Hon. Clyde R. Hoey

Address by Hon. Clyde R. Hoey

From The Forest City Courier, June 29, 1922

Ladies and gentlemen: Just inside the entrance to the John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore is a magnificent statue carved in marble of the Christ. It towers up some twenty feet in height; it was the work of a master sculptor and portrays with almost infinite gentleness the eyes and face and features of the Christ. Underneath is written these words: “Come unto Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It was placed there in this building to honor the builder of John Hopkins Hospital, in that he had walked in a small way in the footprints of the Master of men and in that he had ministered, like Him, to mankind.

We come tonight to receive and to consider the gift of this splendid building down the way, in which rightfully might be placed somewhere within its portals a picture of the man whose life and service it typifies, and we might say rightfully: “Into this building shall come all you who are weary and heavy laden, and you shall find rest, entertainment, pleasure and good fellowship.”

The man whose memory we come to contemplate for awhile tonight is dead and yet he lives. He is living not alone in the masonry of the building like this, but he is living in the hearts of the men and women who knew him, and in the spirit in which he served and in which he shall he remembered as the finest conception of a man.

You know, I was impressed more about him in a little memorandum that his son, Charles H. Haynes, showed me a short time after the death of his father. This memorandum was found among his papers, and probably more than anything else in his life illustrates his ideals and the hopes he entertained and the purposes which he had formulated in mind. This was with reference to his funeral arrangements and those who should speak of him; he said that probably something they might say about his life would be an inspiration to some boy in Rutherford county. He had the idea of a young man or a boy being inspired for a life of service by the record of his success and his achievements. Not that he cared for any glory that might come to him in that hour; nor for any fine words that might be spoken about his achievements and the success he had attained, but, rather that the rising generation might know America is indeed and in truth a land of opportunity, and that even out from his humble, yet honorable, beginning, he was able to win such marvelous success and build so mightily and bring to pass such great things that should be to every boy in Rutherford county an inspiration and a keen conception of the possibilities that lie so easily within reach.

And that is the thought that dominated the life of Raleigh Haynes, and that brought to him the ideal that practically everything is within reach of the man who undertakes with zeal, with honesty, with industry, with perseverance and with indomitable will to grasp his opportunities.

I am glad a man like this lived in Rutherford county. You know the finest thing any county, any state, and country can produce is a real man. It is a fine thing to build great enterprises and great industries; it is a wonderful thing to make great developments but all these thing come as a result of the man and because back of it somewhere was a clear insight that saw these things and had the vision to see the possibilities that might be revealed. And that was the conception Mr. Haynes had of life. It was the dauntless courage and unfailing effort of Raleigh Haynes that brought into being this magnificent development and that transformed from the uninviting and unpromising hillsides of Rutherford county this model industrial plant.

I believe that about the finest element of success is not merely the accumulation of money, it is not gathering together wealth, it is not merely the accumulation of property but is the conception of producing something, developing something without the hope of growing rich.

And so Mr. Haynes placed himself in harmony with the laws of God and nature and he knew and dreamed of the great possibilities of this fine Southland and he put that dream into execution, not for the purpose of accumulating dollars, not for the purpose of bringing power to himself, but that he might undertake to get in harmony with the great plan of God and develop and build a village in which men and women could live and rejoice as they pass along.

You know we stand in great need of the courage and of the visions like Mr. Haynes brought us to see the things which lie so easily within our grasp. Only a few years ago we were denied many modern conveniences we have today. I was thinking of those things today. It is marvelous how in recent years the wonderful conveniences have been provided for our homes through the inventive genius and the constructive ability of far sighted men like Mr. Haynes.

Mr. Haynes had the vision to see the need of this community building and, as suggested by Mr. Charles Haynes in his address, this building was a dream of his, it was a thought of his. He had already contemplated it for this splendid modern village which he was developing fast into a large town. It should not be merely a place where men work and women toil; it should not be merely a place provided with churches and schools, but a place where we can live close to Mother Nature and cultivate the finer feelings of friendship with our fellowmen. Mr. Haynes knew that the great heart of men of this world hungered for human contact; and he was undertaking to perfect, as has been perfected since his death in this beautiful building, a place where this community can assemble together in its hours of pleasure and recreation, join hands and mingle heart throbs and help each other until the community will gradually grow into a higher development of civilization and into a finer citizenry.

Address by Hon. Clyde R. Hoey – 2

You know, men never move along alone but rather in mass, stirred or led by some man of dynamic force who carries along with him his community to a better and richer and fuller life.

“I was not surprised to find in this splendid community the precepts of honesty and integrity characteristic of Mr. Haynes. For instance, tonight when I came in we had some overcoats in the car and I started to take them out and Mr. Hendrick said, ‘Just leave them there, they are safe; nobody steals in Cliffside.’”

I was not surprised to find in this splendid community the precepts of honesty and integrity characteristic of Mr. Haynes. For instance, tonight when I came in we had some overcoats in the car and I started to take them out and Mr. Hendrick said, “Just leave them there, they are safe; nobody steals in Cliffside.”

I tell you the ideals of the leaders of a community are stamped indelibly upon the minds of the men and women who live there; they establish the moral standards and codes of ethics and they shall endure.

It was so of Israel in the times when the chosen people of God had great leaders that the whole nation followed them in the upward march toward Heaven and God; and the record is that when the leaders were vicious and unworthy that the people fell into sin, and captivity and serfdom and slavery was their heritage.

Under the circumstances I would be surprised to find other than high grade citizenship living in this community where these ideals had found expression in concrete flesh and blood, such as was furnished by Raleigh Haynes, the man who was capable of conceiving a business creed like Mr. Swofford read to us tonight, which was transcribed in the leaves of his Bible. Then, I say again that in all of the characteristics of Mr. Haynes, he was a successful man and rejoiced in the services which he rendered and in the things which he accomplished.

Success is the natural craving of the human heart. I do not mean by success the things which we sometimes term success, not merely the accumulation of wealth nor the acquisition of property, nor yet the attaining of power, but a real successful life is one that finds expression in rendering the largest possible service to mankind and that man is greatest in success who serves the most and serves the best.

I would say that Raleigh Haynes would not have been a great man if had done no more than accumulate the amount of money left. Other men have done that and left no heritage of greatness, left nobody to mourn, nobody to remember, nobody to keep their their memory; and yet others like him have accumulated wealth an they have so used that wealth, not to the good of their own community, but to their own pleasure and in ministering to their own selfish purposes so that the world has not been benefited nor blessed by their riches or any service which they rendered with their wealth.

You noticed in the papers the other day that Henry Davison, the great New York banker had died. The very moment breath left his body every single dollar he had was his no more. It either passed into the hands of his heirs or the devisees under his will; and Henry Davison would not have been remembered because he accumulated ten million dollars, but it so happens that when this world was engaged in the great conflict, he was the man who was willing to leave his business and fortune and accept the presidency of the American Red Cross and devote his whole time, without money and without price, to his country, to aid in this responsible position in alleviating human suffering, and reducing as far possible the horrors of War thru’ the agency of the Red Cross. Henry Davison is remembered as a man who served his country in its hour of need and he shall remembered because of this splendid service he rendered to the world.

As a striking contrast to this, a few years ago there died in New York City Hetty Green, who was represented to be the richest woman in the world. For several months prior to her death she was an invalid and sat in her home on Fifth Avenue in New York near a window watching the throngs pass by daily. She had been all her life a financier, not a builder, not a developer, not a person who ever sounded the depths of human emotion, or who knew the joys of an experience of serving or sacrifice; and it is said that during the long months that she occupied her invalid’s chair and watched the old men and the old women, the cripples, the lame, the halt, the blind and little children passing to an fro among the throngs on Fifth Avenue, that there wasn’t one in all the world she could say that she had ever ministered to, and that during all her life there was no contribution to charity, no endowment to hospitals, no aid to education and no contribution from her wealth to the common good of her fellow beings. I think that represents a life successful in the mere accumulation of wealth but barren in its results so far as service and sacrifice go and therefore an utter failure viewed from the standpoint of living a life worth while.

We have tonight the contrast in the above picture in the man in whose memory and honor we have met, one whose life was made up of active service, unremitting toil, unfailing devotion to his family, friends, community and State, and yet, one who found time amid all the exactions which his business required, to stop to speak a kindly word to the old and decrepit and to minister to the needs of all those about him and to manifest a lively interest in the community life and especially in the educational and spiritual welfare of all the people.

Over in Arlington cemetery there is a monument erected to the Confederate soldiers, erected by the loving hearts and hands of the women of the South. You know that is a Federal burying ground, and it was a long time before we could obtain permission for this monument to be placed there, but after placing it there, there was written upon it these words:

“In memory of the Confederate soldiers of the South who died in service.”

I think these words express our feelings for and about them:

“Not for fame or reward,
Not for place or rank,
Not lured by ambition,
Not goaded by necessity,
But in simple obedience to duty
These men suffered all,
Dared all, sacrificed all,
And died.”

If I were permitted to paraphrase these words I might say of the splendid man whose memory we come to honor tonight:

“He labored—not for fame or reward,
Not for place or rank,
Not lured by ambition,
Not goaded by necessity,
But in simple obedience to duty and right,
This man suffered all, labored through all,
Sacrificed all and served gloriously.”

I mean to convey to your minds his idea: I do not believe he worked merely that he might have wealth; I know he did not seek position; he might have ambition, but it was not the ambition that he might lord it over fellow men; it was not necessity because after a short time he became independent and accumulated enough to have lived in ease [??] had so disposed. Therefore; it must follow that he was moved by a higher consideration of service and by his willingness to spend and be spent in order that he might create better conditions of living for his fellow men and that he might bring to those with whom he ministered a larger hope, as well as a greater opportunity in life.

In this high endeavor Mr. Haynes was merely keeping company with the real benefactors of mankind, those great unselfish souls who have lived so simply, who served so splendidly and achieved so mightily. He belongs to the same class of men who are honored today in the world of business, science, literature and education. The world stands today to recognize Thomas A. Edison as one its greatest benefactors, an old man, who yet living, works with such tremendous energy that he only sleeps four or five hours a day and all the world is reaping the benefits of his marvelous genius.

Another man of similar type now living on the Pacific coast, who has grown old in the service of humanity and has made so rich a contribution to the good of mankind that the agricultural products of his country have been marvelously increased and enhanced because of his ability as a wizard of plant growth and development. And we all recognize Luther Burbank, a benefactor of the race.

Mr. Haynes was ambitious that his life and success would be an illustration to the young people of this community and Rutherford County, and his fondest hopes were that by reason of his success others would be encouraged to go forward to still greater accomplishment, and that every person should realize that no matter how poor nor how many obstacles in the pathway, that success could be attained by pursuing the methods which he followed and by adopting the creed which he professed.

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In 1836 Pushmatahaw, a great Indian warrior from the West went to Washington city in order that he might pay a last visit to General LaFayette. This Indian warrior was described by General Jackson to be the greatest and bravest Indian he ever knew. While on this visit to LaFayette, Pushmatahaw fell desperately ill and called his tribesmen around his bedside, and warned them that his spirit would soon pass to the Happy Hunting Ground. He said to them: “When you go back to our loved Indian nation, they will ask you, ‘Where is Pushmatahaw?’ You will say to them, ‘He is no more’ and this news to them will be as a sound of the falling of a mighty oak in the stillness of the forest.”

In February, 1917, from the soft, southerly, flowery shores of Florida, there came to Cliffside and Rutherford county and North Carolina the message that Raleigh Haynes was no more, and that message was like the noise of the falling of a mighty oak in the stillness of the forest; and it brought to you and to me the full realization that a man in whom all the virtues and attributes of the model citizen flowered had fallen and that his passing would leave a place unfilled in our community life and in the circle of friendship.

In a few minutes we shall be permitted to inspect this memorial building which is to serve this community as its welfare building and to commemorate the fine virtues of the founder of this community. I know that you rejoice with me in the generosity of this company in donating this building, but our thought tonight shall be not of the building, but of the man in whose memory and honor it is erected, and we may imagine that his good, gray eyes look down from the ramparts of Heaven in contentment and satisfaction upon the completion of this magnificent structure and its presentation to the people with whom he labored so long and whom he loved so well.

It was Kipling who said:

“When earth’s last picture is painted
      And the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colors have faded
      And the youngest critic has died
We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it;
      Lie down for an eon or two,
Till the Master of all good workmen
      Shall put us to work anew.

And those who are good shall be happy;
      They shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten league canvas
      With brushes of comet’s air.
They shall find real saints to draw from—
      Magdalene, Peter and Paul.
They shall work for an age at a sitting
      And never grow tired at all.

And only the Master shall praise us
      And only the Master shall blame,
And no one shall work for money,
      And no one shall work for fame
And each for the joy of the working
      And each in his separate star
Shall draw the thing as he sees it,
      For the God of things as they are.”

Shall we not remember tonight that every man and every woman and every boy and every girl is fashioned in the image of the Almighty and bears the stamp of his divine personality. Realizing our exalted creation, shall we not undertake to appropriate the fine ideals and conceptions of service which were illustrated in the life of this community benefactor, and shall we not endeavor to live worthy of the fine provision which has been made by an all wise Creator for us, and whose plans have been furthered by the men and women who have gone before us and who have worked willingly in obedience to the great spirit of service and sacrifice which has characterized the lives of men like Raleigh Haynes. May I bespeak a double portion of his spirit for the young men and young women of this community that they may serve as faithfully as he.