Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-04
HAY FOR ARBITRATION
Addressed Delegates to Inter-
national Peace Congress.
AGREED WITH TOLSTOI
BELIEVES THAT RELIGION Is THE
REMEDY FOB WAR.
Pledged Support Of Administration for
Peace-Eastern War flinders
Call for Conference.
AGREED WITH TOLSTOI

A QlSpatcn from Boston, MASS, iaSt Li6H
says: Secretary of State John Hay, repre-
senting the United States of America, spoke
the word of welcome this afternoon to the
delegates to the international peace con-
gress. who assembled in fremont Temple
for the first formal meeting of the thir-
tenth annual convention. President Geo.
R. Jones of the Massachusetts, senate ex-
tended the greeting of the commonwealth
of Massachusetts and Mayor Patrick A.
Collins that of Boston.
Secretary Hay traced briefly the war
history of this country and pointed out
that the country's greatest men had been
warm advocates of peace. He agreed with
Tolstoi that religion is the remedy for war.
He promised the administrations support,
so far as practicable, of the principle of
the arbitration of such questions as may
not be settled through diplomatic negotia-
tons, and expressed confidence that at no
distant day the attention of the nations
might be brought to the wisdom of Sec
Ond conference at The Hague to continue
the work of the conference of 1899.
Secretary Hay spoke in part as follows:
mo time could be more fitting for this
gathering of a parliament of peace than
today, when at the other end of the world
the thunder of destructive and san
culinary war is deafening the nations, while
here we are preparing to settle the ques-
ton Of a vast transfer of power by an
appeal to reason and orderly procedure,
under the sanction of law implicitly ac-
cepted by eighty millions of people No
place could be more suitable than this
high-hearted city, which has been for near
ly three hundred years the birthplace and
the home of every idea of progress and
enlightenment which has terminated in
the western world.
ITO bid you welcome to the home Of
Vane, of Winthrop and of Adams, of Chan
ming and Emerson, is to give you the free
dom or no mean city, to make you par
takers 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 its 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 it's highest Gull
lure It's most persistent spirit, has been
that righteousness which exalteth a ma
iron, that obedience to the inner light
which leads along the paths of peace.
Founders of New England
And the policy of the nation at large.
which owes so much Of it's civic spirit to
the founders Of New England, has been in
the main policy of peace. During the
hundred and twenty years of our indie
F~~~N>AAs
wars with the outside world, though we have
mad a most grievous and dolorous struggle
with our own people. We have had, l
thlnk, a greater relative immunity from
war than any of our neighbors All our
greatest men have been earnest advocates
of peace.
The very men who founded our liberties
with the mailed hand detested and abhorred
war as the most futile and ferocious of hui
man follies. Franklin and jefferson repeat
dPnnnnpa6 a rytI, oil he
ergy of his rhetoric, the other with the
lambert fire of his wit. But not our philos-
ophers alone-our fighting men have seen
at close quarters 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: 1--WE
have experienced enough Of its evils in this
country to know that it should not be wan
tonly or unnecessarily entered upon"
Two Presidents for Arbitration.
No Presidents in our history have been so
faithful and SO efficient as the last two in
the cause Of arbitration and of every
peaceful settlement of differences. I men
ton them together because their work has
been harmonious and consistent. We hailed
with joy the generous initiative of the Rus
sian emperor, and sent to the conference at
The Hague the best men we had in our
civic and military life. When The Hague
court lay apparently wrecked at the be-
ginning of Its voyage. threatened with
death before it had fairly begun to live, 1t
was the American government which gave
1t the breath of life by inviting the republic
of Mexico to snare our appeal TO its juris-
diction; and the second case brought before
1t was at the instance of Mr.. Roosevelt,
who declined in its favor the high honor
of arbitrating an affair of worldwide i'm
portance.
I beg you to believe, 1t is not by way of
boasting that I recall these incidents to
YOUR minds; 1t is rather as profession OF
faith in a cause which the present admin
istration has deeply at heart that I ask
YOU to remember, in the deliberations upon
which you are entering, the course to which
the American government is pledged and
which it has steadily pursued for the last
seven years.
No Country Immune to War.
But fixed as our tradition is. clear as is
our purpose in the direction of peace no
country is permanently immune to war so
long as the desire and the practice of
peace are not universal. If we quote
Washington as an advocate Of peace, 1t is
but fair also to quote him where he says:
ITO be prepared for war Is one Of the most
effectual means of preserving peace" And
at another time he said: "To an active ex-
ternal commerce the protection Of naval
force Is Indispensable.
ITO secure respect to neutral flag re-
to vindicate 1t from insult or aggression -
To acknowledge the existence of an evil Is
not to support or approve it, but the facts
must be faced. Human history is one long,
desolate story of bioodshed. All the arts
unite in the apparent conspiracy to give
precedence to the glory of arms. Demos
themes and Pericles adjured the Athenians
by the memory of their battles Horace
boosted that he had been a soldier. non
sine gloria.
Remedy Against War.
We have all recently read that wonderful
sermon on war by Count Tolstoi, in which
spirit of marvellous lucidity and fire. alb
solutely detached from geographical or DO
litical conditions, speaks the Word as 1t
has been given him to speak it, and as no
other living man could have done. AS you
read. with an aching heart. his terrible ar.
raignment of war, feeling that as man
you are partly responsible for all human
atrocities. you wait with Impotence for tha
remedy he shall propose, and you find II is
Religion. e - 10
Yes, that is the remedy If all would do
rignt. nobody would do wrong-nothinp is
palmer 1t is counsel of perfection. salts
factory to prophets and saints, to be reach
ed IN GODS good time But you are here
10 consult together to see whether the GEN
eratior now alive may not do something 10
hasten the coming of the acceptable day.
the appearance on earth of the beatifie
vision. II we cannot at ouce naka moo ,rs