Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-12-22

nations. laws brought out Of the expert
ence and travail of past centuries for the
benefit Of humanity. Like the great tenn
pies Of old, this Temple Of Peace was
beautiied and adorned by the gifts OF It's
various votaries. Costly marbles. rare
Eastern woods, wonderful Japanese tapes
thes, represented the gifts and good VIII
of various nations-of all the nations ex-
cept the United States. For her, the
great democracy, there was reserved
space upon the central landing Of the
great Stairway of Honor, the most con-
spicuous position in the building: for
America was to give, and place thereon,
marble statue representing Peace
Through Justice" What a coincidence.
my friends. That statue has never been
placed, and America has been forced to
make clean her soul for sacrifice, TO give
! her sons, to stake her all, in the endeavor
to make possible the existence Of THAI
principle which was TO have been, and,
please God. is to be, preserved and en-
bodied in monumental stone.
In the preparations for the third
peace conference at The Hague, Ger
/ many LOOK lltlie interest. SoilS IAdu
made other arrangements" Her army
/ bill at that time provided for war
! strength of 100000 men. Her mill
tary force was larger, better organ
! lied and better equipped than any
| other in the world. 1t lay like a gilt
| tering sword in her ftler's hand. He
longed to try the temper of its steel.
The third conference at The Hague
meant the establishment of reason and
justice as the rule Of the worlds life;
the right of the peoples of the world,
small or great, to determine their own
form of government and their own ac-
| ton; it meant that War-drums would
! throb no longer, but battle flags be
| furled, in the parliament of man, the
| federation of the world" But this was
not included in the German plan. The
German had come to look upon him.
self as the superior type of man, upon
war as a biological necessity in the
acquisition of more room for the ex-
pansion of Germany and German kul-
tur, upon frightfulness, as a lawful
and essential weapon for the accom-
| plishment of these ends. In the words
| OF the Crown Prince, Germany IRE
! jected the dream of universal peace
throughout the world as on-German."
Germany prepared for war and await
ed an excuse to precipitate it. That
excuse came in her support of AUS
trla's unreasonable demand upon little
Serbia to surrender her independence.
Efforts, made by France, England,
Italy and Russia, to refer matters in
! dispute to arbitration, or to The
! Hague, were of no avail. Germany
was ready to come into her own, to
make the German, the dominant race,
to force German kultur upon an I'M
willing world-ready to let loose her
h"rdes to overrun Belgium. loot and
Lurn town and village, massacre civil
idrs, outrage women, ruin churches
and shoot priests. All the scruples
and rules by which men had sought
to soften and mitigate the cruelties
of war and confine it's scope, embodied
in those works on international law
in the library of the neglected Peace
Palace at The Hague, were Knocked
and violated and flung aside, like a
/ HelSian maiden.
There came a day when Humanity
and Civilization. stricken, and wound
ed bleeding and outraged, stunned and
shamed by acts of bestial barbarism,
stood almost spent in the midst of
a ruined Europe and called aloud upon
! America for succor; and Americas
thank God, America called mercenary
and money-loving and selfish had in
that time of trial, enough of the spirit
of the Prince of Peace to take up her
cross with serene courage and deter
lnination and, for the redemption of
civilization and humanity, go I'D to
/ her Calvary.
Stand fast, brave land.
The Huns are laundering toward the cit
adel;
They prate Of Culture but their path is
! He'll;
Their light is darkness. and the bloody
! sword
They WELD and worship is their only
/ Lord.
Q land where reason stands secure on
o land where freedom is the source of
light,
Against the mailed Barbarians' deadly
America, stand fast.
Fighting for Peace
We are lighting for peace, my
| friends. fighting for the preservation
and the realization of those ideals of
| American conduct established nineteen
! centuries ago Is it too much to be-
/ lieve that it is the Christ Himself
who sword in hand. leads the Allied
armies? | like to think that the spirit
of jeanne, the Maid, has again heard
! the voices and rides with the Lilies
OF France, at His right hand, and that
on His left rides the stout Arch
angel Michael. 1t is His spirit
the spirit of compassion, of
pity, of unsofshncss, and devotion
\ that animates and inspires the hearts
| of those boys of ours who have gone
| or are going overseas to fight in this
great cause. War wages, my friends.
! IN TINS season OF peace, but is faith
dead? Ask it of those hundreds of
( thousands of boys who on the fam
ing battle line have faced the ulti-
mate and faced it unafraid. We are
all thinking seriously, my friends, the
/ boys who are stepping out into the
darkness of a perilous way, seeking a
light by which to guide their feet, and
/ those who are left at home wondering
where and when they will meet that
/ bON who placed 1utN and 1.-Two fn,. I,,,-