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Show 84 preside oyer complies with a duty by expressing its adherence to said principles and by seconding your action. As it is not possible for me to be present in your assembly, I take the liberty to otter you a few lines which will express my thoughts in its bosom or in the minutes of its sessions. in mr character as president and founder of the South American-.\ssociation of l'niversal l‘eace. as well as initiator of the tirst international monument erected to the peace of the worldithe L‘hrist of the Andes-l desire to express in the an- nexed pae‘es my sentiments. which are those which animate all the members of this association and in general all the inhabitants of South America who build their hopes on the maintenance of the undisturbed peace of the nations. I give my best greetings to you. Mr. Secretary. ;\. I A or: ()I,I\‘l-Ztl{.\ tit-HA1: ni-z tfos'm. l'rcsident South American Association of Universal Peace. To the Secretary of the Congress in Chicago. Mr. Royal Loren Melendy. with Star to rm: Siccoxn ;\XXI.',\r. PICAL'IZ (‘oxottcss [N Cup c.\t;o.i:r rut; Pinistniaxr AND FOL'NDIZR or Tin-2 SOUTH AMERic.\.\' ASSOCIATION or L'NivigizsAL l't:.\cic, Stiyoim Amaam rt: OLJYEIRA CliZ.\R or. CosTA. Btirxos .\tRICS. March 13. 1909. To gm; HoNoR.\i;i r: Coxottrss: (iientlemen--"The utopia of today will be the reality of tomorrow. because the human ideal is the truth seen from afar," was said by a French thinker when alluding to the republican aspirations of his country, which now for over forty years has been an immovable reality in the country of Thiers and \Victor Hugo. The idea of universal peace is the work of these generous Utopians who for nearly half a century have been smiled at with scorn by practical men, and has only been the subject of epigram and caricature, but at the bottom of this poetical ideal there was an eternal truth: Human solidarity and fraternity. which con- demn in principle the employment of force and violence as a 85 means for Consecrating the right and realizin g justice in the world. The civilizing progress in its incessant march towards absw lute truth in the infinity of time shows that the utopia of yesterday is realized in a near future. While the people were isolating themselves within their political and commercial frontiers, the national sentime nt was an egotistical individualism which allowed them to look on as spectators at the international duels. The rapidity of c<,>mmunication by land and s‘a. while suppressing time and distance. has produced the solidari ty of the economical interests and brings nearer the ideal of human solA idarity. The nations. brought together and bound together by the interchange of their work. live from each others' products. so that the ruin or prosperity of any nation influences: the interest s and the fates of the others. \\‘ar destroys lives and wealth and disturbs the regular movement of commercial circulation: it is a human calamity wherever it app 'ars, and this beingr true. it is the moral duti of all nations to interccrle in international conflicts oi a warlike character. for the purpose of preventingr war and its disastrous evils. The principle ot arbitration, which is the practical formula of universal peace. has already been incorporated in international law. but it has only a \‘Hlttnlfl _\' character. and all that is neces‘ sary to make unive sal peace a complete reality is that said arbitration be made obligatory and cll'ectire by the tribunal of nations in the concert of civilization. The idea of universal peace, it it is not a perpetual reality. h: ‘ at least ceased to be a fantastic utopia: it occupies and pref occupies all thinking: people in the \torld as the liitjhtwt «for /cr« aft/m of the present time. The telegraph has recently communicatwl to us the {ll'llt‘lt‘s‘ published in hrance by the ex-l'residcnt. l\lr. l.ottbct. and the opinions pronounced in the l'nitcd States by the Secretary of State. Mr. Root. stimulating" the ycal of all men of good will in favor of a prompt t't . . ion of the "universal peace." of which thev declare the advent to be inevitable. To sllltlll't'~\ war with |
