Will We Have Peace or War?—The Tension of the Situation—Pope Benedict Thinks All Civilization Gone Mad
By J. S. WASHBURN
NEVER since that dark day when sin entered Eden, has mankind faced so great, so ominous a crisis as to-day. The very air seems trembling with an intense and fearful expectancy. There is surely “distress of nations, with perplexity; . . . men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Luke 21: 25, 26.
A few days after the sinking of the Lusitania, President Wilson gave an address in Philadelphia, to 4,000 newly naturalized citizens of the United States. Following so quickly that most terrible event in the history of so-called civilized warfare, the air was tense with an expectancy that the president would deliver an authoritative statement on the war situation, defining exactly the stand of the United States on the destruction of American ships and American lives.
The president is to speak in the immense Convention Hall, seating 30,000 people. Some time before his arrival, a great throng surrounds the hall, only ticket holders being admitted. A very strong force of police guard every entrance, and stand ready for any emergency. Rumors of threatened attempts on the president's life have been circulating, and Philadelphia takes no chances. No president was ever so closely guarded before in Philadelphia, as was President Wilson on this occasion. An army of 800 men were constantly on the watch. The entire City Troop, government secret service men, and every detective in the department, are on duty.
WILL HE SPEAK PEACE OR WAR?
At the station, the president passes between living walls of armed men. Seated in an automobile with his private secretary and the mayor of Philadelphia, secret service men standing on the steps, the president heads the procession to the Convention Hall. Standing in the great throng near the hall, I can but think of royal processions I have seen in England. A rush of plumed cavalry vividly recalls the forerunners of royalty, the shouting, cheering thousands—and the man who holds, in large measure, the destiny of this great nation, and of the whole world, in his hand, sweeps swiftly by.
A slender, scholarly, refined man is the president in appearance, growing gray, but alert, energetic, and wholly self-possessed. We know he will do his utmost for peace. We know he will not be swept into the awful maelstrom of world war, if it is possible to preserve an honorable peace.
God guide and keep the president in the path of safety and right! Surely if ever men ought to pray for rulers and those in positions of authority, it is to-day, and for the president of the United States, apparently the only hope of this warring world.
Over the mighty throng who hang breathless on the president's words, waiting for the fateful words of war, falls like oil upon the troubled waters, a message of peace. “The example of America must be not merely the example of peace because it will not fight,” he said, “but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world, and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.”
THE MAN OF PEACE
Recent events had not shaken the president's calm. There was no passion in his voice. He was grave, but not somber. As he rose to speak, there was tremendous and long continued applause. The heartiest cheers of all were given when a man in the gallery shouted, “Three cheers for the man of peace!” The people came to be startled, and went away apparently thankful that they were not.
TAFT APPEALS TO STAND BY HIM
The president said: “I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellow men. America was created to unite mankind. Think first of humanity.”
The wonderful enthusiasm that greeted these appeals for peace, seemed to indicate that those who heard the president, approved his utterances. But the next morning, a mingled chorus of approval and disapproval was heard all over the world. Former President Taft made a ringing appeal to the country to sink all party feeling and stand by the president. Other leading men urge war; and one of them, an ex-president, compares President Wilson to “the great arch neutral, Pontius Pilate.”
BENEDICT SAYS WORLD GONE MAD
The world is stirred with the awful passion for war, and it will be a great struggle for us as a nation to keep our balance. The pope is reported to have said to Cardinal Gasparri: “All civilization seems to have gone mad. Our endeavors have failed. It all rests in the hands of God. May He pity His misguided children.”
Truly, “all civilization seems to have gone mad.” The Turkish problem hastens to its final fearful settlement. Gog and Magog, “Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,” are rushing swiftly toward Armageddon. Spirits of demons are gathering the nations to the great battle of the Lord God Almighty.
O, let us pray for a little time of comparative peace in which to finish the work of God in the earth, which is so soon to be cut short in righteousness! But let us not deceive ourselves. Let us not be so foolish as to expect lasting peace, but let us calmly yet earnestly and quickly prepare for the impending crisis.
“Then, O my Lord, prepare.
My soul for that great day!
O, wash me in Thy precious blood,
And take my sins away!”
