270 BANQUET. 



what he is reported to have said. But when it comes to my part to correct and issue a 

 revised version which may possibly appear in your minutes, I can put in anything I please, 

 and just here, let me suggest a word of friendly marital advice to you shipbuilders before me. 

 You have to-night the ruddy glow on your cheek and the fire in your eye that evidence the 

 depth of your enjoyment of the spiritual side of this evening. Don't, my friends, when on 

 some later evening at your own fireside you read the proceedings of this convention, and 

 perchance this revised version — don't, I beg of you, be betrayed into saying to your wife, "I 

 never heard him say that" ; "I don't remember this." Such a remark may convey an im- 

 pression to her of the reason why you did not this evening hear and accurately recall all you 

 are now hearing. No, stick by the revised version and vouch for every word of it, and your 

 wife will be satisfied that on this evening you rose to that standard of moderation which the 

 observation of ages has coined into that truism, that you were "as sober as a judge." 



I wish, gentlemen, time allowed me to tell you of these theological-nautical dissertations 

 I have listened to here to-night. Of the discussion of my table companions as to whether 

 it was under Secretary Daniel's administration that Schwab built cattleships or Noah built 

 battleships and whether it was Noah or Admiral Bowles who had a launching party 120 

 years after he laid the keel of his craft, and which great naval architect, Piez or Noah, was 

 associated with Shem and Hurley, Ham and Schwab and Japheth or Bowles, and whether 

 the vessel they launched finally ran aground at Mount Ararat or Hog Island. 



But, gentlemen, as I was saying, I like to go to these conventions. I like to mingle with 

 folks. I have a sort of feeling that it don'fc hurt a judge to get acquainted with business 

 men. I have sometimes thought that fresh air and law and a little knowledge of the com- 

 mon sense of business are not bad things to lodge in the judicial cranium, so I went to this 

 convention last night. I wanted, for example, to learn something of the merchant marine of 

 the United States. I wanted to find out, how, after you built your ships, you were going 

 to run them when you got out into the "freedom of the seas" and came across the Jap and 

 the Norseman and other wage standards than our own. I went to the convention to find out 

 just what you were going to do with our American cargoes when you got them to some 

 point somewhere or anywhere. And about whether you were going to have some American 

 traderSi, and American banks, and other modern conveniences of home in these foreign ports. 

 I went there to learn about these things and I am still ready to learn, if anybody has got 

 any information to give me. 



Then there were other momentous questions. I listened to learned and very spirited 

 conversations on the momentous subject of the "load line." I never knew before what a 

 "load line" was. Until I went to the convention I was never conscious that there was such 

 things as "load lines." I listened to the discussion of that subject with interest. Some of 

 the gentlemen I see here to-night were taking part in that discussion, and I learned a deal of 

 load-line lore. They brought the question home to themselves, made it an individual, per- 

 sonal matter — it took on a vital importance when they urged the necessity of an American 

 registry tO' fix the load line. I was a good deal bewildered until they removed some screens 



