Iditarod pioneer., 1916-04-22
ALASKA'S FORD DELEGATE GIVES HIS IMPRESSIONS
 OF RECENT PEACE TRIP

Emil Edward Hurja returned last night
 from his tour of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Holland at the expense of Henry Ford, says the Seattle Post-lntell- | gencer Since leaving Seattle November
 30, to join the peace party as the personal
 representative of President Henry Suzzalo of the university and Governor Strong of | Alaska, Mir Hurja has been seeing and learning He admits he has had a good time, in spite of which he was able to ex 1 hibit 20 cents in good American coin when he stepped off the train last night. | That the Ford peace mission so far has served the purpose for which it was con | ceived is MT. Hurja's firm conviction.
 "The principal purpose of the expedition was to serve a popular demonstration against war" he says "Ihis demonstra- tion was to lead to the selection of an en- tirely neutral conference, whose task 1t wi be to consider ways and means for bring
 ing the war to an end. This conference. which is now being formed in Europe, will serve as continuous unofficial board of arbitration It will formulate and suggest a program for the settlement of the war after deliberating on the international ques- tions at issue and calling in experts from both neutral and belgerent countries. Whether the conference of civilians can have any influence on the diplomats of | Europe is a question which time alon" can answer But so far at least the expedition has not been worthless
 Kings palaces. worldrenowned art mu seums, and counts, dukes and barons no longer hold forth any special attraction for MT Hurja. He has seen so many of each that they have become commonplace. Every where members of the party went espe cia,ly the student members of whom there were thirty seven, they were wined and dined and feted until, as Mir Huria said It got so we would just for the novelty of 1t refuse champagne with our meals
 And the peculiar part of the entire trip is that MT. HurJa never saw Henry Ford, father of the excursion and patron of the expense accounts. Because of Mir. Hurja'S long preliminary journey from Seattle, he missed the Oscar II and started out eigh; days later with twenty-two other members, joining the main party in Christianla. Nor way. When he reached ChristIania Henry Ford had become i'll and had set out on his return to the United States.
 Throughout the trip the sixty newspaper men, present in their professional canaci ties were tie life of the party, according to Mir Hurja They wrote very secret ritual end initiated several of the digDihed members into the VacjIlating Sons of St. Nitus. Hurja has been initiated into the Kappa Sigma and Sigma Delta Chi fraterni- ties at college, but he never in his life ex- perienced anything Ike the fun-r4aking mich preceded his acceptance into the ranks of the Nac!llating Sons of St. Nitus
 The name of the organization vas Sc lected after cne of the brilliant wits in the newspaper crowd viewed sedate member cf the party sta2ger across the deck of the Oscar II during q storm
 The newspaper men also entertained with singing, sometimes at most inappropriate times, Mir. Hurja confesses, song the words of which were written by Berton BraIey famous rhymester, to the doleful tune of the funeral march. Every verse ended with an enthusiastic shout of stop the war.' accompanied by sharp clap of the hands
 Along the route the peace party, whose members fully realized the purpose for which they had been invited, and who par citpated seriously in all discsusicns, held daily conferences. The student members held separate councils, and were never ad- mtted to the meetings of the older per sons.
 While Mir Ford was with the party the students were shown every courtesy and ! consideration that was accorded other mem bers of the party" said Mir. Huria. When l MT. Ford left, however his manager, who evidently was not quite clear as to the true purpose for which the students had l been invited, discrminated somewhat. The students were made to carry suit cases and were qusrtered in different places from the rest of the party However, the students ! more than made up for this by the good times they had in the various cities Every 1 where they were entertained by the student bodies of the foreign universities.
 1 'The entire party was chosen by Mr Ford with the idea of getting truly rep resentative group of persons from the United States. And nearly every type was repre- sented. The students probably were the most representative that could have been collected in the country, and among the 1 newspaper men 1t was commonly said that the students evlnced a greater earnestness in the serious purpose of the party than did any of the other members.
 "The Norwegans, while courteous, held themselves bit aloof and did not greet either the party or its purpose with any great enthusiasm. It was a twenty two hours train ride from Christiania to Stock holm, Sweden, and by some oversight no sleeping accommodations had been provided
 "The only person on the train who rested was the engineer. It surely was slow, tiresome tri D..
 We were accorded splendid reception in Sweden, and spent week in Stockholm