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Show THE DREAM Vance Thompson was IOF PEACE thoughtful when he wrote "The Crusade against War" the second sec-ond dream of The Hague. That is a wonderous dream this dream of world-wide peace. Those conferences have shown us the German theory of peace. It was the breaking up of the Hague then, the Anglo-Boer war was pulled off in South Africa. The Hague-then, Hague-then, the bloody conflicts in the far East. It seems a paradox but the silence of the Hall of Peace was broken by the thunderous apologies that the Japs made to the Russians. i And after world-wide peace then Jm Ecuador, Bolivia all the Latins to the JjM fjS south of us got all tangled up. 'jM The whole scheme Ur a' wonderous H dream. It is hard to keep nations from H going to the bad. wH President Roosevelt, he who won his Sj spure on San Juan Hill, it was he who 3H issued the call for world peace. And his m countrymen rejoices. But the jingo press n would start a mutiny among the Japs on the Pacific and thereby threaten the closing of the "Open Door." for the commerce of the world. The dream of peace is alnght; but somehow some-how we fuss and fume, and fight and brawl. "Some day," says Mr. Thompson, "there will be a pathology of nations; then, we shall understand many things that are now dark. Centuries ago the Chinese discovered the absurdity of war. They disdained to fight. They prefered to yield to the civilized invader, knowing that the influence of a higher race would I in the end perfect him and make him like themselves." The undertone! Wc must not fail to catch it. The sovereigns of the world must npt throw palms at each other's feet, and then hold swords behind their backs. Wars there will be in the future internal in-ternal and international. But the gaunt-et gaunt-et will be cast to the marts of trade. 'The challenge will be given .in the language lan-guage of the world of finance. 1 Volcanoes may slumber for ages, then I burst in fury. And from Mt. Pelee 1 come the flames that wipe out our Mar- tineques. We do well oftimes to read 1 destiny in the signs that uowd in upon I us' I Said the old German aristocrat: "War 1 is made by the classes. Mr. Carnegie 1 has given a million to build here a Pal- I ace of Peace; but if anyone should offer 8 his steel trust five millions, or a hundred, 9 for casting cannons, do you think he I would refuse? No, well, that's the I way the capitalist understands peace." I There are many minds and there are 9 as many dreams of peace there are m many ways to dream of universal peace. For says the other dreamer: "The conference over yonder uVa huge comedy, com-edy, a huge hypocrisy. There will never nev-er be peace until the present society ts destroyed utterly destroyed." And that fellow had the far-off, dreamy look of Upton Sinclair. "We must destroy war" so said another an-other dreamer. And this same captain had seen thirty years of service in the Dutch Colonies: he had killed many negroes and wept as he thought of it. "For," said he, "you are too cruel to them in the United 9tates you bum them at thi stake." And that's The Hague that's the dream of universal peace! |