ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT-ELECT. 265 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT-ELECT. 



W. W. PENDERGAST. 

 (At late annual meeting.) 



Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Members: 



I will not deny that this election has pleased me very much in- 

 deed, and I feel profoundly grateful to you for this proof of your 

 confidence. I have been a member of this society for a good many 

 years. I never have asked for and never expected any office what- 

 ever. I was willing to take my share as a simple worker to try to 

 help the cause along as well as I could. I believe that in a society 

 of this kind every one should be willing to 



"Watch intent and firm of mind, 

 And watcli where'er the post's assigned, 

 And leave to God the rest." 



YOU have assigned to me this post, and I shall try to do the work as 

 well as I know how. I do not expect to drop right into the traces 

 and pull as steadily and do as well as Mr. Underwood, who has been 

 your president so long, but as far as I can you have my word that I 

 shall do my level best. 



I want to say further what I said once before, that in this great 

 state of Minnesota there are three organizations that I have had in 

 my mind as doing, each one in its own way, a great work for the 

 state, with the sole object of doing good. One is the Teachers' 

 Association. Every year the teachers of this great state come to- 

 gether and devise ways and means by which they can lift the state 

 up a little higher educationallj', and they are doing it. There is the 

 State Dairyman's Association, that is lifting it up financially, and it 

 is doing a great work. It is saving our farms from destruction; it is 

 saving the fertility of the soil that we have been exporting year after 

 year; it. is making a record that we shall be proud to deliver to our 

 children when we are gone. There is the Minnesota State Horticul- 

 tural Society; I mention it last but not least, because it is the one 

 we are most concerned in here. We are here for service to the state, 

 and, incidentally, to the whole land. The hightest aim that any man 

 can have in this world is to place himself in position where he can 

 best serve his fellows. (Applause.) One man said to me, "I do not 

 care about my boy being able to serve somebody else, I want him to 

 serve himself." Oh, what a fearful mistake that man made! He can 

 never serve himself well until he has learned to serve his fellow men. 

 "If any one be great among you let him be your minister." If you 

 can point me out a man who has been great in this country or in the 

 world, that man has been a good minister; he has ministered to the 

 wants of the people, he has been a good servant. Was Lincoln a 

 great man? It was because he was a splendid servant. Was Wash- 

 ington a great man? It was because he served his country well. 

 Is there any one who has won world wide fame? Point him out to 



