Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

MISCELLANEOUS 599
proposition. And, therefore, this organization does not
hesitate in a proper way and by its proper delegation to
undertake to advise our administrations — our administrators
— as to their duties in matters of poHcy.
So it is with reference to our great questions of charity,
the administration of our charities, those sore spots in the
community which absolutely are so fundamentally and
vitally necessary. The Association of Commerce goes
right to the root of that matter in half a dozen distinct
ways for the purpose of establishing the fact that that business
is our business in so far as it is distinctly nobody else's
business. So you see what an enormous ramifying structure
this organization has grown to be and will grow to be.
You
see that it is a great big tree whose branches reach in every
direction, a central body whose roots reach in every direction,
a thing absolutely of necessity, vital and alive, or else
it would stop.
Now to the young men in this organization 1 want to say
that the Association of Commerce offers
you great things
in your personal relationship to it in the future. It offers
you opportunity. It offers you standing. It offers you
business lielp, advice, and cooperation. But let me say to
you frankly that the Association of Commerce needs you a
great deal more than you need the Association of Commerce.
Because the young men of the world are the roots
of the tree, and without vitality at the root, without that
vitality that can liberate
nourishment for the whole structure,
the thing will die. and, though we are liable to forget
it, it is absolutely to the boys, and even down to the
children, that we must look for the integrity of what we
have created and for the progress in the future.
Why are the young men so vital to the progress of things
of this kind? Is it because they have energ>-, or time, or
ingenuity, or ambition, or any one of the things that may
enter into the complex of the strong man ? It is those in a
measure; but mark vou, far and awav bevond the values