BANQUET. 293 



asked myself — "Who is that person." She was supported by Holbrook and Baldwin and 

 Webster and Stone and a great galaxy of people, and they said, "That is the great prima 

 donna of Hog Island." She was a lady beauteous to look upon, with a reputation not un- 

 sullied by investigation and popular report, but still in such a degree of respectability that 

 she did attract attention. The gentlemen with her — and there were many of them — were 

 surrounded by a guard of honor of some seven or eight hundred splendidly uniformed and 

 moimted policemen — she needed tliat protection in Broad Street — this great galaxy was 

 wending its way through the street, every one asking who she was, what she was, and what 

 she was going to do. Well, gentlemen. Hog Island is all right, notwithstanding that dream, 

 and I am going to tell you some of the real truths about her a little later. As to the lady who 

 posed so beautifully and looked so well, I am not going to tell you about her now. I will tell 

 you later. 



Then I saw a number of men approaching, fine looking fellows, Joe Powell, Holbrook, 

 Kneeland, and a lot of other fellows, and I thought, "What have those fellows in their hands, 

 they look so fine," because each one carried a big chart in his hand, a chart to show the peo- 

 ple what they were going to do. (Applause.) Boys, that was the most magnificent set of 

 charts I have ever seen. 



Then there came another distinguished man in this procession that commenced to look 

 like a Roman fete. It was Admiral Bowles, dragging a cow by her tail. The admiral was 

 then explaining that this cow had to go. He said that he could not make her go forward, 

 but he had promised to make her go, and therefore he was obliged to" drag her through the 

 streets. (Laughter and applause.) 



So my dream went on, and I saw an aggregation of people representing all the various 

 branches of the Emergency Fleet Corporation file by. Then I woke upi with a start, v/ith 

 the realization, Mr. President and Mr. Secretary, of the real facts — dreams O'ften go by op- 

 posites — and instead of the recital at which you have laughed, which was a fantasy of a 

 brain in sleep, there came to my view a magnificent fleet of some six or seven hundred mer- 

 chant vessels that these gentlemen had built in the last year, with the American flag flying 

 proudly from their prows. (Loud and prolonged applause.) I thought to myself, what a 

 splendid awakening- and what a splendid return to a former state for this great country, 

 and what credit these craftsmen and shipbuilders of the United States deserved. They have 

 made history for themselves, Mr. Secretary. 



In the shipbuilding industry we have our traditions, too. You spoke of the traditions of 

 the American and other navies, Mr. Secretary. We all take our hats off to these traditions 

 and things of tlie past, but I would have you all know that the Emergency Fleet Co^rporation 

 has a tradition for itself far back of anything you have ever dreamed of, Mr. Secretary. Why, 

 Noah was the first man to build an emergency fleet. Our history and our records and our 

 traditions go gack to the time of Noah, and I challenge the Army and I challenge your Navy, 

 Mr. Secretary, and any other navy in the wide world, to show a tradition as ancient and as 

 honorable as the Emergency Fleet Corporation. 



Now, gentlemen, just to be serious for a moment. I am going down to White Sulphur 



