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The Meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Peace SocietySource: The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920), Vol. 77, No. 1 (JANUARY, 1915), pp. 9-10Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20667107 .

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1915 THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. 9

an appreciative audience of about one thousand persons. A lecture before the Y. M. C. A. at Augusta, on Decem ber 15, closed the series. During the trip memberships were secured for the Maine Peace Society and commit tees were appointed to make a canvass of persons likely to be interested in the cause.

In Rhode Island, a committee consisting of President Sisson, Secretary Jackson, and Dr. Try on were appointed to arrange for the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Peace Society. It is expected that the meeting will be held at Providence, January 18. Dr. Frederick Lynch, secretary of the Church Peace Union, has been invited to be the guest and speaker. The Rhode Island Peace Society officers are considering the plan of having a headquarters office in Providence.

On Monday morning, November 30, Dr. Tryon gave his stereopticon lecture before the pupils and teachers of the Arlington High School, Massachusetts.

During January the director will make a trip to Hart ford and New Haven, Connecticut.

The Meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Peace Society.

The midwinter meeting of the board of directors of the American Peace Society was held in the Oak Room of the Raleigh Hotel, Washington, D. C, Friday, De cember 11, 1914. Senator Theodore E. Burton, presi dent of the society, presided at both the morning and afternoon sessions.

The first session opened at 10 o'clock. Committees on resolutions and nominations were named; a state ment of the treasurer on the financial condition of the society was read; the report of the executive committee presented to the board, and verbal reports of their work during the past six months given by both the secretary and the executive director. The finance committee re ported progress.

Among the important matters that claimed the atten tion of the morning session were the following: 1. It was reported that the peace exhibit at the Pan ama-Pacific Exposition had been finally given up.

2. The board decided that the regular Biennial Na tional Peace Congress should be held in 1915 ; that in dividuals and organizations in sympathy with the peace movement in this and other countries should be invited to participate, and that the time and place of holding the congress should be decided by the executive com

mittee after consultation with other peace organizations. 3. The following resignation of Benjamin F. True

blood, who has served the society as general secretary for twenty-three years, was read and accepted, to take effect at the annual meeting:

December 11, 1914. To the Board of Directors of the American Peace Society:

Dear Friends : Since the serious breakdown of my health a year and a half ago, I had hoped to be able before now fully to take charge again of the general secretaryship and the editorial work of the society. But in this I have been disappointed. Though my health has much improved, and gives promise of at least a fair degree of re-establishment, I am not yet strong enough to attempt to do in full the large and ever-growing work of the general secretaryship in such fashion as you justly expect it to be done and as I

myself would wish to have it performed.

I am therefore compelled to reach the conclusion that it is my duty to give up the position at the annual meeting in

May next, and give back to the society the commission which has long been entrusted to me. In order to give time to secure a successor and to afford me opportunity to close up the work of the year in proper form, I submit herewith my resignation to take effect at the annual meeting in May next, and at that time 1 shall not again be a candidate for re-election.

In contemplating the giving up of this service which will have covered nearly a quarter of a century, it is a great satisfaction to record that the board of directors of the society, both here in Washington and in the nearly twenty previous years in Boston, have always been thoroughly loyal and sympathetic, and have rendered the secretary genuine support in his many difficult labors. The same is true of all my colleagues, the department directors, the secretaries of the branch societies, and all the workers who have given aid in developing the work of the society. I thank them one and all with all my heart.

The twenty-five years within which my peace service has been performed, since I attended the London Peace Con gress in 1890, have been years of marvelous significance. They have included the organization of nearly all the peace associations, more than six hundred in number; the holding of twenty international peace congresses and numerous na tional peace congresses; the development of the Interpar liamentary Peace Union, with its annual conferences; the holding of the two Hague Peace Conferences, and the es tablishment of the Hague Court; the increasing number of peace and arbitration treaties; the establishment of the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation; the organization of the As sociation for International Conciliation; the inauguration by Albert K. Smiley of the arbitration conference at Lake

Mohonk; the creation by Mr. Ginn of the World Peace Foun dation ; by Mr. Carnegie of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and, more recently, of the Church Peace Union; the establishment of the American School Peace League and many similar organizations. These are a part of the great growing movement of civilization which can never go backward.

The horrible war in Europe, which seems for the moment to have paralyzed our faith, will come to an end. The forces of intelligence, righteousness, justice, good will and peace will prevail again. Let the friends of peace all take courage, for the great dawn is soon to appear!

Sincerely your friend,

(Signed) Benjamin F. Trueblood.

4. It was decided that the time and place of holding the annual meeting of the society should coincide with that of the National Peace Congress.

5. The executive committee was authorized to call a meeting of the National Peace Council in the near future.

After lunching together, the board of directors met again, and the larger part of the afternoon session was occupied with the resolutions presented by the resolu tions committee. They were finally adopted as given below. The vacancy on the board caused by the death of Aldis B. Browne was filled by the appointment of Rev. Jay T. Stocking, while two vacancies on the execu tive committee, made by the resignation of George E. Roberts and Eugene Levering, were filled by the choice of Rev. Jay T. Stocking and Thomas Raeburn White to these positions.

The Church Peace Union was invited to elect a repre sentative director to the board.

The members of the board had the pleasure of meet ing personally and of listening to a brief address by Frau Rosika Schwimmer, of Budapest, Hungary, and also of hearing a few remarks after the luncheon by Mr. Joseph Wicksteed, of Letchworth, England.

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10 THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. January,

RESOLUTIONS

Adopted at the Mid-winter Meeting of the Board of Directors

of the American Peace Society.

The committee on resolutions reports that, although di rected to prepare a resolution in accepting the resignation of Dr. Trueblood as secretary of the American Peace Soci ety, the work of Dr. Trueblood had extended over a period of so many years, and his services were of so distinguished a character, that it felt that a proper resolution could not be prepared in the short time at its disposal, and therefore recommends that a special committee be appointed to per form this duty, and that the resolution be presented at the annual meeting.

The American Peace Society earnestly recommends to the President of the United States that he call a conference of neutral powers to consider:

First?What steps, if any, should be taken by the neutral powers, acting in concert, to safeguard neutral rights and interests during the present war.

Second?To consider the advisability of joint action by the neutral powers in extending their good offices to the belligerents, in accordance with Articles 3 and 27 of the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Dis putes, whenever in the opinion of the conference the proper time for such action shall have arrived.

Third?To determine what steps, if any, should be taken by the neutral powers to influence the settlement of the dif ferences between the belligerent powers, at the close of hos tilities, in such a way as to diminish the chances of future

wars.

We denounce the persistent and systematic agitation for an increase of armament, carried on as it is with every ex ternal evidence of promotion by those interested in the ob tainment of such advantages as come from war, whether they consist of honors or of pecuniary gains arising from the sale of arms, ammunition, and battleships. We do not favor, and we do not believe the people of this

country, understanding it, will favor, a policy which will bring about the glorification and enrichment of a few who, in the ranks of civilization, are the non-producers, at the continued expense of the many who will be called on to support them?in short, in the pending demand for military increase we recognize the recrudescence of a state of mind not up to the level of this generation and this country.

We declare that America cannot advance the cause of humanity by carrying the lamp of peace in one hand and a steadily rising and advancing sword in the other. We be lieve that at this moment, when militarism is destroying itself as rapidly as it may on the continent of Europe, it is inopportune, illogical, and a betrayal of the higher interests of civilization for America to declare itself more strongly than heretofore on the side of force.

We regard the militarist agitation indulged in at a mo ment when we are signing peace treaties with all the im portant nations of the earth as a direct impeachment of our own good faith in the signing of the treaties and as a decla ration of suspicion of the good faith of those with whom we enter into new bonds.

We insist that this increase of the army and navy at this time, so far from being in the interest of peace, is a direct threat to the well-being of other nations with whom we have dealings?an imputation of doubt of their good faith, and calculated to compel them in turn to increase their armies, and in consequence to involve us in an ever-intensifying race for military supremacy.

We affirm that the greatest step which may be taken to insure peace as between ourselves and other nations is not to be found in an augmentation of armament, but to be found in a course of exact justice pursued toward all the

world, irrespective of consequences to ourselves. We maintain that notably in the instance of America, the

only purpose for which a standing army or navy can be justified is that of national defense, and that the small need of either in our instance lies in our secure territorial posi tion and our national solidarity. We deprecate the fact that any public man should be dis

posed for any purpose, whether of interest or misguided

patriotism, to excite the fears of the timid who flee when none are pursuing, or by any physical possibility could

pursue. We call the attention of the people of this country to the

fact that the addition of every thousand men to our army or navy means an additional national tax of one million dol lars per year, and this it is proposed to make at a time

when no public danger demands it, and when millions of our people are in a condition of financial distress.

* 'GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE AMONG MEN."

By Howell Merriman Haydn.

So sang the angels when the Gift came down, In tranquil faith that earth would be as heav'n,

Nor doubting the sweet power of that leav'n To turn men's hearts from lust of war-won crown; And when the Gift attain'd its full renown,

The call to peace in radiant words was giv'n, While self-forgetting love taught men of heav'n,

The cross-blest pathway to a fadeless crown.

Alas! the angels' faith is waiting still, The birth-song of the Gift sounds faint and far,

The cross of love seems thrust in scorn away. Dear Christ, why tarries yet Thy peaceful sway?

Arise, arise, Thou bright and morning Star,

Bring in the day of God's divine good will!

In the Face of War.

A Christmas Meditation.

By Charles F. Dole.

Gloom is over the earth. Armies have drenched the fields with blood; homes are in ruins; women and chil dren suffer famine. Where the beautiful mountains stand the darkness lowers. Who can carry glad hearts or smiles in the face of the storm ?

But all that made the storm was here before. We knew that the world is on its costly road upward. We knew the ocean of barbarism behind us. We knew that anger, suspicion, misunderstanding, envy, arrogance,

jealousy, selfishness, lie still untamed in a myriad hearts. We had seen the monster ships built to devour one an other. We had seen soldiers practicing to fight and kill. There were plenty of signs of the coming storm. The clouds were over the tops of the mountains.

The mountains are standing unharmed. The same

sky is over us, blue in the infinite depths. The light has never ceased. What great spiritual reality is not coming into view, clearer than ever? Loyalty, devo tion, sympathy, heroism, gleaming out of a multitude of humble lives, faith in justice and right, more fervent than ever, lift themselves above the gloom. There is serenity, wisdom, and confidence foretelling better days. There are happy homes and brave hearts solemnly glad in the grand gift of love. There is light in the eyes of the children. Whose heart has grown smaller in the presence of

sorrow? Who desires to run away from his post or have no share in the burdens that all are set to lift? Who resists the flood of generous impulse that pours through the world ?

The noble memories are with us ever. Saints and

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