226 Presidential Addresses 



AT THE BANQUET OF THE YOUNG MEN'S 

 CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, NEW WILLARD 

 HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D. C., JAN. 19, 1903 



Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen: 



It is no accident that we should meet here to cele 

 brate a record of fifty years that period which cov 

 ers the half century which has seen the gigantic 

 industrial change of the world, which has seen the 

 fruition of the forces that have brought about a 

 revolution, socially and industrially, within the fifty 

 years such as was hardly seen within any preceding 

 five centuries. Life has been very intense, has been 

 carried on at a very high pressure, during that half 

 century; more intense, carried on at a higher pres 

 sure, than ever before. That means of course that 

 all the forces have been raised to a higher degree 

 of power the forces of evil, and, thank heaven, also 

 the forces of good. If it had not been for the work 

 of such organizations as this, for such organized 

 effort as that represented by you here to-night, 

 the immense material progress of the world dur 

 ing the past half century would have been a prog 

 ress that would have told for ill for the nations, not 

 for good. We can say with truth that we are better 

 off than we were. We can say that the creed of 

 those who have faith is the right creed as justified 

 in present history, because side by side with this 

 great material, development, and with an even 

 stronger rate of growth than the forces of evil, have 

 grown the forces of good. If it had not been for 



