The reasons given by the President for not making a speech certainly apply to those who are in your programme to follow him. I cannot, however, leave the platform without thanking you for that share of the welcome that falls to us who attended. There is a chill in the air, but there is no lack of warmth in the cordial greeting that you have given to us who, though we felt ourselves to be strangers among you, have found ourselves to be among friends. I have been trying to find out since the census report was announced what the reason was that Philadelphia had fallen behind. [Laughter and applause.] It is all very plain to me now. This city set on a hill I shall put down in my book as Philadelphia Junior. [Applause.] You have the family likeness. I recognize some of you by name, and I do not wonder that you have settled in this beautiful spot, so rich in its resources, where you discovered everything that we have in Pennsylvania except one thing, and I expect you will find that before long, and I am sure that I hope that you will find the anthracite coal stored away somewhere in your hills. I know if you undertake to find it you will do it. [Applause.] You need no better illustration than the choir over yonder, that could not be stopped even to allow the President to speak. [Applause and laughter.] I shall carry away from here a story that I am afraid they will call a California story, but I will get your Mayor to give me a certificate that I was perfectly sober—that there was nothing but water. [Applause and laughter.] And I shall try to recommend what I have seen in this wild West, where people have their splendid schools, their many churches, their refined homes, and where there is such a hearty welcome for all that come in their midst. For my part of the work at Washington I have already given you evidence that the Post-office Department was thinking of the Pacific coast. I shall do the best that I can as a business man for this splendid business people that you have in your city and for the many more that are to come; that all the facilities of the mail—quickening it, increasing it—shall be given to you; that you shall not say that your Government does not give you all the assistance in building up your great enterprises and swelling the prosperity of all this coast. I say good-by to you and give you a heart full of good wishes. [Continued applause.]
[PUYALLUP, WASHINGTON, MAY 6.]
It was 10 P.M. when the train stopped at Puyallup, where a goodly crowd awaited the visitors. The President shook hands with several score, and in response to calls for a speech said:
My Fellow-citizens—I am very glad to see you to-night, but I am sure you will excuse me from speaking when you remember that I have been out in the rain all day at Tacoma and Seattle, and have had to talk several times. I am glad to see you, and appreciate the friendly interest you manifest in coming out here to-night in such great numbers to greet us with such kindliness. I have known for a long time of the great hop industry of this region, and I am glad to know that it has proven profitable. The question of the Puyallup reservation was one of the last which was brought officially to my attention before leaving, and I expect it will be one of the first I shall take up on my return. Good-night and good-by.
[CHEHALIS, WASHINGTON, MAY 6.]
A great crowd greeted the President with cannon and bonfires on his arrival at Chehalis at 10:30 at night. The Committee of Reception consisted of Mayor Milet, who delivered an address of welcome; Judge Ashman, an old comrade of the President's at Resaca; and J. F. Sachs, an early pioneer, who presented the President a native hawthorn cane.
Responding to greetings the President said:
My Friends—I am very much obliged to you for this midnight reception. We passed you this morning without stopping, and regretted it when we saw the number who had collected here. We gladly yielded to your request to stop to-night in order to show our appreciation of your kindness. It is very pleasant for me to see those people who have no interest in politics except for good government. [Cheers.]