The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-04-16

Exclusive Service the Survey Press
Bureau.)
My recent studies in the warning
countries have convinced me that there
is no immediate possibility of bringing
about peace and that there will be
none until either exhaustion or de-
cisive victory comes to one side oil
to the other. 1 was in France, FOR the
most part in Paris, during August and
September and in Germany, Belgiub
Holland and England during october
and November. Discussion of the pos
sible terms of peace without regard to
the time when peace could be made
was equally impossible.
Yet peace must come and / believe
that we in the United States have a
very definite duty to perform in the
face of the situation that confronts us
For If something is not done by some
neutral nation the struggle Will be
greatly prolonged and will end in d
sediment that will leave Europe All
armed camp-with disastrous conse-
quences to all the world.
Real Peace Dependent on Masses
No other nation is quite so well ttted
as ours to initiate action. II settlement
is to bring a real peace and not mere
truce, the masses of people in all the
nations interested, neutrals we'll as
belligerents, must have a part in the
discussion of it's terms and must wield
a powerful influence in shaping them
Unless some feasible plan is furnished
in advance this participation Will be
denied them and the treaties of peace
will be written in terms supplied by
the same type of diplomats who Were
1T !, IN
great war.
1t is clear that we cannot depend
upon the warning nations to begin, OF
their own accord, a discussion of the
terms of peace sufficiently in advance
of the actual peace-making to Insure
to the people their proper participation
in the settlement. Fortunately, how
ever, there is an opportunity to induce
such discussion. This opportunity l.
in the United States by reason OF the
fact that all the belligerent nations arc
represented here by great numbers OF
men who We're either born in one OF
those countries or are the immediate
descendants of their nationals.
Laboratory for Peace Basis
Thus I believe this country is in a
position to furnish the warning ma
lions what they will not provide fol-
themselves-a field for just such >
mary of a sound peace and a labora-
tory in which the action and reaction
of all the elements involved in the
war may be had.
We have in this country millions oil
citizens of German, French, Austrian
Russian English and Italian origin
These people, while retaining an under
standing of the problems of their ma
tive lands, have yet for the most par!
been here long enough to have acquired
! a sympathetic knowledge of the basic
principles of our racial, religious and
political freedom and of our democratic
institutions
Therefore l propose that there be
initiated in this country a nation wide
and thorough discussion of the prin-
ciples underlying permanent peace and
the bases of settlement in. Europe
This discussion, to be effective, must
reach the masses of the people, espe-
cially those whose foreign origin gives
them greater sympathy with the in
terests of one or the other of the bel
ligerents.
At first there viii be some confusion
some errors, differences and, naturally
some racial and national prejudices
But gradually a better understaHdin s
of the fundamental principles,\ rights
and possibilities involved will come
The discussion would inevitably attract
the attention of all parties to the strife
in Europe and they in turn would COM
municate to their compatriots in this
country something of their OWL atti-
tude toward the settlement of their dif-
ferences.
Testing Sentiment of Peoples
1t is extremely probable that those in
authority In the nations at war would
use this opportunity to test indirectly the
probable attitude of their own people and