Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/300

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246
REDFIELD PROCTOR

raids at St. Alban's, Vermont, and this brought the whole subject of lake and border defenses prominently before his mind. He saw the inadequacy of our coast protection, and this led him to study our whole system of harbor defense. He devoted himself to these problems unremittingly with his customary assiduity, and the result of his quiet but thoroughgoing work was apparent. He had the active assistance and sympathy of the general of the army and of the chief engineers in these efforts. His representations awakened unusual interest and attention in the committees of the house and senate, to whom he looked for the needed legislation to make these much-needed changes. With practical proof that our large cities both on the sea coast and on the lakes were almost defenseless, he demonstrated the necessity that congress should vote the money essential to place our seaboard towns in safety. All the money was voted which could profitably be spent within the year for buying sites for new fortifications, for building batteries, constructing mines and placing heavy guns on the coast defenses. His work speaks for itself; and he brought to bear upon the whole department of the United States army, an intellect trained by all the practical teaching of his life as lawyer, soldier, and proprietor of immense industrial works.

As an illustration of the thought and money he has expended for the bettering of the men employed, of whom there are twenty-five hundred on his large quarries and marble works, he has provided for them a large and finely furnished and appointed building known as the Industrial Young Men's Christian Association. It is fitted up with all the conveniences of a modern club house, with facilities for amusement and recreation and the means of study and self-improvement. It is a call and stimulus to each man in his employ to make the most of himself in every way. Beside the wages he pays the men for their labor in developing his commercial enterprises, he dedicates this building to their moral and educational advancement. It cannot fail to enlarge and strengthen the characters of those who labor in this great industry. The library connected with this institution contains three thousand volumes.

At the election, October 18, 1892, Senator Proctor was chosen to fill the temporary and full terms in the United States senate, and in 1898 he was reelected and again reelected in October, 1904. His term of service expires March 3, 1911. He has served most usefully