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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1921)
iv-15 f?Z"Wltm I V- r r It Iv I iz The Commoner (w M I ' V0& 21, NO. 8 TDjfe TO QUIT EK DING THE ANIMAL MM UMilllllllMllUilHlWIWIIIWMIW till LIIIIH l ifWgMWMi Copyright 1921, by Star Col, From Chicago Herald and Examiner. The World's Peace -(An, anniversary address, by Charles AT Douglas, delivered at. Erskine College, Due West, S. C, June 7, 1921.) Mr. President, Gentlemen of the UFaoult'y, Students and Friends of fErsklnep ,.' i ; .'Hero again! Since firBt I saw these classic grovos a third of a century has cOme and gone. In this presence I forget the stirring years' of a busy life and I am once mora a laughing careless, lazy boy, reaping where I did not sow. Standing here, and in great awe, I see again the Griers and the., Pressleys, and the Pattons and the Lowrys, the Bohners atuP; ine, Kennedys, and then I stroll and piay, and sometimes work and sometimes prfty, but all the while I dream of life and its fond hopes Ave! Alma Mater inunortalis! . I' P.;' Those of ua who were privileged' to , drink of the waters of her im mortal life for all things good are truly immortal would fain come back and. drink once more at " Tier fountain of youth and make our1 as pirations, young again. Vexed, -With, life's problems and storm-tossed in midocean, we sometimes wish that we could turn our frail barks Shore ward again and back to thisWafered spot, and here, in these quiet shades dream on and on, But that cannot should not, be. Great duties are ours, with others, to be discharged. The world's problems are ours, wUJr others, to be solved. At no time in hiBtory has the world more1 sorely needed men aye, and women, tbo for this age-worn, war-racked1 world is standing neck-deep in the ashekof poverty, crying peace? peace! May I, therefore talk to you, Wen' on that foremost of all the subjects-. THE WORLD'S PEACE . ' , We of this generation have read ofovar and thought weknew its hor rors; but, now that we have lived it, WO -know it as It truly is. Stripped' of its, glamour and with the music of its tocsin heard no more, it is lell incarnate! It is assault and battery it is mayhem: it is murder m mnaai It is the brute, not the man, the wrong, not the right,, the Devil, not God, that rule and reign, when the world lets slip the dogs of war. It insures the survival of the unnttest in the struggle for existence. It a puts premium on unfitness and a penalty on fitness, a premium on cowardice and a penalty on courage. It de- stroya the big and the good and the; brave' and the strong and leavGs 4p. small and the bad and the cowardly ana tne weaic to people the earth. Biologists say that the men of France of today are two inches shorter ho- cause of the Napoleonic wars of a nunurod years ago. What is true of individuals is true of nations and of races. The great nations and hravp. ranaa pf the longiago but for war, would oe uie masters of the world's destiny ,ouay. -me world War; just ended, if it is really ended, coat tho wnrM In money, away and apart from the 'nrODftrtV dAStVnvn? anil K,.l -. ' nihilated, upward of two hundred bil lion dollars. It slaughtered over ten million men of the white races, of the vuim uuu it macie nait, blind, and niaimed more than twenty million of the flower of the youth of the human race. And what was rin-hf vt. this fearful sacrifice is right now and what was wronc mfnr i mvnnZ still. " """6 Eagerly and fervontlv rifH a-i. ltlav.t lh0 world for Nomocracy, and with the Crusaders' intrepid courage we carried to the cannon's.mouth our battle-cry "War to end war!" One of the fourteen articles of the Armistices terms, accepted and ap proved by all the nations engaged in the war, declared that "a general association of nations must be formed under specific cotehantq for the pur- lfBl mAffdi?& mutual Shanties of political independence and terri torial integrity, to great and small lm"?Q V1? firm fide" the allied nation's kept the faith and discharged thb fluty thl article im posed. They We the Treaty of Versailles and Veadinto it the cove nant of the League of Nations. The treaty set out the terms of peace The League of Nations wn ,;,,;..?? the ecutor of the treaty. It was. ?8ldSSL t10 eaty-makors' purpose who... not cue intellectual, the that fht league shbVld be In HX I'F-t-,,. , v ', wv, ? . . 14. i. ,!. a continuing court oi equity, w u in Judgment on the peace itself, to revise its t'erms when revision becamo necessary, and to readjust the pro- vtntnna nf fhn frO(lV fn SI fn.llTlGr and saner state of the. public mind, and, finn. fn an function, now and here after, as to give to the world an en during peace. The task of readjust ments and reparations, of making world peace and then of securing it, was the greatest that had over con fronted peace commissioners since history began. It took more than a half year to complete it. It Was signed by the representatives of more than twenty nations. It waa the first concrete effort to bring the govern monts of the world into effective con cert to preserve the peace. ' The fundamental thought of the covonaht of the league was the sub stitution of the instrumentalities of peace for the instrumentalities . of wan Generally, it declared for war. Generally, it declared for co-operation, instead of competition, In inter national affairs. Competition to -excel in all. thov things that are good and true and right is the greatest force in the moral and spiritual life of the' race Competition in all things that make for the material bettermGril of Hf. whether they are social and political Or commercial and industrial, Is the most potent factor in the march of civilization. But competition in building for the military offensive, under the guise of the-military defen sive, is supremely and" .eternally wrong. From time whereof the mem--ory of man runneth not to the con trary, all the nations, great and small, have striven ,to malm t.hnm. selves more , powerfuf.. than tfcefo neignoors, ana an for wart t , :I During the World War wa oniiart it militarism. We called it German militarism because the- damtiable policy was more pronounced and more accentuated, more extensive and more offensive there than elsewhere, but it was in a measure everywhere, and we did then. highly resolve that we would crush the monster, and we fought the World War to end all war. We have crushed militarism in Germany maybe for all .time and maybe not but we should set our own military houses in order. The militarism of England, and of Franoe ?Tni0f, llA an? of JaPan; and of the' United States should be crushed liy the same fair, fierce mind that' crush ed it in Germany. ' ' The covenant .of tjie league pro vides for requiresreduction of armament -that is to say, disarm ament. Whether the league lives or dies, the plaintive, yet defiant,- ory for disarmament is hAnrri ti. aiound the world. The proposal .that the United States and England and Japan now agree on a plan of immediate and subBtan-' tial armament reduction remains un acted dn. The naval program for this year of these three nations involves an excess expenditure of over one billion dollars. Armamhnf ia vocative of. war 'and a relentless foe" iwi. , Kes 0VGrty, destroys wealth, paralyzes industry, and crushes the initiative and spirit of a people,' No one says a good word for -war. No ona wnnfa i i dens ofarmament. Yet -the world &w w uiiuius. war is the subject of man's volition. It is he who makes war; it is he who can stop war We have passed through a world carnival of hat and destruction Its bitter- path is strewn vitfc moral spiritual, Intellectual, political, and social wreckage. It is high time for the healing. Hatet has not healed anything since time began a And then the league covenants for the orderly processes of law in til settlement of auari i Jw n the j, tions; It provides for mediation and arbitration and finally for a great International Supremo Court for the adjudication 'of International con trovorsles. Perhaps, as its provisions are now, written, the quarreling na tiorfs cannot be required, but only re quested, to submit to the jurisdiction of the c6urts of the league. If so the covenant should be amended and all the nations placed under the bindlne and enforcable rules of international law in all purely international af. fairs, A covenant such as this will ultl mately and surely bring into being a real codified system of international law and place the states of the world under the reign and rule of law It is so today, and has always been that every" nation is -above the law and free to attack, despo'l, and de stroy other nations, limited only by its scant conscience and the quantum of its physical" power. The nation off the world from time immemor ial have been for war; with but few exceptions, 'all their quarrels have b6qn settled that way. Surely no more destructive method of ef fecting international settlements could have . beeri;Aronceived by the mind of man.' The method breeds disease, disorder, demoralization, de struction, and death.- Notwithstand ing the price of it, it settles nothing when it Js done. , It does not ascer tain the truth. It does hot admin ister justice. It dp,es not secure the right. ' Our ancestors1,' perhaps a little bit 'more barbaY&u3 than wo, were won't to settle controversies between individuals by 'wager o"f battle. Vain lythey thoughttheh concerning in. dividuals Vhat the 'nations think now concerning tlidmBelveij, that the way to the : truth arfd right. and justice Of a quarrel' was to'choose the weap on ox 'the' stroiig, arm instead of the weapon dt righteousness, They stupidly thought th'en as We crim inally think now, that the sword is mightier than the pen I Citizens of the state are subject to' the rule of law. The formulation and announce ment of this fundamental principlo marked, thousands of years ago, the commencement of civilized govern ment. The application of-this indis pensable first principle to the con duct of nations in their relations to one another is the firsUessential in any sane and organized effort to make sure and permanent the peace of the world. Without it there can be imposed no restraint, ,and without effective restraint therecan be no hope of a lasting peace.. And the covenant of the league invokes the boycott moral and in tellectual, Industrial and commercial less powerful and effective, per haps, than military for.ce, but never theless withering and' hHc-htinc. in .Its power, for, what nation, however .great,, the United States -or England, ir you please, can withstand the combined thought and judgment and action of the rest of the world? And, again, the league makes a binding provision for "cooling time." The member nations solemn ly covenant to submit the merits of their complaint not-tp -the moral judgment of the league alone, but of mankind, The case of the com plaining nation must be made up and stated, and then published to the nations everywhere, that the merits may be- known, ,ajnd then wait of Bix months 4or the good offices of the league in the interest of. a just set tlement, and then a. further yfait of thrift months hefpre thero.can be a re sort to war. War comes whep the blopd js. at Whito heat When it is cool, the heart Walts ion the judgment. This is everywhere conceded to he one W the surest guarantees pf peace. Mr. Bryan nvas tlio flrst statesman that invoked and' enfployed it. He wrote it into Jteattbs , between' the United tafesarid 'thirty ocher na- t & . 'Xti. A-i tjftofa. AtUl .UfA. 1.r A.'.j-flfotoirtlhfrrt JM, lt,i.