l8 9?3 "John Hay at Stanford 



solving many tangled problems. As private secre- 

 tary to Lincoln he had become thoroughly familiar 

 with American affairs, and as minister to Vienna 

 and later to London - - from which latter post he 

 was called to Washington - - equally well versed 

 on conditions in Europe. In 1899, accompanying 

 McKinley to California, he made an admirable dis- 

 course at Stanford. Introducing him, and referring 

 to his message on "the open door," I was tempted 

 to quote - - but did not - - the following verses ad- 

 dressed to him by a veteran of the Civil War: 



I cooked a dinner in war time 

 You ate and praised one day; 

 You liked my work and said so, 

 And I like yours, John Hay. 



On this occasion McKinley was to have been the 

 guest of the University, but detained in San Jose 

 by his wife's illness, asked Hay to take his place. 

 As a welcome for the President, Cecil Marrack, a M arrack's 

 senior student, had prepared a careful speech; spffch 

 this he so adroitly modified to suit the unexpected 

 conditions as to call out a special word of praise 

 from Hay. 



It will be remembered that McKinley fell victim "Lessons 



of the 

 Tragedy " 



to the inchoate rage of a crazy anarchist, sensa- f ihe 



tional journalism having fed the frenzy of the as- 

 sassin who sought revenge on society by destroying 

 its accepted head. As I said at the time: 1 



There is a cowardly discontent which leads a man to blame 

 all failure on his prosperous neighbor or on society at large - 



1 "Lessons of the Tragedy/' delivered before the students of Stanford Uni- 

 versity. 



i: 575 1 



