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Show 62 ()3 You will find it in the tongue of the serpent; there he the rowts of this thing which when gilded lie-laced and he,»hnttoned, we call the defense Ul- the nation. (Applause) lleaven save the nation whose satctv rests upon its hattleships and its soldiers of war, ll the past proves anything: it proves that such nations have huilded upon the sands and then have tottered and gone down into everlasting ohlivittn. laivt id jiiaire, truth and merry (illrtlt‘ survive the txreck of the centuries. :‘lttnr- endure. Inl its helieve then. that man I" to leave hchind him his inheritance from the brute kingdom and that he has in him ever and alw: s the ilemeais of perennial kinship with the htnin'nant men's actions, men's plr al conditions even; and we know that the nations are also under the intluence of thought waves, and we wish to ertate a new mental atmosphere on this great question of war. We have hecn hroug'ht up on the idea that war is necessary, is natural. \\'e have been taught to helieve that the present life has evolved out of a universal struggle. Look at a. leaf under a microscope and we have a ltattletield, so they tell us. lixamine under the lens a drop of water and we have again a hattlclield. And so they have told us from the lowest to the lititiest runs an evolution moved and impelled h} struggle. and titan is not an exception in the general sweep of universal warfare. 'l‘hen from our school days up to the present time we have been led to helit've that the hest that the world owns was laid at humanity's feet hy the demon war. \Vhat have we learned in our schools of ancient civilization? Nothing: except that so many generals went out to war, nothing except the names of hattles and the heroes who came hack crowned with laurel wreaths. This we learned. and nothing else. So we have come to think that all progress was hronght ahotit hy the passion and the fury of war. and that without war civilization would not have come. This is what we want to ennnteraet, [or no hlacker lie was ever invented than this. \Ve have gone, out and we have learned that even in Babylon and Assyria‘ those mighty warlike nations of ancient days, the soldiers after all wire not the determining Iactor in lllt/r culture and civilization of ancient days, hut that the men heliind fi'irces of th. tjniv -. and not the malignant. evil forces that lrre vielence. advance destruction. and would lain ehanminn the right with evil weapons. And new. my friends; my neie'hhors and fellow citizens of mw "Win ('hittaqi. we grain of this one that will to which we lea\e in your hands the task of meetitiiirv‘ the pro~ Conference in a manner worthy the great mine and not humiliate the great c _‘ in which we delight and hel, ig‘. (Applause) ‘ta-i le‘Ml The chairman introduced Rev. limil t}. llirselr The Function of a Peace Congress Rm: EMU. G, Hmscn. 'l hree 1‘ - . we ask you to take out of your husv life to give to this Congress; three days-a capital in time. for we at" a busy people. ls it worth while? Many a one will ask that question, and lie: Its he will he moved to ans" er it in the negative. A few spe The will he delivered. a few resolutions will he adopted. the papers will Continent on the addresses. and on the resolutions. Some will praise. others will damn with faint praise, and others will shrug. metaphorically speaking. their shoulders. It is worth while to give three days, hit ' as we are. to this Congress and to the pri ceetlines thereni. \Vhat is the Congr ‘ aiming at? "'6 are puritos " to create a new mental atmosphere, In this age we have learned that tht'vught is by no means a negligible quantity. Psychology has opened to us the truth that it is often not what men know. ltlll what nten feel and how they feel that determines the loom, the poets and priests and sages made their world, and not the men that went out with swords to kill and to spill hluod, or went to spread misery over another people whom they wished to stil‘tjug'ate and whose civilization they atlempled to destrt t_\'. The new history controverts the doctrine which has stolen into our usual texthottks that war was the great controlling force in ancient times, and if in aneient times it was nut, ran it he in these modern days? Let me grant that war arminitlisln-tl smittetltilt‘". the races of the world. lt mixed it brought the ditterent nations into con- hit is it tact with each other. This admission must he made. necessary today that armies shall meet in order that the man from the \\'est shall touch elltows with thi- man from the lCast? |