Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace AssociationIntercollegiate Peace Association
History
Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace Association
Intercollegiate Peace Association
Peace; War
_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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account