Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

From Stereograph, Copyright 1907, by Underwood & Underwood, New York.

BISHOP HENRY C. POTTER

PRES. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER

PRES. CHARLES W. ELIOT

REV. DR. LYMAN ABBOTT

ARCHBISHOP JOHN M. FARLEY

war?" we may find the beginning of an answer in this assertion of the principle, that the demon of war must be exorcised in time

of peace.

Returning again to that letter in the Times, I would remark firstly, that it was good but it did not go far enough. I would urge, secondly, that a scheme should be thought out by which not only ministers of all denominations in the kingdom of Great Britain and in all the British Dominions be united for common action, but also, that the common action should extend to all the people who speak the English language; and gigantic efforts be made to induce the churches in all European countries to set apart one and the same Sunday, annually, or oftener, for the advancement of the cause in hand. My belief is that a well-advised treatment of the subject, based, perhaps, upon carefully made suggestions from wise sources, should be delivered as a simultaneous appeal to millions of church-going people, who, after all, are not the least thoughtful people necessarily—upon a certain Sunday. The fact that the sole prominent topic of that day all over the civilized world was the prevention of the barbarous arbitrament of war, could not fail to touch men's minds in the mass, as perhaps no other message could. And the knowledge that in all the churches in all the civilized lands, at the same time, the same appeal was being made to the better instincts of the human race, this knowledge could not but increase, enormously increase, the interest sure to arise.

Let us suppose that previous to 1870, the year that has been alluded to more than once to-night, let us suppose that previous to 1870 there had been a ten years' campaign throughout Christendom; could it have failed to leave in some appreciable measure a sense of solemn responsibility on the minds of statesmen on whose individual action the fate of Empires may depend? A statesman, high in power, can practically impose or repeal taxes, can impede or promote education, can perpetuate or abolish slavery, can establish or disestablish churches, can shake or fortify ancient thrones, and lastly, it was true a hundred years ago, and it is not held untrue now-he can ordain peace or war. But, with all the churches of Christendom united in one object and not under a thousand points of difference, not only united, but administratively united, we might even hope that in some not distant future war would be impossible. Or, as Mr. Root said yesterday,

it would be unthinkable to find a parallel to the statement made in the Times of August, 1903, by a sober critic who wrote thus: "As time goes on and as authentic records will be brought to light, it becomes more clear that not only the great German Chancellor, but almost all the leading statesmen in Berlin, had been for some years working to bring about war between Germany and France."

Ladies and Gentlemen, and Fellow Students, I would not end with a jarring note. If this indictment were true, it was assuredly true of a very few people only, and let me express my personal conviction, even if that indictment was true, as against a few people at that time, it was not and could not be true of all people and of the German people, for which I have the highest respect and admiration.

DR. BUTLER:

The next speaker I have the honor to present to you is President John H. Finley, of the College of the City of New York.

Soldiers of Peace

PRESIDENT JOHN H. FINLEY

MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: If I did not know the views of President Eliot on foot-ball, I should liken myself to a substitute who has suddenly and unexpectedly been called from the spectators' benches, or the side-line, to play the place of center-guard or half-back, in this all-world university foot-ball team under the captainship of President Butler of Columbia University. (Applause.) But, fearing that this figure may be somewhat offensive to both of them, I do not use it. (Laughter.)

I am not going to speak of arbitration or disarmament, for all that I could say and would say would be repetition or reiteration, but I wish to assure you of my admiration for those who have the courage to iterate. You know what Mr. Chesterton says of humanity, "The people of the world are divided into two classes: the bores and the bored, and the bores are the most joyous and the stronger class. They are demigods! Nay, they are all gods, for it is only a god who dares iterate. To him every night-fall is new and the last rose as red

as the first." Nor am I going to speak on the economical advantage of Peace in relation to the future of the world. I shall take my less than ten minutes to ask a question: "Is war needed in the curriculum of nations as a discipline of manly virtues?" It seems an academic question. It is one that has been largely discussed of late in another association. It is the one in which the universities and schools are especially interested, because they have the keeping of the ideal of one generation for the next, and the making of its discipline. I read in a newspaper of Sir Robert Ball's lauding of his bare-footed, war-like ancestors, fighting through the ages and bequeathing their intellectual and physical spoils to him. They sent him out traveling among the stars. I hear Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes saying, "War when you are at it”—he uses a longer word than a certain general— "war when you are at it is horrible and dull; it is only when time has passed that you see that its message is divine." Then he adds, "Some teaching of this kind we all need." I hear John Ruskin asserting of war that it is the foundation of all our virtues and faculties, and that men, that nations must have their truth of word and strength of thought in war. But why do these men-this surveyor of the stars, this justice of the highest court of national arbitration, and this peace-practising man of letters and art-praise war? Sir Robert Ball has given his answer, and I will let the Justice of the Supreme Court give his. "There is one thing I do not doubt, and that is that the faith is true and adorable which leads the soldier to throw away his life in obedience to plainly accepted duty in a cause. which he little understands, a plan of campaign of which he has no notion, under tactics of which he does not see the use." It is because we find his faith true and adorable that we praise the soldier, that he has been transfigured from a man who is paid, as the word soldier originally meant, into a man of valor, a man with a splendid fearlessness for life.

But is there no other school for that faith, no other cause for its culture than that which makes battle its laboratory and the slaughter of men the test of efficiency? And are nations to learn the true value of words only when they are written in human blood, and cultivate their strength of thought only by devising strategy? I have in mind an incident which General Gordon relates in his reminiscences of the Civil War-a reminiscence of the battle of

« AnteriorContinuar »