The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-10
PEACE AT
 ANY .PRICE"'

En8lanQ'S s 'cOnSc10ntlOuS OOJeCtOrS and America's peace at any price, advocates represent only . modern development of movement which is as old as history. The doctrine of was born in Asia thou sands of years ago and it has been by nearly all the great religions with the exceptions of Judaism and Moham- mechanism. Christendom in general has refused to accept the doctrine save as theory to be honored more in the breach than in the observance, but a number, of Christian sects have made it the principal plank in their doc trina1 platforms.
 The peace at any price" doctrine may be. said to have had it's origin on this side of the Atlantic with the ar- rival at Boston just 260 years ago to- day, July 10, 1856, of the first Quakers. The pioneers of this sect were two women, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, and their landing created consterna- ton among the Puritan magistrates. In an address to the magistrates George Bishop said: Two poor wo- men arrived in your harbor so shock ye, to the everlasting shame of you, and of your established peace and or der, as if a formidable army had in- vaded your borders"
 Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, who had fled from persecution in England to Barbados and thence to Boston, soon discovered that they had leaped from the frying pan into the fire. Their books were burned by the common hangman before they were permitted to land. They we're then cast into prison and stripped in a search for the bofy-marks of witches. The pious Furitans were then in the throes of a witch hunt! and that very year a wo- mar who was the widow of a magts- trete and the sister of Governor Bell ineham was put to death as a witch. The two women were joined by eight more Quakers in August, but all were banished. Three of them who return ed were sentenced to death-two young men and Mary Dyer. The lat ter was reprieved and sent back to Rhode Island. but she returned to Boston, def1ed the laws and was hanged.
 Among the early disciples of Fox were many whose enthusiasm outran their judgment. and they often adopt ed very objectionable methods of ex- pressing their scorn for the magis- trates, ministers and human laws. Several fanatical young women walk ed naked in the streets of Boston as emblems of the fsunclothed souls of the people," In spite of such provo cations, which might have Justified im- prisonment, the Massachusetts author ities had no Justification for the in- credible ferocity which characterized their, persecution of the Quakers.
 The Dutch of New Amsterdam were ''the 4ccursed sect" but, unlike the only imprisoned them. In Maryland the Friends were not persecuted be- cause of their religious views, but because of their refusal to perform military duty or take the oath.
 In Pennsylvania the Quakers op- posed the Indian wars, and many of them were so determined in their op- position to the revolutionary struggle that they aided the British. The cap ture of the papers and records of Quaker meetings gave Congress proof of the general disaffection of the socie- ty, and eleven of the leaders in Phfla- delphia were arrested and banished to Virginia. Two Quakers who were con- victed as British spies were executed. On the other hand, many Quakers sup ported the revolution. and Thomas Paine, whose pen so ably supported the sword of Washington, was of Quaker stock.