6           MEMORIAL ADDRESS

"There is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed nor
   Birth,
"When two strong men stand face to face tho' they come
   from the ends of the Earth!"
He gripped men to him with hooks of steel. He
loved and was loved of men.
  If in my efforts to speak worthily of him, I fail
to pay adequate tribute to his great and useful
life, I know I shall have your forbearance, for it is
only before an audience, such as this, composed of
those who knew him, and loved him, and trusted
him, and mourn his passing, that I could bring
myself to speak of him at all.
   These are days of preparedness. The world
welters in an orgy of blood. Across the broad At-
lantic, we hear martial strains calling men to duty,
to defense of country, and to death. Our own coun-
try all but reels and rocks. There are on every side
searchings of heart, admonitions, uncertainties.
We know not what a day may bring forth. The
military hero is the man of the hour.
  The man whose name and fame we tonight cele-
brate, the glory of whose life we share, fought
in no wars, carried upon his breast no Iron Cross,
nor medal of the Legion of Honor, and yet he could
have, like Heine, exclaimed: "When I die, I wish
a sword placed upon my coffin, for I have been a
soldier in the war for the liberation of humanity!"
Our friend was indeed "a soldier in the war for
the liberation of humanity!"




			

OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

Memorial Address [on Booker T. Washington] Delivered by Emmett J. Scott, Secretary, at 17th Annual Session

J.