The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-22
BRYAN ON PEACE.
Responds to Toast at Holland
Society Dinner in New York.

New York. Jan. 22-More. than 400
members and guests of the Holland
society of New Yorw attended an an
nual dinner at the Wald orf-Astoria
Peace" W. J. Bryan; Holland. Our
Ally in the Revolution" Rev George
Q. Isorimer, 1.-The Friendly Relation of
the Dutch With Our Nation" Sir Client
ing LANG Ching; "Our Hero Ances-
tors James n. Beck.
President Roosevelt sent the follow
ang letter:
Z wish I could be present at the
dinner of the Holland society. Natu-
rally I take particular interest in it;
but it simply IS not possible for me to
make another engagement of any kind
this winter
with hearty good wishes and ex-
pressing my regret that 1 am not with
you, fellow Dutchmen' of New York,
on this occasion
Mr.. Bryan said
Since my visit to the Netherlands,
my thoughts have been dwelling much
upon the important part that that lit
tie nation seems destined to take in
the movement that has for its object
the substitution of reason for force in
the settlement of differences between
nations. 1t is fitting that the temple
of peace should stand upon the ground
that was the scene of an eight years
conflict. and I am glad that an a meri-
can citizen has 50, generously provided
for it's construction
w must not expect all armies TO De
dlSbanGaG at once or look for the inn
mediate settlement OF all questions by
arbitration. The peace conference
which by invitation of the emperor of
Russia convenes at the Hague-the
peace conference to which our own
country has given such effective sup
pOrt-did not announce a new discovery;
II simply gave expression to a desire
that was felt. to a greater or less ex-
tent among the moreeenlightened of
every nation It revealed the fact that
society is at last approaching the point
where conscience will assert its su-
premacy over brute instinct. There
have been times when bravery on the
battlefield was regarded as the highest
form of virtue and there have been
times when intellectual force and indie
pendence of thought have been all suf-
1icient, but now other characteristics
are beginning to be recognized as the
dominant ones.
1--WE are finding that neither the per
fectly developed body nor the splen-
didly trained mind fills the measure of
the man or the nation.
The evils which afflict the body
polite are not due to the extra ordinary
development of the material forces of
the world, but to the fact that the
moral sense has not always kept pace
with industrial expansion. But there
is an awakening at hand. In the Unit
ed States, in England, in France in
Russia, everywhere there is an increas-
ing group of those who are looking up
to a higher ideal, who insist that a
physical combat between men is as
powerless as a fight between wild ami
mails to determine the right or wrong
of any proposition.
1T is not on the plutocracy of
wealth or on the aristocracy of learn
ing, but on the democracy of the heart.
that the hope of universal arbi4 t5o,n
and permanent peace must rest Today
an increasing number of people
throughout the world, standing on the
heights, are learning that God is not
in the iron clads or in the armies but
in the still small voice of justice that
issues from tribunals like that recent
~ instituted at The Hague.