Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-05-19


President William H. Taft, as head OF
special committee on church Coop
Grafton, has written to 10000 ministers
throughout the country, asking them
to embody in their sermons on May q,
(the third Sunday in May. which in d
good many churches is observed as
Peace Sunday") an explanation OF the
program Of the League to Enforce
Peace which is to hold its first an
nual assemblage on May 20 and -.
Other signatures to the letter are
those of L. T. Wilson. Methodist
bishop Of New York; Smaller Mathews,
president Of the Federal Council Of the
Churches Of Christ in America; the
Rev. Charles S. MacFarland, the Rev.
j. B. Remensnyder, Rev. Arthur j.
Brown, Hamilton Holt and Fred Z.
Smith.
Mr.. Taft is president of the League
to Enforce Peace, which was formed
at Philadelphia, in independence hall
last June when a platform was adopt
ed which proposed the establishment
of an international court and council
Of Cancellation by league of nations.
which should pledge it's joint economic
eignatory from beginning hostilities or
declaring war. over any question until
it had first tried judicial methods.
Ministers in Augusta to whom let
ters were sent are Clayton d. Booth
by Milton Halves ana Raoul Forest.
Enclosed with the letter from Mr..
Taft and others, was an open Letter
to the Ministers of America on the
Moral Challenge of the War" which
reads in part as follows:
The present war has challenged the
moral ingenuity of the world. For
years we have preached the ideals Of
peace and have hurled indictments
against war. While the world was n
peace it was easy to feel that we had
done our duty and discharged our re-
sponsibility when we had lifted our
voice against war in pulpit in univer
sity, and in the market place \ long
I,erod of peace had luled the world
into a false security. We did not feel
a driving urgency about our work for
international peace We were going
along quietly doing what we could to
educate public opinion against war,
but we did not feel an immediate re-
Chinery of international organization
that would make war less probable.
Then there burst upon the world
overnight the most brutal, the most
ruthless, and the most gigantic war of
history. The flower of human brother
hood that the Christian forces Of the
world had been watering and nurtur-
ing for centuries was withered by the
hot breath Of hate. The results of
years Of struggle for social justice,
for democracy. and for larger oppor-
.tunity for the common man, were
thrown on the scrap heap and all the
energies Of mind and heart were har-
messed to the machinery Of war
This war has taught us that the
most urgent. the most necessary, the
most fundamentally religious duty
now before US is the devising and
adopting Of some method other than
war for settling the disputes that are
bound to arise between nations.
The best thinking of the world as
we'll as all the lessons Of history indi-
cate that the only method by which
the dangers Of war can be practically
eliminated. is by substituting law for
substituted law for war among inlivid-
uals within the nations.
There Is no reasonable ground to
hope that the nations of the world
will at this stage go so far as to dis
arm and create an international army
and navy to police The world. We have
not got that far in international af-
fairs. But we have got to the point
where there Is ground to hope that at
the end of this war the community Of
nations will do what every primitive
community sooner or later does, name
~: In primitive community when
the honor Of the women and the prop
erty Of the town are no longer safe
from outlaws, all men, even the most
peace loving. unite in forming a Wig
lance committee. in which they agree
to use their combined force to see that
outlawry is kept down and the peace
OF the town maintained.
The United States is today In ex-
ectly the position of man Of peace
IN a frontier town. 1t is our duty to
suggest and stand ready to join an in
ternational vigilance committee. in
which the nations OF the world shall
join in saying that they will use their
combined power if necessary to force
any nation with a grievance to submit
its difficulty to an international court
or council Of Cancellation before de-
Caring war.
1t seems practically possible that at