Chancey Depew, a president of the New York Central Railroad who later became a U.S. Senator, was a founder of the club. In 1915, Depew — then age 81 — had his 24th annual birthday dinner at the club. The dinner was held to show Depew that club members were glad he was alive. When he spoke, he said that he saw the coming of WWI and he worried about it. He regretted not buying a one-sixth interest in Bell Telephone, which could have been his for $10,000. He reminisced that it had been only 100 years previous that trousers had been worn by 'suffering men.' Depew lamented the haste the 19th Century had brought. He decried the fact that Samuel Gompers had 'secured a department in the government' for organized labor. He said, 'the new idea is to defeat the laws of nature by acts of Congress.' Depew railed against the laws regulating railroads. He continued, 'the statesmen who enact these grotesque laws are men of brains, conscience and patriotism. They have not been in contact with business, big or little, and spurn the lessons of experience. They believe that the fault or evils which are found in the transaction of business are to be remedied by unhatched theories. Nothing disturbs their cocksuredness. Up to a point, I thought that a sign of strength and wisdom. At 81, I doubt.'