ear, winding up by
holding a large banquet.

The food supplied on these occasions is by no means superior to that
given at private dinners, yet everybody is glad to be invited. It is
the inevitable rule that speeches follow the eating, and people attend,
not for the sake of the food, but for the privilege of hearing others
talk. Indeed, except for the opportunity of talking, or hearing others
talk, people would probably prefer a quiet meal at home. Speakers with
a reputation, orators, statesmen, or foreign diplomats are frequently
invited, and sometimes eminent men from other countries are the guests
of honor. These functions occur every year, and the Foreign Ministers
with whose countries the Associations have commercial relations are
generally present.

The topics discussed are nearly always the same, and it is not easy to
speak at one of these gatherings without going over the same ground as
that covered on previous occasions. I remember that a colleague of
mine who was a clever diplomat, and for whom I had great respect, once
when asked to make an after-dinner speech, reluctantly rose and, as far
as I can remember, spoke to the following effect: "Mr. Chairman and
gentlemen, I thank your Association for inviting me to this splendid
banquet, but as I had the honor of speaking at your banquet last year I
have nothing more to add, and I refer you to that speech;" he then sat
down. The novelty of his remarks, of course, won him applause, but I
should like to know what the company really thought of him. For my
part, I praised his wisdom, for he diplomatically rebuked all whose
only interest is that which has its birth with the day and disappears
with the night.

Banquets and dinners in America, as in China, are, however, often far
removed from frivolities. Statesmen sometimes select these
opportunities for a pronouncement of their policy, even the President
of the nation may occasionally think it advisable to do this. Speeches
delivered on such occasions are generally reported in all the
newspapers, and, of course, discussed by all sorts of people, the wise
and the otherwise, so that the speaker has to be very careful as to
what he says. Our President confines himself to the more formal
procedure of issuing an official mandate, the same in kind, though
differing in expression, as an American President's Inaugural Address,
or one of his Messages to Congress.

Commercial men do not understand and are impatien