BANQUET. 315 



ADDRESS BY HON. BAINBRIDGE COLBY. 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I have no intention tonight of regaling you with 

 the mode of treatment of the merchant marine, with which you doubtless, during the days of 

 the war, became more or less familiar. I shal make no announcement of the number of ships 

 actually delivered into service last week, nor will I indulge in any prophecy as to the tonnage 

 to be delivered in the weeks or months to come. That phase of the merchant marine, if noth- 

 ing else did, received, from my colleagues on the Shipping Board, the most ample treatment 

 during the piping days of actual hostilities. 



I feel that I cannot even approach the very few remarks that I shall make on this sub- 

 ject without referring to the very distinguished chapter of public service which is to the credit 

 of your president. When the history of America's effort to bridge the Atlantic with cargo 

 carriers is written, a strong emphasis will be put upon the work of Admiral Capps in the 

 early fo^rmative days of that great effort. (Applause.) I have the more pleasure in refer- 

 ring to Admiral Capps' great part in that work because he never refers to it, he is quite 

 content that no one should refer to it, and I regret to say that there has been altogether too 

 little reference to it. (Applause.) The admiral came upon the scene just as the famous 

 controversy was ending. The redhot sirocco had encountered the simoon of the desert, and 

 honors were easy, when there appeared a quiet naval officer, a scientist in the true sense of 

 the word, a prodigious worker, a quiet and indefatigable and confident presence moving upon 

 the scene of personal rivalry and discord, and the effect was magic. Sir, it was you who 

 plotted the work; it was you who took the initial steps; it was you, with confidence in your 

 grasp and power, who made the great commitments which the Government afterwards carried 

 out; and when you had spent all the strength that you had, when you had given O'f yourself 

 without stint and without measure, you were forced to lay aside the work as beyond what 

 physical strength your ardor had left to you. But your work was done, and the impress 

 of your power and genius was left as a source of inspiration for other men to draw upon. 

 (Applause.) 



It is a pleasing thing that the great events of the war have so far receded into history 

 that a most attractive, if consequent and following, phase of the war has now come to the 

 front. I refer to these personal and human incidents that will come to notice in such increas- 

 ing volume as the years go on. We will tap that great reservoir of fine humanity to which 

 every nation has contributed, without depleting the sources, until our lives are over. 



We have heard tonight, with deep relish, this beautiful story of the heroism of the Stew- 

 art, and the fine account of the simple, modest heroism of the stay-at-home regiments that 

 General Shanks has given us. I rejoice that our lives are to be enriched by these anecdotes and 

 tales of heroism and tales of modest worth— these tales of unrecorded bravery. 



