Yet the present year[1] will witness the fulfillment of that prophecy. Disarmament and arbitration will be considered this summer, not by agitators, not by theorists, nor yet prophetically by poets; but in June, at the invitation of our own President,[2] an actual international conference will assemble, a Parliament of the World, composed of official representatives of every nation of the globe. Thus we see the foregleams of an approaching day. The time is not far distant when war will glide into the grim shadows of a scarce-remembered past, when battles will pass into the oblivion of forgotten horrors. Then will society realize its dreams of a kingdom of heaven upon earth, where the barbaric lure of fighting will be lost; where no class lines may exist save those freely acknowledged by a common justice; where national egoism maintains no armies for conquest and no navies for aggrandizement; where economic resources are devoted, not to mutual physical destruction, but to splendid spiritual enlargement; where "every nation that shall lift again its hand against a brother, on its forehead will wear forevermore the curse of Cain"; and where, in the realization of a vast, racial brotherhood, is fulfilled the prophetic angel's song, "Peace on earth, good-will to men." Ruskin, the modern bard of peace, has sung: Put off, put off your mail, ye kings, and beat your brands to dust-- A surer grasp your hands must know, your hearts a better trust; Nay, bend aback the lance's point, and break the helmet bar-- A noise is in the morning winds, but not the noise of war! Among the grassy mountain paths the glittering troops increase-- They come, they come!--how fair their feet,--they come that publish peace. [1] The Hague Conference of 1907 is referred to. [2] By the courtesy of President Roosevelt the official call for the Second Hague Conference was issued by the Emperor of Russia. Forty-four nations were represented.--_Editor._ THE UNITED STATES AND UNIVERSAL PEACE By GLENN PORTER WISHARD, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois First Prize Oration in the National Contest held at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, May 15, 1908 THE UNITED STATES AND UNIVERSAL PEACE