Claude N. Bennett: Washington, D.C.

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Claude N. Bennett Washington, D. C.
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The Panama Canal
The Eighth Wonder of the World
THIS lecture is the result of a month's investigation of the Panama Canal and surrounding country by Mr. Claude N. Bennett, Manager of the Congressional Information Bureau of Washington, D. C.

The Canal is the last link in the chain of universal commerce.  It is the most stupendous engineering enterprise of the world's history.  In the assurance of its perfect completion, the United States guarantees the fulfillment of the dream of centuries.  The history of that region is filled with four hundred years of romance, tragedy and hope deferred.  As Mr. Bennett assembles and presents the vital points, they create a wonder-story—an American inspiration.

This lecture has met with enthusiastic appreciation wherever heard, and Mr. Bennett has agreed, in obedience to the demands of his friends and the public, to talk on other subjects.  Through the Congressional Information Bureau, whose investigations touch all nations and all important subjects, he has at his disposal inexhaustible material.



WHAT CRITICAL PEOPLE THINK
Hon. William H. Taft, who, as Secretary of War, had. supervision of the Canal work.

Lectures such as yours, descriptive of the work which is being done on the Canal Zone, will be of much value to the audiences before which they are given.  I wish you success in the work.

Hon. Luke E. Wright, Secretary of War.

Your lecture on the Panama Canal is a praiseworthy undertaking, and your dissemination of the facts as to the valuable work which is being accomplished there is of benefit to the Canal, the War Department, and the country generally.  I wish you all success.

Paris Cablegram from LeRoy Park, European Representative Panama Canal Commission.

Congratulations Panama Lecture.

P. P. Claxton, Litt. D., Superintendent Summer School of the South, Knoxville, Tenn.

I wish to add that the subject was opportune, the illustrations good and the manner of delivery very pleasing.  Our people were delighted with the lecture.  For myself I can say that from no other source have I received so full and connected information in regard to the Panama Canal and the manner of construction of it.

Myron Jermain Jones, Director Department of Education, Washington Y. M. C. A.

I have listened to three illustrated lectures on the Panama Canal during the past winter.  Yours was the last and it was decidedly the best.  It was best because it was so evidently your first-hand thorough-going investigation of the whole enterprise, as compared with the car-window observations of the superficial visitor, or the hotel-veranda account of the clever correspondent.

Then, too, you have mastered the art of putting things in such plain Anglo-Saxon, and in such pleasing energized conversational style, that the formal lecture with pictures become the fascinating and informing address with illustrations.  You gave me a new understanding of the magnitude and significance of the Isthmian Canal project.

Edward W. Hearne, State Secretary Massachusetts Y. M. C. A., Boston, Mass.

I have learned with especial pleasure of the signal success of your Panama Canal lecture in the South.  I have exceedingly pleasant recollections of your delivery of the lecture with splendid effect last winter before the Washington Association while I was General Secretary there.  I hope we can induce you to deliver it before the leading Associations in my new field this coming fall and winter.



James B. Nevin, Editorial Staff, Washington Herald.
Your lecture on 'Panama' gave me my first real, vivid impression of the great work now being done down there.  I wish all Americans could hear it—it would make plain to them that which I am persuaded they do not now realize, viz.: that this work is the most stupendous of modern times, and, perhaps, the most important ever undertaken in any time.

Hon. George A. Loud, M. C. from Michigan.

I was intensely interested in your Panama Canal lecture given to the Marine Corps in Washington, and I want to thank you very much for the enjoyment it afforded us.  You certainly have one of the most attractive lectures of the day.

Hon. Lovick Pierce, Acting Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.

I heard your initial Panama Canal lecture.  Its sudden command of public favor is no surprise to me.  Your varied training, habits of accurate observation, ability to condense facts without destroying their force, together with a magnetism that attracts and holds an audience, all combine to fit you for the lecture field.


A. S. Hough, Editor Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.
* * * Lectures generally strike me as either too 'cut and dried' or too good to be true.  Yours seemed both spontaneous and true.  In fact, I forgot you were lecturing—I thought you were just telling me all about it.

Rev. Walter L. Lingle, Chairman Program Committee Montreat, N. C., Conferences; Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Ga.

Thank you.  Your address is crammed full of most interesting information, while the stereopticon views are as fine as I have ever seen.  The address and views combined give one a really vivid idea of the tremendous work which the United States is carrying on in Panama.

George B. Sudworth, Dendrologist, Forest Service, Washington, D. C.
(Who was delivering a series of lectures before the Summer School.)

I hoped to see you before you left Knoxville, and to tell you how much I enjoyed your lecture on Panama.  I have heard a number of lectures on this subject, but yours was fuller of interest to me than others because you talked about and illustrated the things and people one would naturally see on the way to and about the Panama district, in addition to giving a most interesting exposition of how the great Canal is being dug.  Your excursions out into the surrounding life of the Panama district formed an admirable background for the main picture your lecture presented.

Hon. John Temple Graves, Lecturer, and Editor New York American.

The comprehensive knowledge, absolute assurance, and perfect accuracy required by your Congressional Information Bureau work find splendid fruitage in your Panama Canal lecture.  These clearly evident qualities, flavored by your delicate touch of fine patriotism, carry an irresistible appeal to the attention and admiration of your audience.



TYPICAL PRESS COMMENTS

The Washington Herald.
That is a tremendous piece of work we are doing down on the Isthmus.  Very few people have any idea of its character, extent, or interesting constructive and engineering features.

The speaker was Representative Richardson, of Alabama.

The fact is, he continued, I myself had not realized how we are making things hum in Panama until the other night I heard a lecture at the Y. M. C. A., by Mr. Claude N. Bennett, of the Congressional Information Bureau, who went down there for a thorough personal investigation.  He did not stay three days, like President Roosevelt, nor a week, like that boatload of Congressmen, but he stayed a whole month and went over the ground, every inch of it, until he seems to be about as familiar with what is going on as any of the commissioners.  It was a fine lecture, well illustrated, and a liberal education on the building of the Canal.  Pity it isn't constitutional for the War Department to hire Bennett to go all over the country and deliver that lecture in the interest of Canal sentiment.



Associated Press dispatch from Knoxville.
Claude N. Bennett, of Washington, D. C., to-night delivered a very interesting illustrated lecture on the Panama Canal before the Summer School of the South, now in session here.  Over two thousand teachers from this and adjoining States greatly enjoyed the vivid description and excellent views of the wonderful work now being carried on by the United States Government on the Isthmus of Panama.



Forestry and Irrigation, Washington, D. C.
(Official organ American Forestry Association.)
In his lecture on the Panama Canal before the Summer School of the South, Mr. Claude N. Bennett more clearly fixed the attention of the country upon the assured success of this Great Waterway than has been done by any other recent deliverance upon this live subject.  He showed intimate knowledge of the details as well as the broad principles of the entire task.  He demonstrated rare capacity to put his information into concrete form and to tell his audience just the things that they most wanted to know.  His statements have been copied with favorable comment all over the country.




The Daily Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tenn.
Mr. Bennett's lecture on the Canal left nothing untold.  It was filled with a wealth of information about the work on the Canal and personages connected with it.  More than this, the lecture was delivered with a most genial vein of thought running through it.



The Atlanta Journal, Atlanta, Ga.
By his graphic word pictures and the realistic screen illustrations Mr. Bennett made his audience feel that they were personally witnessing the operations which he described.  His style of oratory is the essence of simplicity.



The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.
Mr. Bennett has the happy faculty of keeping his audience on the qui vive for what is coming next.



New York American, New York City.
Mr. Bennett spent months on the Isthmus studying his subject, and has information sufficient for a score of lectures.  At Asheville, N. C., while interesting his audience with a rapid succession of views and comments, he noticed that the pictures were lagging on the screen.  When he called to the operator to know if his machine was out of order, he discovered that the operator had become so interested that he was oblivious to the signals and forgot to turn on the pictures.



The Nashville Banner, Nashville, Tenn.
Mr. Bennett is one of the best posted men in the country.  He has traveled extensively and been in touch with matters of national and international importance for many years.



The Rome Tribune-Herald, Rome, Ga.
Mr. Bennett fairly electrified the audience with his vivid account of the Canal.



The Birmingham News, Birmingham, Ala.
Claude N. Bennett, well known all through the South as manager of the Congressional Information Bureau of Washington, D. C., last night delivered his famous lecture on the Panama Canal.  * * *

The inherent interest in the subject, stimulated by the superb illustrations, would have been sufficient to hold the attention of the audience, but this was intensified by the admirable manner of delivering the lecture.  Besides, it bristles with wit, humor and anecdote.



Washington Post, Washington, D. C.
The sanitation of that strip of country, Mr. Bennett said, was a task so wonderful that its perfect accomplishment has called forth the grateful admiration of the nations of the earth.



Washington Times, Washington, D. C.
The lecturer's address is the fruit of a thorough comprehension through personal research of conditions on the Isthmus.



Bangor Commercial, Bangor, Me.
Claude N. Bennett, of Washington, delivered in Jefferson Hall, University of Tennessee, at Knoxville, his illustrated lecture on the Panama Canal.  * * * About 2,000 teachers from Tennessee and adjacent States and a number of residents of Knoxville attended.



Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Ala.
Mr. Bennett is a most engaging speaker; his speech is marked by directness and clearness.  In the lecture he deals constantly in surprises of statements—not studied surprises, but surprises arising out of abundant information upon a marvelous, intricate and interesting subject.



Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Ga.
The lecture dealing with the construction of the Panama Canal is tremendously interesting from beginning to end.



The Savannah Press, Savannah, Ga.
A more captivating discourse has rarely been heard here.



The Asheville Gazette News, Asheville, N. C.
Advance reports concerning the lecture of Claude N. Bennett on the Panama Canal last night had raised expectations to a very high pitch.  It was the judgment of the fine audience that heard him that every expectation was more than met.



The Washington Herald, Washington, D. C.
Claude N. Bennett of the Congressional Information Bureau, who is a versatile and many-sided man, has found a new outlet for his talent in the lecture field.  Last summer he visited the Isthmus and made a deep study of the condition of affairs there.  * * * He investigated at leisure not only the work on the great Canal, but the method of life, politics, and traditions in the old Spanish settlement.  * * *

It is to be hoped that Mr. Bennett's career as a lecturer will not terminate when the story of the Canal becomes stale, for he is a man of broad experience and talks interestingly and soundly on many subjects.



For further information address
CONGRESSIONAL INFORMATION BUREAU
Bond Building   Washington, D. C.