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Show 192 keep this up for years. each C cited continually to further efforts by seeing what the other is doing. Our families are impoverished iperltaps starved. Neither of us suggests a parley with a view to an understanding. for that might pass for a confession of weak- ness. llut let its suppose that, after years of tryingr to make our~ selves "too powerful to be attacl<e<l"-in a way that is rapidly bringing us to bankrupteyian accidental meeting occurs; we find out that neither has any disposition to harm the other if not attacked by him, and so agree to pull down our fortifications, sell the cannon for scrap metal, and spend what our armaments are costingr us for the benetit of our families. Since nations are an aggregation of individuals, our supposed course should be the nation's course. in principle. That is the case for disarmament brielly stated. lint there is a little more that it seems proper to add. The proposition that it is as absurd itt principle for nations as for individuals to impoverish themselves in arming against one another, does not need to be qualified; nor is there a particle of doubt that war is as monstrous an absurdity, as wasteful and barbarous. as incapable of really settling any question, on the one scale as on the other. Nevertheless, it is proper to give some attention to the reasons why this principle has so long remained unrecognized, There are two reasons. First, as has already been hinted in the parable above, nations do not know one another as neighbors do. That is a difficulty that can be cured. Increased international commerce will do much to cure it. Increased travel, and study of what can be learner] in foreign lands, will do sonic- thing. .\ greater number of international congresses for the dis- Cussion of postage. the law of nations. standards of weights and measures. scientitie nomenclature. missions to the heathen, the llalkan or the Morocco questionianything and everything that needs to be settled by agreement and that may bring: the wideaualze purple of the world together-these will do more. Peace will not come of any of these measures at once. bttt all will lead in that direction. The second reason for the backwardness of the nations of the world in coming to a sense of their true best interest in this matter is the absence of any generally acknowledged alternative, They may be willing to admit that brute force is a bad way of 193 deciding any point at issue, but they are convinced that it does decide something, and is in so far preferable to unendingr indefi- niteness. The cure for that difficulty is to supply an alternative, as it is proposed to do by dev *loping' a court and code of arbitration. ["inally, let me exhort you, in the words of one of our revered l‘aders, Andrew Carnegie, "to urge in season and out of season the precious truth that lasting peace is only to be attained by an lntet‘national League of l‘eace, prepared, if necessary, to enforce peace among)r erriner nations as we enforce obedience to law among erriner men; this league finally to be perfected by an lnternational Supreme Court." Following the reading of the liarrltthar paper, the chairman announced that, owingr to the inability of Mr. Marcus M. Marks to attend the Congress, the paper which he had prepared would be read by Rev. Charles li. Beals, of Boston. Business Men Want Peace MAnces M. MARKS. \Ve want peace, first, because we are men and are moved by the humanitarian instinct that rebels against the cruel butclteries of war, and secondly, because our business is bound to be seriously injured by the interruption of the friendly relation between nations. There is no need to go into other reasons: these seem stilli< Cient. It has been said that some business men want war because it creates a demand for their products, such as guns, powder. foodstuffs, uniforms, etc. This is absolutely untrue of business mm, though there may be a few abnormal beings who would willingly see their brothers slaughtered in order to add to their own commercial profits. Business men all want peace. Why are they, then. not more active in the peace movements of the world? The teachers, the preachers and other professional men have. in the main. carried the burden of peace efforts thus far, They have been the seers and the prophets. There are two principal reasons for this seeming apathy of the men of business. lr‘irst. they have not looked upon these peace movements as practical in their |
