Peacemakers, Take Notice

A concerted religious crusade was under way. Protestant, Catholic and Jewish forces last week had a common aim: to get at least one foot inside the forthcoming United Nations Conference in San Francisco. They were determined to let the peacemakers know that the churches want a peace based on human rights.

The religious forces were using up-to-date techniques to win public support. The Federal Council of Churches, the Synagogue Council of America and other groups endorsed Dumbarton Oaks Week (April 16-22) and called for nationwide Days of Prayer on Sunday, April 22 and the opening day of the conference (April 25). To keep delegates reminded of their watchfulness, the churches will light the huge (103 ft.) cross atop San Francisco's Mt. Davidson every night for at least the first week of the conference, will keep prominent churchmen in the galleries as conference observers, will fill the exhibit spaces with peace plans of all faiths.*

If the churches make a dent on San Francisco, it will be because they have studied the problems of peace with unaccustomed realism. Last week John Foster Dulles, spokesman for the Protestant crusaders, summed up their view: "This time it is of the utmost importance that we be realistic. We must see the Dumbarton Oaks proposals for what they are--a good start. . . . San Francisco must be looked to not as a stopping point but as a starting point."

And in churches and bedrooms through out the U.S., many an old-fashioned Christian was using a more traditional, less high-pressure method: praying on his knees.

* Examples: nine amendments to Dumbarton Oaks, recommended by the Protestants (TIME, Jan. 29), which would fit world security plans to Christian ideals; the "Pattern for Peace" signed by 146 top-ranking Protestants, Catholics and Jews, calling for a moral world order backed by "adequate sanctions" to keep the peace,

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