BANQUET. 283 



American business and industry will have so many orders for rebuilding these nations and 

 carrying on the peace work, which for eighteen months has been at a standstill, that we shall 

 find readjustment and prosperity going along together, and continue in this great country of 

 ours. 



Gentlemen, tliere is but one thing we need. We have the courage and we have the 

 ability to win this war and to provide the instruments necessary to win it. No people who 

 could achieve what we have in eighteen months can ever be said to be wanting in the ability 

 in times of peace to carry prosperity to all of the people of this nation, and to make it more 

 prosperous than it has ever been in its entire history. What we need — all we need — is the 

 same spirit of faith in ourselves and co'nfidence in the future. Let us have this faith with 

 work ; and we shall see as the months go by and as the years go by, that readjustment and 

 prosperity are one and inseparable, and we shall see that the best days are yet to be. (Loud 

 applause.) 



The Toastmaster : — Three cheers for Secretary Daniels ! 



Three cheers were given with a Tiger. 



The Toastmaster : — We have more good things for you. The next toast is "Our Mer- 

 chant Marine, Now and Hereafter." I asked the Honorable Edward N. Hurley, Chair- 

 man of the United States Shipping Board, to reply to this toast, and he consented so to do, 

 but this morning I received this letter: — 



"United States Shipping Board, 



Washington^ November ii, 1918. 

 "Mr. Stevenson Taylor, President, 



The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. 

 "Dear Mr. Taylor :— 



"On account of recent developments I have been obliged to undertal<e a mission to 

 Europe and I shall be absent from the country on November 15th. I shall therefore be 

 obliged to forego the honor of being your guest on that evening at dinner. 



"I hope you will convey to your members a message of optimism from me. It is my firm 

 belief that the spiritual exuberance with which otir people are hailing the news of victory 

 will immediately express itself dynamically in favor of increased production to meet the un- 

 diminished but better apportioned demand. 



"Very truly yours, 



"EDWARD N. HURLEY, 



Chairman." 



When the speakers not belonging to this Society happen to fail us, as they sometimes 

 do, we call upon our own. I am going to ask one of the four gentlemen that started this 

 Society twenty-five years agO', Mr. Lewis Nixon, to respond to the toast — "Our Merchant 

 Marine, Now and Hereafter." 



