The Washington herald., 1916-04-30
Manner and Methods.


We are an earnest group in the unofficial
neutral conference. now assembled at Stock
holm This remark docs not mean that we
take ourselves too solemnly. ! don't think we
do. But we realize the magnitude and the diff
hculsies of task, and the realization Is sober
ing. Besides, we are all more or less Influenced
by European manners, particularly as they are
cultivated here in Sweden, tending in the direc-
ton OF Formally that makes for seriousness
OF demcanor. At the conference meetings, which
regularly occur three times week, and irregu-
larly occur very often besides, when we en-
counter one another we are likely to go through
a ceremonious shaking of hands Then we all
take our places at the long tables shaped like
the Greek cross, and we begin. The discus
sions usually last till l o'clock. Thes, unless
we are. so to speak. in full cry. we adjourn,
perhaps for the day, perhaps till ago. If we
return we may spend the whole afternoon in
work.
There is a great deal of earnest talk among
US. Most OF it is necessary. Much of it is very
good. Usually it is low-voiced and colloquial.
Seldom is it voluble and imprisoned. The in
terruptions of the interpreter serve as a healthy
check eloquenee. Now and then several try
to talk at once try to maintain a little eddy
of talk apart from the main stream They are
terse "order, order" given in the English par
liamentary style introduced by Doctor Aked
and at first initiated joke Mayor Carl
Iindhagen, who reads English and understands
! it when it is slowly and carefully spoken, and
speaks it with anguished effort, likes particu-
larly to the words. But he takes all the
sternness out Of them. He cannot be stern
about anything.
One of the Norwegian delegates is taking
advantage of the chance to develop his English.
| Sometimes | wish he were not. Not that his
English is not good. 1t is good, so far as it
! goes. But it goes very slowly. However al
ready can signs of the improvement he is
making. and ! admire his courage. By the time
| these words are printed he will be able to go
much faster
l. Some of our delegates speak many Lam
guages that, at times, they actually grow be-
widered themselves. (Which language am
| speaking" one of them asked the other day,
seeming to come out of a dream. He was
| assured that he had been speaking in German,
and, taking up the cue, he went on very COM
| fortably. So far English and German arc in
the ascendant French is seldom heard among
US. But it will soon be heard often when we
get at the documents addressed to the govern
ments. which must be in the language of diplo-
| macy. How curious, by the way that for so
many years diplomacy should have been con-
Quoted in the clcarest of all languages.
| Now that six nations are represented among
US, of FIVE delegates each with the exception of
one), we make a good-sized company. 1t is
not so easy to secure attention from the chair
man as it used to be. But the takers among
us manage to be heard and to be heard at
length, too. In this regard the Dutch are excep-
| tional Though they have been with US for
| several days now they have manifested no dis
position to contribute to oratory. They speak,
| to be sure, some of them, but always briefly and
to the point. Perhaps they are absorbed taking
our measure They are very intelligent group
| of women and men and some of them have had
wide experience of peace work at The Hague.
| Already il is plain that there are two varie-
| ties of opinion in our midst, those who favor
the extreme idealistic program and those who
favor moderate program. The idealists speak
as though they thought the world ought to be
| fundamentally changed before anything can be
done to stop the war. The moderates believe in
| concentrating on the immediate problem OF
stopping the war and paying attention to re-
! forms later. The extremists argue that theirs
is the only way of securing a peace that shall
be permanent The moderates say that the
extremists. instead of stopping the war, will
| virtually range themselves on the side of the
bellgerents by refusing to use their influences
now and by postponing the day of settlement.
They ask for a peace that shall be reasonable
from the point of view of today and they hope
that, afterward, the forces of progress will tend
| to develop public opinion that shall finally
drive war out of the world
| In the Ford
many who favored the extreme position or, as
it was generally called, the maximum program.
| On that program some of the European dele
gates were elected. But it was not in any way
associated with the choice of others of the dele
cations, including the American and the Dutch.
Before the Dutch pacihsts sent delegation they
were assured that the conference, as such, should
not be in any way bound, that it should be, as
one of them explained to me the other day, SOW