The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-05-20
DR.. CLARK TALKS
At INTERNATIONAL CONF.
ON WORLD PEACE
(by Associated Press)

Mohonk Lake, N. Y, May 90
The opponents Of armed strife who
find no encouragement to their ef-
forts in the present world war had
as their spokesman here today Prof.
Bates Clark of Columbia University
and the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. In his address
before the Lake Mohonk Conference
on international Arbitration DR..
CLARK not only assorted that the
war has converted the world to a
vigorous pacifism." but suggested
that an effective Peace League might
develop naturally from either the
Triple Alliance or the Entente Cord
iale. now arrayed against each other
in the worlds greatest war.
To insure that the present Arma-
geddon" shall never be repeated, he
said. "a strong League of Nations is
indispensable, and various plans for
such a league are forming" 1t Is
necessary, he declared. to create a
league Of peace without reference to
combinations that now exist AL
though the two greatest leagues of
Europe are now at war, this fact
does not warrant the conclusion that
such unions are by their nature war
breeders. Defensive unions are in
line with the whole trend of politi-
cal evolution. Great nations, created
by combining smaller ones, are the
order of the day, and so are fedora
tions of looser kind, such as those
which preceded the German Empire
and our own Federal States.
Whenever peace shall be univer-
sal it will have come by first estab-
fishing itself within larger and larg-
er areas till 1t ends by embracing
the world. European wars have oc-
Cured in spite of alliances rather
than because of them, and the gen.
eral effect even OF imperfect unions
has been to lengthen intervals of
peace. 1t Is an even century since
a war akin to this one was waging
in Europe, and it Is forty-four years
since a war between any two great
nations has taken place on that con-
tinent. The consolidating tendency
in itself makes for peace however
imperfectly the more imperfect
unions may sometimes work, and the
of the principle Of unions
Is the only means that can ever
make peace universal. Complete
unions must come first through con-
federacies and leagues.
"The present leagues have sew
eral times acted as peace preservers.
During the Moroccan trouble they
averted general struggle; they did
the same during the two Balkan
wars, and they might have done it
in connection with the Austro-Ser-
bian conflict If. as unions, they had
been more complete than they were.
L
definitely known that France, Rus
sia and England would act as unit
in opposing theinvasion of Serbia. 1t
would have been delayed till dip
lomacy would have had time to pre-
vent it altogether and thus save hu-
manity from the greatest disaster of
modern times.
at is possible either to work di-
rectly for a new league of peace or
to utilize one of the existing unions
as nucleus. Is 1t possible to give
to either of these leagues the char
acter that will make them, beyond
all doubt, guardians of peace? Can
the neutral countries exert decisive
influence In this direction? It takes
no especial study to show that sit
uation probably will soon exist that
will bring an effective league for