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Banquet to Baron d'Estournelles de Constant on His Reception of the Nobel PrizeSource: The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920), Vol. 72, No. 3 (MARCH, 1910), pp. 59-61Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20665909 .

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1910. THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. 59

mayor and other city fathers gave them a special recep tion, and expressed their pleasure at seeing their guests in no ambiguous terms.

Count Okuma, the greatest living statesman of Japan, received us at his palatial villa in Tokyo, and expressed his regard and appreciation, not only for America and Americans in general, but for the Christian Endeavor movement in particular as an American institution rep resented there. I was personally accorded the high honor of an audience with His Majesty, the Emperor, Mutsuhito, the one hundred and twenty-second Emperor of Japan in the same dynasty, which I felt was much more than a personal honor, for it was accorded to me as an American, and as a humble representative of some of the religious forces of Japan as well as of America.

But a meeting of peculiar and special interest was a

gathering of the Peace Society of Kyoto, which invited

my colleague, Mr. Shaw, the secretary of the United

Society of Christian Endeavor, and myself, to a dinner in the fine Kyoto hotel. The dinner was in foreign style, and the menu was as varied and well served as in any first-class American hostelry ; but what particularly inter ested us was the character of the men who attended the

banquet, and the out-and-out sentiments in favor of

peace and friendly relations between the two nations

represented. The governor of the ken, or province, and the mayor

of the city were absent, but they sent apologies on account of absence from the city. The president of the Chamber of Commerce was there; several of the lead

ing merchants, the president of the Common Council, eminent educators and two well-known American mis

sionaries. The speeches were all of the most cordial and

unequivocal character, lauding the blessings of peace, the benefits of arbitration and conciliation, and inveigh ing against the horrors and the idiocy of unjust war. When my reply to these cordial addresses was reported

in the Japanese papers, I was made to say that " Even if

Japan took up arms against the United States, our coun

try would not resent it." Of course I said nothing so

absurd, but I did say that " I thought the deep, underly ing sentiment of friendship between the people of the two nations was so strong that it would be very difficult to force us into war with each other." This sentiment, after my latest visit to Japan, I believe most devoutly.

There are now two peace societies in Japan, this one

in Kyoto, the famous ancient capital of the nation, and another in Tokyo, the present capital, of which the dis

tinguished Count Okuma is the recently elected presi dent, and the well known Friends missionary, Mr. Bowles, a leading promoter.

The brevity of my stay in Japan alone prevented my meeting with the members of this society at a similar

gathering. An effective little paper, printed in both

Japanese and English, is the organ of these societies.

Evidently the sentiment that supports these organiza tions is a strong and growing one and is pervading all classes of the people.

May I add in closing that the great World's Christian Endeavor Convention in Agra, India, which in November

brought together four thousand native Christians, four hundred missionaries of all denominations, and many delegates from other lands, was in itself a peace conven tion under another name, for " Union,"

" Fellowship

"

and " Fraternity

" were watchwords that were heard at

every session. The same was true of the scarcely less

important Christian Endeavor gatherings I have recently attended in Cairo, Manila, Canton, Hongkong, Honolulu and many cities in Japan. The heart of Christian young people the world around, I am confident, is sound on this subject.

Banquet to Baron d'Estournelles de Con stant on His Reception of the

Nobel Prize. It is rare that such a tribute of respect and honor is

given to any one by his neighbors and friends as was

given to Baron d'Estournelles de Constant on the 30th of January, at La Fl?che, France, in appreciation of his

reception of the Nobel Peace Prize. The banquet was

gotten up by the Federation of Republican Committees of the city. More than six hundred guests were at the tables. Mr. Montigny, Prefect of the Province of La

Sarthe, presided. Among those present were very many of the most eminent citizens of the Province of La

Sarthe, which the Baron represents in the Senate of France. Before Senator d'Estournelles spoke, addresses were given by Mr. A. Dantzer, secretary of the Federa tion of Republican Committees, by Commandant Andr?, president of the Republican Committee of La Fl?che, Mr. Deysine, Receiver of Finance at Baug?, Mr. Leon Boll?e, president of the Aero Club of La Sarthe, Mr.

Burgevin, member of the local Council, Mr. Boutti?, Deputy from Mans, Mr. Ajam, D?put? from Saint Calais, Mr. Hippolyte Laroche, Deputy, and by the chairman, Mr. Montigny. All of these speakers spoke in terms of the highest and warmest appreciation of the great ser vices which Baron d'Estournelles has rendered to the cause of international friendship and peace, to humanity in general and to the true glory of France. After toasts had been drunk to the guest of the evening and to Presi dent Falli?res, and a telegram adopted for transmission to the Nobel Committee at Christiania, Senator d'Estour nelles arose. He was received with unbounded enthusi asm, and the Journal Fl?chois declares that practically "

every sentence of his speech was punctuated with unan imous and ardent applause."

After his introductory remarks and an expression of his

deep obligations to a large number of his fellow workers in France, both living and dead, Senator d'Estournelles

spoke as follows : THE BARON'S ADDRESS.

" This day is too beautiful to concern me personally. It is too much like a triumph. I have never desired any thing of this kind, especially at this moment, not only because we have not the heart to be rejoicing in the midst of so many national sorrows, but because every triumph is in my view a weakness, a wrong, and in any event a d?nouement, the commencement of the end. Nor is it a triumph that we have desired to make, in a spec tacular way. It is an occasion which we have seized to see one another again ; an occasion for reunion, of shak

ing one another's hands and of recognizing the growing success of our efforts for fifteen years past; an occasion, finally, for counting our numbers, not for the sake of

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60 THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. March.

retirement and repose, but in order to continue to combat more vigorously than ever as good companions in arms.

" Companions in arms ! Yes, that is the word, and I

repeat it with you before the officers who are listening to us. Our adversaries with contempt call us pacifists. They either mock us or are mad at us. They proclaim that we desire peace for the sake of peace, through fear, idleness, cowardice. That kind of a peace is not ours ; it is theirs. [Prolonged applause.] What they want is the peace of the stronger through the enslavement of the weaker ; the acceptance of injustices ; the maintenance of the worst forms of privilege; the uncontested reign of

ignorance and egoism. [New burst of applause.] Our

peace, that which the Nobel Prize encourages, is quite the contrary. It is revolt on behalf of justice. Our adversaries would willingly uphold an armed peace for their sole profit, a peace which our protestations would not even have the right to disturb, the lugubrious classic

peace of silence and the desert. They would waste the world with fire and sword in order to bring us that sort of peace, and on the tomb of our liberties, buried alive by their hands, they would not fail to inscribe, as was once

done, their monstrous 4 in pace? [Long-continued ap plause.] But we shall not allow them to profane this beautiful word, as they have profaned all noble causes, as

they have exploited both religion and country. Their

journals will continue to heap upon us their calumnies because we defend against them country, morality and the republic. We shall continue to brave their outrages. This will be our honor, yours and mine. Yes, you are

my companions in arms. Our life for fifteen years has been nothing but a struggle, sometimes thankless and

perilous, but quite often joyous also. We have the right to appreciate its success. Remember whence we come ; what distance has been traversed ; what victories won over ignorance, falsehood and hatred. Fifteen years ago the cry of our adversaries was everywhere, 'Death to

foreigners ! '

Blind, as they were, they wished to render France uninhabitable,? to slay the hen that lays the

golden eggs of your labor and of their well-being. To

day public opinion forces them to cry, 4 Long live peace !

Long live arbitration ! ' as they once cried, 4 Long live

the republic ! ' while they waited to overturn it.

[Laughter and applause.] " In our struggle we may say without presumption that we have been followed not alone by the district of La

Fl?che, but by the department of La Sarthe. It is an education entirely new, of which we have given the signal, the example and especially the method ; a campaign of

education, of honesty and of liberty has been substituted for the too well-known campaigns of perversion and

oppression. Of this we have been the first beneficiaries. The ideal of all of us has been raised. We have lifted one another. I speak to you in all good conscience. I feel myself transformed ? a better man ? since I have been carrying on the contest together with you. A new code of morals has been proclaimed, corresponding to the most generous aspirations, as well as to the economic necessities of the peoples. It is being worked out for the service of the superior interest of the country and its civilization.

44 Our plan, which is a very simple one, has succeeded because it was human, and because, thanks to your firm

fidelity, no obstacle has been able to turn it aside. We

have refused to distinguish between individual interest, national interest and general interest. We have refused to put these three interests in opposition to one another.

We have combined them into a single interest, the interest of all. For the traditional antagonisms we have substi tuted conciliation.

" We have taken care also not to entangle ourselves in Platonic counsels or recriminations. Our work of influ

encing public opinion has strengthened itself by continual action. It has been pursued at our risk and peril, in the hearts, in the consciences of men, in the field of well understood realities, by commencing our propaganda in our immediate vicinity and then extending it farther and farther.

" It is dangerous to undertake a crusade at home. Yet that is what we have done. Thanks to you, I have been able to take my native place as a point of departure, and as the first place of experimentation. It is there that our ideas have taken root and found the point of

support which has allowed them to expand to remote distances and in the most diverse directions.

" It is in my family first, as you have said, that I have found the anchor of safety.

6 Very wise people

' pretend

to believe that the family no longer exists in France. I have nevertheless found in your families very strong supports and often admirable examples. I have found in my own, with Mme. d'Estournelles and my children, a

renewing source of energy and of faith ; a refuge in evil

days, a control, a bridle,? what I call my domestic tribunal and my parliament. Then, next to my family, my com mune, my native city, my canton.

" You will tell me that there, and that in my own com

munity, opposition against me has been concentrated, and that I have failed to be re?lected even as a Municipal Coun cilor. That is true, and it is natural. No one is a prophet in his own country. And this is fortunate, for these tem

pests have tested my goodwill and proved my strength. They have been for me an indispensable apprenticeship. When I say that I owe much to my adversaries, I speak not alone of the gratuitous and extraordinary publicity which they have naively given to our ideas by attacking us personally, I speak also and especially of the com bativeness which they have roused in us. And this is

why I am not angry with them, even when they accuse me with virtuous indignation of not contributing the amount of the Nobel Prize to their works, when they know, better than anybody else, and can verify, as can

everybody, what I have done with it. " Furthermore, the opposition of my native city, how

ever reactionary may have been the majority which con trols it, has been neutralized and paralyzed by the devotion of the cantons surrounding that of La Fl?che. What devotion in the canton Malicorne ! so afflicted, however, for it cannot eliminate from day to day the poison of the bad influence with which it has been saturated. What a magnificent effort has Br?lon put forth, in granting us the greatest possible compensation and in helping to choose as my successor in the Chamber of Deputies my friend Laroche, a man of truth, courage and ability, who represents you to-day. [Cheers.]

"Look at Sabl?, where it seemed that discord would

long reign, but which affords us the most beautiful exam

ple of fruitful and disinterested union. Look at the canton of Mayet, where, in spite of so many interferences,

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1910. THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. 61

the sentiment of devotion to the republic invariably survives. Pontvallain remains more than ever the ad vance guard, the sacred battalion of our party. Lude has not hesitated to elect me as a General Councilor, and remains faithful to me, 'a stranger,' as our adversaries

mockingly say under pretext that I live two kilometers distant from the canton.

44 And I do not forget the support, too often unrecog nized, but nevertheless invaluable, which the Journal

Fl?chois,4 the memorial of our conflicts,' has not ceased to give us.

44 The frontiers of the district have not stopped our pro paganda. There is not one of the thirty cantons of La Sarthe in which I have not given with joy, on my return from America, from The Hague and elsewhere, the story of my travels, and drawn from my various experiences lessons for France. All these innumerable addresses have been so many happy moments in my life, for every

-

where I have sown not only ideas, but friendships, and never has anything been said which touched me more than the following words : 4 M. d'Estournelles might live

anywhere as if he were at home, if he would accept the hospitality offered to him from house to house in the

whole country.' 44 Thanks to your confidence and your sympathies, my lectures were quickly extended beyond the Department itself and into the neighboring Departments : to Tours, Blois, Angers, Laval, Alen?on, Eure-et-Loir, etc. ; then

systematically to the whole of France, without excepting any region, north or south, east or west ; then to Europe and America. And as my strength was no longer equal to the task, I was obliged to create committees to aid me, both in parliament and out of parliament,

? National

Interests, Conciliation, Arbitration Group, Affiliation, etc., each one distributing its own publications and appeals.

Numerous able co-laborers offered themselves, and new

friendships were established. Some of my former friends had abandoned me, led astray by the shameful campaign of the journals, deceived by falsification and caricature of my ideas. That was to me the most cruel blow. But

others, less sincere, regretted in me my uniform, my decorations and my diplomatic relations. They treated with disdainful pity the 4 apostle.' The loss of these last made up in part for the estrangement of the good. This loss was indeed a great blessing, for their places have been taken by others, better and more substantial friends, not of my title and my position, but of my work, partici pants in my action, defenders of our common ideas ; and these remain. Unite with me, all of you, Frenchmen and

foreigners, in extending thanks to them on this beautiful

day. They are your allies, your brothers ; you do not know them, and they are ignorant of you, but you are of the same blood. Rich or poor, you are animated with the same sentiment,

? horror of evil and injustice, respect for the good. It is with this invisible army, extended over all the surface of the earth, whose heart beats at

Creans, that we will more than ever fight the good fight, that we will continue the holy war against war,? war

against falsehood, against evil. It is because he has made this war, and not because he has advocated a shameful

peace, that your representative, your friend, haa just re ceived the Nobel'%Prize, and it is to continue this that he will give, you will not doubt it, even to his last breath.

44 Thank you, my brave companions in arms. Thank

you for your faithful cooperation. Our friendship has been fruitful; our association well founded. And now alto

gether let us form our ranks once more and begin anew our work, our eyes more than ever fixed on our ideal,

liberty and justice, an ideal which we shall never attain as fully as we should wish to do, but to the completer attainment of which we will consecrate our children, the future of France indissolubly connected with the future of civilization. [Loud and long-continued applause, the

guests all rising and coming forward to shake the speak er's hand.]

"

Government Support for the Interna tional Headquarters of the In?

terparliamentary Union. Address of Hon. Richard Bartholdt of Missouri in the House

of Representatives on February 8, when the Consular and Dip lomatic Appropriation Bill was under consideration.

Mr. Chairman, at the proper time I propose to offer the

following amendment to the pending bill :

"For the maintenance of international headquarters of the

Interparliamentary Union, $5,000."

I am aware, Mr. Chairman, that this amendment is sub

ject to a point of order, for the reason that such an appro priation is not authorized by existing law, but I trust that the point may not be made, owing to the beneficent object to be attained by the amendment. When in 1908, during the session of the Interparlia

mentary Conference at Berlin, the news came that the British government had decided to make an annual ap propriation of ?2,000 for the support of the Interparlia mentary Union, there was general rejoicing among the seven hundred lawmakers who attended that conference as the representatives of twenty or more parliaments of the world. While it was known that Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, and some other smaller countries, had for some time past been making appropriations for that pur pose, Great Britain was the first of the greater countries to offer such a contribution. Since the Berlin Conference the question has been taken up in nearly all national legis lative bodies represented in the Interparliamentary Union, and the probability now is that when that organization of lawmakers will meet at Brussels this year favorable reports will be received from the majority of nations ; and it is my fervent wish, shared, I hope, by every member of the American Congress, that the United States may be among them. It was upon the motion of your humble servant that, in 1906, the London Conference unanimously agreed to appeal to the governments for financial aid in furtherance of the great work of the Interparliamentary Union ; hence, unless the American Congress proposes to

repudiate the action of its own delegates, a compliance with that resolution cannot well be refused ; in fact, the United States should be the first country to extend its

helping hand. It is proper to ask what these amounts of money are to

be expended for, and I hope the House will bear with me while I make a brief explanation. The Interparliamen tary Union, from the time of its foundation in 1889, has maintained permanent headquarters at Berne, Switzerland, with a general secretary and several clerks in charge. These officers rendered their services gratuitously, while

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