Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-10-04

Peace congress. There are many
prominent delegates here from abroad.
Ask Powers to Act.
Among the subjects to come up for
action is that of adopting some effect
i've method of urging the powers of
the world to use every good office at
tl+sr command to bring about an end
of the Russo-Japanese war.
Hay Welcomes Delegates.
Secretary John Hay delivered the
address OF welcome to the delegates.
In the course Of his remarks he said:
Il esteem it great honor and privi-
lege to be allowed to extend to you
the welcome of the government and
the people of the United States of
America on this memorable and auspi-
cious occasion. No time could be
more fitting for this gathering of
parliament of peace than today, when
at the other end of the world the thun-
der of destructive and sanguinary
war is deafening the nations, while
here we are preparing to settle the
question of vast transfer of power
kSby an appeal to reason and orderly
procedure, under the sanction of law
implicitly accepted by eighty millions
of people. No place could be more
suitable than this high-hearted city,
&FWhich has been for nearly three hun
tared years the birthplace and the
home of every idea of progress and en-
S2afghtenment which has germinated in
tYthe western world. To bid you well
{ come to the home of Vane, of Win.
throp, and of Adams, of Claiming and
Emerson is to give you the freedom
of no mean city, to make you partak-
ers of a spiritual inheritance without
which, with all our opulence, we
should be poor indeed. 1t is true that
this great commonwealth has sought,
with the sword, peace under liberty
We confess that many wars have left
their traces in the pages of it's history
and its literature; art has adorned the
public places of this stately town with
the statues OF it's heroic sons. But
the dominant note of its highest cul-
ture, it's most persistent spirit, has
been that righteousness which exaltetc
a nation, that obedience to the inner
light which leads along the paths of
peace.
A Nation of Peace.
And the policy of the nation at
=
spirit to the founders CT New England,
has been in the main policy of peace.
During the hundred and twenty years
of our Independent existence we have
had but three wars with the outside
world, though we have had a most
grievous and dolorous struggle with
our own people. We have had, 1
think, a greater relative immunity
hop Nf ohcr
All our greatest men have been ear
,-nest advocates of peace. The very men
who founded our liberties with the
mailed hand detested and abhorred
war rs the most futile and ferocious of
human follies. Franklin and Jefferson
repeatedly denounced 1.-THE one
with all the energy of his rhetoric, the
other with the lambent fire of his wit
But not our philosophers alone-our
fighting men have seen at close quar-
ters how hideous is the face Of war
Washington said, My first wish is to
see this plague to mankind banished
from the earth;' and again he said,
We have experienced enough of it's
evils in this country to know that it
should not be wantonly or unnecessar-
lily entered upon There is no discord-
duL ilOlG Ill lie ulLSl duCSS VI Jul uOSl
eminent soldiers on this subject The
most famous utterance of General
Grant-the one which will linger long
est in the memories of men was the
prayer of his war-weary heart, Let us
have peace Sherman reached the
acme of his marvellous gift Of epigram
when he said War is HE'LL And Alb
raham Lincoln, after the four terrible
years in which he had directed our
vast armies and navies, uttered on the
threshold of eternity the fervent and
Z touching aspiration that the mighty
scourge of war might speedily pass
away
Roosevelt Aids Peace Plans.
II There has been no solution of con-
tinuity in the sentiments of our presi-
dents on this subject up to this day.
Mckinley deplored with every pulse of
his honest and kindly heart the advent
of the war which he had hoped might
not come in his day and gladly hailed
the earliest moment for making peace;
and President Roosevelt has the same
tireless energy in the work of concord
that he displayed when he sought
peace and ensued it on the field of
battle. No Presidents in our history
have been so faithful and SO efficient
as the last two in the cause of arbi.
tration and of every peaceful settle