Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1914-12-19


The committee are asking you to
where people of high estate have fail
ed, the tender voices of the children
raised, to plead for the lives of their
brothers across the water may move
the rulers to cease their strife. This
war is raging, pretending to settle
differences between races sor nations
that nothing but education will
really settle. In America, where
Austrians, Bohemians, British,
French, Germans, Hungarians, Rus
slams and Servians live as neighbors
and their children meet in school and
play, we know them all as brothers
this loving brotherhood to the world,
so that the swords may be beaten in
to plowshares and all human beings
work for the common good of all.
And what is this war doing to the
nations engaged in it? The health
lest and best men of each country are
being sacrificed, either dead, or, if
they return, they come back cripples
or with health broken and the stain
of murder upon their souls; while at
home the women and. children with
their feeble hands must reap the
harvests that should be cut by the
men that lie wounded and dead on
the battlefield. The schools are shut
the children are starving, the factor
les are closed, and trade is at a stand
still.
The neutral counties of Europe
are suffering in the same way. Their
men are massed on their boarders,
fearing that war may strike at them
also. Their harvests, too, are I'M
garnered, or the women and children
are forced to do the work of the abb
sent men.
And America? We, too. must pay
the price, though so far away, though
our hearts are wrung by the slaughter
of friends or brothers. Our mines,
our factories, our lumber camps, are
also closed in many place, our trade
is impaired only the pockets of the
farmers are made heavier because
wheat is worth more now that all
Europe is hungry. But what Ameri
can farmel Ell ICES a the high price
of wheat when it means the death of
thousands of good men and the
changing of happy families into
weeping widows and orphans?
Children, we want you to remem-
Der that WAR is ALWAYS A
STUPIDITY. The territory gained
by any war could be bought many
times over by the money spent on
chase by the Government of all the
slaves owned by the South at the
highest market price would not have
cost one tenth what the war cost, to
say nothing OF the thousands of
brave men whose lives would have
been saved. Our great Benjamin
Franklin said: "There never was
good war nor bad peace. War is |
the enemy of mankind We hope |
that as you sign the petition you will |
make silent pledge to yourselves al |
ways to work for schools instead of
battleships, and for Libraries rather
than batteries.
KATE DEvEREUX BLAKE,
Chairman.
To His Majesty, the Emperor and
King of Austria Hungary.
To His Majesty, the King of Bel |
GUM.
To His Excellency, the President |
of the French Rupublic.
To His Majesty, the King of Great |
Britain and Emperor of India.
To His Majesty, the Emperor of |
Germany and King of Prussia.
To His Majesty, the Mikado of ia
pan.
To His Majesty, the King of Monte
negro.
To His Majesty, the Gar of all the
Russias.
We the undersigned, Children OF
America, plead with you, the rulers
of these great nations to call for an
immediate armistic. and to let the
differences of the warning nations be
submitted to the Hague Tribunal for
amicable and just settlement. and to
promise to adjust all future diff
culties peacefully in the same way.
We are the children and grandchild-
rem of your former subjects, we are
many of us tied by blood and affec-
ton to the soldiers now contending
in their death struggle on different
sides of this terrific combat, we inn
plore you to stop the frightful