The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-09
CL LADDEN'S PLEA
 FOR PEACE WINS PRIZE OF S1,OOO
Calls Preparation for War Repudiation of Principles
 of Christianity.

|
 pr. Washington Gladden., of Co1um-
 prize in the Church Peace Unions
 annual essay writing contest holds
 that the preparation for war by nations cannot proceed as it has proceeded for
 the past fifty years without the most fat repudiation of ali that is central Fand vital in Christian morality.
 The subject Of Dr. G3adden's essay | is x"The r'ords Nof the Road" It is IhWarded $1<cGo. Three prizes of $500
 $500 and $260 were >ewar6 r6ed to theo- l logical students. They were Harry
 Hoffs, of the western Theological Sem
 mary, Holland, Mich; Robert Els 1, worth, of the Boston University School
 of Theology, and w. o. Blount, of the
 Southern Baptist Theological, Senin-
 ary, of Louisville, Ky.
 1 Dr.. G1addenss essay follows in part: ] It is the spirit of TniIitarisn which is now before the worlds judgment
 seat, and the Christian church is deep Iy concerned in this inquiry because
 the spirit of mi1itarism has entered in to and taken possession of what we call Christian civilization. For the
 health and the sanity of the. ideas which control Christian civilization the fChristian church is responsible What then, is this spfritt of Inilitarism to
 which we owe the present condition
 of the world?
 On the threshold of this inquiry questions will be raised as to the right
 sumed that national se1f-defence is justidable, and it seems to be easy to
 prove that all war is defensive. That
 claim is confidently set up by all the lcombatants in the present war. When
 all other subterfpges fail, the stpre- ventive Krieg'' is a convenient contri- vance for Ncushioning the national con- science. If you can only, convince yourself that an enemy is getting ready to strike at you, it is only se1f-defence
 to strike first Such devices are am
 ply furnished by the philosophers of E Seriously, however, the rights of self
 defence are not to be questioned and the duty of using force to prevent in- | justice may sometimes be imperative.
 An innocent nation may sometimes be
 dragged into war. That the Be1gians
 sion of their territory is no sure proof
 that they had not been cli1tivating the
 sentiment of brotherhood.
 f Yearly Military Programmes. But when the nations of the earth
 are visibly engaged year after year in building forts and forging cannon, and launching fleet after fleet of battle
 ships. each bigger and dead1ier than
 all which have gone before, and in
 venting more and more hellish imp1e-
 ments of destruction-some df them
 forcing their young men to. give years
 of their lives to the art of kll1ing-it
 seems weIl-nigh certain that they do
 not hold themselves to the laws offthe
 Kingdom of Heaven.
 | This preparation cannot proceed, as l it has been proceeding during the last | half century in all the nations which 1 call themselves Christian, without the most fiat repudiation of all that is cen | Is177 ifa1 iSti< cannot proceed except upon the as-
 sumption by each nation that some or
 all of the other nations are bent on attacking and destroying friendly
 and defenceIess nation. For itself.
 each nation, of course, claims to be free from all such predatory purposes. Equally, of course, it must accuse some or all of the other nations governed by such predatory purposes else it's HercuIean labors of preparation for defensive war would be absurd. For
 some or all of the other nations which
 it thus accuses, it must, therefore, be cherishing fear and suspicion, and con= sequent enrnity.
 Those who are melting this work of preparation for war must needs be cu1- tivating in. the minds of the people such fears and suspicious toward some nation or other as alone could warrant so heavy a drain upon its revenues. Of course under such conditions, the re. lations of this nation, toward the otherE nations ofswhom it entertains such sus- picions must be more and more strain ed. No nation can thus suspect an
 other without the others Knowing it, and resenting it. Between nations thus regarding each other, an occasion for war will easily be found. This is the psychology of war.
 Women As Winners.
 Women lead as winners of the prize to .schurch members between the ages of twenty and thirty They were Pauline Mae FoIlansbee, Maiden,
 Mass, and Pearl Helen Herth, Mead vile. The men were Arthur Lock
 wood Johnson, San Jose, Gal; Charles
 L.. Stewart, Urbana, H., and J. c.
 Sandal, Chicago, III.
 The Church Peace Union was found
 ed by Andrew. Carnegie, in the spring A of 1914, with an endowment of $2,-