The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-12-17
Archbishop Speaks for the Cause
Of Arbitration
MEETING WAS IN NEW YORK
Prominent Men Work to Have Treaties
Now Pending Ratified BY the
Senate of the United
States.

New York December ia mass meet
ing called to recommend the prompt rat
ifcatlon of the arbitration treaties re-
Gently signed by the state department
with several of the leading foreign pow
ers was held tonight at Carnegie hall
under the auspices of the New York ex-
ecutive committee of the American con-
ference on international arbitration There
was very large attendance and the
speakers were repeatedly cpplauded
John Cosby Brown in an opening ad-
dress expressed regret at the absence
of Andrew Carnegie who was to have
opened the meeting, but who he said
could not be present.
Mayor George Mcclellan presided and
was the first speaker M Linn Bruce,
lieutenant-governor-e spoke against
deciding differences between nations by
war and was followed by Archbishop
Ireland.
While the archbishop was speaking he
was interrupted by a man who shouted
Give somebody else chance
The archbishop Immediately sat down.
The audience hooted the man who had
shouted, and several tried to find him
until Archbishop Ireland resumed his
speech.
He said in part;
The Archhshop's Speech.
"A great nation it is-this America of
ours. The three millions who watched
over her in her infancy are now the
eighty millions. The latent opulence of
her soil and climate blossoms forth in
richest profusion, and pours into her
NH -.
genuity of her sons, quickened into few
erish activity by magnificent opportuni-
ties, makes her the unchailenged queen
of industry and enterprise. Her COM
merce moves triumphant across all
oceans, over all continents And her
power of self-assertion Is mighty def
ant ever of subjugation, fitted ever for
the aureole Of victory, however potent the
opposition.
And now America is conscious of the
greatness into which she has grown. So
rapidly had she -been growing, so earnest
hsld she been in effort af1A. life that no
pase would she make to measure her
stature and for long she knew not the
heights t. which she had been soaring.
But the revelation of herself has at last
come to her. The Spanish American war
was the occasion; America was thrilled
with the sense of her m1gntiness; she
heard the returning echoes of her world
embracing prestige and influence; she
understood that great she is at home that
great she is abroad; she understood that
no Atlantic, no Pacific coast sets limit to
her name or to her work; and that to be
truthful to herself and truthful to human
ity she must, wills she is or wills she is
not, hold herself to be great and reso-
1utely assume and play amid earth's ma
tions the role of greatness.
Is Assigned to America.
by the force of her greatness a leader
ship In the affairs of humanity Is assigned
to America; she cannot refuse herself to
it What shall that leadership be? Be
1t worthy, we pray, of Americal Be 1t
such, we pray, that humanity must bless
the day. when the republic of the west
rose into dignity and power and was en-
throned as queed amid the worlds most
queenly nations.
What shall the leadership of America
be? The announcement Is made by the
chieftains of her people. The president of
the republic and his secretary of state
have spoken and their words have
reached the uttermost bounds of the
earth. Addressing the diplomatic officers
of the United States accredited to the
governments signatroies of The Hague
convention, John Hay wrote under date of
October 2O 1904 The President has
charged me to instruct you to ascertain
whether the government to which you
are accredited Is willing to conclude with
the government of the United States an
arbitration treaty of like tenor to the ar
rangements concluded between France
and Great Britain on October H. 1903.
The leadership of America. II our chief
tains interpret Alright the thought of the
American people, is the leadership of
peace and good will the leadership of
justice and righteousness and the advent
of America into greatness betokens
nought but love and joyousness amid the
nations of earth. 1t might have been the
leadership of strength. intoxicated with
the pride of mightiness America might
have allowed herself to be, as of yore the
Greece of Alexander, the Rome of Cae,
sar, a bold, ambitious power, making hel
sole appeal to her trusted sword new
menace were she to peoples and to tribes
a new peril to the weak and unoffending
one more disturbing element In the fam.
lily of mankind. and naught else, should
her standard have symbolized but the r-
responsible prowess, the brute force
which has so often already crmsoned
deeply with human hecaton.bs the pages
of the worlds history. No; such be not
America. thy ambition and thy glory
rather be thy message to the world thai
of the Savious. Peace to men of good
WILL; by the reign a new era in the life
OF nations-the era of love to all, the era
of Justice to all.
THE chieftains of the American peo-
rle have spoken; the question of the houl
is-wilI the American people ratify the
message of peace and good will now
speeding over earth from the lips Of their
chieftalns.
Been Answered Favorably.
s'The invitation to the governments, sig
natories to the Hague convention, to en-
ter into treaties with America for the
pacific settlement of international dis
putes. has already in nearly every case
neen answered favorably. and treaties OF
arbitration with those several govern
ments await the approval of the senate
of the United States.
international disputes there will al
yays be- One of the two modes OF set
Element musl be choseE-the battlefield
or the tribunal of arbitration.
1.-THE battlefield, l shall not deny that
over it glory often lowered; that often
the victory there gained was blessing
untold to men and nations. | shall not
refuse recognition and gratitude to the
noble virtue of combatants in that arena
of blood. Nothing higher, nothing bet
ter than the sublime heroism of the sol