens was welcomed at a dinner, during which Charles J. Martell, Joseph A. Conry, Russian consul; Judd Dewey, Dr. De Witt G. Wilcox, and Edward A. Filene spoke briefly. Prof. L. J. Johnson, of Harvard University, presided both at the dinner and at the subsequent meeting.

RECEPTION AND DINNER TO BRIG.-GEN. JOHN A. JOHNSTON October 15

At a dinner tendered to Brig.-Gen. John A. Johnston, United States Army, President James J. Storrow presided. He first introduced Lieutenant-Governor Coolidge, representing the Commonwealth, who tendered to General Johnston and all his coworkers who are doing what they can to promote his success and doing what they can to protect the honor and integrity of the United States of America, the cordial greetings of the Commonwealth, a state that has always borne a distinguished share in the military accomplishments of the nation.

President Storrow then said, "We have as one of our guests a young military officer to whom we are getting to be very much attached. I present to you Lieutenant Morize. [Cheers and applause, the members standing.]

LIEUT. A. MORIZE, OF THE FRENCH ARMY

"I am not accustomed to speaking in public and I am sorry to be obliged to speak here, but as a soldier I cannot refuse the call. I am glad to bring to you the greeting of the members of the French military organizations. When you want to know where the boys are in France

you only know that they are "somewhere in France." When we write to France we don't say that we are somewhere in the United States. We are glad to say that we are in Boston. And from now on I am especially glad to write my folks that I am in Boston at General Johnston's headquarters. It is a great job and a great honor to work in connection with General Johnston. I am glad to be here to-night in the French uniform, surrounded by officers wearing the American uniform, and it is to me a symbol of the wonderful combination which unites us, your nation and mine, and which will bring us the victory and peace in the world." [Prolonged applause.]

PRESIDENT STORROW. When our State National Guard was called out about the first of April it became necessary for the Governor to supply this Commonwealth with soldiers to take the place of the National Guard. I am happy to say that that job has been well done. We have about 10,300 men in the State Guard, under discipline, properly uniformed and ready for any local emergency. When the Governor was looking around for some one to command this new army, we were very fortunate to have in Massachusetts a sort of a handy man who had graduated from West Point, and after he had done that he thought he would like to graduate from something else beside, and so he came here and graduated from the Institute of Technology. Then, being a sort of handy man, he went to Congress for a few years, and now Governor McCall has picked him out to be the officer in command of our state army: Maj.-Gen. Butler Ames.

MAJ.-GEN. BUTLER AMES, OF THE STATE GUARD

"In spite of us, the Guard has grown to its present state of 145 companies, with some 600 officers. I believe the record shows that we had some 1,800 drill hours for officers, and many of those men are now noncommissioned officers in the camps around Boston.

"From a military point of view, 10,000 men are perhaps all that is necessary for occasions which may arise in the state. Therefore, from the military point of view, no new companies are necessary; but there may be a difference in view. If there is one crying necessity since the war was declared in this country, it has been for an opportunity for patriotic men to give expression to their desire to serve the state or nation in some form or other, and that opportunity the State Guard has furnished for 10,000 men, more or less, who earnestly sought to give what they have to give in time of necessity. And we are now faced with this proposition from a state point of view. There is no more money, but inquiries come to us from cities and towns saying, If we buy the uniforms and guns and furnish equipment and a drill hall with heat and light in which to keep the equipment, with no expense to the state, backed up by the Public Safety Committee and by the Board of Aldermen and the community generally, will you take such a company? But that is a problem to be determined by the officers of the state and the Public Safety Committee, with Mr. Storrow at its head, and by the Governor and Council."

PRESIDENT STORROW. I have an idea it is about time I introduced