A few years ago Mr. Dolliver was invited to deliver a lecture in St.
Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, before the Young Men’s Christian
Association Lyceum. In each city, the hall was crowded wherein he
spoke, some fifteen hundred young men attending. His topic was,
“Chances for Young Men.”
“That,” said he to me, “was a favorite topic with me. I believed in
young men, and liked to talk with them, knowing full well that if one
can stir them up to energy and ambition, he is doing a grand work in
the world.
“Well, I have not changed my opinion since the delivery of that
lecture; but, when I got back to Washington to resume my congressional
duties, a week later, I began to hear from those particular young
men. Letters began to pour in on me. They came in bunches of twos and
threes; then in dozens, and finally in basketfuls. Every St. Paul and
Minneapolis young man who had heard me declare that this is the young
men’s age, wrote that he fully agreed with me,—and asked me to get him
a government job!”
Mr. Dolliver’s services to his party were particularly great in the
controversy over the Porto Rican change of front by the administration.
The president had, in his message to congress, in December 1899,
favored the extending of unrestricted trade opportunities to the Porto
Ricans; but, later, seeing that such a course was opposed by many
influential persons, and by several strong arguments, he advised the
imposition of light duties and the application of the proceeds to the
island’s own use. In the conflict which at once arose in congress,
Dolliver’s strong and eloquent plea alone saved the measure from defeat.