The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-05-03
$1,000 PRIZE
TO DR.. ATKINS
FOrmerV ermont PastOrWins
Peace Essay Contest
Recently Closed
COMPETITION OPEN
TO UNITED STATES
Winner Is well-Known Leader Among
congregationalists of New England
Contest Was Held by Carnegie
Church Peace Union
Especial to The Reformer.)

Church Peace Union
Especial to The Reformer)
NEW YORK, May 3.
The prize winners in the peace es-
say contest held by the Carnegie
Church Peace union, which closed Jan
nary of this year, were announced
yesterday. The first prize of ST 900 is
awarded to Rev. Gaius Glenn Atkins,
pastor of the Central Congregational
church of Providence, R. l., we'll known
as a leader among the Congregations
ahsts in New England, formerly pastor
| in Greenfield, Mass, and later in Bur
| lington, VI. The judges were Robert
| Underwood johnson, former editor of
| Century, Canon George William Doug
| las of the cathedral Of ST. John the
| Divine, and DIR. Washington GLADDEN. of
! Columbus, Ohio. The prize awarded to
DR.. Atkins was offered to Ftany pastor
of any church in the United States. =
| Three prizes offered to students in
Theological seminaries We're awarded to
the following: r. W. Nelson, Phillips
university, East Enid, Oklahoma; P. Y.
Blanchard. Andover seminary, Cam
bridge, Mass, and R. Niebuhr, Yale
School of Religion, Lincoln, Illinois
1
/ bers were all awarded to men.
Some of the striking paragraphs in
the essay of DR. Atkins, which is en-
titled The Causes OF War, are as fol-
lows:
- This war is teaching MS first of all
that humanity has not lost its fighting
edge. The hopes and fears Of those who
believed that our old fighting instincts
were dead or so blunted as to have lost
their primitive and terrible power are
alike disappointed; we are offered from
day to day proof that men generally
tare capable of displaying a finer and
more desperate kind of courage tran
ever before.
So our world being what it is, VIC
see how necessary it has been for lib
ertv again and again, TO make its way
with the sword. Religious wars are al
ways quite as truly wars for religious
/ freedom as wars of religious intoler-
aneey a good part of all that fighting
which we owe to imperialism Is only
the noble and saving resistance to
those who refuse to be imperialized 1t
is not too much to say that there is
mo real freedom today whether in the
administration of the state, in the I'M
hampered worship of God, or in the
Operation of democracy itself, that has
not been won by fighting. The measure
fof religious tolerance which holds in
Europe today was. to begin with. at
least won by the sword; at the edge of
the sword Holland cut herself free from
lSpain; at the edge of the sword the
divine right of kings was hopelessly
and finally beaten down in English soil
at the edge of the sword the better
Ipart of the French revolution got room
and chance for life; at the edge of the
sword the American colonies freed
themselves from their over-zealous
mother; at the edge of the sword slav
lery in America was ended and paid
for; and no prophet is wise enough tc
say that this long and heroic chapter
in the history of humanity is finally
closed
We here in America have maintain
ed a standing army which may be
I dismissed as negligible, have reluctant
!. ly built a espect-commanding navy
and have on the whole been perhaps
too careless of our. national defense
not because We are unwilling to pay
the price or fight, if need he, there
is nothing in oud national history tc
prove that we have been afraid tc
fight, but because on the whole we
have instinctively given expression tc
the eacemal1ing, peace maintaining
Il peace-trusting forces which are implic
it in the life and temper of democ
racy.
Republican France left to herself
would have forgotten her military
: ideals and ambitions, and have ever
: foregone her revenge, in spite of thu
/ menace of that Gordon of steel lvins
| over against her northern frontiers
| France was rapidly becoming a peace
| loving nation, and another generation
without war would have gone far to
Eward transforming her national char
| acter'
II In his conclusion DIR. Atkins make
/ a plea for educational activities to
/ ward the end that the causes of wa
/ may be eliminated. He points out il
II this direction the opportunity of th'
/ church. AT the heart of our Ameri
i can life," he says, "is the Americas
Il church; free from entangling alliance
Il with the state and its parties, with n,
II cause to serve save the cause of al
II ultimate justice and regnant right
H Ieousness, she has leadership, power, in
II fluence to feed into the life of this ma
II ton an idea1ism which shall east it
II light far down the future s broaden
II ing way and make plain the patl