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Show 72 73 1111mm Do \011 realize that in linrope as a whole you have six mil- lions of inert under arms withdrawn from industrial pursuits, and that the cost of the armies for litu'ope alone is between six and seven billions of dollars a year? llow can nations stand this extravagance in their revenues} the limit of possibility is not only near. but it is at hand. i Then, secondly, the laboring cl: es are becomincr the charm pions of peace. tApplause.) ;\nd they become apostles of peace more and more just in proportion as their intelligence and educa- tion army. and they see that the burden of war falls pre-eminently on them, \\'ar tlisoreanizes industry. it increases the number of the unelnploytxl. Somehow or other the people who have prop erty can pull through, but the horrors of war for the wage earner, the man who lives from hai.d to tit'tttll, cannot be depicted or often imagined. 'l‘herefore. ladies and gentlemen, it is to my mind no strange thing that that large portion of the, wage-earning class, par- ticularly in Germany. who have become socialists, are as socialists wedded to the doctrine of universal peace. They are ready to renounce nationalism in the interests of international peace and good will. at least so far as the labm'ing classes are concerned. (.»\pplausef) I am no socialist. ln the economic sphere I think socialism has (‘Tll(lltlt‘\ and impossibilities, but in this s>hcre I I recognize it as a great international moral force and 1 thank God fov , 'lihirdly. there is another reason. There is another force at work makine‘ for international peace and good will. and that is the growing intercourse between the nations. \Ve. thanks to the immigrants \\ ho have come to us from nearly all the countries of Europe. and thanks also to the traveling habit of our people. are reasonably acquainted with litiropeau countries, and war with any of them becomes more and more impossible. Suppose, for instance, a trouble arose between our government and the German govern- ment. l do not see a cloud on the horizon, but imagine such a Case. \Vliy. the fact that we have millions of Germans under the Stars and Stripes would strongly move, if it did not morally compel. both governments to find :1 peaceful solution of the ques- tion. The more you know of other people and other nations the better you understand them. the keener your sympathy is with them, the higher your appreciation of them, and the more impos~ sible war becomes, and I apply that to our relations with the liast. .1 know something of race antagonism. It is otit of the ques- tion to speak of any comming‘ling of Asiatic races with Americans, and as China and japan keep their territories for Chinese and Japanese, so the United States will keep its territory for the white man, and not only the United States, but all North America and South Airlerica, too. llut, given those limitations. why cannot each nation respect the rights of the other, and treat with one another as individual gentlemen from the nations concerned would do? l'or my own part, l have no doubt that as travelers and 111i.sionaries and scholars and sages wo from one country to the other, they will come to get a new insight into the foreign people and make the relations of the two governments more humane than they have ever been before. lnterc‘ourse at tirst makes us aerpiainted with the differences between other peoples and ourselves. That is the present stage of our relations with the Orient. The next stage will be, the grtwving intercourse will 111ake us more thoroughly acquainted with them and we will come to appreciate. what we have in common with them and what they have in common with us; underneath differently colored skins and behind different ideals and different practices we will come to recognize common members of the same great brotherhood of mankind. (Applause) And so, ladies and gentlemen. with these forces at work I feel the cause of peace is being advanced, l)(‘llltf advanced not only by peace societies, but what I might call economic, physical and psychological laws and forces. lint do not iiiisuuderstaml me, I do not trust solely to them. The moral progress of mankind in every sphere is sured by man's forming- hig'h ideals and hugging them; never letting; them go, warmingr them in his bosom, proclaiming them in season and out of season. Thus the ideals tend to realize themselves in the facts of the world: and they tend thus to realize themselves because these ideals of ])t'.' >, of brotherli- ness, of justice, of gentlemanly conduct, are in harmony with the forces that hold the world together and bind it to the throne of God. (Applause) After the singing of hymns and the bent-diction, the met-tingr stood adjourned, |
