George T. Page, of Illinois; T. A. Hammond, of Georgia; U. S. G. Cherry, of South Dakota; and Charles Thaddeus Terry, of New York. On motion the Secretary cast the ballot of the Association for the respective nominees. The President: I declare the officers named to have been duly elected. (See List of Officers at page 176.) Hampton L. Carson, of Pennsylvania: It is not usual to move a vote of thanks to any speaker before this body, because an invitation extended by this Association and responded to by a member of the Association simply involves the discharge, however efficiently it may be done, of a duty committed to his hands by the Association itself. Last night we had an address from a man who is not a member of the Association, a gentleman whose eloquent voice has been raised all over this continent, and on the soil of China and Japan, teaching the principles of republican liberty and government to those Oriental nations struggling for larger life. The manner in which he discharged his duty, the mastership with which his skilled hand touched responsive chords in the heart of a great audience, make it fitting that this gathering should by a vote express its appreciation of the eloquent, learned and instructive address delivered to us by him. I, therefore, move that the thanks of this Association be tendered to Professor Robert McNutt McElroy, the head of the Department of History and Politics in the University of Princeton, for his eloquent and instructive address. The motion was seconded from all parts of the hall and was unanimously carried. William O. Hart, of Louisiana : I move that a committee of three be appointed to escort the newly elected President to the platform. Eugene C. Massie, of Virginia: I second that motion. The President: All in favor of the motion will say aye; opposed, no. The motion is carried. The Chair will appoint as such committee, Robert E. L. Saner, George T. Page and Hampton L. Carson. The introduction of the President-elect will take place at the session this afternoon. Adjourned until 2.30 P. M. the same day. AFTERNOON SESSION. September 6, 1917, 2.30 P. M. Alton B. Parker, a former President of the Association, presided at this session. A flag raising had taken place under the auspices of the Daughters of the American Revolution at the State Reservation just before this session. As the crowd filed into Convention Hall it saw the stage decorated with the flags of the Allies. Just before the speaking began an aged color-bearer of the G. A. R. came into the rear of the hall with a big American flag. The program was about to begin when William A. Ketcham, of Indiana. a veteran of the Civil War, rushed to the front of the stage and shouted: "Color-bearer, I want that flag up here with the others. They belong together." The color-bearer, George W. Merry, of the Sixty-ninth New York Volunteers, bore it to the stage and placed it behind the other flags. "No," shouted General Ketcham. "Out here in front of all." The crowd rose to its feet as the aged soldier was led to a chair at the front of the stage, where he held the Stars and Stripes in front of the other flags throughout the afternoon session. The Chairman: The committee to escort the incoming president has arrived. I ask the members to rise and greet our new President, Walter George Smith. President-Elect Smith: I should be insensible indeed did I not feel to the very depths of my heart the high compliment you have paid me, and not alone a compliment, but an expression of confidence of which any man might well be proud. When I reflect on the 40 years' history of the American Bar Association and look back over the years of my own experience in connection with it, when I recall the personality of the great men who have filled the office to which you have chosen me, when I look upon the faces of those leaders of the profession who are still with us and who have occupied the position, I am painfully conscious of my own limitation; but, gentlemen, I am upheld by this thought-one of the sweetest and most comforting-that my defects will be overlooked by your charity and good feeling, and in this year, which perhaps under God may be left me for the service of the profession and of this Association, this year fraught with so many possibilities, this year which has well been described by the eloquent gentlemen who have spoken at this meeting as one in which the future of the republic, the future of free governments, is being tried in the dreadful test of horrible war, that I shall have your cordial support in doing what I may to represent the sentiments of the American Bar. Ah! my friends, how our hearts beat and how our hopes were encouraged in these dark hours by the unanimous report upon the resolutions offered in this meeting, pledging our support to the government of the United States, with a full apprehension of what that support meant in all its details. It has gone out to the world, to the profession of the law in the United States of America, that we are united in support of the government and that every member of the profession will do his best to sustain those who are charged with the government of the republic in this dreadful time. We do not minimize the difficulties. My heart is full. You have honored me in such a way, that, to use the expression of a distinguished ex-President, it is like the conferring of a patent of nobility. By your suffrages, by your confidence, I am now entitled to take my place with these distinguished men whose names are known everywhere as being synonymous with the highest professional ideals and the highest professional capacity, whose patriotism is as strong and burning as that of the soldiers in the trenches. Help me, by your forbearance, help me by your unanimous feeling of patriotism, to do whatever I can so that when I lay down the gavel of office it will at least not have been unworthily handled. The Chairman: Poor Belgium! How our hearts go out to her. Fair she was, aye beautiful to look upon, on the morning of August 2, 1914, and recognized the world over as one of the centers of industry, religion and culture. War clouds her statesmen had seen for several days looming above the horizon of neighboring nations, but they thought those war clouds did not menace Belgium, for was she not buttressed against war by solemn treaties entered into between her and every one of the nations about her? Surely the people of Belgium thought Germany was their friend. Had she not entered into a solemn treaty with Belgium in the year 1839 in which she guaranteed her neutrality and independence. And had not the German Chancellor in 1870, and again in 1911, and still again in the early part of 1914, given the most positive assurances that in the event of war between Germany and France Germany would respect the soil of Belgium? Aye, more than that, on that very morning of August 2, 1914, the German Minister to Belgium, at Brussels, repeated and renewed these assurances on the part of his government. Yet before the setting of the sun on that day great German armies were marching upon and over Belgium soil! Still there are traitors and near traitors in the United States who plead with us and with our government to accept the assurances of that same government as a sound foundation for a lasting peace. Who can ever forget the noble reply which Belgium made to German demands and threats? What other nation ever before made so great a sacrifice for honor! The story of her sufferings has been borne upon us by every breeze that blows across the Atlantic, until the recitals of the brutalities committed upon the old men, and upon the women and the children of Belgium; the stories of the enslavement and the deportation of the able-bodied men into Germany to work against their homes and their friends; the stories of the robbery of Belgium by the imposition of fines upon the town, upon the citizens and the banks; and of the destruction of their ancient and beautiful churches and public buildings and their private homes have nauseated us. It is only a little time away when the great benefits, the wonderful service to humanity which Belgium has rendered, will be the leading theme of the great writers of both prose and poetry. For did she not, with her small army, check the German armies here and there, until France and England, with Belgium's assistance, made ready to stop them at the Marne! The Battle of the Marne! What a place it will have in history, marking as it will the beginning of the end of wars for spoliation, wars for the sole purpose of robbing people of their territory and then making unwilling subjects of them! This is the anniversary of the Marne. So, is it, too, the anniversary of Lafayette's birthday which has been celebrated of late here in the United States by appreciative people of a great man and a great service. Today under the leadership of the Lafayette societies in this country, both anniversaries are being celebrated together: The Battle of the Marne and the birthday of Lafayette. As we celebrate them we rejoice that at last the people of the United States are to pay its debt to France for Lafayette, for Rochambeau, and for the army and the navy which France sent to us in the time of our sore distress. Is it not wonderful that something like 130 years after we had won our freedom from England with France's assistance, after many years of friendly relations with Great Britain, marked in part by the fact that along the longest international boundary in the world, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, with 3840 miles of opportunity for trouble, a century has passed since there has been a fort, a gunboat or a soldier representing either nation to protect the border? Is it not wonderful, I say, that now Great Britain, France and the United States are all struggling together to help to secure, not now the freedom of a single country like our own, but the freedom of all countries in the world, big and little, to go their own way developing their own nation, to conduct their own governments as they will without fear or hindrance on the part of any great nation? And yet we did not enter this war from choice. There was a destiny which shaped the course of this war. Our President, representing the wishes of the majority of the people of this country, tried his best month in and month out to save this people from going to war. Many things were overlooked, like the |