from what I am about to say, how inappropriate is that term. The term "gown" sometimes suggests that exceedingly early period of our lives, when sex isn't exactly determinable by the character of the dress. That is what a candidate for office learned one day when he was out seeking to have some supporting influence among his constituents, and finding a youngster in the room, and, feeling sure that he might reach the mother's heart, says: "My little miss, how are you to-day?" And the youngster said: "I dess you made a mistake; I ain't a girl: I's a boy." Then the matter of the gown suggests another thing. The story is told of some lawyer a good ways off, not here, who had been ingloriously defeated in some litigation, and in the acrid moments of defeat said: "The court that pronounced a judgment of that kind must be a lot of old women." So you see the term "gown" is inappropriate.

[Laughter.]

But the term "gown" is appropriate to some; is appropriate to the mother, whose watchful care over the beginning of our lives, and whose kindly nurture first started us on the journey of life. The mother, whose words of consolation have assuaged our many griefs, and whose admonitions have saved us from many a wrong; whose tear-stained cheek was more eloquent than words that might be uttered; the mother, who, living, we regard with the most reverent respect, and of whom, dead, our treasured memories are the choicest possessions of our lives. It reminds us, too, of that other one of the female creation, the wife, who, in the early beginning of our lives, linked her fate and fortune with ours, and confidingly put her hand in ours, prepared to go on through the storm and through the sunshine; who has been by our side in all of our trials, in all of our sufferings and in the hour of triumph; whose patient endurance has been to us of the utmost value; whose words of consolation have poured balm into the sore and bleeding heart, and whose words of commendation have brought added pleasure to the exquisite joy of our triumph. [Applause.] The wife who now, when the bloom of youth is gone, and frosty fingers have turned the raven tresses of that early time into a snowy crown, still stands, by our side, and, steadily looking forward, goes with us down into the narrowing vale, where the

branches, bending lower and still lower above our heads, shut out the view and keep us from observation of the realm beyond. [Applause.] For her no gown is too rich or costly that human fingers can fashion, no gems of loving thought too priceless for which our human tongues can frame a setting.

Call it a robe and that brings to us a sense of the dignity of the office they hold! A kingly robe brings to us a consciousness, not of the atom of mortality who occupies the place, but of the magnificent authority that guides, directs and controls the fate and fortunes of a people. The priestly robe, while it may speak to us of the kindly men who minister to broken hearts and wounded feelings, still tells us of that world-wide dominion, and of that universal sway by which men's thoughts and feelings are turned to the upper air for the comfort, consolation and relief they would have. So does the judicial robe tell us of the mighty power and the tenderness, after all, of the judicial office, so kindly in its nature that it shelters the frailest right of the humble, so strong and invulnerable that it checks and stays the assault of the mightiest baron in the land.

But it is time for me to disappear. I have felt, along with others of my age, the pressure from the younger generation, and the indication it was time to make room for their abundant vigor, and so the change is coming now, as it has been before, and as it will be in the future, so that change seems to be the order of the day and of our lives; change in thought and feeling, change in mind and manner, change in practice and procedure, but, after all, it will come to this younger generation, as it has come to us, that the great principles of law, the eternal truths on which we rest for the protection of human rights and the redress of human wrongs, are as unchangeable and enduring as the eternal twinkling of the stars. [Applause.]

JOHN J. CARTY

THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE

John J. Carty, born at Cambridge, Mass., 1861, is an eminent electrical engineer and has been vice president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. since 1919. This address was delivered at the dinner in his honor at the Lotos Club, November 27, 1915. At this dinner, under Mr. Carty's direction, wireless telephone connections had been made with San Francisco, and the diners at the Lotos Club, New York, exchanged felicitations and speeches with the members of the Bohemian Club at San Francisco. Later there was communication with the Naval Department. This demonstration was in 1915 in the early days of the radio.

AFTER such a magnificent and flattering reception and such a wonderful dinner as this, it would be difficult for any man to find in his vocabulary words to express the feelings in his heart. I would be unworthy of any attention from you whatever if I made the mistake of taking all or a major portion of this demonstration as intended for me personally. The time has gone by when a large piece of complicated work can be done by one man. In the very nature of our art the vast system must extend over a continent and over continents, and many men and many minds must engage to do the work. It has been my good fortune, and perhaps I showed some skill in the selection of my subordinates; we are all together one family. I know I have the finest group of telephone engineers that exists in the whole wide world. And I know that without the work that they have done none of these things that you have participated in to-night would be possible. There is no other nation, no other combination of nations which has men such as compose our staff. In no other country in the world would it be possible to have a demonstration such as that given over the long line to San Francisco, nor a demonstration such as that given by wireless to-night.

It is only in America that the men live who know how to do that.

I am perhaps too fond of referring to the art of telephony as an American art. There was a time when we had no opportunity for art and arts. I think we have now grown to a man's size and we have actually produced an art. There is no other art that can lay such significant claims to being thoroughly American as that of telephony. The telephone was invented here in America and the staff which I have the honor to be the head of consisted originally of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson, the only two men in the world who knew about the telephones and the only two who knew all about it. They gave us an instrument capable of talking merely from one room to another in the same building. But these men were backed by far-seeing stockholders, men like Theodore N. Vail. They saw at once that there was no precedent for anything, that there was no tradition, no experience. There was no such thing as electrical engineering, no school teaching electrical engineering, nothing but the telegraph, no trolley, no electric light, no railroad. These men saw that a new art had to be built on top of this instrument of Bell's, and from that simple beginning of Professor Bell and Mr. Watson, far seeing, broad and liberal, there has been built up here an art and the staff has been greatly increased. At times the suggestion has been made to go abroad and get European people. We are very catholic in our selection, not clannish, but after careful consideration it became apparent that when the Yankee men turned their attention to the higher branches of science they produced a breed of engineers that was superior to anything on the earth.

On that basis we proceeded, and from the beginning of two men, to-day I have the honor to be in charge of a staff of over five hundred engineers devoted seriously to the business, not of putting in new plants, but studying and working and developing the art and science of telephony, planning for years ahead, looking forward. Now, with such a large staff as that, it isn't so very surprising that we should get some very good results. Not long ago a British Cabinet officer rather boastingly said that in Germany they didn't have very much better arrange

ments than they did in England. They have about twenty devoted solely to it in one country and about eighteen in the other, so that the honors are about even. Here we have over five hundred. These men are composed not wholly but mostly of graduates of scientific schools, colleges and universities, and they are trained in the very highest possible manner. In our staff we have men from over one hundred American schools, colleges and universities.

Now, I wish to say a few words about some of the men, if you will permit me, who have been engaged in this work and who have made this possible. We have two great staffs, one working on long distance at the Western Electric Company under the command of Mr. Carpenter. There is F. B. Jewett, a very good man and one I can match against any other. It is a comforting fact to be reminded that one of these men is a grand-nephew of George Bancroft, a former Secretary of the Navy, and a son of Admiral Gherardi.

Just a moment. [Taking up the telephone.] You can hear the time signals, there will be a long pause and then at ten o'clock comes the final one. They send out the signals from the radio station in Washington to Honolulu and to the ships so the captains can set their chronometers and have the time correct to the second. There will be a long pause, and then when the next beat comes it will be ten o'clock. I will let you know when the next beat is there it is, ten o'clock. Now the tower is sending out the weather reports, and you can get some idea of what is meant by the static interference, if you don't hear it very well.

I wish to have the privilege to say a few words more. I am going to read a very few names of the men engaged in the great work of the development of the long lines. These names are men of the most capable people, scientists, in the world, and it is one of the greatest privileges I could possibly have to appear now before you and repay to them my very great indebtedness, for by no means do I wish to carry away all the credit that comes. Were I to read the names of everybody who had to do with this it would take all night. I have already mentioned Mr. Jewett and Mr. Gherardi, who are a wonderful team, working together, one with the engineering