Voices

From the West and the East and lands beyond the sea, lofty ideas traveled to Buffalo; became, for a space, articulate; lent zest to resolutions; departed.

There was the voice of Dr. William P. Merrill, peacemaker, of Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the passionately indignant, of Prof. James T. Shotwell, economico-encyclopaedic, of Kirby Page, phrasemaker, of Justice John H. Clarke, venerable apostle, of Stephen Wise, the organ-toned, of an hysterical Mexican, of distinguished editors and ex-editors. Their theme was Peace. Their meeting-ground was enclosed with ample sign: American Council of the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches.

The voices:

Dr. Fosdick, having declared in Manhattan that many a divine would go to Leavenworth sooner than aid a war, (TIME, Nov. 17) cried out in Buffalo: "Look at the Pacific!" Begging the world not to forget the late War, "the 10,000,000 soldiers who died in it, the 13,000,000 civilians who perished because of it, the 5,000,000 widows who survive it, the 9,000,000 orphans bereft through it, the 10,000,000 refugees who fled destitute before it," the passionate Baptist orator asseverated that "at any moment some wild-eyed militarist across the Pacific ... or some hysterical session of the Senate here may drop a spark into that powder barrel" which would disastrously involve "our sons, our daughters, our business, our security."

Professor Shotwell aided Dr. Fosdick in expounding the Geneva protocol of the League of Nations which "scarce one in 10,000 Americans has even read."

Dr. Merrill, President and Keynoter, pointed to the June, 1925, Disarmament Conference at Geneva, pleading: "The U. S. should be there."

Justice Clarke, dean of pro-leaguers, prophesied that Christianity could not survive another war. A young Mexican, one Herbert M. Sein, pitched his voice high, shrilly shrieked, vaticinated: "the revolt of fighters and workers--the great refusal to fight--will make the war stage collapse." To place flags in churches is barbarous, to pray for victory a sin, said he. Realizing that such talk defeats its purpose, the Alliance officials quieted the youth, sent him home.

Next meeting, next year; Detroit.