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Show 279 78 Justice and Peace ALBERT H. Riarnocos. "no" mum and Our ideals of peace are gradually growing broader mere higher. The cry of peace for the sake of peace, for the nonabsence of conflict, is no longer heeded. The doctrine of war resistance is no longer seriously considered. The causes of are no longer overlooked in the struggle to make its effect more into tolerable, and thoughtful men of today have looked deeper the real problem of peace. They have discovered that men no longer make war for the mere love of bloodshed, butto satisfy their own greed. or to defend themselves against injustice. With the conviction that the spirit of injustice born of selfishness and greed is the great obstacle to international peace, the advocates of peace have become champions of justice. United in one great brotherhood, it is their purpose to overcome the selfishness and greed that lead to war by the spirit of mutual helpfulness, and to substitute for war a peaceful means of settling international disputes. On tlte irresistible strength of this double purpose the dream of permanent and righteous peace must depend for its real< imtion. In it there is the motive power that leads to victory, for every man and every nation with a patriotism as broad as human- itv can cry out with a passion equal to that of \Vebster, "Justice and l'eat‘e. now and forever, one and inseparable." ln carrying out their purpose the advocates of peace direct their efforts along- l\\'I) great channels. One leads to adjustment of disputes without an appeal to arms. and seeks to lessen the horrors of war when arbitration is abandoned. The other leads to the universal love of justice. and seeks to hasten the reign of peace o\<'r a world in which no cause for war can be found. One strikes a blow at war it~elf. the other at its cause. One tries to stop it. the other to prevent it. The former is often successful, but at bwt it is only a remedy. The absence of war is not always a condition of true peace. The oppressor is often so powerful that re~istance is impossible and the injury to his victims so great that arbitration would be unjust. This may be peace, but such place is \yoi'se than war. "l'eat‘e on earth" is angelic as a song, but it does not always mean it good-will toward men." we have sung and quoted it too long with emphasis on the first part. When the world has learned the lesson of "good-will toward men," there will be the kind of "peace on earth" that is linked eternally with Justice. Today the world is rapidly approaching the goal of peace along the road of arbitration. Greater success than men could reasonably expect has crowned their efforts to secure peaceful settlements. Nations have adopted the court of arbitration as a permanent institution and the appeal to arms is already exceptional. But there is evidence that the world has neglected to lay the foundations of lasting peace and that the nations have failed to protect the victims of injustice. Crimes against humanity that stagger the imagination have gone unpunished. Unspeakable out- rages still exist to blacken the history of the twentieth century, while civilized nations, content to boast of arbitration treaties and temples of peace, are idle and indifferent. Had the conscience of the nations been alive to a sense of justice, and their courage stirred to action, the world would now be much nearer the true ideal of peace. The same opportunities await us today and no greater, nobler work can be done in the name of peace than to break down the walls of selfishness and greed which shut in our sympathy and "let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Rousseau once said, "War is the foulest fiend ever vomited forth from the mouth of hell." But had he lived to witness the unspeakable butchery of helpless men and women that for years has been goingr on in the heart of Africa under the instigation of King Leopold, he must have said, "Fouler still, by far, is the fiend that crushes out the life-blood of an innocent and defenseless people." This Leopold is still at work among;r the natives of the Congo Basin. He has stolen their land and given it to private companies to be exploited at their will. He has forced them to labor incessantly in gathering rubber to pay impossible revenues. He has refused to listen to their appeals for justice and has hired a force of cannibal soldiers to torture and destroy them. You are already familiar with that tale of unparalleled atrocity. You know that the nations who more than twenty years ago entrusted the welfare of that helpless people to the Belgian King, like spectators at a bull fight, have watched the slaughter for the last four years |
