World Affairs Institute

THE CLEVELAND CONFERENCE: "A Breath of Wind in the Sails"Source: Advocate of Peace through Justice, Vol. 90, No. 5 (MAY, 1928), pp. 261-263Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20661903 .

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ADVOCATE OF PEACE

VOLUME May, 1928 NUMBER 905

CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEACE

SOCIETY

T HE Centennial History of the Amer ican Peace Society, by Edson L. Whit

ney, is now in the hands of the printer. It will make a volume of nearly four hun

dred pages. Copies at $3.00 each will be available in time for the Cleveland Con ference. The work sets forth in detail the facts in the history of the American Peace Society for the first hundred years. Peace workers will turn to it for many years to come, for it is a definite record of the organized peace movement in America from its beginnings. Those un

able to attend the Cleveland sessions may order the book directly of the American Peace Society, Colorado Building, Wash ington, D. C.

THE CLEVELAND CONFERENCE

"A Breath of Wind in the Sails"

C

LEVELAND'S support of the com

ing World Conference on Interna tional Justice is an expression of man's

deepest desire. War, as a means of set

tling international disputes, is today more universally condemned than ever be fore in history. Men and women every where, governments included, are de

manding a better way for the settlement of international controversies. When the

people of Cleveland invited the American Peace Society to celebrate its one hun dredth anniversary within their gates,

they had in mind, of course, their affec tion for Theodore E. Burton, President of the Society and their most distin

guished fellow-citizen. But they were not unmindful of the possibilities in such a conference for the furtherance of a better international understanding. In the lan

guage of Woodrow Wilson, they had

caught "the voices of humanity that are in the air."

The organized peace movement began in 1815. Just now the historians are dis

covering that movement. It is an inter

esting chapter in history. Its first pages had been written by the author of the Book of Genesis, by the writer of the sec ond chapter of Isaiah, and by the prophet who penned the fourth chapter of Micah. Pierre Dubois, in the early fourteenth

century, and the poet Dante, of the same

period, argued for organization in the in terest of peace. Down through the inter

vening centuries Erasmus, Cruc6, Grotius,

Penn, Rousseau, Bentham, and Kant did the same thing.

But, of special interest to the people of

Ohio, the second Peace Society in the

history of the world, following the founda tion of the New York Peace Society by only a few days, was organized in Warren

County of their State. From our records we are able to re

port that on the second of December, 1815, a "Society for the Promoting of Peace" was established in Warren County, State of Ohio. It appears that certain persons of that State had read Noah Wor

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262 ADVOCATE OF PEACE May

cester's "Solemn Review of the Custom of

War." In consequence they had become

"impressed by the horrors, the devasta

tions, the greed, misery, and woe attend ant on a state of war, and, animated with the view of the comfort, tranquillity, and benefits attendant on a state of peace, a

number of citizens of Warren County, of

different denominations as to religion, formed themselves into a society at the

time above mentioned, without having any knowledge at that time that any simi

lar society existed on earth." It is re

corded that this society soon divided it self into four branches, consisting of up wards of one hundred members, "amongst whom are some respectable clergymen and statesmen." They had at that time pub lished 3,000 copies of certain numbers of

Worcester's "The Friend of Peace." On

the 11th of March, 1817, a fifth branch was established at Leesburg, Ohio, at the first meeting of which nearly fifty per sons entered their names as members.

From the fourth annual report of the Ohio Society for the Promotion of Peace, in 1819, we learn that

"The number of peace societies in the State of Ohio has been increased since our last report. A female peace society has been organized on Mill Creek, near Cincinnati. . . . A society at Athens has been some time since organized, com

posed of about twenty members, the presi dent of which is the Rev. Mr. Lindley, president of the college, and Professor Dana their corresponding secretary. There are also several officers of the col

lege who are officers of this newly or

ganized peace society. This society is

composed of some of the principal char acters in Athens County. The whole number of peace societies in Ohio known to us is eight."

The conference in Cleveland will

achieve something immeasurably worth while if it does nothing more than to un

earth further the history of the peace movement in Ohio.

Following the beginnings of the peace movement in New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts in 1815, the notion that men should be able to evolve substitutes for war grew with no little rapidity. Great international peace congresses

began in 1843, and by 1851 the peace movement was strong and lusty, especially in the United States and Great Britain.

Then came wars-the Crimean War, our

Civil War, the Franco-German War, and at last the World War.

At the outbreak of the World War over

seventy peace organizations were affiliated with the American Peace Society. Most of them disappeared because of the war, but the American Peace Society lived on

through that tragic experience, as it has lived through many another war.

The things for which the Society stand are quite simple. It believes that the

rights and duties of nations are dependent upon each other and mutually related; that the processes of peace between nations are the processes of justice. It believes that these processes of justice can be attained by due processes of law. It believes that nations can achieve their interests by means other than war. As a

corporation, it is devoted to the study of international relations and to those pro cesses of education upon which inter national co-operation must rest.

The American Peace Society, however, does not profess to have a monopoly of the truth in this field. The coming con

ference, therefore, will be something more than a glorification of the past and a series of panegyrics upon the great men

and women who have built the Society. It will be an opportunity for 'the members of the Society freely to express their views about the policies of their Society-past, present, and future-and ,to advise as to the new labors of the new day. The

American Peace Society expects to profit greatly by the Cleveland Conference

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1928 EDITORIALS 263

But the conference will be more-far more-than a benefit to the American Peace Society. It will be a voice speak ing to men and women across the world. It will be an encouragement to those who believe in the mutuality of interests com mon to all peoples. It will help clear the way for those concerned to promote co-operative effort, to enlarge the achieve

ments of collective national and inter national groups. There are men and

women in every country of the world,

growing in numbers, who firmly believe that these progressive achievements will

naturally both produce and follow finer and finer forms of acceptable and gen

erally accepted laws, out of which flows that justice which is the mother of any durable peace between States. The Cleveland Conference will hearten all such persons. As M. Briand, French

Minister of Foreign Affairs, remarked to us in his office last summer, the con

ference will be "a breath of wind in the sails."

THE PROGRAM

T

HE program of the World Conference on International Justice, to be held

in Cleveland, Ohio, May 7 to 11, 1928, and throughout the State of Maine, May 13, 14, and 15, has passed through the usual vicissitudes of programs. There is no doubt, however, of the interest nor of the importance of the coming conferences.

In Cleveland there will be nine gen eral assemblies: three May 7, two May 8, two May 9, one May 10, and one the eve

ning of Friday, May 11.

Monday, May 7, is to be known as "Ohio

Day." The first public general assembly will be held in the Cleveland Public Audi

torium, seating over 13,000, at 10 o'clock a. m. Ten thousand representatives of

the schools will be present. There will be addresses by the Governor of Ohio; the Mayor of Cleveland; Hon. Theodore E.

Burton, President of the American Peace

Society; Hon. John J. Tigert, United States Commissioner of Education; Henry Turner Bailey, friend of every lover of art. At 12:30 there will be a luncheon for the heads of the commissions. At 3

p. m., again in the Public Auditorium, there will be a second general assembly, consisting of : the presentation to the City of Cleveland of a new portrait of Presi dent Coolidge by Edith Stevenson

Wright; and of the Ohio State Peace Ora torical Contest. For the meeting at 8 o'clock in the evening, at the Public Audi

torium, the program will include: Dr.

Fridtjof Nansen, of Norway; Sir Esme

Howard, British Ambassador to the

United States; Herr Friederich Wilhelm von Prittwitz, German Ambassador to the

United States; and M. Paul Claudel, Am

bassador from France, and Newton Baker.

Tuesday, May 8, will be American Peace Society Day. The commissions will meet at 10 o'clock a. m. At 12:30 there will be a luncheon, to be addressed by representatives of national organizations on their relations to world friendship. Rev. Gill Robb Wilson, National Chaplain of the American Legion; Mr. Arch

Klumph, formerly head of Rotary Inter

national; Henry C. Heinz, President Kiwanis International, Miss Cornelia

Adair, President of the National Edu cation Association, and representatives of

the Red Cross and other organizations will speak.

The fourth general assembly will be held

at 3 p. m., in the Masonic Auditorium. The meeting will be addressed by Prof. Merle E. Curti, of Smith College; Dr.

James Brown Scott, Walter A. Morgan, D. D., a Director of the American Peace

Society, Linley Gordon and others, and

representatives of other peace and patri otic organizations.

The fifth general assembly will be held at 8 o'clock, in the Mnaonic Auditorium,

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