A FOUR PAGE MONTHLY PAPER FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE. The Angel of Leace.: ILLUSTRATED. Devoted to Peace, Temperance, Good Morals, Good Manners. Bright, fresh and attractive, but free from over exciting, sensational reading. Price, 15 Cents a Year for Single Copies. Five Copies to one person, 10 Cents Each. ADDRESS, The Angel of Peace, WE WILL SEND The ADVOCATE OF PEACE for one year and this excellent Marsh No. 5 Book and (expressage THREE DOLLARS We use the stand in our office and can thoroughly recommend it. THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY. PEACE PUBLICATIONS FOR SALE BY THE American Peace Society. Prices Include Postage. LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS. By The Baroness von Suttner. Authorized English translation by T. Holmes. New edition, cloth, 65 cts. SUMNER'S ADDRESSES ON WAR. THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS, THE WAR SYSTEM OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS, and THE DUEL Between FRANCE AND GERMANY: The three in one volume. Price, 65 cts., postpaid. THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE. By Frederick W. Holls, Secretary of the American Commission to the Hague Conference. 572 pages, octavo. Price, $2.50, postpaid. CHANNING'S DISCOURSES ON WAR. Containing Dr. Channing's Addresses on War, with extracts from discourses and letters on the subject. Price, 65 cts. postpaid. 31 BEACON STREET, BOSTON. PATENTS TRADE MARKS DESIGNS COPYRIGHTS &C. Anyone sending a sketch and description may quickly ascertain our opinion free whether an invention is probably patentable. Communica tions strictly confidential. Handbook on Patents sent free. Oldest agency for securing patents. Patents taken through Munn & Co. rece e special notice, without charge, in the Scientific American. A handsomely illustrated weekly. Largest circulation of any scientific journal. Terms, $3 a year; four months, $1. Sold by all newsdealers. The Advocate of Peace MUNN & CO. 36 Broadway, New York A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE MOVEMENT. Price, One Dollar a Year. In Clubs of ten or more, 50 Cents a Year. PUBLISHED BY The American Peace Society, 31 Beacon Street, Boston. CAPTAIN JINKS, HERO. By Ernest H. Crosby. A Satirical Historical Story of the Recent Wars of the United States. A Keen and Trenchant Criticism of the Iniquity and Absurdity of War. Price, $1.25. INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS: A collection of the Schemes which have been proposed. By W. Evans Darby, LL.D. Cloth, 300 pages. Price, $2.00, postpaid. THE FUTURE OF WAR. By John de Bloch. Preface by W. T. Stead. The sixth volume of Mr. Bloch's great work on "The Future of War," containing all his propositions, summaries of arguments, and conclusions. Price, postpaid, 65 cts. THE FEDERATION OF THE WORLD. By Benjamin F. Trueblood, LL.D. A discussion of the grounds, both theoretic and historic, for believing in the Realization of the Brotherhood of Humanity, and the final Organization of the World into an International State. Second Edition. Cloth, 169 pages. Price, 65 cts. Office, 625 F St., Washington, D. 4725 VOL. LXVI. BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1904. THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY, PUBLISHERS, 31 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS. MONTHLY, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. TEN CENTS PER COPY EDITORIALS CONTENTS. The Interparliamentary Conference at St. Louis - A New International Peace Conference - The Argument from the Horrors of War-The Opening of the Peace Congress. EDITORIAL NOTES.... ......... Noah Worcester's "Solemn Review"-The Mohonk Arbitration Clock. GENERAL ARTICLES: ....... Address of Welcome on Behalf of the President to the Delegates Proceedings of the Interparliamentary Conference at St. Louis. PAGE 181-184 184-185 185-187 187-188 188-190 191-196 No. 10 government, seems a very natural and simple thing. But when before in human history did the national parliament of a first-class power vote as considerable a sum as fifty thousand dollars to provide entertainment for a body of unofficial visitors, whose whole business was that of laying the foundations of peace between the nations? These are the considerations which give this meeting at St. Louis its extraordinary significance. The cause of peace has at last become the affair not of private individuals and peace societies only, but of the governments themselves and the national parliaments also. The prophecy of the distinguished French peacemaker a generation ago, that peace which was then walking neglected in humble attire in the streets would some day ride in state in the chariots of kings, is already being fulfilled. It was an impressive spectacle when the Conference met for its opening session in the Festival Hall of the great Exposition. A large audience had The Interparliamentary Conference at gathered to witness the proceedings. St. Louis. The Conference of the Interparliamentary Union at St. Louis on the 12th, 13th and 14th of September was, in some of its aspects, the most significant peace event which has occurred since the meeting of the Hague Conference in 1899. This Union, which was organized only fifteen years ago, at the time of the Paris Exposition of 1889, has grown beyond all expectation, and now has a membership of over two thousand, as we learn from its general secretary, Dr. Albert Gobat of Berne. That two thousand members and (a few) ex-members of the national legislatures of the civilized world should have associated themselves together for the sole purpose of promoting pacific relations and pacific methods of adjusting disputes among the nations is a fact the full import of which it is not easy to grasp. Such an association of two thousand sensible men of any kind would mean much. That these men are all statesmen, recognized in their several countries as competent to exercise the highest legislative functions, gives their Union a unique significance, and assures us that statesmanship has at last begun to understand its true mission and to realize its highest aims. That this body of peace-making legislators should be in this country as the guests of our government, conducted about in two palatial trains and entertained in a munificent way wholly at the expense of the Dr. Albert Gobat, the general secretary of the Union, arose and in a few simple words proposed for president of the Conference Hon. Richard Bartholdt, member of Congress from Missouri, on whose initiative the Arbitration Group of the United States Congress had been formed, and through whose sagacious and persistent efforts the meeting of the Conference in this country under the auspices of the government had been made possible. After Mr. Bartholdt's brief address of welcome, in which a very high note was struck, Hon. Francis B. Loomis, First Assistant Secretary of State, welcomed the delegates in behalf of the government, in a very able speech, which we are glad to give our readers in this issue. After Mr. David R. Francis, president of the Exposition management, had extended a welcome in a graceful speech, on behalf of the managers, responses were made by a representative of each of the fourteen foreign countries participating in the Conference. Though these men used different tongues, they all spoke the same language. Much of the speaking was of a very high order and voiced the warm and growing interest in all parts of the civilized world in the pacific settlement of disputes and the maintenance of friendship and peace among the nations. The unity and community of interests of the nations was strongly emphasized. Mr. Tydeman of the Netherlands voiced the spirit of the Conference and aroused great enthusiasm when he declared that "there is no longer any New World, or Old World, but only one world, the whole world.” The resolutions voted by the Conference we give in full on another page. They were in line with what has been done at previous meetings of the Union, though in certain respects they went further and were more urgent. The powers signatory of the Hague Conventions were urged to take steps to put an end to the horrible conflict now raging in the Far East, and the Interparliamentary Bureau at Berne was instructed to convey this resolution to the knowledge of the said governments. A resolution was adopted expressing deep satisfaction at what has been done the past year in the conclusion of special treaties of obligatory arbitration, at the general agreement between France and Great Britain for the disposal of all their colonial differences, and urging similar action upon other governments having differences pending. A revision of the laws of war was urged in the interests of the better protection of the commercial and navigation rights of neutrals. The most important action of the Conference was its resolution unanimously and enthusiastically adopted, inviting the governments of the world to hold an international conference to dispose of the questions left over by the Hague Conference arrest and reduction of armaments, etc. to consider the matter of the general negotiation of treaties of obligatory arbitration, and to examine the question of the feasibility of creating an international congress to meet periodically for the discussion of international questions. The President of the United States was "respectfully and urgently requested to invite all the nations to be represented in such a conference." Except that it consumed considerable time in debating the question of widening and strengthening the Interparliamentary Union, so as to increase its efficiency and bring into it parliaments like those of Japan and the South American republics, not now represented in its membership, the Conference wasted no time in academic discussions, but threw the whole weight of its influence into these few resolutions regarding matters of immediate and serious moment the stopping of the Russo-Japanese war, reduction of armaments, extension of the scope of obligatory arbitration, protection of the rights of neutrals on the high seas, and the creation of a stated international congress for deliberation upon international questions. Considering the circumstances of its meeting under the immediate auspices of the United States government, the influence of the Conference is certain to be large and almost immediate. We shall be greatly surprised if our government does not the coming winter, in response to the resolution above mentioned and others of like nature already before it, send out invitations to all the nations of the world to send representatives to a new conference to complete the A New International Peace Conference. The members of the Interparliamentary Conference held at St. Louis last month, after visiting Denver, Chicago and Niagara Falls, completed their trip as the guests of the government on the 24th ult. by a visit to Washington and the presentation to President Roosevelt of the important resolution adopted at their meeting on the 13th ult. at St. Louis. The resolution is given on another page of this paper. The presentation of the resolution to the President was made by Dr. Gobat, the Secretary of the Interparliamentary Union, in a brief but exceptionally fine speech. The President responded briefly and in a manner which pleased the visitors very much. The substance of his response was that he was in entire sympathy with the aims of the Interparliamentary Union, and that he would, as early as it could practicably be done, invite the governments of all the nations of the world to send delegates to an international conference to consider the subjects which had been suggested in the St. Louis resolution. The importance of this determination of the President cannot be overestimated. The proposed conference will not be a new meeting of the Hague Conference, as has been imagined by some. That Conference ended its existence when its great work was done. The new Conference will of course be like the one of 1899 in many respects, but it will differ from it in being composed of representatives of all the nations of the world, as the one at The Hague was not. The work outlined for it will also be of much farther-reaching significance. It will be asked to consider at least three commanding subjects, the arrest and reduction of the great armaments of the world, left over by the Hague Conference, the extension of the work and power of the Hague Court through a comprehensive system of treaties of obligatory arbitration, and the advisability of the creation of a regular periodic congress of the nations, the beginnings, that is, of a political organization of the world. This latter subject is now impressing itself powerfully upon all thoughtful students of international affairs. Our readers have already been made thoroughly acquainted with the idea. The resolution of the Massachusetts Legislature, adopted unanimously on the petition of the American Peace Society, asking Congress to authorize the President to invite the governments of the world to unite in creating an advisory congress of the nations, is now before the Foreign Affairs Committees of both Houses of Congress. There is good prospect that the coming winter the resolution will be reported favorably and that Congress will give its approval to the proposition. When that is once done, the President will be able to move in the matter with the absolute assurance of accomplishing what the Interparliamentary Union found him ready to do. The adoption of the St. Louis resolution by the Interparliamentary Conference - the first time the subject had ever been before it — and the pledge of the President in regard to carrying it to execution may well be regarded one of the greatest events of the year in the field of world interests. It is encouraging in the highest degree. A Congress of the Nations, for the discussion and disposition of world questions, is now looming large on the horizon. It is as certain to be realized as that the permanent International Tribunal already exists. The time is already ripe for it. The completion of the system of arbitration, which the proposed Conference will undertake, the arrest and reduction of armaments, which it will be asked to provide for, will be accomplishments of the greatest moment; but the laying of the bases of a worldorganization, through which the nations, without sacrificing their local autonomy, will be able properly to dispose of their extensive common interests, to cultivate wider mutual acquaintance, to extend the foundations of justice among themselves, to remove misunderstandings, to establish a reign of well-recognized law, like that now prevailing among individuals within the nations, and thus to assure general peace over all the earth, will make the new conference which the President proposes to call an event the greatness of whose glory no imagination can picture in advance. The dark, savage struggle in the Far East may thwart the wishes of the Interparliamentary Union and the President's purpose during the coming winter, but that struggle will end, and we shall see great light after the darkness. The Argument from the Horrors of War. Otherwise good people are often met with who seem to be entirely unmoved by what we call, for lack of a stronger and more appropriate term, the horrors of war. The old delusion that war is sometimes a moral necessity and a moral tonic seems to have rendered them incapable of feeling, or even of looking straight into, the cruel and loathsome realities of battlefields and sieges. They feel, therefore, that these horrors must just be taken down without thought and without inspection, as if they had no moral characteristics in themselves. There is a feeling pretty widely spread, even among opponents of war, that it is a cheap and sentimental proceeding to call up the horrors of fighting as a means of arousing opposition to it. We confess that we have never been able to fathom the causes lying back of this mental attitude. Is it pure hard-heartedness? Is it unwillingness to suffer the soul-agonies induced by gazing at these horrors? Is it a manifestation of that weariness and disgust which comes from hearing repeated the same old story? Is it the blasting influence on the soul of false ideals of manhood and courage, of patriotism and self-sacrifice? Or is it merely the result of the hardening effect which war, in which men from time out of mind have engaged, has had upon the individual and the public conscience? One would think that naturally healthy minds, in which Christian nurture has developed tenderness of disposition and kindness of character, would never cease to cry out against war on the ground of its loathsome beastialities and unutterable cruelties. Every new war brings its fresh crop of horrors. Why should not every war, therefore, bring its fresh outburst of disgust and moral indignation? We are well aware that among the early advocates of peace this was the stock argument. The changes were incessantly rung on the horrors and woes of the battlefield. Why should they not have been? These are the very substance, the flesh and bones of war. No words can ever exhaust their terrible meaning. These early peace men were wise. They put their finger on the very centre of the plague spot. They went to the inner chamber of the "hell of war" and revealed it in all its hideousness. What language could portray a tithe of the fiendish passions, the diabolic deeds of the Napoleonic campaigns, under which the whole of Europe lay bleeding at every vein for nearly a quarter of a century? What word-artist could ever portray the loathsomeness of the conditions about Metz in 1870-the starving, tongue-parched, insanely-laughing men shut up by the wall of merciless German soldiers, until their faces, foul with dirt, bore little resemblance to the human? the human? Why should one be silent, for fear of being reckoned sentimental, about the horrors of the women's and children's prison pens in South Africa, the nameless wanton cruelties of some of the European troops on their march to Peking, the desolations wrought by portions of the American forces in the Philippines? Has humanity lost its heart that these things should be coolly pushed away out of sight? No, this argument from war's horrors ought never to go out of fashion, will never go out of fashion so long as men are men beings with moral perception and moral feeling. And this argument is working more powerfully to-day than ever before. For, though men in general say less about the horrors of war, they feel them much more deeply than they have ever been felt in the past; down deep in the souls of our civilized men and women, who are becoming increasingly kind and benevolent, there is a growing determination that the face of the earth shall no longer be ravaged by these inhuman phenomena. Other arguments, of course, are in place. War is waste, irrationality, colossal folly. In the present state of men's moral development these arguments are even more effective than the one of which we are speaking. They are possibly, therefore, more practical, and should be used for all they are worth in the "war against war." But the final argument against war is found in its deeds,- its butcheries, its mad charges, its mangled flesh and bones, its raging passions, in its horrors of the flesh and its more repulsive horrors of the spirit. However noble the causes or aims of any war may be thought to be, its deeds are always, from any high moral point of view, hideously wicked. How can any humane man, any man of conscience and moral sensibility, look these deeds in the face and then consent to go and do them? These reflections have been occasioned by the war now raging in the Far East, where it has again been proved that "war is the business of hell," where its essential horrors have repeated themselves on a scale and with an intensity that have made the civilized world shudder. If the facts correspond with the reports, and they are probably much worse, these horrors have never been surpassed in anything bearing the name of "legitimate" war. But in essence they have had their counterpart in every serious conflict ever waged. The cutting down of a body of six hundred Japanese, who had raised the white flag, by the Russians, in spite of the flag of truce, and by the Japanese because of it, is, indeed, if the report be true, a ghastly tragedy. But over and over again in savagely contested wars does history record the violation of the white flag. And how does the action of the Japanese in shooting down a body of their own men, who had proposed to surrender, differ in spirit from that of the regimental commander or company captain who, to save his lines from breaking, levels his revolver on a soldier fleeing to the rear, and shoots him dead if he does not continue to fight? And how much baser, tell us honestly, is this reported butchery of six hundred men than the stealthy torpedoing of a great ship which carries down to yawning death six hundred men in one struggling, writhing mass? The one is "legitimate" warfare, the other is not; but which of them, in the name of simple sense, is the baser? Many of the blood-curdling horrors enacted about Port Arthur and in the vicinity of Liaoyang-men tumbling headlong in masses into blind ditches craftily set with sharpened stakes to impale them, men dying with their teeth set in other men's throats or fingers buried in others' eye-sockets are only "legitimate warfare carried to its extreme savagery, and ought to surprise no one who knows the history of war and has had the courage to let himself see clearly its true nature and spirit. Under the glass war is always essentially the same horrible phenomenon. Its horrors vary somewhat in form but not in essence. This last war of our civilized era is the same hideous thing as one of the battles in which Romans and Carthaginians, or Huns and Franks, hewed each other to death in huge windrows miles long. The horrors of war will some day kill it. Men will reach a point of moral power when they will no longer endure it. They will speak out in unison their deepest thought about it, and under this blasting, withering word the horror of horrors will shrivel to nothingness and disappear. That day is coming, and it is not afar off. Opening of the Peace Congress. As we go to press, the Thirteenth International Peace Congress is opening at Boston. It gives promise of being the greatest single demonstration of public opinion in behalf of arbitration and other means of securing the peace of the world ever held. About one hundred and twenty organizations of different kinds in this country and Europe-peace societies, arbitration organizations, Chambers of Commerce, boards of trade, church conferences, labor organizations, women's clubs, teachers' associations, etc.have forwarded the names of delegates. The number of individuals, not delegates, enrolling themselves as members is extraordinarily large. The total enrollment is likely to reach seven or eight hundred at least. The number of individuals and organizations, which, though not able to be present or to send delegates, have sent the Committee on Organization expressions of strong sympathy and support, has been large beyond all expectation. The Congress is given unusual significance by the fact that Hon. John Hay, Secretary of State, is representing the United States government in the opening ceremonies. Our next issue, or the next two issues, will contain extended reports of the deliberations, speeches and decisions of the Congress. Our readers may expect, therefore, an unusual treat, and they will do a real service to the great cause for which the Congress is meeting by calling the attention of their friends to the paper. |