Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-02-25
II Great Southern Congress
To Promote L astfng Peace

Southwide interest is being manifested in
the regional congress which is to be held in
Atlanta on February the tWenty-seventh and
tWenty-eighth to popularize the underlying
purposes and needs Of a League of Free
Nations. The principal speakers for the occa-
sion will b men OF national and, indeed,
worldwide distinction: publicsts, for ex-
ample like Former President Taft; the Hon
Frank P. Walsh, who was joint chairman of
the National War Labor Board; and the Hon.
James M. Gerard, former ambassador to Ger
many; educators and orators like DR.. A.
Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard Uni
Versity; DR.. Henry Van Dyke, formerly min
lister to the Netherlands; and social-thought
leaders like Mrs. Philip North Moore, presi-
dent of the National Council of Women.
The Atlanta congress will mark the conclu-
sion and climax OF a series of nine great
conventions, one for each region of United
States, under the auspices Of the League to
Enforce Peace. This organization was formed
on June the seventeenth 1915 in Independ-
ence Hall, Philadelphia, to promote, through
educational means, the idea of Americas
joining an international league for the main
tenace of peace. It's originating and stead
lastly held purpose was essentially that which
President Wilson expressed when he laid
down as a, basic condition of peace, "a general
association of nations formed under
specific covenants for the purpose of affording
mutual guarantees Of political independence
and territorial integrity to great and small
therefore, that this farsghted and broadly
representative American organization should
now undertake the important work Of bring
ing home to the rank and file of the people
the vast significance of the Representations
idea. For, as its leaders truly declare in
announcing the program of the forthcoming
Atlanta Congress, 'the end of the war brings
face to face with the task of preventing
the recurrence Of catastrophe that threat
ened the destruction of civilized life" And
&hn anCfh nr fJYl no n0cf nooihI T0loT
to that end the establishment of some sort
of league of free nations is of profound con-
Germ to Business, to Labor, to Religion, and
to men everywhere, in all the relations and all
the aspects of life
To business which has seen the accu-
mutations of a century consumed by war,
this plan holds out prospect of stable
International relations.
Labor, which has always borne the
principal burden of injustice and strife,
sees in the new order of justice, democ-
racy and fellowship guaranteed by
league, their only refuge from
Bolshevism
Religion sees in the coming together
of the nations the dawning of the King
dom of Cod
In the hearts of the mothers of gen
Grafton that has paid to war a toll of
six million sons, the vision kindles hope
that their chi1dren's children may be
spared the yet more terrible sorrows Oh
future wars.
Men who risked their lives in the
battle for democracy find in league of
nations the sum o. that for which they
fought and their comrades died.
It is not to be wondered that the regional
congresses planned in behalf of so vitality
important an undertaking are arousing extra
ordinary interest. Those held thus far-at
New York City, Boston, Chicago and Mime
how
evoked deep enthusiasm. Between now and
February the twenty-seventh will come the
Northwestern Congress at Portland, the
Pacific Coast Congress at San Francisco. the
Mountain Congress at Salt Lake City and the
Mid-Continent Congress at Kansas CITY
Then will come the Southern Congress at
Atlanta the concluding and, as all omens now
indicate, the crowning event of the series.