Lee Edwards
Welcoming Remarks
40th! Anniversary Gala

The Philadelphia Society
Chicago, Illinois April 30, 2004

           "It's a beautiful morning in Chicago and a great day to be alive." That's how one of the most popular DJ's in Chicago used to begin his morning radio program, and I offer a slight variation as the beginning of my brief remarks: It's a beautiful evening in Chicago and a great day to be alive--especially if you're a member or a guest of the Philadelphia Society, celebrating our 40th national meeting.

            Once asked why we were called the Philadelphia Society, the irrepressible Ben Rogge responded, "Because [our] annual meetings are always held in Chicago." That was the case from 1965 through 1986, although we have found other venues since then. But  why Chicago?

            Its central geographical location is one obvious reason, and in previous years one could get fairly decent rates at venerable establishments like the Drake, where the bathroom was as big as your average living room.  But there is a more telling reason: Chicago has served as the center of the conservative movement for much of the last forty years and more.

            Chicago is, after all, the birthplace of Modern Age, still the most important journal of conservative thought in America. It was the longtime home of the Henry Regnery Company, which published, among other seminal conservative works, The China Story by Freda Utley, God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley Jr., and The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk. All three, by the way, were best-sellers.

Chicago counts among its institutions of higher learning the University of Chicago, whose faculty includes five Nobel Laureates in economics--all free marketers--and whose press has published such conservative classics as The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver, and Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman.

            Chicago is a city of meetings and conventions--political, fraternal, medical, academic, and conservative. It was here (at the 1960 National Republican Convention) that Barry Goldwater told fellow Republicans that he believed conservatives could take over the GOP if they worked hard enough. It was here (at an ISI seminar) that Richard Weaver discussed the "common ground" of conservatives and libertarians--a respect for constitutional government with its list of "thou shalt nots."  It was here at our first national meeting that Milton Friedman, Stanley Parry, Frank Meyer, Russell Kirk, George Stigler, Eliseo Vivas, Robert Strausz-Hupe, L. Brent Bozell, and Warren Nutter discussed "The Future of Freedom: Problems and Prospects," concluding that ideology and fanaticism are always to be feared and conservatives must rely on reason to combat liberal ideology, a not so pale reflection of socialist totalitarianism.

            It was at a Society meeting that Irving Kristol, former Trotskyite, first gave public notice that he was no longer one of them but one of us. And it was here in Chicago at the 22nd national meeting that Stephen Tonsor explained, pungently, why he was not a neoconservative. It was here at our 30th national meeting, 1994, that Milton Friedman, ever the optimist, suggested "there is a tendency to underestimate the power of ideas because of the length of time it takes for them to work." He still believed that the "American people are not going to stand for a conversion of our society into a wholly centralized, socialized, collectivist society."

            Perhaps the question should be, Why not Chicago as the locus of our meetings?

            Let us give thanks for the last great American city, the home of Richard J. Daley, Saul Bellow and Al Capone, where the hamburger, crackerjack and deep dish pizza were first served, the place that Billy Sunday couldn't shut down, site of the first mail-order house, the first controlled atomic reaction, and the world's tallest building, and, most important of all, the place where the late great Don Lipsett, our inestimable founding secretary, compiled "A Listing of Important Laws," which include:

            . John Ryan's Law of Public Oratory: "Everybody except me speaks too long."

            . William Rusher's Other Law: "When you find a good thing, run it into the ground."

            . The Harris Law of Nugatory Achievement: "If a thing isn't worth doing, it isn't worth doing well."

And Mike Mooney's law: "You can't always count on your friends, but you can always count on your enemies."

That's why we're here tonight in Chicago.