President W. Van Benthuyzen -

Fellow Members and Welcome Guest:-

Perhaps I should preface my remarks tonight with an apology for the fact that there is a Holland Society of Chicago. For in that city on the banks of the river up which Hudson sailed some hundred years ago, there is another Holland Society. It has its annual meeting recently. We have all been sorry to learn from the New York newspapers that it was a surprise to some members of the Holland Society of that city to receive an invitation to the annual dinner of the Holland Society of Chicago. There were arching of eyebrows and the question arose," Who are those Porkopolis Dutchmen, and where did they come from?" What business did they have on earth anyway? Those effete, degenerate sons of sturdy, 2noble Dutch sires questioned our right to exist. They accused us of trying to imitate them. They threw out hints that we were snide Dutchmen. Those Peter Stuyvesants of Greater New York or lesser Amsterdam who take cold when the Prince of Wales gets his feet wet, who say, "Don't cher know," and put hyphens in their names. Those Wouter van Twillers, who smoke cigarettes, instead of good old Dutch pipes with long stems, who would faint if they sat down to Weineker beer and Edam cheese, want to know who these upstart Dutchmen of Chicago are! It was an act of unpardonable presumption for Chicago to take the World's Fair away from New York City. It was still more unpardonable for Chicago to make a magnificent success of it. In like manner, it was a piece of unwarranted impudence for Chicago to organize a Holland Society. New York had gone into the Holland business first. We don't blame New York for its priority in this sort of thing. It has the first chance. The Dutch hit that town before they hit ours. We know, to be sure, if that city had been started by the same kind of Dutchmen that we have in Chicago, they would have made a thundering better town of New York 3But that only makes our offense all the worse. It is presumption... It smells to heaven. Still all of you have read the Knickerbockers' History of New York ( and you were not worthy sons of the Zuider Zee if you haven't read it) know that the early Dutch settlers of the Island of Manhattan, however much they have been lacking in the ginger that the early Chicago Dutch possessed, were way ahead of their descendants who still inhabit that close corporation. Where was Father Knickerbocker at the Bardley Martin ball? He simply wasn't in it. Not a Knick. Here was the greatest event of its kind of the century, heralded by miles of newspaper laudation, and transpiring on the Dutchmen's native heath, yet what was there to remind us of him? Absolutely nothing. Not even as abbreviated a costume as made another Gotham function so notorious about the same time. If there had been as prominent a society event in Chicago, do you suppose it would have been a strictly Prairie Avenue and Lake Shore Drive affair? Not on your meerschaums! The Dutch would have had something to say about it, and the time-honored wooden shoes of our ancestors would have clumped merrily up and down on 4waxed floors. In case any New Amsterdammers from the neighborhood of Gowanis Bay may be in hearing, these remarks must be understood as being made in a Rip Van Winkle sense - they don't count. I am speaking in particular of the Gothamite Hollanders, who turned up their Fifth Avenue noses at the mention of the Chicago Society and made cold, unfeeling remarks about the presumption of those "Jyes" out there on "Lyke" Michigan. But imitation remains sincerest flattery in all times. Let me dismiss this pleasant little reference to our New York friends, who, after all, would be good fellows on all occasions if only given a little Chicago training, with the observation that, at this same annual meeting at which was discussed our right to exist, there was much solemn debate over the question of adopting a Society button, a point in the history of our organization that was successfully passed when it was a few weeks old, but the New York Dutchmen are wrangling over it yet. Fellow members of the Holland Society of Chicago, I bid you be of good cheer. The infant is out of swaddling clothes and looks with calm self-reliance into the future, seeing naught but the bright rainbow promise of hope. Gazing back at our completed year of existence, there is nothing to regret, and much 5to which we can point with pride. The first annual banquet set a pace for future functions that will certainly compel the committees having them in charge to put forth their best efforts to equal it. The excursion to Holland, Michigan, on two beautiful yachts, so generously placed at our disposal, was sweet solace to those compelled to endure the midsummer heat of the city. Our year book is an excellent record, handsomely printed, of the early history of the organization. Our membership is increasing, slowly but surely, just as we would like to have it. And, unlike the Holland Society of New York, we are not compelled to say, as did one of the speakers at their last banquet, we contrive to keep up our membership year after year.

Our Board of Trustees has labored unceasingly to lay the foundation of the organization broad and deep. From the members, not in the directory have come words and deeds of cheer and encouragement that have upheld the hands of those who have been entrusted with the guidance of affairs. The inspiration of our first president, Mr. Ackerman, has become a glorious 6reality, as attested by this meeting tonight. We are growing as a Society and we have no debts, nor do we have any reason to fear that our treasurer will imitate a recent example and hypothecate on securities. We are face to face with the gravest problems, national, state, and municipal. Little need is there to point out that the times are, awry. But in and through it all, let us remember that the Dutch as a class have ever been good citizens, even in Chicago, though perhaps New Yorkers would not admit it. "Corruption wins out not more than honesty," might well have come from the pen of a Dutchman. In clean government and clean cities are the cardinal principles of our Fatherland. There are no half-way Hollanders. They are either all good or thoroughly bad. Saving the presence of the ladies and our clerical guests, allow me to say that even the alliterative reference to the" D--d Dutch" you so often hear has in it that which bears me out, for the phrase is always uttered in tones of the highest admiration or redolent with emphatic contempt. I know that the good Dutchmen predominate in Chicago, however, and therefore can promise that the 25,000 Hollanders and descendants of Hollanders who have made this city their home is 7a wonderful leaven for the municipal lump and go a long way towards working out our political purification. Our mothercountry, which in 800 years has increased in area from 600 to 13,000 square miles, has taught the world what thrift and sturdy application can do. It has furnished the object lesson of the centuries. It makes us proud that we are descendants of Dutchmen, that we trace our lineage to the blood Royal. The misty traditions of the past come to us tonight mellowed and yellow with age. Schnaps mingles with sparkling champagne. Out of the silent centuries softly stealing come the spectral forms of Stuyvesant and his sturdy Burghers, of Hudson and his merry men, of the settlers of the Manhattan Island and the Mohawk, clad in quaint costumes. We feel their presence invisible at our board. It is the inspiration which has given life to the Holland Society of Chicago. It is the golden promise of its future. Fellow Dutchmen and guests, fill to the brim the measure of a common kinship. Let it strike with glad sound the golden cup of friendship. Let us unitedly pledge the memory of our illustrious ancestors. And now ladies and gentlemen , it gives me unusual pleasure to present to you the toastmaster of the evening. I say "present" advisedly, for he needs no introduction, especially for the ladies. Let me add, that if every member 8of this Society would give his time to increasing its numbers as unselfishly and pertinaciously, in season and out of season, as Vice-President Peter van Schaak, our next annual banquet would be held in the Coliseum. Even then, I would have serious doubts as to the capacity of that building to accomodate all the members. To Mr. van Schaak has been assigned the pleasant duty of introducing the gentlemen who have honored us with their presence tonight, and who are filled with a wealth of oratory which but awaits the application of the corkscrew of opportunity to sparkle and effervesce before you. Let the doors be locked, so that none may escape. Mr. van Schaak, you are in charge.