'■: . Crisis 
 
 vVav to Peace 
 
.! 
 
 Class __iLi_£> 
 
 
 Book 
 
 C 
 
 awrifihtN?.. 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
The World Crisis 
 
 and 
 
 The Way to Peace 
 
 By 
 
 E. Ellsworth Shumaker 
 
 Ph.D. (Yale) 
 
 Author of "GOD AND MAN: Philosophy of the 
 Higher Life" 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons 
 
 New York and London 
 
 Zbe fmicfterbocfter press 
 
 1915 
 
<& 
 
 *?■$ 
 
 Copyright, 1915 
 
 BY 
 
 E. ELLSWORTH SHU MAKER 
 
 Ube frnfcfcerbocfter ipress, IRew H?otft 
 
 MAR 16 1915 
 
 ©CI.A397143 
 

 Addressed to : 
 
 The President and People of the United 
 States: the Neutral Nations of the Earth: the 
 Church of God Everywhere: Noble Men in All 
 Lands: the Mothers of the World: and the 
 Lovers of Peace among the Nations at War. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 I 
 
 THE DUTY OF THE UNITED STATES . . I 
 
 II 
 A WAY TO PEACE 30 
 
 III 
 A LASTING PEACE 55 
 
 IV 
 GREAT ACTION IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY 73 
 
The World Crisis and the 
 Way to Peace 
 
 THE DUTY OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 The World Is One 
 
 " A M I my brother's keeper?' ' Yes, 
 / \ to the ends of the earth. Can 
 * ^ it be that Almighty God wants 
 the United States to stand idly by 
 while half a World is in conflagration? 
 No, a compassionate No! to the end of 
 time. Is Europe's Gethsemane nothing 
 to America? Is not the World One? 
 Never was it so clear that the World is 
 
2 The World Crisis 
 
 One. All the deep interests of human- 
 kind are one and indivisible. As well 
 might the Western Hemisphere attempt 
 to cut loose from the Eastern and speed 
 on through the heavens alone, as the 
 United States try to cut loose from half 
 a World at war. All seeming division 
 and neutrality are as unreal as that 
 imaginary line that purports to cleave 
 the World into hemispheres. The solid 
 integral earth itself makes light of such 
 idle attempts. 
 
 The World is One. Heaven is one, 
 earth is one; the sunlight is one, the 
 atmosphere one; God is one, mankind 
 one; truth is one, reason one; the eternal 
 ideal is one, the moral nature one ; beauty 
 one and the love of beauty. Birth and 
 death, consciousness and sleep, struggle 
 and achievement, growth and destiny 
 
Duty of the United States 3 
 
 are one. Sex and society, parenthood 
 and childhood, brotherhood and friend- 
 ship everywhere are one. Human thought 
 and speech, will and deed, love and hate, 
 courage and fear, imagination and hope 
 are the same everywhere. The Conti- 
 nents are all one if we go deep enough. 
 So are the Peoples in their bases. There 
 is one life, but various manifestations. 
 There is one international law, one 
 comity, one duty, one honour. There is 
 one international trade and credit, one 
 world finance and exchange, one postal 
 system and telegraph. The great litera- 
 tures of the world are one — history, 
 fiction, poetry, drama. Art is one the 
 world over — architecture, sculpture, 
 painting, music. Science is one, philo- 
 sophy one, education growingly one. 
 We are one in prosperity and one in 
 
4 The World Crisis 
 
 adversity. We go up together and we 
 go down together. Progress and civiliza- 
 tion in reality are one. We are one in 
 peace and, ah, despite "neutralities," we 
 are one in war. We rejoice together, 
 we weep together. We work, we play, 
 we pray together. In short we are 
 bound in one common bundle of life by 
 a double band — the Fatherhood of God 
 and the Brotherhood of Man. All the 
 dear interests are human and common. 
 Europe's Gethsemane is our Gethsemane. 
 There is no neutrality to noble minds. 
 
 Civilization at Stake 
 
 What priceless, what sacred interest 
 of man is not imperilled? The instant 
 a foot moves across the Belgian line the 
 deepest interests of mankind are violated. 
 International faith, national honour, the 
 
Duty of the United States 5 
 
 rights of nations, the sacred rights of the 
 innocent — they are trampled to earth. In- 
 ternational faith gone? a thousand other 
 trusts of man in man go with it and the 
 World becomes a sea of conflict. Na- 
 tional honour gone? already that nation 
 is doomed. National rights? the rights 
 of the innocent? these are the costly 
 fruits of age-long sacrifice. The moment 
 the invader's foot crosses the Belgian 
 border, international good-will dies, in- 
 ternational communication stops, inter- 
 national trade ceases. The foundations 
 are destroyed. What is there in little 
 Belgium? What is there in France that is 
 left inviolate? Human life? Soon the 
 earth is red and rivers run crimson. Hu- 
 man homes? Soon flames, then ashes, 
 mark their sites. Hallowed temples? 
 Their walls are pierced and their altars 
 
6 The World Crisis 
 
 covered with ruins. Ancient seats of 
 learning? They are razed and desolate. 
 Glorious creations of art? They too are 
 shattered and their beauty will never re- 
 turn. Their peaceful fields are torn with 
 shells, their cattle are driven away, their 
 mines seized, their bridges blown up, their 
 manufacturing plants destroyed or appro- 
 priated, their savings confiscated, their 
 cities put under ransom, their leading men 
 held as hostages, their houses pillaged, 
 their wives and daughters insulted, if not 
 dishonoured. Men leave their ploughs in 
 the fields and flee for their lives. Women 
 quickly gather their most precious things 
 together and run from their homes. 
 Little children are huddled in carts and 
 hurried away. If a man lifts a hand to 
 defend his home or his Country, he is 
 shot down in the public square as a 
 
Duty of the United States 7 
 
 warning. This is war. And war is hell. 
 And hell let loose on earth makes civiliza- 
 tion and the Kingdom of Heaven on the 
 same earth a trifle dubious, — especially 
 if the saints stand "neutral." Peace, 
 freedom, and representative government ; 
 constructive work and wealth ; education, 
 science, and art; fraternity, charity, and 
 missions; spiritual religion, civilization, 
 life itself! all are in the World's mael- 
 strom. Three-fourths of the human race 
 are at war or making ready for war. Is 
 this no affair of ours? Is this no con- 
 cern of the United States Government? 
 When civilization is at stake, there is no 
 neutrality to noble minds. 
 
 The Duty of the Strong 
 
 A "Day of Prayer" should be followed 
 by a day of deeds. The logic of prayer 
 
8 The World Crisis 
 
 is wise, firm action. No one is content 
 with weak neutrality; no one is satisfied 
 with prayer alone. Consequently our 
 hands are stretched out with gifts to help. 
 Consequently our Government proffers 
 its good offices in mediation. We can- 
 not be static. The sleeping and the dead 
 are the only neutrals — at least among 
 good men. Nero can fiddle while Rome 
 burns, but Americans cannot. We live 
 to serve. We cannot be onlookers when 
 half a World is in flames. 
 
 Indeed by solemn agreement we are 
 already committed. The Hague Con- 
 ventions (1907) have our signature. 
 "Article I. The territory of neutral 
 Powers is inviolable.' ' ■ Hence when the 
 German army crossed the Belgian line, 
 we were bound, as well as the other 
 signatories, to protect Belgium. Other 
 
Duty of the United States 9 
 
 articles have been violated. Germany 
 therefore has broken faith with us also. 
 How is it possible then to be neutral 
 without grave wrong? 
 
 A thousand things remind us that we 
 deceive ourselves if we imagine that we 
 are not in this great conflict. The 
 "New World," we discover, is a part of 
 the ' ' Old World. ' ' Everything, from the 
 food we eat to the taxes we pay; from 
 the conversation on the street to the 
 pleading prayers in our churches, reminds 
 us of the solidarity of all things human. 
 For weal or woe we are one. We do not 
 have to get in; we are already in. We 
 have never been out, and could not be 
 if we tried. Only in formal and artificial 
 ways are we neutral and aloof. In every 
 vital, spiritual, deep way we are involved. 
 Witness the springs of feeling. Witness 
 
io The World Crisis 
 
 our thoughts in waking, our dreams in 
 sleep. Witness our wills in incipient 
 action. Witness our whole properly 
 human ideal world. Our souls are in, if 
 our bodies are out. Shall Europe tread 
 the awful ' ' winepress ' ■ alone ? 
 
 Canada is fighting the battle of hu- 
 manity. Why not we? Japan, Aus- 
 tralia, India, South Africa, even, are 
 contending for civilization . Why not we ? 
 If anything is clear in this dread conflict, 
 it is that the ancient struggle between 
 right and might, between freedom and 
 essential slavery, between democracy 
 and resurgent autocracy, between law and 
 self-interest, between the spirit of peace 
 and the spirit of war, between the will 
 to service and the will to power is be- 
 ing fought out over again. Have we 
 no concern in these high struggles? Is 
 
Duty of the United States 1 1 
 
 this ancient conflict no affair of ours? 
 Shall we be neutral — and hustle for 
 trade? 
 
 If a mother discovered her children 
 fighting in the backyard, what would she 
 do? If a big generous boy found two 
 lads scrapping in the alley, what would he 
 do? If a brave strong man saw two men 
 coming to blows on the street corner, 
 what would he do? Well — they wouldn't 
 be "neutral." Duty and humanity do 
 not lie in that direction. Say what we 
 will, muddle our reason as we may by 
 specious words y the simple principle here 
 involved is the essential principle that holds 
 between Nations. A great people have 
 no more right, if they can prevent it, 
 to permit millions of men in battle line 
 to blow out one another's brains than 
 mothers and fathers and citizens have 
 
12 The World Crisis 
 
 to let their children and fellows peril 
 one another's lives. 
 
 The "New World' ' could discipline the 
 Barbary pirates in the "Old World," 
 in the name of international law, doing 
 all civilization a service thereby, and that 
 was not "intermeddling." The United 
 States could stop the atrocities in Cuba 
 with a strong hand and at the end with- 
 draw her forces and set Cuba free, to the 
 surprise and admiration of Europe, and 
 that was not going beyond the preroga- 
 tive of a great and generous Nation. 
 Our Government could order its soldiers 
 to march side by side, under German 
 leadership, with the troops of Germany, 
 England, France, Russia, Austria, Italy, 
 and Japan to the relief of the foreigners 
 in Peking, and that was not "entangle- 
 ment," but laudable co-operation in an 
 
Duty of the United States 13 
 
 imperative human duty. And at the last 
 our strong, rich Country could return 
 the millions of indemnity to China as 
 an example of the "new diplomacy" and 
 the Golden Rule between Nations, to 
 the inspiration of a World and the en- 
 during gratitude of the Chinese people. 
 Only yesterday our soldiers were in 
 Mexico and our battle-ships in the offing 
 at Vera Cruz. What did that mean? It 
 meant more than that certain United 
 States marines were insulted at Tampico. 
 It meant that a great Nation, in the name 
 of civilization, was significantly admonish- 
 ing turbulent Mexico that there are lim- 
 its to turbulence. And the enlightened 
 World approved. This is not unwar- 
 ranted meddling. This is applying the 
 law of the home, the law of the father 
 and mother, the law of the big brother, in 
 
14 The World Crisis 
 
 the larger home of humanity. Now if the 
 United States, in this same great generous 
 spirit, were to intervene in Europe, what 
 illimitable, what unspeakable good might 
 not be done ! A billion hearts would leap 
 in joy at the thought. 
 
 No Nation on earth is given our op- 
 portunity. When President Wilson prof- 
 fered mediation, the unique fitness of the 
 act was recognized the world over. If the 
 United States were now to go farther, 
 if it were to lead in sympathetic, but 
 firm intervention, the whole civilized 
 World again would acknowledge the 
 fitting leadership. Chief advocate of 
 peace, exemplar of non-militarism, lead- 
 ing Republic, richest, most powerful 
 Nation on the Globe, ours is the au- 
 gust opportunity, and ours is the sol- 
 emn responsibility in the gravest crisis 
 
Duty of the United States 15 
 
 that ever has overtaken the affairs of 
 men. 
 
 And ours is the cosmopolitan country. 
 All peoples are here, the German, Aus- 
 trian, Turk, Britain, Frenchman, Russian, 
 Servian, Belgian, Japanese, — all are in the 
 " melting-pot" here, melted into Ameri- 
 cans. So this American people, this 
 composite humanity, this great Republic 
 can most naturally exalt humanity over 
 all, and, in the name of humanity, best 
 speak, as children, to the mother Nations 
 at war. With no race hatred, or national 
 jealousy, or world ambition; with only 
 the highest interests of humanity as our 
 motive, our voice is the voice of power. 
 It is as the voice of God to a distempered 
 world. And speak we must ; for the brute 
 forces are again resurgent, the lower 
 principles, always powerful in the animal 
 
16 The World Crisis 
 
 instincts of the race, are again asserting 
 themselves under new names. The ideals 
 for which our Country stands are meet- 
 ing assault. They are in danger. The 
 believers in freedom, democracy, peace, 
 and international good-will must reassert 
 these costly ideals and maintain them in 
 augmented power. Every humanitarian 
 motive impels us. All solicitude for the 
 precious things now endangered con- 
 strains us. We have no choice but to 
 act. We have come into national life, 
 into unique influence, and into unparal- 
 leled opportunity for a time like this. 
 Did ever great Nation have opportunity 
 like ours? Did ever God give to a people 
 chance to act so momentously? 
 
 Such kindly but strong intervention 
 Germany could accept with dignity. Even 
 Germany cannot war against the World. 
 
Duty of the United States 17 
 
 And the German masses, those sixty- 
 five millions, who, in their hearts and 
 left to themselves, never wanted war, 
 would be convinced as by nothing else. 
 With them, the firm decisive action of 
 this great disinterested Republic would 
 "surpass all the argument of the earth." 
 For what could this kindly Republic 
 want? Not conquest, but peace; not 
 ambition, but service; not revenge, but 
 mercy; not might, but right. Universal 
 freedom and fraternity under interna- 
 tional law, with only international police 
 enough to keep the peace, what could this 
 mighty Democracy, that set Cuba free 
 and returned the Boxer indemnity, want 
 but that? And deep in their human 
 hearts that is the thing that they them- 
 selves want. Incalculably more potent 
 for good would such strong unselfish 
 
1 8 The World Crisis 
 
 action be than unseemly hustling on 
 our part for lost German trade; and a 
 thousand times more convincing to the 
 German millions. Like an infinite stroke 
 of welcome liberation such action might 
 prove. 
 
 Such unselfish intervention, moreover, 
 would be a wholesome restraint upon the 
 Allies. It would search the heart of their 
 motives. It would set up a lofty standard. 
 It would subtly discover and dissolve 
 sordid interests. It would elevate the whole 
 thought of peace. And in this tragic situ- 
 ation nothing is so needed as elevation 
 of thought, and nothing so redemptive. 
 If the Nations in conflict could really lift 
 their eyes to the heavens for one hour, 
 war would cease, and "lovely peace" 
 would reign — righteous and lasting peace. 
 
 Such merciful intervention! What 
 
Duty of the United States 19 
 
 exalted self-sacrifice! Saviour-deed un- 
 paralleled in the annals of Nations! 
 Infinite mercy to a thousand million 
 lives! yes, indirectly, to every home on 
 earth! What an exalted place then this 
 Government of the people, by the people, 
 and for the people would take. And 
 the mighty impulse to civilization and 
 religion therefrom might set humanity 
 forward incalculably. 
 
 But someone says, "What about past 
 policy? This is going farther than the 
 United States ever has gone." History 
 answers at once, "Look not to me for 
 precedents. Situation like the present 
 finds not record in all my pages. An un- 
 paralleled crisis calls for an unparalleled 
 course.' * 
 
 And this unparalleled course is the 
 only true course. It is the only deep 
 
20 The World Crisis 
 
 human course. It acknowledges the 
 basic unities of life. It acts upon the 
 noblest imperatives that move souls to 
 sacrifice. And, like every true thing, it 
 is the only course that liberates human 
 thought and the moral sense, and de- 
 livers us from moral and mental confusion. 
 For who can think or feel with clarity, 
 and without inner contradiction, as long 
 as by inaction we are denying the very 
 foundations and unities of human life? 
 The individual or the Nation that by 
 neutrality denies the everlasting bases 
 of this fact-world — which is nowhere 
 static and isolated, but is everywhere 
 active and mutual— will remain in perma- 
 nent mental confusion. Otherwise what 
 means this strange bewilderment? more 
 striking than memory records. Men 
 know not what to think. They are 
 
Duty of the United States 21 
 
 dumb with confusion. But let a man go 
 up out of the low denials and contradic- 
 tions of inaction into the highlands of 
 vision and duty and deeds, and he finds 
 that the simplicities and clarities and 
 integrities of the moral and mental life 
 are recovered. For our own soul health 
 and inner truth and spiritual unity, as 
 well as for sweet pity to humanity, we 
 must speak to ourselves and to our 
 Nation "that we go forward." 
 
 Now this is only putting into frank 
 words what more and more we are really 
 coming to feel. "If the Allies waver," 
 we are saying, "we shall have to get in." 
 The interests are too momentous; mili- 
 tarism must not win; for Germany's 
 sake; for humanity's sake; for civiliza- 
 tion's sake, militarism must not win! 
 
 "Anyhow we must get in at the end, " 
 
22 The World Crisis 
 
 we are also saying, "for there must be a 
 League of Peace." "Such a thing must 
 never happen again; we must see to it 
 that this is the last." But if we must be 
 in at the end for the sake of world peace, 
 the time to get in is before the end. Then 
 we are rightly in. Then we can legiti- 
 mately participate in laying down terms. 
 Otherwise, should Germany win, the 
 United States would have an interesting 
 time indeed in trying to establish just 
 terms of enduring peace. And without 
 such terms, the seeds of future wars 
 inevitably are sown. Should the Allies 
 win, it would be only less difficult for our 
 Government to take part. It would be 
 well-nigh impossible for the Allies to be 
 fair to Germany. The iron Bismarck 
 himself had to shake with rage and break 
 into a flood of tears to prevent his own 
 
Duty of the United States 23 
 
 Prussia from being unfair to Austria in 
 1866. And even Bismarck could not 
 prevent Germany's taking Alsace-Lor- 
 raine from France — her fateful mistake. 
 Hence, on either alternative, the future 
 would be dark. Seventy-eight millions 
 of Germans, to say nothing about the 
 rest, could not be dealt with unjustly 
 and humiliated without portentous re- 
 sults. The future could hold only fore- 
 bodings and fears. There is no more 
 sombre aspect of the whole situation than 
 this. But if the hand of the United 
 States could help hold the scales of 
 justice, there would be light and hope. 
 If, however, we waited till the end, then 
 proposed to sit in the fateful Council that 
 drew anew the map of Europe and parts 
 of the remaining World, that would be 
 4 ' intermeddling ' ' to the last degree. The 
 
24 The World Crisis 
 
 United States would better mind her Mon- 
 roe Doctrine. She would better study 
 once more the rights and privileges 
 of ' ' strict neutrality proclamations. ' ' 
 "Neutrality" is neutrality. "-In" is 
 in. And "out" is out. This is the 
 immovable logic of fact. 
 
 It seems a strange expectancy indeed 
 that foresees the neutral United States, 
 of a sudden becoming unprecedentedly 
 active, and even on the basis of strict 
 neutrality, disposing of World interests, 
 meting out the destinies of Nations in due 
 proportion, and finally settling all things 
 on changed and just foundations. And 
 those things the crucial interests of the 
 Eastern Hemisphere! And the United 
 States the Country of the historic Monroe 
 Doctrine, and at present leading ex- 
 ponent of "Neutrality." Of course, that 
 
Duty of the United States 25 
 
 is the procedure that Britain has been 
 accustomed to! And that is after the 
 very spirit of modern Germany! to say 
 nothing about France and Russia! And 
 would the United States, playing such a 
 World r61e, still be inactive and " neutral" 
 touching European matters? Hamlet 
 was puzzled facing his, "To be or not 
 to be." How would he have puzzled 
 over, "To be and not to be"? 
 
 No ; we must take a more positive part 
 in world affairs, and the sooner we begin 
 the better for this stricken earth. Isola- 
 tion is forever outgrown. It was never 
 the deepest truth. It was but a tempo- 
 rary prudence, to protect the young. 
 Jochebed may hide the little Moses for 
 a space, and in adolescence he himself 
 may be neutral toward the Egyptians. 
 But when he has grown to man's estate, 
 
26 The World Crisis 
 
 he must play a man's part in international 
 concerns, and stand forth as the deliverer 
 of his brethren from Egyptian oppres- 
 sion. — And he was sent; the Bush that 
 burned and was not consumed; the 
 august Presence; the Voice of command; 
 the "I Am That I Am hath sent me" — 
 this was his warrant; and "he endured 
 as seeing Him Who is invisible." 
 
 The "IAm That I Am" hath sent our 
 mighty Nation. No other people on 
 earth has such power to intervene. It 
 is as clear as day that we have a unique 
 power and a unique responsibility. And 
 no crisis in all the lapse of time has so 
 called for a Deliverer. 
 
 Strong men do not cease heroic efforts 
 to rescue the living from a burning 
 building until imminent death commands. 
 Even then a fireman may rush through 
 
Duty of the United States 27 
 
 flames at the cry of a child within. A 
 great steamer that would not turn from 
 its course and fly to the rescue when a 
 Titanic signalled distress would be out- 
 lawed from the seas. A civilized peo- 
 ple that did not burn with indignation 
 and rise to remonstrance at the Congo 
 atrocities would be covered with infamy. 
 Can America do nothing now? Can 
 this mighty Nation do nothing more 
 effective than pity and be neutral? Must 
 Europe bleed white? Must five million 
 more men, of the world's young life, be 
 driven into the holocaust? Wherefore 
 are we given incomparable power ? In the 
 name of the Living God and in the name 
 of the human race, are we to do nothing 
 with that power? Are we to stand and 
 look on? for a Prophet of the Most 
 High to tell the new Nation of its duty! 
 
28 The World Crisis 
 
 Most ignominious inaction, most in- 
 glorious "neutrality" in all the history 
 of power! 
 
 "But, there is an ocean between !" 
 Well, has not God's lightning flashed news 
 and annihilated space? "Yes; but they 
 are Europeans." What are our fathers? 
 "But, it is their tragedy." Nothing 
 human is foreign to good men. "But, 
 Washington said" — What would Wash- 
 ington say now? "But it might take 
 some lives. ' ' Are not martyrs humanity's 
 glory? Have you never heard of Calvary? 
 "But, it would cost money." Shame! 
 "Well, but, could we do anything?" 
 What are we in the world for with un- 
 exampled power, but to try, and again 
 to try, with every mode of power, un- 
 ceasingly, in the name of a bleeding race 
 and wavering civilization and the Prince 
 
Duty of the United States 29 
 
 of Peace? As sure as God is God, if this 
 mighty People tried in that way and in 
 that spirit, divine Peace would come. 
 
 Europe can not deliver itself. Like 
 mighty wrestlers, the Nations are locked 
 in clutch unto death. To let go were 
 weakness . To cry ' ' Enough ! ' ' dishonour. 
 And so the agony lengthens. 
 
 Where is the powerful Nation? where 
 the mighty Voice that can speak the 
 loosing word or do the saving deed? If 
 it be not the United States, then there is 
 no deliverer on earth. Mournful im- 
 potent conclusion! and God have pity 
 upon weeping mothers! 
 
II 
 
 A WAY TO PEACE 
 
 IT may be no comfortable Way. It 
 may lead through struggle into 
 Peace. But it will be the Higher 
 Peace. And it will be righteous. There- 
 fore it will endure. 
 Here is the Way: 
 
 Appropriate twenty millions of dollars 
 for "Red Cross" work; ten millions for 
 the armies of Germany and Austria; 
 ten millions for the Allies. 
 
 Beseech the warring Nations to pro- 
 claim a General Truce for one month. 
 
 Ask their Governments to say in few 
 words, Why they war, What they want, 
 
 and How they will make peace. 
 30 
 
A Way to Peace 31 
 
 Appeal unceasingly to God in universal 
 prayer. 
 
 Appeal in solemn protest through the 
 Church Universal, the whole Religious 
 World, to the Nations at war. 
 
 Appeal to all Men of good-will. 
 
 Appeal to the Mothers of the World. 
 
 Appeal with vigour and firmness 
 through neutral Governments to the 
 warring Nations. 
 
 Call immediately a Conference of the 
 Neutral Nations at The Hague to form 
 a Preliminary League of Peace, and to 
 counsel together upon the unparalleled 
 World-situation. Invite the Nations at 
 war also to sit in Council. 
 
 Should they all heed, then peace would 
 be already near. 
 
 Should the Allies not heed, then the 
 way, alas! would be difficult. 
 
32 The World Crisis 
 
 Should the Allies heed, but Germany 
 not yield, then reluctantly, but firmly, 
 recall all Proclamations of Neutrality, 
 simultaneously with the sending of half of 
 the United States Navy to the North Sea. 
 
 Then, if need be, intervene through 
 commercial pressures. 
 
 At last, if need be, strongly but merci- 
 fully intervene by the sword — until Bel- 
 gium is free and the invaders driven from 
 France and all neutral ground; until 
 indeed true peace is gained. — Always, 
 however, at each forward move, again 
 offering peace, particularly when the 
 invaders have been driven out. 
 
 Here is a grave positive Way to Peace — 
 a Way that follows prayer with action; 
 benevolent gifts with benevolent power; 
 sympathy with deliverance. In principle 
 it is the way of the father and mother in 
 
A Way to Peace 33 
 
 the home; the way of the big brother; 
 the way of the great and strong and good, 
 whether men or Nations. 
 
 In principle, this is the way every 
 hamlet restores peace, every city, every 
 Commonwealth, every Nation. This is 
 the way our Government is now restoring 
 peace in Colorado. From the home to 
 the Empire this is the simple way. In 
 the past; in the present; in the future, 
 this is the simple way. And this will 
 continue to be the way as long as lower 
 impulses have to be disciplined in this 
 nature- world. All things taken into a 
 true view, this is God's way. Over this 
 kind firm way, mothers and fathers, 
 friends, brothers, statesmen, Presidents, 
 Emperors, all men, may unhindered pray. 
 It is the road to true and lasting peace. 
 
 The gracious motive and wisdom of 
 
34 The World Crisis 
 
 appropriating twenty millions for "Red 
 Cross" work to be divided impartially 
 are manifest. The amount is not a tithe 
 of what we have already lost, nor more 
 than a mere fraction of what we may yet 
 lose. It might, too, prove like seed- 
 corn. But all such considerations aside, 
 the motive would be the spirit of kindness 
 itself, and the effect would be subtly 
 beneficent in two Hemispheres. It would 
 prepare the way. And we ought our- 
 selves nobly to insist on having a gener- 
 ous part in the World's sacrifice. 
 
 As to the solemn religious appeal, there 
 is no more clear and certain truth to the 
 deeper insight of men than that inter- 
 national relations and World peace must 
 be founded on deeper bases. They have 
 no confidence whatever in the superficial 
 
A Way to Peace 35 
 
 ♦ 
 and sordid grounds. They have lost 
 
 forever any fragment of such confidence 
 
 they did possess. Either the World will 
 
 have real peace or it will never know 
 
 peace. And the dismal wretched strife, in 
 
 its protean forms, will drag monotonously 
 
 on. 
 
 This many-sided Appeal, culminating 
 
 in the Appeal of the Neutral Governments 
 
 and in the Conference at The Hague, 
 
 to form a Preliminary League of Peace 
 
 and to counsel upon the World Situation, 
 
 would become a psychological force of 
 
 incalculable potency. If the Neutral 
 
 Governments of the Earth and the 
 
 Churches of the World and the Mothers of 
 
 all Nations and the Men of good-will 
 
 concentred their deep and grave interests 
 
 and energies at The Hague, and steadfastly 
 
 persevered day after day, week after 
 
36 The World Crisis 
 
 ♦ 
 week, in their righteous and sacrificial 
 
 mission, no warring Nation on Earth 
 could withstand them. Though all hell 
 were to erect its barriers of will and hate 
 they would be burned away. Such a 
 consummate focussing of the Soul and 
 Light and Love of the World would be an 
 energy irresistible. It would have in it 
 the puissance of the God of all power. 
 If the French people or the German peo- 
 ple, literally possessed as they are by 
 one all-dominating idea and passion, can 
 mass and focus an energy that amazes 
 the World and effects the seemingly 
 impossible, lifting the common soldier to 
 an endurance and an achievement almost 
 superhuman, and the whole Nation to an 
 exalted will and stern devotion before 
 unknown, could not the religion and 
 reason and love and compassion of the 
 
A Way to Peace 37 
 
 combined motherhood and manhood of 
 half the earth prevail to bring this mur- 
 derous war to a speedy close? There is 
 but one answer. Such a massing and 
 concentring of the higher energies of the 
 nations would, like the sun, inevitably 
 melt away the frozen barriers of will and 
 hate, and bring again the gentle Spring 
 of humanity's true heart. Let men and 
 women set themselves with utmost 
 imaginative energy into that mighty focal 
 situation, and more and more deep will 
 become the conviction that no human 
 resistance could withstand its subtle, 
 constant, cumulative moral and spiritual 
 power. If one half of the awful energy 
 f ocussed by Germany alone in carrying on 
 this war were solemnly put forth by our 
 mighty Nation, agonizing to bring the 
 awful conflict to an end, single-handed 
 
38 The World Crisis 
 
 she would succeed — and that without ever 
 unsheathing the sword! The Hague 
 would fix and hold the eyes of the civilized 
 World. The higher energies of the Earth 
 would concentre there. The deeper soul 
 and august passion of an agonized race 
 would there focus. The Nations at strife, 
 in sheer helplessness, would have to say 
 before the World, why they war, what 
 they seek, and how they will, make peace. 
 In the very facing of the stern realities, 
 before the bar of the World's judgment, the 
 better sides of their various contentions 
 will naturally come to the fore. And when 
 Nations, like individuals, begin to lift 
 their minds to the better sides of even 
 their sharp controversies, the light of 
 hope begins to break over the hills of 
 Earth. Steadily, increasingly the nobler 
 pressures of Humanity's wounded soul 
 
A Way to Peace 39 
 
 would be brought to bear in such spiritual 
 constraints as no Nation on Earth could 
 long resist. Peace, the righteous peace 
 of God, would not be far away. And 
 through all, let not the mysterious Soul 
 of man forget the Divine Heavens that 
 arch ever over an effort, august and holy, 
 like this. 
 
 Intervention in the Name of Humanity 
 
 Not for England as such, not for Ger- 
 many; but Intervention for the sake of 
 civilization and the human race. This is 
 very different from striving as one of the 
 protagonists. This means not conquest. 
 This means not domination. This mer- 
 ciful stern intervention means rescue. A 
 delivering Archangel might use the stern 
 power of the Almighty, but he would 
 
40 The World Crisis 
 
 not thereby become partisan. He would 
 not become a conquering Alexander or 
 a dominating Napoleon. Such inter- 
 vention is the glorifying of strength; it 
 brings salvation. 
 
 Two things must be in Europe: Life 
 must be delivered from death and danger ; 
 and life must be set free unto more and 
 richer life. 
 
 Let there be no misunderstanding. 
 This intervention is for indispensable 
 principles. Freedom, Justice, Right, In- 
 ternational Good-will — these are the 
 priceless treasures it stands for. It is 
 not indifferent, not non-committal. It 
 is not ''neutral" in the presence of 
 Heaven and Hell. It is positively for 
 Heaven. It is positively against Hell. 
 It is for humanity and human weal. It 
 is for peace — but true peace; not an 
 
A Way to Peace 41 
 
 armed truce, not a militaristic, high- 
 tension semblance of peace. It is not to 
 flatter Crowns and castes, and restore 
 the status quo. It is to help God's 
 millions to a freer and fuller life. 
 
 Here is intervention after the type of 
 Deliverers and Saviours. This is Positive 
 Neutrality not Negative Neutrality — not 
 the inglorious non-action of the present 
 time. A mother intervening between her 
 striving children; a policeman interven- 
 ing and restoring order; the President 
 ordering troops to Pennsylvania or Il- 
 linois or Colorado and restoring peace 
 is not thereby partial and unneutral. 
 He is truly neutral. He is neutral as a 
 Judge is neutral, neutral as a father, 
 neutral as God — neutral but not inactive. 
 God is no respecter of persons; but He is 
 a lover of all men — active as fire, eager as 
 
42 The World Crisis 
 
 light. This is true positive neutrality. 
 The Saviour Nation that intervenes 
 to save five million lives and freedom 
 for all and priceless treasure for every- 
 one is not unneutral, any more than 
 God is unneutral. It is impartial, but 
 positive as the sun. If the United States 
 intervened as the ally of either side, 
 seeking the triumph of that side as such, 
 then it would be unneutral. But when 
 it intervenes for the good of all, it is 
 truly neutral. It is living, it is human, 
 it is Godlike. There is no negative life; 
 there is no negative goodness. "Neu- 
 trality!" it is the contradiction of every 
 value in Heaven and earth, the oppo- 
 site of every reality in all the gamut 
 of Being. Whatever God is, He is not 
 "neutral. " Inactivity has no place in His 
 positive Life. He is the living God, ever 
 
A Way to Peace 43 
 
 burning for life and rescue and fuller 
 goodness. 
 
 Such merciful intervention, such posi- 
 tive neutrality, we dare hope would be 
 acceptable. How could England and 
 France do other than welcome and rejoice? 
 Do they not want peace? Do they not 
 want freedom and right and justice and 
 good-will? Does not the United States 
 stand for these? Would she not help to 
 establish true peace? — not the crust of 
 peace, covering volcanic fires beneath — 
 and real freedom that is fraternity? and 
 right for all? and justice for the little 
 and great? and international good-will 
 that is love? In what name could Eng- 
 land and France reject such positive and 
 saving intervention? 
 
 Rejection on the part of the Allies 
 would place them in a strange position 
 
44 The World Crisis 
 
 indeed! Human reason could not frame 
 a justification that would stand the white 
 light of the World's scrutiny. For truth's 
 sake, for shame, for honor, for candour, for 
 the sake of all that is fair and noble in 
 the World's costly life they could not 
 reject. 
 
 And Germany, if the Allies accepted, 
 how could Germany reject? Would she 
 wish to proclaim to the World that these 
 are not the things she wants? Rather, 
 might she not welcome the unselfish inter- 
 vention of this great Nation as a merciful 
 release, which she could accept with 
 dignity and without a suggestion of dis- 
 honour? Germany has proved herself 
 virile, mighty, even marvellous. But she 
 could not hold sharp controversy with 
 half a World. Nor would she want to — 
 at any rate her far-seeing men and sober 
 
A Way to Peace 45 
 
 suffering millions. Such firm kindly in- 
 tervention might indeed come to her as 
 a boon out of Heaven. 
 
 That such intervention would be effec- 
 tive, even if Germany at first declined, 
 we dare more than hope. It would 
 clear up a befogged situation. It would 
 reveal the Nations to themselves. It 
 would bring them to their sober senses. 
 In the very nature of things it would 
 throw each Nation back upon itself, 
 and out of the turmoil, the clear questions 
 would rise, Why do you war? What do 
 you seek? How would you make peace? 
 To stop, and possess oneself, and scatter 
 the fog, is more than half the winning of 
 peace. For there is a strange confusion 
 and self-deception about conflict. It 
 holds now in this vast struggle. Look: 
 "England, why do you fight ?" "I fight 
 
46 The World Crisis 
 
 for my existence. Germany is trying to 
 destroy me. " " And you, Germany, why 
 do you fight ?" "I fight for my national 
 life. England would destroy it. " "And 
 you, France, why do you fight ?" "I 
 fight for my very life. Germany seeks 
 my destruction. " So the confusion goes 
 on. Each one says, " I war to defend my 
 life. The other wars to destroy me." 
 But no one says, "I fight to destroy the 
 other. He fights to defend himself " — 
 which is equally true. This is the strange 
 contradiction and self-deception about 
 every fight. France can truly say, "I 
 fight for my life. Germany fights to 
 take it. " But she can just as truly say, 
 "I fight to take Germany's life. Ger- 
 many fights to defend it. " So Germany. 
 So England. There is always this double 
 aspect to a deadly struggle. But psy- 
 
A Way to Peace 47 
 
 chologically each antagonist, in the first 
 instance, sees only the first aspect. Hence 
 the confusion and seeming contradiction. 
 Hence France, Germany, England, and 
 the rest, each appears to itself as fighting 
 in defence of its life, and the other always 
 as fighting against it. Now when each 
 one stops and says to itself, "I am fighting 
 to defend my life, but equally to destroy 
 the other, and that is the reason why the 
 other is fighting for his life and to destroy 
 me," the confusion passes and the real 
 double truth becomes clear. Then the 
 present claim on the part of each Nation 
 that it is fighting a war of self-defence is 
 indeed seen to be true, but only half the 
 truth. // that simple deep-going fact were 
 gotten into the clear consciousness of the Ger- 
 man, French, British millions, it would work 
 surprising in preparing the way to peace. 
 
48 The World Crisis 
 
 This is what, in the nature of things, 
 firm merciful intervention would bring 
 about. "Why do you war?" "What 
 do you seek?" "How will you make 
 peace?" Inevitably these questions arise 
 and will not down, at the intervention of 
 a disinterested powerful Nation. And 
 the whole World takes up the questions 
 and insistently calls for answer. Ah! 
 if Germany and the rest had stopped 
 for one brief fortnight at the beginning 
 and calmly asked those questions in the 
 presence of a judging World, there would 
 now be no war. 
 
 And in the end those are the questions 
 that have got to be asked and faced. 
 The war will end. ' It must end sometime. 
 Before or after, sometime, these questions 
 must be faced. Around some council 
 table they must be asked and answered. 
 
A Way to Peace 49 
 
 In the calm of reason, not in the fury of 
 conflict, they must finally be answered. 
 Ultimately, Europe must return to reason 
 and answer reason's questions with 
 reason's answers. Why not now? Inter- 
 vention offers the needed opportunity. 
 
 Besides, Europe is not necessarily as 
 far off from peace as she may seem. The 
 tumult of the storm is not as far off from 
 calm as it may appear. There is a natural 
 lack of staying power about towering 
 passion. A strong wind may blow the 
 wildest storm out of the heavens. A 
 returning wave of sanity may sweep pas- 
 sion from Europe in a day. Especially if 
 that mighty wave were caused by the 
 calm uprising of a disinterested Nation 
 like the United States. Especially, too, 
 if there be no sufficient occasion for this 
 mad fury — as Europe now half realizes. 
 
50 The World Crisis 
 
 Especially, also, if under the sobering 
 influence of awful conflict, the conscious- 
 ness were spreading that it was all a 
 precipitate dreadful mistake. Especially, 
 once more, if in the very constitution of 
 the human mind there is a gravitation 
 toward the equilibrium of truth and 
 reason. So, with all her brave passion 
 and grim will, Europe is not so far from 
 peace as superficial psychology would 
 have us believe. A superhuman strain 
 seeks release. The deep sad heart of 
 Europe already wants peace. If a great 
 Nation will point the way, peace is not 
 f so difficult as it appears. 
 
 It would seem as though the United 
 \ States had immeasurably better prospects 
 of bringing this insensate war to a speedy 
 close, than has either side of speedily con- 
 quering the other. Yet they both stagger 
 
A Way to Peace 51 
 
 on and strive in vast attempt. If our 
 mighty Nation strove one half as hard, if 
 we strove with the noble earnestness of 
 sacrifice, with the agony of love, with the 
 fixed deep determination that this awful 
 crisis calls for, not all the above steps of 
 positive intervention would be required. 
 The warring Nations are sensitive to a 
 degree to the action of our Country. It 
 might well be that not half the above 
 steps of firm positive action would be 
 needful. How can we withhold the 
 strong and brave attempt? If ever the 
 World saw a day of need, this is the day. 
 If ever grave duty rested upon a mighty 
 People, this is the hour. If ever Al- 
 mighty God prepared a Nation for a 
 purpose and clothed it with unique power 
 and responsibility, this is the time and 
 this is the Nation. It is doubtful whether 
 
52 The World Crisis 
 
 the World ever again will see opportunity- 
 like the present or need so great. 
 
 This mighty Nation has no more right 
 to withhold its powerful intervention than 
 mothefs have to look on when their 
 children are fighting, or than neighbours 
 have to look on while their fellows are at 
 strife, or than cities, States, and Nations 
 have to look on while citizens are in riot. 
 The millions that are falling in Europe 
 are flesh of our flesh and blood of our 
 blood. The human bonds are deeper 
 than all the bonds of government. Duty 
 is as deep as human life and need. We 
 can no more rightly withhold intervention 
 than we can rightly withhold sympathy 
 or prayer or beneficence. They are all 
 really forms of action. Firm merciful 
 intervention is full-grown action. Where 
 does duty end? With the limits of power. 
 
A Way to Peace 53 
 
 When the great Nation has put forth 
 effort commensurate with its might, when 
 it has striven with the determination and 
 sacrifice of Calvary, then it will have done 
 its duty — not till then. England, France, 
 Germany, Austria looked on while thou- 
 sands of Americans in Asia were being 
 massacred — to their great and lasting 
 shame. Shall America now look upon 
 the appalling agonies of Europe and not 
 put forth utmost sacrificial effort? If so, 
 it will be to her infinite and endless dis- 
 grace. O most inglorious "neutrality," 
 most ignoble inaction in all the history 
 of power! 
 
 Our national future, the great World's 
 future, through our redemptive Deed, 
 might be permanently uplifted to a nobler 
 plane. 
 
 We have been asking for a great 
 
54 The World Crisis 
 
 destiny. Here is a great National duty 
 and destiny, worthy of humanity and of 
 God. 
 
 "We saw in the night a vision, a man of 
 Belgium, standing and beseeching and 
 saying, ' Come over into Europe and 
 help us!' And when we had seen the 
 vision, straightway we sought to go 
 forth into Europe, concluding that God 
 had called us to help a Continent in 
 distress. " 
 
Ill 
 
 A LASTING PEACE 
 
 IT is true peace the World now wants. 
 Of false peace we have had bitter 
 trial. "Armed peace" is an inner 
 contradiction. "Peace through prepara- 
 tion for war" is psychological stupidity. 
 Peace through the spirit of peace, and 
 through preparation for peace, is the only 
 truth and the only wisdom, whether in 
 individuals or Nations. If the World is 
 not learning this now, we almost despair 
 of the human race. But certainly man- 
 kind can not deliberately commit suicide. 
 A righteous merciful peace must come 
 to Europe or it will not be enduring. The 
 
 55 
 
56 The World Crisis 
 
 peace of humiliating conquest can breed 
 only new war. The peace of injustice 
 is not peace; it is postponed war. Ger- 
 many can not humiliate France ; England 
 can not humble Germany; Germany can 
 not despoil England, without the inevi- 
 table results. Napoleon and Louis XVIII 
 tried to humble and restrain Prussia a 
 hundred years ago — with what success 
 the World can now estimate. Germany 
 humiliated France and took Alsace- 
 Lorraine a generation ago — and now the 
 aftermath. Frenchmen, Germans, Eng- 
 lishmen are too full-grown, too virile in 
 will, too unconquerable in spirit to be 
 dishonoured and repressed. So with the 
 others. The thing won't work in this 
 human World. Righteous benevolent 
 peace must be established. Certainly 
 the Nations must come before the judg- 
 
A Lasting Peace 57 
 
 ment-bar of the World's conscience and 
 reason, and must determine to establish 
 the peace of God, which is the peace of 
 justice and good-will. Then wars will 
 ■tease to the ends of the Earth. 
 
 With righteous merciful peace must 
 come Limitation of Armaments, An 
 International League of Peace; with a 
 Legislative Council, An International 
 Supreme Court, and An International 
 Police Force. 
 
 A civilized Nation has no more right to 
 arm itself against another civilized Nation 
 than a civilized individual against another 
 civilized individual. The only moral 
 right that civilized Nations have is to arm 
 themselves against the lower barbarous 
 and belligerent peoples. This will be- 
 come clear to every educated conscience 
 that will face the question for half an 
 
58 The World Crisis 
 
 hour. Time was when every family or 
 group armed itself against the others. 
 Now a hundred millions of people in a 
 Nation of forty-eight States, or hundreds 
 of millions of people in the many divisions 
 of an Empire, live unarmed as against 
 one another. They have no right to war 
 or to prepare for war. Tomorrow this 
 principle will be everywhere recognized 
 among civilized Nations as it is now 
 .recognized among civilized individuals. 
 Consequently Limitation of Armaments, 
 a League of Peace, a Legislative Council, 
 a Supreme Court of Nations, and an 
 International Police are the logic and 
 expression of enlightenment. When all 
 are lifted from savagery, we shall have, 
 in a true sense, the ''Parliament of Man. " 
 Meanwhile the civilized Nations may 
 duly arm against lingering savageries and, 
 
A Lasting Peace 59 
 
 so far as needful, may police the Earth. 
 But development is hastening from Na- 
 tional to World Ethics, from partial to 
 whole truth. The Fatherhood of God, 
 and the Brotherhood of Man, and the 
 Oneness of the World and of Humankind 
 are not vapoury nothings, but eternal 
 Realities that must get uttered in the 
 Ethics and Law and Life of Humanity. 
 
 As the United States does not expect 
 to be left out of such organization, 
 does not expect to be " neutral' ' in 
 such large matters, rather hopes to be 
 among the foremost in bringing them to 
 pass; so now out Nation should not hold 
 aloof for one hour, but rather should 
 accept the grave responsibility of her 
 world -position and world-power. Firm 
 merciful intervention, as above set forth, 
 would put the United States in a position 
 
60 The World Crisis 
 
 of helpful leadership and service surpassed 
 by no Nation on earth. And to serve is 
 to be glorified. This is the "true grand- 
 eur of Nations." 
 
 The World is now plastic to a degree 
 never before seen. It awaits organiza- 
 tion. A few leading Peoples can create 
 new forms of life now that will mark the 
 greatest epoch in international progress 
 the human race has known. With this 
 international organization of the leading 
 Nations, founded on righteousness and 
 good-will, true and lasting peace can 
 come. 
 
 "But, after all, is peace possible ?" 
 men ask. War can not go on intermin- 
 ably. Indeed such war can not go on 
 long, unless verily half the human race 
 is insane. 
 
 What must the Nations do to bring 
 
A Lasting Peace 61 
 
 peace? The answer is so simple that it 
 seems too easy. It is so searching that 
 it seems too difficult. In truth the sim- 
 plest good man among us can name it. 
 And yet many wise men seem to grope 
 after it and not find it. This is not 
 intended to mystify. Let us go back. 
 Why are the Peoples warring? Because 
 they are looking at the lower and not at the 
 higher. They are thinking of self and 
 of gain and ambition and mastery and 
 revenge. Hence they are thinking of 
 war. Even when they are looking at 
 things higher, they are looking at them 
 mainly through self. Honour? It is my 
 honour. Right? it is my right. Free- 
 dom? it is my freedom. Justice? it is 
 justice to me. Yes, even when they look 
 to God, it is still too much through self, 
 to a God of the Germans, to a God of the 
 
62 The World Crisis 
 
 Russians, to a God of the English, not to 
 the God and Father of all men. This, 
 in the length and breadth of it, is why 
 I the Peoples are warring. There is some 
 minor deduction to this, it is true, but 
 only minor. Was the war inevitable? 
 Yes; as long as they looked at the lower 
 ranges. Was the war necessary? In the 
 deepest sense, No! Had the Peoples 
 looked at the higher, this war never 
 would have come. Had they really 
 thought of right and truth and justice 
 and honour and service and love and 
 peace, this war never would have come. 
 Thinking of these higher ranges would 
 have made the conflict as unnatural as it 
 was natural when thinking of the lower. 
 So there is the simple searching truth. 
 
 Let not the Nations at strife, let not 
 thinking men and women proclaim that 
 
A Lasting Peace 63 
 
 this awful conflict was necessary; and then 
 submit to it, and teach the trusting mil- 
 lions to submit, as to an inevitable fate. 
 There is indeed a range of Reality and 
 Truth that makes the dreadful struggle 
 appear to be inevitable. And there is a 
 logic of that range that rightly moves to- 
 ward its natural conclusion. But there 
 are other and nobler ranges of Reality 
 and Truth. These higher ranges have 
 their logic of fact, leading just as inevi- 
 tably to their nobler conclusions. The 
 above ranges of right and truth and 
 justice and honour and service and love 
 and peace are just as real as the lower 
 ranges of greed and envy and ambition 
 and hate and revenge. And they work 
 out just as legitimately, just as naturally 
 to their excellent results. Consequently 
 it is not the deepest thinking that sees the 
 
64 The World Crisis 
 
 war as necessary. In the deepest view 
 it is neither necessary nor inevitable. 
 If individuals and Peoples descend to the 
 lower ranges of their many-storied life 
 and abide there, filling consciousness 
 and thought with lower things, there is 
 but one result. But if they make their 
 home on the higher ranges, living in the 
 humanities, filling consciousness and 
 thought with things large and generous 
 and pitiful and excellent, again there is 
 but one result. There are higher ranges 
 as well as lower. There is a logic of peace 
 as well as a logic of strife. It is one of 
 the most deplorable things at this time 
 to think, but not deeply; to think only to 
 the ranges and logic of strife, but not to 
 the profounder ranges and logic of peace. 
 And then to announce to the World that 
 in the nature of things, this murderous 
 
A Lasting Peace 65 
 
 struggle was necessary and inevitable. "O 
 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the 
 prophets, and stoneth them that are sent 
 unto her! How often would I have 
 gathered thy children together as a hen 
 gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
 and ye would not! Behold your house is 
 left unto you desolate!" There are the 
 two ranges. There are the two logics. 
 There the two necessities. In the deepest 
 sense it was not necessary that their 
 house should be left unto them desolate. 
 "How oft would I" — "but ye would 
 not." These higher and lower ranges, 
 with their corresponding logics and ne- 
 cessities, are in us all. It is true of 
 individuals. It is true of Peoples. It is 
 true of Berlins and Londons and Vien- 
 nas as well as of Jerusalems. Let no 
 People say that this appalling war 
 
66 The World Crisis 
 
 was, in the profoundest sense, fatefully 
 necessary. 
 
 Here in our generous land the same 
 Germans and Britains and Austrians and 
 Russians and Frenchmen live side by side 
 in peace. They dwell in the higher 
 human ranges here. They abide in peace 
 here just as logically, just as naturally as 
 their kindred now engage in murderous 
 war there. 
 
 What must the Peoples do to bring 
 peace? They must stop looking at the 
 lower. They must look steadily at the 
 higher. This is very simple but very 
 difficult. Yet there is no second way. 
 Finally this, and nothing else, must be 
 done or peace will never come. War to 
 exhaustion is not peace. War to victory 
 is not peace. A vanquished enemy has no 
 peace in his heart. Individuals or Peoples 
 
A Lasting Peace 67 
 
 in leash are not at peace. If Germany 
 humiliated France, would the French 
 be at peace with the Germans? If Brit- 
 ain worsted Germany, would Germans 
 be at peace with Englishmen? Sooner 
 or later the higher things must fill the 
 mind or there is, and there can be, no 
 peace. 
 
 It is the supreme triumph of the human 
 mind for Peoples at war really to lift their 
 thoughts to the Heavens and to higher 
 things. But it is possible. And it will 
 come. And it can come very quickly. 
 This is why peace is possible. Peace is 
 a mental and spiritual thing. The ob- 
 stacles are mental and spiritual obstacles. 
 Therefore they can be overcome. And 
 they can be overcome swiftly. All the 
 multitudes that cry, ''Crucify him! 
 Crucify him!" in the morning, can go 
 
68 The World Crisis 
 
 away smiting their breasts in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 If into this difficult surcharged situation 
 the United States entered with merciful, 
 but firm, intervention, it might well be 
 like a divine word of release. Her prayers 
 are disinterested, her spirit unselfish, her 
 sympathy real, her gifts impartial, her 
 offer of mediation humane, her inter- 
 vention sacrificial. Like the Goddess 
 of Liberty, seeking not her own, with 
 charity for all and malice toward none, 
 she might enter, a beneficent Power of 
 welcome deliverance. Her purpose, her 
 thought would be of the higher. Subtly, 
 inevitably, steadily her presence would 
 lift the thoughts of Europe to the higher. 
 The spirit of peace is contagious as well 
 as the spirit of war; the spirit of mercy 
 and good-will, as well as the spirit of 
 
A Lasting Peace 69 
 
 revenge and hate. In the structure of 
 the human mind, it is impossible that 
 England, Germany, France, and the rest 
 should go on warring to the death, if the 
 United States mercifully firmly inter- 
 vened on that high sacrificial plane. They 
 must inevitably loose their deadly clutch ; 
 they must come to themselves; they 
 must stop and look up. A fortnight of 
 truce and uplooking and deliberate prayer 
 on the part of Europe would close this war 
 forever. If it be not so, how can reason 
 hold a seat in this distracted Globe! 
 Merciful, firm, even stern, intervention 
 on the part of our most responsible Nation 
 is the hope of the World. 
 
 And what a world it is at present! 
 It staggers belief. It appalls the human 
 mind. Europe a shambles; its fair fields 
 becoming vast cemeteries. The flower 
 
70 The World Crisis 
 
 of her youth cut down by the millions. 
 Wives and mothers innumerable putting 
 on black. Orphans multiplying by 
 myriads daily. The carnage not lessen- 
 ing, rather increasing. The agony and 
 suspense of it all lengthening. Wounded 
 men dragging themselves in groups to die 
 together. Poor dumb animals writhing 
 in pain, mercifully shot to end their 
 misery. And other myriads being rushed 
 over sea and land to be ordered into the 
 welter! The whole indeed so awful that 
 Governments dare not make known the 
 truth! O God, a beast that lacks dis- 
 course of reason could not be so insensate ! 
 Is there no ruth, no merciful power on 
 earth that can prevail to stay the mad- 
 ness of the Peoples and stop the inhuman 
 slaughter? 
 
 For the order of this, our World, the 
 
A Lasting Peace 71 
 
 United States is as truly responsible as 
 any Nation under heaven. For its civil- 
 ization, for the conservation of its life 
 and treasure, for its deliverance from 
 suffering, for its rescue into peace and 
 joy, we are gravely and incalculably 
 responsible. Was ever immeasurable 
 power severed from immeasurable re- 
 sponsibility? When we have tried by 
 every mode of the exercise of power, when 
 we have intervened mercifully and firmly 
 as above set forth, then we shall have 
 done what we could; then we shall have 
 equalled responsibility with effort. Until 
 then, the blood of Europe is upon us too. 
 For let it be solemnly pondered that we 
 also have helped, in a measure, to create 
 the world atmosphere, the world spirit, the 
 world life, and the world status that have 
 made this dreadful conflict possible. The 
 
72 The World Crisis 
 
 guilt rests not on Europe alone. We can 
 not wash our hands in innocence and 
 " neutrality, " and calmly say, "See ye 
 to it; it is not our war!" 
 
 O most ignoble inaction, most in- 
 glorious "neutrality" in all the history 
 of Power! 
 
IV 
 
 GREAT ACTION IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY 
 
 rHIS is facing the Crisis. This 
 great action really grapples with 
 the terrible situation. Anything 
 else is trifling. It is little action in the 
 presence of World-tragedy, World-con- 
 flagration. This is great action, elevated, 
 stern, pitiful, mighty, for peace. This 
 equals the appalling earnestness for war 
 with an august and sacrificial earnestness 
 for peace. What else meets the awful 
 situation? Red Cross? Charity? Prayer? 
 Gentle proffers of Mediation? Plans for 
 Peace afterwards? They are all beautiful 
 
 — but, meanwhile, civilization wavers, 
 73 
 
74 The World Crisis 
 
 treasures are turned to ashes, lives un- 
 counted are snuffed out forever, and tears 
 flow down a hundred million faces. No; 
 nothing adequate, nothing commensur- 
 ate, nothing worthy is being done. This 
 is vast noble action, worthy the majesty 
 of the World's sorrow. 
 
 And this is what the Nations will do 
 tomorrow. It is incredible that half the 
 Earth in the future will stand and look on 
 while the other half is engaged in struggle 
 unto death. It is unbelievable. Such 
 intellectual blindness, such moral stupid- 
 ity, such hardness, such inhumanity, such 
 sordidness of spirit and impotence of will 
 are impossible tomorrow. The World 
 will widen its merciful stern action as it 
 has widened its sympathy, its beneficence, 
 its prayers, its charity. If tomorrow, 
 why not today? in the awfulness and 
 
In the Name of Humanity 75 
 
 extremity of Europe's need. Why not 
 be rational? Why not be civilized? Why 
 not be indeed human today? We bind 
 up the wounded, we feed the orphaned; 
 we bury the dead. Why not save the 
 living and the strong? O God, how long 
 must the Earth wait for common reason 
 and common morals in World affairs! 
 
 It is hard, very hard, to realize the 
 senselessness of the customary. 
 
 If one saw two engineers open wide the 
 throttles of their great engines and rush 
 furiously to a head-on collision and a 
 deafening crash, till headlight grazed 
 headlight and boiler touched boiler, and 
 one engineer was pulled out of his cab 
 scalded with steam and half-dead, the 
 other with crushed body and cut face 
 streaming with blood ; and if, on inquiring 
 
76 The World Crisis 
 
 the meaning of this tragic business, one 
 were told that this was the established 
 procedure by which the engineers finally 
 determined which had the right of way 
 at that particular time, one would be 
 utterly dumb with amazement. 
 
 Or if one saw a stream of men, headed 
 by lawyers, pouring from the right-hand 
 door of a court-house, and simultaneously 
 a like stream from the left-hand door; 
 both crowds rushing excitedly down the 
 steps to the public square in front of the 
 Temple of Justice; there quickly forming 
 in opposing companies and suddenly 
 drawing revolvers and concealed knives, 
 in an instant they fell upon one another 
 in deadly combat, and fought and fought 
 until three-fourths their number lay dead 
 or maimed on the pavement and the rest 
 were wearied to exhaustion; then if one 
 
In the Name of Humanity 77 
 
 were told that the cause of this grim fray- 
 was the title to a strip of ground lying 
 between the lands of the opposing factions 
 and that this procedure was the final 
 method prescribed by the Code as the 
 supreme arbitrament of the equities of 
 the case, one would wonder whether one 
 had stepped back forty generations or 
 was in the presence of rational beings 
 at all. 
 
 Or if, passing along, one heard an alarm- 
 ing din in a chemical labratory, and rush- 
 ing to the vestibule saw professors and 
 students on one side, professors and 
 students on the other, smashing retorts 
 over one another's heads, turning blow- 
 pipes on one another, hurling jars, squirt- 
 ing streams of vitriol, throwing grenades, 
 firing hydrogen guns and other strange 
 enginery of conflict; and continuing the 
 
78 The World Crisis 
 
 deadly strife till half of them were blown 
 to pieces, and most of the others mortally 
 injured, the remaining half-dozen scathed 
 with flame and all but suffocated with the 
 fumes; and if then one were told that the 
 cause of all this was a contention between 
 two rival theories of the ultimate con- 
 stitution of matter, and that the opposing 
 partisans, having held forth in many 
 series of earnest lectures, but to no tri- 
 umphant issue, this was the ultimate 
 method long established by custom of de- 
 termining definitively which of the rival 
 theories was the truth, one would almost 
 despair of the human race. And then if 
 one were told that this strange enginery 
 of combat had been devised beforehand 
 and secretly constructed by each side 
 against the day of trial, and now that the 
 issue was determined, the victorious side 
 
In the Name of Humanity 79 
 
 would dominate chemical science and 
 carry this superior culture to the bounds 
 of the earth for the good of the race, one 
 would be confounded beyond words. 
 Senselessness could go no farther. 
 
 This is war, the blind irrationality, 
 the stupidity of it. Come look at Bel- 
 gium. Read the declaration proclaiming 
 it German territory. Infamous might; 
 prostitution of power; ruthless tramping 
 down of justice. And half the people 
 fleeing from their own homes. Look at 
 Rheims Cathedral, that was beauty flow- 
 ering in stone. Look at that battle-ship 
 sinking in five minutes, six hundred lives 
 going down, and millions of property 
 annihilated. Look at those soldiers in 
 the middle of the river and the masked 
 Russian batteries suddenly opening fire 
 and two thousand Germans slaughtered 
 
So The World Crisis 
 
 in a few moments. Look at that arching 
 railroad bridge blown to pieces. Look at 
 the English Channel sown with mines. 
 Look at Poland, Galicia, east Prussia, 
 north-east France. Look at the manu- 
 factories idle, the merchant ships by the 
 hundred tied up in harbours, universities 
 half deserted, Red Cross nurses and doc- 
 tors patching men up so that they may go 
 back and in a fortnight shoot one another 
 to pieces again ; soldiers sharpening swords 
 on grindstones, because they have been 
 made dull on human bones; fifteen mil- 
 lion men away from their homes and work, 
 the women left behind to toil and weep, 
 and boys of fifteen and seventeen by the 
 thousand being trained for the front. 
 See again human homes, the nurseries 
 of life, ordered razed for miles around to 
 give clear paths for the missiles of death; 
 
In the Name of Humanity 81 
 
 street pavements uptorn and great holes 
 dynamited in the centre ; dykes cut to let 
 in the devouring sea; aeroplanes a mile in 
 air dropping bombs on defenceless cities, 
 killing helpless women and children; sub- 
 marines speeding under the ocean for a 
 hundred miles to strike a floating fortress 
 or merchant ship and blow all lives into 
 eternity in an instant, and myriads of 
 workmen rushing night and day to manu- 
 facture new chemicals and explosives, 
 found new cannon, and forge new and 
 improved enginery of destruction. If 
 some rare genius invents a new device, 
 more swift and deadly, for use on land 
 or sea, in air or under ocean, he is de- 
 corated with the Cross! And the Nation 
 rejoices to celebrate his praises. 
 
 And all this for what ? For life, liberty, 
 justice, prosperity, growth, a "place in the 
 
82 The World Crisis 
 
 sun." If this is not senselessness, irra- 
 tionality, madness, the world has none to 
 show. It is stupidity, insanity, and dia- 
 bolism all in one. With utter conviction 
 we may challenge human reason to look 
 at the ideals of civilization and then at 
 Europe for one hour steadily, openly, to 
 become convinced forever that war is 
 not only hell but sheer insanity. Modern 
 war is the supreme blindness and irration- 
 ality of the Earth. It is the colossal 
 stupidity and crime of the World. 
 
 But it is difficult, very difficult, to 
 realize adequately the senselessness of 
 the customary. When one wakes up, 
 this stupid ghastly war seems like a 
 hideous dream. Still there is the dark 
 irrational reality! O when will the calm 
 holy light of truth brighten the human 
 soul! 
 
In the Name of Humanity 83 
 
 Why lengthen this madness, why drag 
 on this senseless butchery? 
 
 Germany wants a "lasting peace," 
 says the Reichstag; France a " beneficent 
 peace," says Poincare; Britain, a "peace 
 that will secure . . . liberty and inde- 
 pendence, unthreatened by militarism," 
 and that will "redress the cruel wrong 
 done to Belgium," says Sir Edward Grey. 
 Thus they all seek true peace. So they 
 fight for peace. They will fight, they 
 declare, until true peace comes. 
 
 Consider the nature of this procedure. 
 If two individuals were fighting, with 
 every cruel blow they would be farther re- 
 moved from peace. Hate would become 
 deeper, more unforgettable. That would 
 not be the road to peace. Two things 
 only could result : either they would fight 
 to a draw, or one would conquer the other. 
 
84 The World Crisis 
 
 If the first, would they be at real peace? 
 Day after tomorrow, unless some differ- 
 ent, some nobler element got in, they 
 would be at. strife again. If the second, 
 would they be at peace? Fundamentally 
 impossible. A conquered or broken will is 
 the very source of hate. From then on, 
 there is a relation of inferiority. There 
 may be no fighting, but there can be no 
 peace. There can be master and subject 
 but no essential peace. Comradeship is 
 gone. 
 
 It is forever the same between Peoples. 
 Is the issue a draw? Then war is only 
 postponed — unless different and higher 
 elements get in. Is the issue complete 
 victory? Then the vanquished is broken 
 and humbled. There is domination, but 
 there is no peace and can be none. The 
 path of strife can not be the path of peace. 
 
In the Name of Humanity 85 
 
 Mars can not be anything else than the 
 god of war. It would be good if Emperors 
 and statesmen thought themselves through 
 here. By what sense or logic can pro- 
 longing war bring true peace? Can 
 Britains break Germans? Can Germans 
 break and crush Russians? That is the 
 only way to have even a semblance of 
 peace. But do not Germans and Britains 
 and Russians and Frenchmen know that 
 civilization has advanced too far, the 
 human spirit and unconquerable will have 
 unfolded too much ever again to become 
 subject? That time, that stage, is forever 
 past. Britains and Germans and the 
 others will die, but they will not be slaves 
 or semi-slaves. 
 
 Why then prolong this insensate war? 
 Is there one page in all history that can 
 show that real peace among developed 
 
86 The World Crisis 
 
 freemen has been reached in that way? 
 Is there any rational analysis of human 
 motive and life that can promise such a 
 result? Is there any light from Above 
 that can justify such an expectation? In 
 a word, is there any leaf in human experi- 
 ence, any insight or reasonable prevision 
 that can give ground for the anticipation 
 of true peace through horrible war? It 
 is a strange state of mind, this present. 
 It is a confusion and welter of thought as 
 well as a welter of strife. To strike a man 
 is not the way to make him your friend, 
 nor to kill him the way to make his 
 brother at peace with you. Here is the 
 short line. Project it to the ends of the 
 earth, it will be no different. Why then 
 prolong war that peace may come? 
 Strange stupidity and blindness of our 
 human mind, even in high places. Why 
 
In the Name of Humanity 87 
 
 not spend an hour in calm looking into the 
 nature of human feeling and motive, and 
 then a lucid hour reflecting thereon? espe- 
 cially in this most grave crisis that ever has 
 overtaken the children of men. More war? 
 Either a stalemate or a victory. Then 
 with your modern men and your twentieth 
 century look out for the consequences. 
 When will Britains be slaves? or French- 
 men? or Germans? 
 
 Why lengthen then this stupid murder- 
 ous war? A rational look at the imple- 
 ments of war; a scientific analysis of the 
 nature of war; a clear insight into the 
 passions appealed to in war will satisfy 
 any pure mind that we face toward 
 the jungle when we begin to hate and 
 kill. The path to peace is in the op- 
 posite direction. Each average day adds 
 myriads upon myriads of new personal 
 
88 The World Crisis 
 
 haters to the inconceivable total, as the 
 heavy news of the slaughter of husbands 
 and brothers comes home to the circles 
 of kindred. Before they hated with a 
 general impersonal hate. Now they hate 
 with a personal, intimate, unforgettable 
 hatred. Is that the road to peace? If so, 
 then the jungle is the kingdom of peace, 
 and the tiger, not the dove, the emblem. 
 How an awakened intelligence can stead- 
 ily, really look at this horrible procedure, 
 and not recoil from it forever, and pray 
 and strive with the last measures of 
 earnestness for peace and the things of 
 peace, baffles and passes comprehension. 
 
 One of the most appealing reasons for 
 stopping this prodigious destruction is 
 that the majority of the victims are youth. 
 Think of boys and young men, before 
 
In the Name of Humanity 89 
 
 their minds are half opened as to the 
 meaning and worth of life, cut down by 
 the hundred thousands, never to have a 
 career and growth on this earth. Think 
 of the vigour slain, the homes that will 
 never be, the children not to be born, 
 the millions of girls doomed to a solitary 
 and unnatural life. By whose decree? 
 By the decree of older men, the deliberate 
 decision of fathers! Youth by the mil- 
 lions deprived of their human chance by 
 the fixed determination of their elders. 
 Is this the wisdom of the elders? This 
 the meaning of fatherhood? This the 
 care of the older generation for the 
 younger? And every device known to 
 man used to move the youth toward the 
 ranks, even to the limit of conscription. 
 To the sensitive mind there is no more 
 violent and deplorable use of experience 
 
90 The World Crisis 
 
 and power in the world than this. It 
 would be better if no man under thirty- 
 six were even permitted to volunteer, 
 and none under forty-eight conscripted. 
 Then if the older men wanted war, they 
 might have it. They are the ones that 
 best could be spared, and their counsels of 
 war would cease with them. But there 
 would be no war ! A new type of wisdom 
 among the counsellors would quickly 
 come, new ways of composing differences 
 very soon found — especially if conscrip- 
 tion fell impartially on Kings and Cabi- 
 nets, and the front line of danger were no 
 respecter of persons. War would be 
 found not so inevitable, not so divinely 
 decreed as men fable. They would in- 
 deed make short shrift of war! Yet by 
 cold resolve war is prolonged and other 
 myriads of youth must fall. 
 
In the Name of Humanity 91 
 
 Who can calculate the moral damage 
 of this war? Its prolongation is dulling 
 the sensibilities of mankind. We are 
 getting used to daily chapters of horror. 
 We are adjusting ourselves. We are 
 hardening our hearts. The moral damage 
 to the young especially is incalculable. 
 This consequence is one of the subtlest 
 and saddest of the results of war. Any 
 fine nature can feel the spread of its 
 hardening influence. Few escape. If 
 we deafen and deaden ourselves and do 
 nothing, the brutalizing effect is increased. 
 If we rise up, stirred to the depths with 
 sympathy, and highly resolve to do our 
 utmost, then we react against its brutal- 
 izing power. Still the finer side of us all 
 is being injured by the daily conscious- 
 ness of the brutalities of war. If this 
 could be realized, in its penetrative 
 
92 The World Crisis 
 
 damage, nothing would more move 
 fathers and mothers and friends of the 
 race to end this and all wars swiftly and 
 forever. 
 
 And why do we not move? Why do we 
 not intervene even, if nothing less will 
 avail? But we shrink. There is an in- 
 stinctive dread, a natural timidity, an 
 impulse toward self-preservation. The 
 situation is so unusual. We were over- 
 whelmed, dazed. We were at a loss, 
 awkward, inexperienced in World-action. 
 The catastrophe was so vast. Wasn't 
 it providential that there was a broad 
 ocean between? Fortunate that we 
 didn't have to get in? We drew back as 
 from a vast elemental cataclysm. "Neu- 
 trality!" happy refuge! and "so calm 
 and sensible and dignified." Such was 
 our confused mental state, our timid 
 
In the Name of Humanity 93 
 
 solution, our passive refuge. But can 
 we rest there? 
 
 An engineer catches sight of a child 
 drowning in a river. Quick as lightning 
 he reverses his engine, stops the train, 
 leaps into the river, and rescues the child. 
 An appalling mine disaster occurs in 
 Illinois. Doctors, nurses, fire-apparatus, 
 and rescuers from far and near are rushed 
 to Spring Valley. For days they dig and 
 fight flames day and night in an herculean 
 effort to save the imprisoned and suffocat- 
 ing men. At last they reach them and 
 save some. The young Lincoln watches 
 an auctioneer sell slaves in New Orleans; 
 silently he meditates, walks away, raises 
 his clenched fist, and says to his friend, 
 "If ever I get a chance I'll hit that thing 
 hard!" 
 
 "But this great dreadful war over 
 
94 The World Crisis 
 
 there is different," men say. Is it? 
 Little drop, you are like the Ocean. 
 Ocean, you are like the little drop. 
 Palling apple, you are like the falling 
 Galaxy. Moving Galaxy, you are like 
 the falling apple. Little candle, you are 
 like the fiery Sun. Flaming Sun, you are 
 like the little candle. A nine-year-old 
 said to his mother, when she was reading 
 to him about the terrible battles in 
 Europe, "Mother, why don't they make 
 them stop?" No neutral statesman on 
 earth can answer that question. No 
 human mind can justify non-action. All 
 the neutral Cabinets and Rulers of the 
 World can not frame a rational answer 
 that will satisfy the mind of that boy 
 or the uncorrupted reason and conscience 
 of mankind. There is no answer. The 
 laws of the nursery are the laws of the 
 
In the Name of Humanity 95 
 
 World. The ethics of the individual are 
 the ethics of humanity. " Mother, why 
 don't they make them stop?" 
 
 We will not let a citizen burn down his 
 own house or cut his own throat with his 
 own razor, much less his neighbour's house 
 of throat. We will not let two men meas- 
 ure off a space and shoot to blow out one 
 another's brains, even if they agree to do 
 so beforehand. We will not let parents 
 jeopard their own children's lives, nor 
 destroy the life of offspring, even unborn. 
 Shall we permit Nations to burn down 
 whole cities, send fleets of merchantmen 
 to the bottom of the sea, and lay low 
 human lives by the million, because they 
 have agreed to do so in impetuous haste? 
 At this very moment Germany would 
 burn down Paris and London and destroy 
 millions of soldiers' lives, if thereby, and 
 
96 The World Crisis 
 
 only thereby, they could triumph. At 
 this very moment England and France 
 would burn down Berlin and Vienna, and 
 destroy millions of soldiers' lives, if 
 thereby, and only thereby, they could 
 triumph. It seems too horrible, too 
 inhuman to think of. But what warrant 
 do these last months give for thinking 
 otherwise? "War is war" they say. 
 
 If this situation can not move our 
 mighty Nation, what could happen on 
 earth awful enough to do so? The de- 
 struction is so wide it outgoes conception ; 
 so horrible, the heart bleeds to think of it. 
 And the United States doing nothing! O 
 that the august imperatives of duty might 
 become clear! That the larger thought, 
 the broader imagination, the wider vision 
 might come! That the human home 
 might be truly seen as the World, not as 
 
In the Name of Humanity 97 
 
 our Country merely, humankind felt as 
 brothers in all lands, human duty, that 
 knows not place, quickly acknowledged 
 wherever need appeals! A sympathy, 
 a thought, a prayer, a charity that does 
 not take in all mankind is ignoble. It 
 is not fully human. Duty, action that 
 does not take in all men, is ignoble. It 
 is not completely human. 
 
 The first international conference of 
 neutral Nations, assembled in any part of 
 the globe since the war began, gathered 
 at Washington, December 8th. Twenty 
 Republics were represented, our great Re- 
 public leading. What were they together 
 for? For the sake of ideals? No; in 
 the interest of commerce. About a fort- 
 night later, the first formal and firm 
 protest, representing the same twenty 
 
98 The World Crisis 
 
 Republics, was made. Against what? 
 Violation of Belgian neutrality? No; 
 against interfering with American money- 
 making. This protest was dispatched 
 on Christmas Eve — eve of the birth of 
 the Prince of Peace! No solemn protest 
 yet against war! No great action yet 
 toward peace! 'Twill be recorded to 
 the ever-lasting and ineffable disgrace of 
 the twenty Republics, and especially the 
 United States. Our Ambassador at Lon- 
 don represented to Britain that the 
 United States was thoroughly in earnest ! 
 The protest concludes with a warning 
 seeking to impress on the British Govern- 
 ment that interference with American 
 trade "may arouse a feeling contrary to 
 that which has so long existed between 
 the American and British peoples. ,, 
 What shall we say? Silent touching 
 
In the Name of Humanity 99 
 
 the highest and gravest interests of the 
 human race! Emphatically protesting 
 touching interference with American dol- 
 lars! Is this American leadership? This 
 the destiny of the Great Republic? This 
 "getting ready" to render a " supreme 
 service" to Europe and the World? 
 
 England, France, Germany have been 
 unified, solemnized, in a way, exalted by 
 their boundless sacrifice, suffering, and 
 sorrow. It is probably unparalleled. Is 
 there no infinite appeal that can be made 
 to the United States and to the other 
 Republics? Is there no unity, exaltation, 
 and sublime action for them in the name 
 of freedom and justice, humanity and 
 mercy? There should be such grandeur 
 of soul now, such elevation of resolve, 
 such glory of action, such boundlessness 
 of sacrifice, as the earth never has known. 
 
ioo The World Crisis 
 
 It is a World-tragedy, a World-sorrow. 
 The appeal should be surpassing; the 
 response unparalleled. "O beautiful, 
 my Country!" may thy Leadership be 
 glorious! 
 
 Two souls dwell in the German breast, 
 in the British, and in the others. The 
 baser soul thirsts for triumph, lusts after 
 dominion and aggrandizement, seeks dis- 
 guised revenge. The nobler seeks right, 
 justice, honour, peace, and good-will. The 
 nobler soul is not dead. It shall yet rise 
 up like a rock out of the sea of passion. 
 But how troubled the sea! and how dark! 
 Still the eternal soul of these Peoples 
 shall yet arise. Germans, Frenchmen, 
 Britains are not depraved spirits. They 
 shall yet listen to the "still small voice." 
 Chastened, sobered, purified, they shall 
 
In the Name of Humanity 101 
 
 yet listen to truth and right and love and 
 peace. Have faith in God. Have faith 
 in man. Unspeakable pity that such 
 storms should sweep and deluge the 
 human spirit. But the God who could 
 upheave a Continent from the weltering 
 sea, bring order out of chaos and light 
 out of darkness, will bring peace again 
 to this troubled Earth. Have faith in 
 God! Have faith in man! 
 
 Peace does not seem impossible when 
 we stop and hear the Nations tell, in 
 nobler speech, why they war. "For 
 freedom and public right, for justice, life, 
 and possessions, for the sanctity of 
 treaties and the destruction of militarism, 
 we war," says Britain. "For the same 
 high things we strive," says France — 
 many adding, "and for the Provinces 
 wrongly wrested from us." "And we 
 
102 The World Crisis 
 
 strive/' says Germany, "for honour and 
 greatness, for life and existence, for 
 right and freedom, for equal opportunity 
 and the destruction of navalism, and for 
 the fulfilment of our cultural mission. " 
 And all strive for "lasting peace. 11 Such 
 speech does not make truce and peace im- 
 possible. Can not strong Nations, like 
 strong men, come together and under- 
 stand each other? In a fortnight, twenty 
 great noble men, together with our rare Pre- 
 sident, could determine conditions and out- 
 lines of peace. To prolong this stupid, 
 murderous, and barbarous war is as un- 
 necessary as it is monstrous. There are 
 noble men, there are noble heights in 
 humanity, there are noble planes of truth 
 and duty, that can stop this insensate 
 and iniquitous war almost tomorrow! 
 When strong and noble men, for such 
 
In the Name of Humanity 103 
 
 high purpose, come together, Almighty 
 God will bow the Heavens, if need be, 
 and come down ! Possible peace is nearer 
 than we think, for God is near — and God 
 is Love. Though ' ' Europe rock and sway 
 in the convulsions of great war, " yet just 
 and righteous peace can come. 
 
 But when? The exigency is so appal- 
 ling that we look up and ask, Why does 
 not God intervene? Doubtless more 
 prayers for deliverance are being offered 
 than ever have gone up from this afflicted 
 earth. Why does not God intervene? 
 Is He not pitiful? Does He not care? 
 Why does He not come forth and stay 
 the ragings of war? 
 
 It seems once for all clear that God 
 does not thus interpose. If ever, then 
 now. For will the world again know 
 extremity like this? The Infinite Com- 
 
104 The World Crisis 
 
 passion verily is moved with tenderness 
 divine. For what is this flood of pity 
 that we feel, but the tide of His Being? 
 No; God helps man through man. Not 
 as a forth-put Hand of Might does He 
 come. But as an interior presence, Spirit 
 to spirit. Directly to the souls ; indirect- 
 ly through pitying men. If the Father 
 saves his children now, it will be by the 
 touch of the Spirit, and the inspired soul 
 and might of brother men. More august, 
 therefore, is our warrant, more meaning- 
 ful our deep impulses to help. They 
 are the movements of God in the souls of 
 men. They are the spiritual interven- 
 tions of the Eternal Pity. They are the 
 saving movements of God. How august, 
 then, how imperative, are the overflowing 
 sympathies, the divine unrests, the up- 
 surging impulses that we feel. They are 
 
In the Name of Humanity 105 
 
 the disturbings of God, thrusting us forth 
 to the mighty work of rescue. If ever 
 God moved men to help, if ever He called 
 them to divine intervention, it is now. 
 The need is so vast, so appealing. He 
 saves man through man — this is God's 
 intervention. Blessed are the men and 
 women who feel the Divine urge and 
 nobly act! 
 
 "But surely the Way must be very hard 
 to find and circuitous ?" Yes, for selfish 
 unearnest men. For noble earnest men, 
 the Way is very simple and easy to find. 
 It is the straightforward Way of high 
 resolve to help. It is the simple purpose, 
 deep as mother love, to save the children 
 of men and God from death. It is as 
 deep and earnest for peace and life, as 
 the present sacrifice for war and death. 
 
106 The World Crisis 
 
 This is the simple Way, and brave, 
 loving men and women can quickly 
 find this Way. No subtlety of wis- 
 dom is called for. Only the simplicity 
 of love and sacrifice. In Europe now 
 we see enough of subtleties, circuitous 
 diplomacies, legal technicalities, and 
 Machiavellian duplicities. May God 
 give the World honest love and straight- 
 forwardness henceforth! and see what 
 that will do. 
 
 And no President since Lincoln has 
 been more fit to lead in so grave and high 
 a work. Happy the Nation with a 
 Leader so strong and calm and superior. 
 Happy also the Nation, at such a time, 
 whose Secretary of State is large and 
 generous of nature. Great souls, both 
 of them, lovers of peace, and withal 
 fearless men. No Nation in this great 
 
In the Name of Humanity 107 
 
 Crisis has opportunity like ours, and 
 none Leaders more fit. 
 
 Great President of a Great People: 
 Leading Republic of the World: Neutral 
 Nations in all the Earth : Church of God 
 everywhere: Noble Men in All Lands: 
 Mothers of the World: and Lovers of 
 Peace among the Nations at War: Yours 
 is the august Opportunity, and yours is 
 the solemn Responsibility in the gravest 
 Crisis that ever has overtaken the affairs 
 of men. 
 
 How can the Christian, how can the 
 human World endure to see this monstrous 
 butchery drag on? Our hearts bleed for 
 suffering humanity. Our very souls cry 
 out to Thee, O God! Come quickly, Lord, 
 and bring in the time when our humane 
 men and women shall govern the World. 
 
108 The World Crisis 
 
 Hear the solemn words of our Presi- 
 dent: "Look abroad upon the troubled 
 world! Only America at peace! Among 
 all the great Powers of the world, only 
 America saving her power for her 
 own people! Only America using her 
 great character and her great strength 
 in the interests of peace and pros- 
 perity! 
 
 "Do you not think it likely that the 
 world will sometime turn to America and 
 say : ' You were right and we were wrong. 
 You kept your head when we lost ours. 
 You tried to keep the scale from tipping, 
 and we threw the whole weight of arms on 
 one side of the scale. Now, in your self- 
 possession, in your coolness, in your 
 strength, may we not turn to you for 
 counsel and assistance? ' 
 
 "Think of the deep-wrought destruc- 
 
In the Name of Humanity 109 
 
 tion of economic resources, of life and 
 hope, that is taking place is some parts 
 of the world; and think of the reservoir 
 of hope, the reservoir of energy, the re- 
 servoir of sustenance, that there is in 
 this great land of plenty. May we not 
 look forward to the time when we shall 
 be called blessed among the nations, 
 because we succoured the nations of 
 the world in their time of distress and 
 dismay? 
 
 "I, for one, pray God that that solemn 
 hour may come, and I know the solidity 
 of character and I know the exaltation 
 of hope, I know the high principle with 
 which the American people will respond 
 to the call of the world for this service; 
 and I thank God that those who believe 
 in America, who try to serve her people, 
 are likely to be also what America herself 
 
 
no The World Crisis 
 
 from the first intended to be, the servant 
 of mankind. " 
 
 That "solemn hour" has come! 
 "O beautiful, my Country!" may thy 
 Leadership be glorious! 
 
 THE END 
 
Ji Selection from the 
 Catalogue of 
 
 C. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 Complete Catalogue sent 
 on application 
 
GOD AND MAN 
 
 Philosophy of the Higher Life 
 
 By E. Ellsworth Shumaker, Ph.D. (Yale) 
 
 Cloth. 8°. 408 pages. $2.00 net 
 
 Sir Oliver Lodge. — "It seems a most thoughtful pro- 
 duction, and one that cannot fail to have great influence 
 for good. I shall hope to read it with more care, but even 
 now I realize that there are in it many ideas to which I 
 also have been led. It is very satisfactory when people 
 working from different points of view, and with different 
 kinds of training, arrive at conclusions which may be re- 
 garded as similar. It implies, I think, that they are 
 tending towards the truth." 
 
 Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie. — " The spirit of your book, its 
 attitude, its breadth and insight, and, above all, its deal- 
 ing with the whole problem of life, not only with the 
 brain, but with the body, the imagination, the emotions 
 and the will, give me the greatest satisfaction. ... So 
 few books dealing with the ultimate problem of life are 
 profoundly religious. . • . Your book is a really de- 
 vout piece of thinking, feeling and seeing." 
 
 Dr. George A. Gordon. — " I have had a few quiet hours 
 with your book, and I have been struck with two things 
 — the largeness of its view and the elevation of its relig- 
 ious spirit. I shall enjoy it more and more." 
 
 Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus. — " The other night I dipped 
 into your book and it kept me awake for an hour or two. 
 I hope to read it thoroughly soon. . . . What I have seen 
 of it is very suggestive and rich in thought." 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 New York London 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper pre 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 
 Treatment Date: 
 
 MAY 
 
 PreservationTechnoioj 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERV