The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-02-27
PEACE DINNER
IN HONOR Of
ELIHU ROOT
PreSident-EIeCt Taft and Other
N0tabIeS Present at
the Banquet.
.EXTRAVAGANT PRAISE
OF JAPANESE PEOPLE
FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE
GIVES HIS ViEWS-AMBAssA-
DOR TAKAHIRA ALSO SPEAKS.

New York. Feb. 26.-The Peace So
ciety of New York brought together
around the banquet table at the Hotel
AstOr tonight d notable gathering Of
men prominent in national, state and
CITY affairs. The dinner was in honor
of Senator-elect Elihu Root of New
York. Joseph TT. Chuate was toast
master. PTesidCnt-CicCt Taft, Governor
Hughes, Ambassador Bryce, Baron ko-
goro Takahira, ambassador from Japan,
and Joaquin NabucO, Brazilian ambas-
sadOT, were the speakers, and the guests
numbered about 500.
Rarely has more brilliant dinner
scene been witnessed. The program
card contained miniature portraits of
President Roosevelt and the emperor
of Japan on India paper, together with
brief expressions on peace from the
persons portrayed.
Mr. Taft came in with former Judge
Alton B. Parker, and the guests arose
and gave him an ovation.
Dir. ChOate was in hts best humcT- He
had been commanded. he said, to lead
the orchestra and draw all sorts of
pleasant sounds from those who had
been designated to speak. To tell ali
the good things Mr.. Root had done
would keep the diners awake.
Mr. Root, he said. had done more for
the peace Of the world than any one
man in our history.
Mr.. Roots Speech.
Mr.. Root was then introduced. and A
remarkable demonstration ensued- lie
spoke on the causes that lead to war.
4 agree with Mr.. Choate," he said,
that there is no inconsistency between
the work of a secretary Of war and the
work of a secretary of peace, because
as long as seIfshness and greed and a
willingness to do injustice and brutality
continue in this world. we must have
the policeman, and the international po-
liceman, whose presence makes the use
Of his club unnecessary, is the army
and the navy
1t rests with the army and navy to
make aggression and injustice unprofit-
able ana UnattTactive. It rests with
you and with every woman without
struggling for the right Of suffrage to
exercise the powers that God has al
ready placed in our hands. Of every man
in the exercise of his duties, political or
social, morally to move the conceptions
of an honorable life away from the old
ideas of savagery toward the new ideas
of civilization. of humanity in their
progress gradually TO the supreme idea
of Christianity.
How to Maintain Peace
IF we would have peace, it is not
enough to cry peace, peace It is es-
sential that we should promote and in
sist upon the willingness of our country
to do justice to all countries of the
world. In the exercise Of the duties i'm
which the ambassadors of Great Brit
ain, Brazil and Japan have played so
great a part in the last few years in
Washington, the great obstacle to the
doing of things which make for peace
has not been the wish Of the diplomat
list. not the policy of the government,
but it has been the incoHsideTate and
thoughtless unwillingness of the great
body Of the people of the respective
countries to stand behind the man who
was willing for the sake of peace ana
justice TO make fair concessions.
War comes today as the result either
of actual or threatened wrong by one
country 20 another, or as the result OF
a suppOsitiOn by a country that another
intends to do it wrong. The least Of
these three causes of war is actual i'll
justice.
Great Praise for japanese.
In this country we are far from free
from being guilty Of all those great
causes Of war. The gentleman who in
trOduced into the legislatures Of Cali
fOrnia, Of Montana and Nevada. the
Legislation regarding the treatment Of
the japanese in those states, doubtless
had no conception Of the fact what they
were doing to that great nation of gen
tlemen, soldiers. of scholars and scien-
lists and statesmen, d nation worthy Of
challenging and receiving the respect,
the honor and homage of mankind. an
injustice by an insult that would bring
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