Readers; Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States
I will not disguise the fact that I consider this resolution a long
step in the direction of peace, nor will I disguise the fact that I am
here because I want this Interparliamentary Union to take just as long a
step as possible in the direction of universal peace. We meet in a
famous hall, and looking down upon us from these walls are pictures that
illustrate not only the glory that is to be won in war, but the horrors
that follow war. There is a picture of one of the great figures in
English history (pointing to the fresco by Maclise of the death of
Nelson). Lord Nelson is represented as dying, and around him are the
mangled forms of others. I understand that war brings out certain
virtues. I am aware that it gives opportunity for the display of great
patriotism; I am aware that the example of men who give their lives for
their country is inspiring; but I venture to say there is as much
inspiration in a noble life as there is in a heroic death, and I trust
that one of the results of this Interparliamentary Union will be to
emphasize the doctrine that a life devoted to the public, and ever
flowing, like a spring, with good, exerts an influence upon the human
race and upon the destiny of the world as great as any death in war. And
if you will permit me to mention one whose career I watched with
interest and whose name I revere, I will say that, in my humble
judgment, the sixty-four years of spotless public service of William
Ewart Gladstone will, in years to come, be regarded as rich an ornament
to the history of this nation as the life of any man who poured out his
blood upon a battlefield.
All movements in the interest of peace have back of them the idea of
brotherhood. If peace is to come in this world, it will come because
people more and more clearly recognize the indissoluble tie that binds
each human being to every other. If we are to build permanent peace it
must be on the foundation of the brotherhood of men. A poet has
described how in the Civil War that divided our country into two hostile
camps a generation ago--in one battle a soldier in one line thrust his
bayonet through a soldier in the opposing line, and how, when he stooped
to draw it out, he recognized in the face of the fallen one the face of
his own brother. And then the poet describes the feeling of horror that
overwhelmed the survivor when he realized that he had taken the life of
one who was the child of the same parents and the companion of his
boyhood. It was a pathetic story, but is it too much to hope that as
years go by we will begin to understand that the whole human race is but
a larger family?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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