TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
The word "amoeba" uses oe ligature in the original on page 94.
For consistency, a period has been added at the end of the word
"Editor" in some footnotes where it was missing.
The following misprints have been corrected:
"spendid" corrected to "splendid" (page 78)
"stumblingblock" corrected to "stumbling block" (page 90)
"can can" corrected to "can" (page 140)
Other than corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in
spelling, punctuation, hyphenation and ligature usage have been
retained.
PRIZE ORATIONS
OF THE
INTERCOLLEGIATE PEACE ASSOCIATION
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
STEPHEN F. WESTON, PH.D.
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION
PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, ANTIOCH COLLEGE
YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO
FOREWORD BY
CHARLES F. THWING
BOSTON
THE WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION
1914
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED
TO THE
MISSES MARY AND HELEN SEABURY
WHOSE INTEREST AND ASSISTANCE
HAVE MADE POSSIBLE THE ORATIONS OF THE
INTERCOLLEGIATE PEACE ASSOCIATION
CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD vii
By CHARLES F. THWING, President of the Association
THE INTERCOLLEGIATE PEACE ASSOCIATION 1
By STEPHEN F. WESTON, Executive Secretary of the Association
THE CONFLICT OF WAR AND PEACE 25
By PAUL SMITH, DePauw University, Indiana
THE UNITED STATES AND UNIVERSAL PEACE 35
By GLENN PORTER WISHARD, Northwestern University, Illinois
THE EVOLUTION OF WORLD PEACE 45
By LEVI T. PENNINGTON, Earlham College, Indiana
THE WASTE OF WAR--THE WEALTH OF PEACE 55
By ARTHUR FORAKER YOUNG, Western Reserve University, Ohio
THE HOPE OF PEACE 65
By STANLEY H. HOWE, Albion College, Michigan
THE ROOSEVELT THEORY OF WAR 73
By PERCIVAL V. BLANSHARD, University of Michigan
NATIONAL HONOR AND VITAL INTERESTS 81
By RUSSELL WEISMAN, Western Reserve University, Ohio
THE EVOLUTION OF PATRIOTISM 91
By PAUL B. BLANSHARD, University of Michigan
CERTAIN PHASES OF THE PEACE MOVEMENT 101
By CALVERT MAGRUDER, St. John's College, Maryland
THE ASSURANCE OF PEACE 111
By VERNON M. WELSH, Knox College, Illinois
EDUCATION FOR PEACE 121
By FRANCIS J. LYONS, University of Texas
NATIONAL HONOR AND PEACE 129
By LOUIS BROIDO, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
THE NEW NATIONALISM AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT 137
By RALPH D. LUCAS, Knox College, Illinois
MAN'S MORAL NATURE THE HOPE OF UNIVERSAL PEACE 147
By VICTOR MORRIS, University of Oregon
THE TASK OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 157
By HAROLD HUSTED, Ottawa University, Kansas
THE PRESENT STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 167
By BRYANT SMITH, Guilford College, North Carolina
FOREWORD
These orations are selected from hundreds of similar addresses spoken
in recent years by hundreds of students in American colleges. I
believe it is not too bold to say that they represent the highest
level of undergraduate thinking and speaking. They are worthy
interpreters of the cause of peace, but they are, as well, noble
illustrations of the type of intellectual and moral culture of
American students. Whoever reads them will, I believe, become more
optimistic, not only over the early fulfillment of the dreams of peace
among nations, but also over the intellectual and ethical condition of
academic life.
For the simple truth is that the cause of peace makes an appeal of
peculiar force to the undergraduate. It appeals to his imagination.
This imagination is at once historic and prophetic. War makes an
appeal to the historic imagination of the student. His study of Greek
and Roman history has been devoted too largely to the wars that these
peoples waged. Marathon, Salamis, Carthage, are names altogether too
familiar and significant. By contrast he sees what this history, which
is written in blood, might have become. If the millions of men slain
had been permitted to live, and if the uncounted treasure spent had
been economically used, the results in the history of civilization
would have been far richer and nobler. He notes, too, does this
student, that if the last decades of the eighteenth century and the
first decades of the nineteenth had been free from wars in Europe,
humanity would now have attained a far higher level of physical and
intellectual strength. The historic imagination of the student
pictures, as his reason interprets, such conditions. His prophetic
imagination likewise exercises its creative function. The student sees
nations to-day dwelling in armed truces and moving to and fro as a
soldiery actual or possible. He realizes that war puts up what
civilization puts down, and puts down what civilization elevates. He
reads the lamented Robertson's great lecture on the poetry of war, but
he knows also, as Robertson intimates, that "peace is blessed; peace
arises out of charity." The poetry of peace is more entrancing than
the poetry of carnage. To this primary element in the mind of the
undergraduate--the imagination--our great cause therefore makes an
appeal of peculiar earnestness.
To the reason of the college man, also, the cause of peace makes a
peculiar appeal through its simple logic. War is most illogical. It
breaks the law of the proper interpretation of causality. When two
nations of adjacent territory cannot agree over a boundary line, why
should settlement be made in terms of physical force? When two nations
fail to see eye to eye in adjusting the questions of certain fishing
rights, why should they incarnadine the seas in seeking for the truth
to be applied in settlement? In civil disputes, why, asks the student,
should rifles be employed to discover truth and right? War is an
intellectual anachronism, a breach of logic. Of course, one may reply,
humanity is not logical in its reasoning any more than it is exact in
its observing. Of course it is not; but the college is set to cast
out the rule of no-reason and to bring in the reign of reason. Peace
furnishes a motive and a method of such advancement. Peace is logic
for the individual and for the nation.
The illogical character of war is also made evident by the contrast
between the college man as a thinker and war itself. The college man
who thinks sees truth broadly; war interprets life narrowly, at the
point of the bayonet. The college man who thinks sees truth deeply;
war makes its primary appeal to the superficial love of glory, of
pomp, and of circumstance. The college man who thinks sees truth in
its highest relations; war is hell. The college man who thinks sees
truth in long ranges and in far-off horizons; war is emotional, and
the warrior flings the years into the hours. The college man who
thinks, thinks accurately, with logic, with reason; war does not
think--it strikes. "Strike," the college man may also say, "but hear!"
he cries; "yes, think." If the college can make the student think, it
has created the greatest force for making the world and the age a
world and an age of peace.
It is plain enough, too, that the economic side of war makes a
tremendous appeal to the student. The cost of the battleship _Indiana_
was practically $6,000,000; the total value of grounds and buildings
of the colleges and universities in Indiana is slightly more than
$7,000,000, and the productive funds are $4,000,000. The total cost of
the battleship _Oregon_ was more than $6,500,000; the total value of
grounds and buildings of the universities and colleges of Oregon is
less than $2,000,000, and the productive funds amount to hardly more
than $2,000,000. The cost of the battleship _Iowa_ was nearly
$6,000,000, and the productive funds of all the colleges and
universities of the state are only $5,000,000. The battleship
_Kentucky_ cost $5,000,000; in the colleges of that state the total
amount of productive funds is only $2,000,000, and the total value of
grounds and buildings, $3,000,000. The battleship _Alabama_ cost more
than $4,500,000, and the entire property, real and personal, of all
the universities and colleges in that state is less than $4,000,000.
The cost of the battleship _Wisconsin_ was more than $4,500,000; the
whole value of all grounds and buildings of the colleges and
universities of the state is only slightly more than $7,000,000. The
battleship _Maine_ cost more than $5,000,000, and the entire value in
grounds, buildings, and productive funds of the colleges and
universities of that state is little more than $5,000,000.
The value of the buildings of five hundred colleges and universities
in this country was estimated in a recent year at $262,000,000, and
the productive funds at $357,000,000. Leaving out those now in course
of construction, the total cost of the battleships and armored
cruisers of the United States named after individual states is
$325,000,000.
The cost of maintaining these battleships during the fiscal year of
1910, though many were in commission but a small part of the year,
amounted to no less than $33,000,000. The amount which all the
colleges and universities in this country received in tuition fees in
1911 was only $20,000,000; and the entire income received both from
fees and productive funds was only about $34,000,000. In other words,
when one takes into account the depreciation of the battleship or
armored cruiser, the entire cost of the thirty-eight battleships for a
single year is greater than the administration of the entire American
system of higher education.
Is it not painfully manifest that the cost of war constitutes a mighty
argument for the economic mind of the student?
Moreover, I am inclined to believe that the very difficulties
belonging to the triumph of our great cause constitute ground for its
closer relationship to the college man. The college man wishes, as
well as needs, a hard job. The easy task, the rosy opportunity, makes
no appeal. He is like Garibaldi's soldiers, who, when the choice was
once offered them by the commander to surrender to ease and safety,
chose hardship and peril. The Boxer revolution in China was followed
by hundreds of applications from college men and women to be sent
forth to China to take the place of the martyrs. The difficulties in
the progress of the great cause are of every sort and condition.
Industrial narrowness and commercial greed, military and political
ambitions, sectional zeal, national jealousy, the sensitiveness of
each nation in matters of national honor, the glamour of the good and
the beautiful under the sentiment of patriotism, the historic honor
attending death for one's country, the ease of creating war scares
among the people, the looseness of the organization of the higher
forces of the world--all these conditions and more pile up into a
Pelion on Ossa as a part of the difficulties standing in the progress
of our great movement. But such difficulties inspire rather than
deter. The student says, "I will; therefore I can." He also says, "I
can; therefore I will." He knows that the forces fighting for him are
more than those that fight against him, strong as these are. Man in
his noblest relationships, the songs of the poet (the best
interpreter, from Homer and Virgil to the "Winepress" of Alfred
Noyes), the torture, the pains, the sufferings, the woes, the vision
of the prophet of a loving and perfect humanity, the reason of
logic--all these and more are to him inspirations, and strengthen him
in his great quest. He is a knight of the Holy Grail that is filled
from the river of the water of life.
Perhaps, furthermore, the cause makes its most impressive appeal to
the collegian in its internationalism, or interpatriotism. This
internationalism addresses itself to his own international
appreciation. The collegian is a patriot. He is a patriot not only
against a foreign country but often against certain parts of his own
country--loyal to the interests which he believes a section of his own
nation properly represents. The German students have fought for their
Fatherland; they have also fought for the liberal sentiments of their
own land against reactionary movements, as in 1848. In the American
Civil War no brighter record is to be found than is embodied in the
tablets in Memorial Hall, Cambridge, or in Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill,
University of North Carolina. But the collegian possesses the
international sense, and possesses it more and more deeply with each
passing decade. His is the international mind, interpreting phenomena
in terms of common justice. His is the international heart, feeling
the universal joys and sorrows, woes and exultations. His is the
international will, seeking to do good to all men. His is the
international conscience, weighing right and duty in the scales of
divine humanity. Whatever interpretation he gives to the sayings of
Paul that God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of the
earth and has fixed the bounds of their habitation,--whether he stops
with the words "the face of the earth" or whether he goes on to
interpret the limitations of their residence,--it is nevertheless true
that his mind, his heart, his will, and his conscience do go out
toward all nations in their endeavor to realize their highest racial
and interracial peace. No man is a foreigner to him.
I have, I trust, said enough to intimate that these orations arise out
of a natural and normal condition of the student mind and heart. They
also, in subject as well as in origin, bear a special message of cheer
and hopefulness to all who have a good will toward the collegian and
toward the great cause for which we all are laboring.
CHARLES F. THWING
_President_
WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
CLEVELAND, OHIO
PRIZE ORATIONS
THE INTERCOLLEGIATE PEACE ASSOCIATION
_Origin._ In the autumn of 1904 President Noah E. Byers of Goshen
College, Goshen, Indiana, a Mennonite college, invited to a conference
representatives of all the colleges in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio
that are conducted by those religious denominations that advocate
nonresistance as one of their essential religious principles. Such
bodies are the Mennonites, the Dunkards, and the Quakers. In the
spring of 1905 a more specific invitation was sent out, with the
result that a conference was held at Goshen College, June 22-23, 1905.
This date is important, since the call of President Byers for such a
conference was the first active step ever taken to interest the
college world, and particularly undergraduates, in the great movement
for world peace founded upon the idea of human brotherhood. While the
conference did not take place until a month after President Gilman had
suggested to the Lake Mohonk Conference, in May, 1905, that it should
extend its peace work to the colleges and universities, yet the call
for the conference was several months prior to the action of the
Mohonk Conference.
Eight institutions were represented at this conference--Goshen,
Earlham, Central Mennonite, Ashland, Wilmington, Juniata, and Penn
colleges and Friends' University. No definite plan of work had been
mapped out, but a simple organization was effected, and arrangements
were made for a second conference at Earlham College (Society of
Friends). Professor Elbert Russell of Earlham College was elected
president, and upon him devolved most of the work of arranging for the
second conference, which was held April 13-14, 1906. For this
conference no denominational lines were drawn, it being felt that all
colleges and universities should be interested in this important work.
Hence invitations were sent to all institutions of higher learning in
both Indiana and Ohio. Eight institutions were represented: Indiana,
three--Earlham and Goshen colleges and Indiana University; Ohio,
five--Antioch, Denison, Miami, Wilmington, and Central Mennonite. This
representation was small, considering the importance of the conference
and the excellent program that had been arranged for by Professor
Russell. But notwithstanding the small number of institutions
represented, the conference was a marked success, made so very largely
by the many excellent addresses--among others, those of Edwin D. Mead,
Benjamin F. Trueblood, Professor Ernst Richard of Columbia University,
and Honorable William Dudley Foulke.
On the last day of the conference the delegates from the different
colleges met and perfected a permanent organization, which it was
agreed should be called the Intercollegiate Peace Association. Thus,
after a year of preliminary work, the Intercollegiate Peace
Association came into definite and permanent existence on April 14,
1906. At this meeting Dean William P. Rogers of the Cincinnati Law
School was elected president, and Professor Elbert Russell, secretary
and treasurer. The president and the secretary, President Noah E.
Byers of Goshen College, and Professor Stephen F. Weston of Antioch
College constituted the executive committee. The writer has remained
on the executive committee from the beginning, as either an elected or
an ex-officio member.
Two methods of propaganda were adopted: intercollegiate oratorical
contests, and public addresses on peace questions before the student
body and faculties of colleges and universities. It was also agreed
that the work should begin with Ohio and Indiana and gradually extend
to other states. Although no definite plan was formulated until a year
later, at the meeting at Cincinnati, it was understood from the outset
that it should be the aim gradually to extend the field of work, so
that ultimately most of the institutions of higher learning in
practically all of the states should be embraced within the
organization and participate in the contests.
_Purpose._ The purpose of the association has been quite definitely
set forth in my "Historical Sketch"[1] and in my report for 1912.
From these the following statement is very largely borrowed. The
fundamental purpose of the Intercollegiate Peace Association is to
instill into the minds and hearts of the young men of our colleges
and universities the principle that the highest ideals of justice
and righteousness should govern the conduct of men in all their
international affairs quite as much as in purely individual and social
matters, and that, therefore, the true aim of all international
dealings should be to settle differences, of whatever nature, by
peaceful methods through an appeal to the noblest human instincts
and the highest ideals of life, rather than by the arbitrament of
the sword through an appeal to the lower passions; and, further,
both on humanitarian and economic grounds, to arouse in the youth of
to-day an appreciation of the importance of a peaceful settlement of
international disputes, and to inculcate a spirit antagonistic to the
inhuman waste of life and the reckless waste of wealth in needless
warfare.
[1] Printed in _Antioch College Bulletin_, Vol. VII, No. 1,
December, 1910.
This appeal to the idealism of youth is founded upon the psychological
fact that it is the ideals of life that determine the conduct of life.
It is ideals that rule the world; hence the importance of right ideals
based upon a comprehensive understanding of the real nature and
deepest implications of human fellowship. The alleged impracticability
is not in the ideal but in the difficulty of making the ideal such a
dominant part of our being that it shall consistently direct our
activities under every circumstance. One of the essential conditions
of human progress is the conviction that such ideals are vital to the
highest attainments and that these should be the aim of all our
strivings. Unfortunately such a standard of life is far from being
realized. Policy rules largely in the world of practical life; either
high ideals are considered impracticable, or there is no attempt to
enforce consistency between belief and practice.
Mindful of the further fact that the ideals and habits of thought and
action that prevail in mature life are those that are formed in youth,
the Intercollegiate Peace Association turns to the young manhood of
the undergraduate for its field of operations. The aim is to give such
a firm mold to the ideals of the undergraduate that they shall for all
time shape his activities to the end of righteous conduct in all
international dealings. In particular, the aim is to cultivate in the
young men of our colleges and universities such sentiments and
standards of conduct as will insure their devotion to the furtherance
of international peace through arbitration and other methods of
pacific settlement rather than by battleships--standards of conduct
based upon the fundamental truth that conflicts between men, and
therefore principles of right and justice, can be rightly settled only
through the mediation of mind, and that every effort to settle them by
force is not only illogical, a psychological impossibility, but is the
way of the brute, not the way of man, whose nature touches the divine.
All the more important must this work with the undergraduate be
considered when we reflect that it is the young men in our colleges
and universities to-day who will mold the public opinion and the
national and international policy of the next generation; for it is
such young men as these that will control the pulpit and the press,
the legislation and the diplomacy of the future. It is this fact that
gives such peculiar importance to the work of the Intercollegiate
Peace Association. To quote from the report of the secretary for 1912:
"Other peace societies are laboring to create a public sentiment
to-day in favor of international peace, through arbitration of all
international differences. This is very essential. But the
Intercollegiate Peace Association is founded upon the belief that the
cause of peace will not triumph in a day, and that it is therefore of
the utmost importance that right ideals be rooted into the minds of
those who will give expression to the public opinion of the future. In
brief, it is building more for the future than for the immediate
present. The millennium of peace will not come until the ideals of a
Christian civilization take deeper root in the minds and hearts of
those who are the leaders of thought and action. One of the crying
sins of to-day is that professions of righteous living in accordance
with Christian ethical ideals are not taken seriously. Note the
disgraceful policy that has been pursued with regard to Turkey by the
nations of Europe that profess to be disciples of the Prince of Peace.
Hence it is of the utmost importance that those who are to become the
future translators of ideals into action shall be imbued with right
principles of life and of human relations. To this end it is sought to
cultivate the right sentiment against war, and for international
peace, among the undergraduates of our colleges; for what the
undergraduate thinks about and reads about to-day will very largely
determine his future principles and his conduct, and it is he who is
destined to mold the ideals, shape the policies, and determine the
actions of the people of to-morrow."
_Methods and Results._ To carry out these purposes two things are
essential: an awakened interest in the cause of peace, and some
definite and effective method for molding sentiments and habits of
thought that will persist with such vitality that they will give shape
to future conduct and activities. To arouse an interest in the
subject, on the part of both professors and students, it was believed
at the outset that public addresses would be effective, and it was
hoped that the association would be able to inaugurate a course of
such addresses in our colleges and universities. It was, however, soon
found that to finance such a course would require more money than we
could hope to command for some time to come. In consequence, very
little has been done along this line further than to arrange for
occasional addresses and to encourage chapel talks. It is this field
of work that the Lake Mohonk Conference voted to adopt at the
suggestion of Dr. Gilman. The conference also found it difficult to
carry out the plan, and our association was invited to assume the
whole of this work--a request we would gladly have accepted, but which
we were compelled to decline for want of funds. It is a very important
field of work and could be made very effective toward realizing the
ultimate goal of the Intercollegiate Peace Association, for its effect
would undoubtedly be the enlistment of a much larger number of the
students in the oratorical contests, which must be our chief reliance
for getting international peace ideas to take a vital root in the
undergraduate mind. If we cannot secure the necessary funds for
carrying on this important work, it is hoped that some other peace
society will do it for us, for such addresses could be made a most
effective complement to our work.
Being compelled to abandon the public addresses for want of money, we
have concentrated most of our efforts upon the intercollegiate
oratorical contests as perhaps the most effective method for carrying
out the purpose of the association. The contests are bound to arouse
an interest in the subject, while the preparation of orations is sure
to ingrain thoughts, sentiments, and convictions that will be
indelible in the character of the young men who participate in the
contests. While the contests are oratorical in their nature, their
primary purpose is not the cultivation of oratory. Oratory is simply
used as a means to an end--the cultivation of right ideas of justice
and righteousness between nations. That such a result will accrue is
assured both in psychological principles and in experience. Every
student who produces a well-prepared oration in bound to make the
thoughts and sentiments expressed a part of his being. The oration
would not be effective if it were otherwise. The writer has heard
scores of these orations, and he is convinced of the sincerity and
earnestness of the orators. Moreover, letters written to him by those
who have won prizes, attesting their interest in and their devotion to
the cause, by reason of their participation in the contests, give
ample evidence that the contests are bearing fruit. Nor can one read
the orations in this volume without being convinced of their
sincerity.
Indeed, the reason why we do not have intercollegiate debates instead
of contests in oratory is because of the psychological truth, amply
justified by experience, that the student who prepares for the
negative side of a peace question would tend to have his thoughts
permanently fixed along the lines of the advocates of great armaments.
It is not that the student should not know the arguments opposing the
ideas of the advocates of peace by arbitration. We would not cultivate
bigotry even in a good cause. We would have him know the facts, as
indeed he must before he can present any arguments for peace that
would have any significance. But an acquaintance with the opposing
arguments is quite a different thing, in its effect upon the thought
of the student, from making that thought his own and publicly
defending it.
Other results may be mentioned. While the cultivation of oratory is
not a function of the Intercollegiate Peace Association, it does
foster oratory as a valuable if not an indispensable instrument for
effecting its own end. In fact, the oratorical contests are something
more than agencies for interesting undergraduates in the peace
movement. The cultivation of the art of expression and of public
speaking, now very generally provided for in college and university
curriculums, is of especial significance to the work of this
association. For it is not alone of importance that the graduate who
leaves his alma mater should be indoctrinated with a message of peace
for the world; that his message may be effective, he must also have
attained some proficiency in the art of clear and forceful diction and
in the art of delivering his message in a pleasing and convincing
manner. Therefore, it is not without reason that our contests are for
the most part under the immediate direction of the department of
English, or of whatever departments have charge of the public speaking
in the various colleges and universities.
A further factor in these contests is their cultural value, both moral
and intellectual. They necessarily cultivate the highest ethical
conceptions, historical and political knowledge, and careful and
logical thinking. To quote from the secretary's report for 1912: "The
work of the Intercollegiate Peace Association is a great force for
righteousness between nation and nation, and so between man and man,
and therefore may be considered as supplementary to the more strictly
moral and intellectual culture in our institutions of higher learning.
The ethical value is not the only value of the contests. In the
preparation of orations the undergraduate necessarily informs himself
of historical conditions, of the economic and social effects of war,
of the legal and constitutional principles involved, and of the
problems, difficulties, and principles concerned with international
relations. It is this early beginning of an intelligent understanding
of the problems involved, together with the right moral insight, that
must count for future effectiveness in shaping international policies
and practices." Finally, while these contests have chiefly in mind the
shaping of the public opinion of coming generations, they are by no
means a negligible factor in their influence upon the public opinion
of to-day. The contests--local, state, and interstate--are heard by
many hundreds of people every year, and in many cases by persons who
would otherwise seldom come in contact with peace sentiments. The
permeating influence in college circles extends beyond those who
participate in the contests. The influence of any single contest may
indeed be small, but so too is the influence of any one peace
conference or congress. The task of molding public opinion along the
lines of any human uplift is always slow, and only gradually do the
influences of this character permeate and take possession of the
social mind; but every influence leaves its impression. It is only by
persistent activities and cumulative effects that the social mind can
be aroused to a full consciousness of any great moral issue, and still
more true is this when that moral issue is of national or
international importance. The many peace societies, the
Intercollegiate Peace Association among them, are just such persistent
activities, which, by gradually producing cumulative effects, will
ultimately reap their reward. But more perhaps than other peace
societies does the Intercollegiate Peace Association concern itself
with the social mind and the social conscience of the future.
_The Contests._ The first oratorical contest was held at the
University of Cincinnati, May 17, 1907. Arrangements were made for the
participation of only Ohio and Indiana colleges. State contests were
not held, but fourteen orations were submitted from as many different
institutions, nine from Ohio and five from Indiana. The writers of
eight of these were selected by judges on thought and composition to
take part in the speaking contest. Four were from Ohio and four from
Indiana. Indiana won both the first and the second prize. The first
prize was won by Paul Smith of DePauw University with the subject,
"The Conflict of War and Peace." The second prize went to Lawrence B.
Smelser of Earlham College, whose subject was "The Solving Principles
of Federation."
The second contest was held at DePauw University, May 15, 1908.
Carrying out the plan adopted at the meeting at Cincinnati, the
contestants were selected by means of State contests, and an
invitation was extended to the colleges and universities of Michigan,
Illinois, and Wisconsin to participate in the contest. Wisconsin did
not respond, but contests were held in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and
Illinois. By special arrangement Juniata College was allowed to
represent Pennsylvania without a state contest. Glenn P. Wishard of
Northwestern University won the first prize; subject, "The United
States and Universal Peace." The second prize was won by H. P. Lenartz
of Notre Dame University; subject, "America and the World's Peace."
The third Interstate contest took place at The University of Chicago,
May 4, 1909, in connection with the Second National Peace Congress.
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin were represented,
all having held State contests. Levi T. Pennington of Earlham College
won the first prize; subject, "The Evolution of World Peace." The
second prize went to Harold P. Flint of Illinois Wesleyan University;
subject, "America the Exemplar of Peace."
The fourth annual contest was held at the University of Michigan, May
13, 1910. There were six contestants, Pennsylvania having come
regularly into the association. Arthur F. Young of Western Reserve
University won the first prize; subject, "The Waste of War--The Wealth
of Peace." The second prize went to Glenn N. Merry of Northwestern
University; subject, "A Nation's Opportunity."
The fifth annual contest was held at Johns Hopkins University, May 5,
1911, in connection with the Third National Peace Congress. There were
seven contestants, Maryland being represented for the first time. The
first prize was won by Stanley H. Howe, Albion College, Michigan, and
the second prize by Wayne Walker Calhoun, Illinois Wesleyan
University. Mr. Howe's subject was "The Hope of Peace," and Mr.
Calhoun's, "War and the Man." This contest was one of the most
successful that had been held up to that time. It was greeted by one
of the largest audiences that had attended any of the sessions of the
Peace Congress, and the comparison of the orations, in both thought
and delivery, with the speeches given in the congress, was very
favorable to the young orators. A general enthusiasm was evoked for
the contests. Yet there was much fear that this contest might prove to
be the last, there being no assurance ahead for adequate funds to
carry on the work. It was decided, however, not to give up without
further trial, a decision well justified by subsequent developments.
Assistance being secured from the Carnegie peace fund, eleven states
held contests in 1912. In addition to the seven that participated in
the contest at Baltimore, four additional states were added--New York,
North Carolina, Iowa, and Nebraska. With so many states, it became
necessary for the first time to divide them into groups. Two groups
were formed, an Eastern and a Western. The Western Group, of five
states, held its contest at Monmouth College, Illinois, April 26, and
the Eastern Group, of six states, at Allegheny College, Pennsylvania,
May 3. No prizes were given at either of these contests, but an
arrangement was made with the Lake Mohonk Conference by which the
ranking orator in each contest should meet and contest for first and
second place at Mohonk Lake at the time of the Lake Mohonk Conference.
The contest at Mohonk was held May 16, the contestants being Percival
V. Blanshard of the University of Michigan, who represented the
Western Group, and Russell Weisman of Western Reserve University, who
represented the Eastern Group. The title of Mr. Blanshard's oration
was "The Roosevelt Theory of War," and that of Mr. Weisman's,
"National Honor and Vital Interests." The Misses Seabury gave a first
prize of $75 and a second prize of $50. The judges awarded the first
prize to Mr. Blanshard and the second prize to Mr. Weisman. So great,
however, was the interest of the guests at Mohonk Lake, and so nearly
equal in merit were the orations, that a gentleman present gave an
additional $25 to Mr. Weisman to make the prizes equal, and Mr. Joshua
Bailey of Philadelphia gave each of the contestants an additional $50.
Five additional states--Maine, Massachusetts, Texas, Missouri, and
South Dakota--participated in the contests of 1913, making sixteen
states holding contests. Of these states three groups were formed, an
Eastern, a Central, and a Western. The Central Group held its contest
at Goshen College, Indiana, April 25; the Western Group at St. Louis,
May 1, as part of the program of the Fourth American Peace Congress;
and the Eastern Group at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, May 13. The
same arrangements were made as in the preceding year--that the
contestant holding the highest rank in each group should meet in a
final contest at Mohonk Lake. No prizes were given, except that the
Business Men's League of St. Louis gave a prize of $100 for the
contest at St. Louis. The contest at Mohonk was held May 15, and three
prizes were given by the Misses Seabury--$100, $75, and $50. Paul B.
Blanshard of the University of Michigan, a twin brother of the Mr.
Blanchard who won the first prize in 1912, represented the Central
Group and won the first prize with the subject, "The Evolution of
Patriotism." Calvert Magruder, St. John's College, Annapolis,
Maryland, represented the Eastern Group and won the second prize. His
subject was "Certain Phases of the Peace Movement." Vernon M. Welsh,
Knox College, Illinois, represented the Western Group and won the
third prize. His subject was "The Assurance of Peace."
_Growth._ The growth of the Intercollegiate Peace Association, like
that of most social movements, was slow in the first few years of its
existence, but with the gradual accretion of new states it has gained
in momentum, and is to-day increasing with such rapidity that only the
lack of financial support will prevent it from embracing in its
contests within another two years practically every state in the
Union. Starting with two states at the Earlham Conference in 1906 and
the first contest in 1907, it added three states in 1908, one in 1910,
and one in 1911, making seven states participating in the contests of
1911. Four more states were added for the contests of 1912, and five
additional ones for the contests of 1913 (nine states in two years),
making sixteen states in all. Since the contest in May, 1913, eight
states have been added for the contests of 1914, while the work of
organization is being carried on in several other states. By 1915 at
least thirty states will be holding contests if money can be secured
for properly financing them. Four groups are now definitely organized:
an Eastern, a Central, a Western, and a Southern. A Pacific Group is
in process of being organized. Thus, in seven years from the first
contest we have become a national association, extending from the
Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to the Gulf.
_Prizes and Finances._ In order to encourage the young men to enter
the contests, the plan of offering prizes was adopted at the outset.
The national association made itself responsible for the state prizes,
leaving the local institutions to provide for such local prizes as
they could arrange for. In some places such prizes are given, being
provided for in different ways, and in some places no local prizes are
given. At first only $50 and $25 were given for the two state prizes,
but after the second year it was made a definite policy of the
association to make the first state prize $75 and the second prize
$50. With rare exceptions, in the case of the second prize, this
policy is now maintained. In New York, however, there is a first prize
of $200 and a second prize of $100, given by Mrs. Elmer Black. For the
past two or three years the national association has made itself
responsible for the first prize only, leaving the states to look after
the second prize, though the secretary also looks after many of the
second prizes. No prizes are regularly given in the group contests,
but it is hoped that a plan may be evolved for giving one prize, as
the expenses of the winning contestant are large. At the national
contest at Mohonk Lake, prizes are given to each contestant. In 1914
these prizes will probably range from $40 to $100.
The prize money has come from various sources. In 1908 Mr. Carnegie
gave $1000, and in 1909 he gave $700. The Misses Seabury, of New
Bedford, Massachusetts, gave $500 a year from the first. They gave
$750 in 1913 and will give $1000 for prizes in 1914. In Illinois La
Verne W. Noyes has annually given the first prize of $75 and Harlow N.
Higginbotham the second prize of $50. In Michigan R. E. Olds gave the
first prize until 1913, and J. H. Moores the second prize until 1914.
In Ohio Samuel Mather and J. G. Schmidlapp furnish the prizes for
1914. In New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland the
prizes are given by individuals at the instigation of peace societies.
In some states the second prize is given by some individual or through
a collection from a number of individuals. The balance of the prizes
are paid out of the subvention of $1200 that has been allowed for the
past three years out of the Carnegie endowment fund. In 1913 the
prizes amounted to $2400. In 1914 they approximate $3400, apart from
any local prizes that may be given.
The annual subvention of $1200 from the Carnegie peace fund is wholly
inadequate to meet the growing needs of this association. Since this
subvention was first granted, the number of states has been more than
doubled, and it takes about $600 a year to run the secretary's office.
Unless more money is secured from some source, the association will be
unable to grow beyond its present limits.
_Officers and Organization._ The organization of the Intercollegiate
Peace Association has been a gradual development, and has undergone
modifications to meet the changing conditions due to the considerable
enlargement of the territory embraced within its sphere of activity,
chief of which has been the practical impossibility of getting
representatives to a national meeting from such a large extent of
territory. At first there were a president, secretary, and treasurer,
and an executive committee, with the college presidents of Ohio and
Indiana as vice presidents. At the meeting at DePauw University, in
1908, it was decided to create state committees, that should have
charge of the work in their respective states. As the states grew in
numbers the plan of having vice presidents was abandoned. In 1911 the
chairmen of the state committees were made members of an advisory
council, and in 1913 the executive committee was reorganized so that
there should be one member from each group of states in addition to
the president and secretary. When the organization is fully matured
the elected members of the executive committee will be a
self-perpetuating body, only one or two going out of office in any
one year, reëlection being permitted. The executive committee will
elect the president, executive secretary, and treasurer, and the
president and the executive secretary will appoint the members of the
advisory council, who will be ex-officio chairmen of the state
committees. The officers up to date have been as follows:
_Presidents:_ Dean William P. Rogers, Cincinnati Law School,
1906-1907; Professor George W. Knight, Ohio State University,
1907-1908; Professor Elbert Russell, Earlham College, 1908-1910; Dean
William P. Rogers, 1910-1911; President Charles F. Thwing, Western
Reserve University, 1911-.
_Secretaries:_ Professor Elbert Russell, 1906-1908; Mr. George Fulk,
Cerro Gordo, Illinois, 1908-1911; Professor Stephen F. Weston, Antioch
College, 1911-.
_Treasurers:_ Professor Elbert Russell, 1906-1908; Professor Stephen
F. Weston, 1908-.
_Orations._ In the seven years in which the contests have been held,
about twelve hundred orations have been written, a little more than
one half of these in the past two years. The number written in 1914
will not fall far short of five hundred. For some time we have desired
to publish a volume of the prize orations, and within the past few
years there has been considerable demand for such a volume, as many
would-be contestants are anxious to see what they will have to measure
up to in order to win. Outsiders interested in the contests have also
desired such a publication. The present collection was therefore
projected, and the World Peace Foundation willingly undertook to issue
it as one of the books in its International Library.
The ten orations that have been selected for this volume out of the
twelve hundred have all won the first prize in interstate contests.
The first five are the first prize orations in the national contests
of the first five years before the group contests were organized, and
were selected by a series of local, state, and interstate contests out
of about five hundred and fifty orations delivered. The last five,
selected by a series of contests out of about six hundred and fifty,
are the first prize orations of the group contests of the past two
years. They were delivered in the national contests at Mohonk Lake at
the time of the Lake Mohonk Conferences. The fact that many of the
second prize orations, and indeed a number of the others, were given
first place by some of the judges is indicative of the general high
character of all the orations, so that the ten selected orations are
very fairly typical of the thought and sentiment of the whole twelve
hundred. It is therefore believed that the publication of these
orations will be of great value not only as a stimulus to prospective
contestants but as a convincing proof of the quality of the work that
the undergraduate students of the country are doing in the contests.
They are evidence that these contests call out a high grade of
intellectual and moral culture, showing as they do keen and clear
thinking and high moral ideals.
There is included as an appendix to these orations the Pugsley prize
oration of 1913, by Bryant Smith, a senior in Guilford College, North
Carolina, a sample of the prize essays annually submitted for the
Pugsley prize of $100 offered through the Lake Mohonk Conference by
Chester DeWitt Pugsley of Yonkers, New York. The essay is also
fittingly printed in this volume because Mr. Smith represented the
state of North Carolina in the Eastern Group contest of the
Intercollegiate Peace Association in 1912, while still another reason
for including it is the hope that others who have taken part in the
oratorical contests, and who are thereby excluded from entering those
contests again, may be encouraged to try for the Pugsley prize.
_Subjects of Orations._ In view of the fact that so many orations have
been written on peace subjects, it is worthy of note that the topics
have seldom been duplicated, and that when the same topic has been
twice used, the handling of it has been so different that little
duplication has been noticeable. Each oration well represents the
originality and the individuality of the writer or orator. Duplication
is shown in the quotations, and it is therefore suggested that
quotations be sparingly used.
Not the least interesting feature of the orations is the combination
of idealism and practicality, which they reveal in the minds of the
contestants. Truly, these young men "have hitched their wagon to a
star," the star of universal good will.
To show the wide range of subjects chosen, and therefore the scope and
many-sidedness of the peace question, the following list of titles
already used is given here. They are also given as suggestions to
future writers of orations, for there is no objection to choosing
subjects previously used. Even if there is some duplication of
thought, it makes little difference, since the contests are seldom
held twice in the same place. Included in the list are some titles
that show variations in the way of stating the same thing, and these
variations should be suggestive to future writers of orations.
PARTIAL LIST OF SUBJECTS