Mr. Carnegie's Hopes for Peace
By Editor
ON a recent date the Teachers' Association of Pittsburg held a peace day observance in Carnegie Music Hall. Hundreds of teachers were in attendance; and Mr. Carnegie, who could not be present, sent the following letter, which was read before the association: It gives me great pleasure to congratulate the Teachers' Association upon its celebration of peace day. There is a great deal to be said for counting your chickens before they are hatched, because if you do not you might miss the chance of ever counting them at all; but you do well to celebrate peace day for another reason — it is bound to come, and I believe it is going to come so soon that we will be surprised. Men no longer eat each other; they no longer kill prisoners, nor sack cities, nor poison wells; and men of civilized countries no longer buy and sell each other. It is sure that there will be many who hear these words who will also hear before they take their departure that the civilized nations of the world have banished the killing of man by man as a means of settling international disputes. The splendid optimism that causes the expressions of such strong hopes that we will yet have universal peace, is without doubt doing its full share of holding back the winds of war. Strong and influential men like Mr. Carnegie are saying much against war and in favor of settling all disputes by arbitration. This is all good. The more of this kind of talk we can have, the better it is for the world. But while expressing such strong peace sentiments, we must not lose sight of incontestable facts. For instance, we must not allow the rosy prospects of a universal peace just ahead of us to shut out from our vision the indisputable fact that no small portion of Mr. Carnegie's multi-millions was earned by building armor-plate with which to protect the sides of the great battle-ships that the nations are building with such feverish haste. It may be that men do not poison wells in these times; but it has been only a few days since the news items told of some sticks of dynamite that had been placed in a rock crusher, and it was by the merest accident that it was discovered just as the machine was about to start — one of many like instances. Men may no longer buy and sell one another; but they have the far worse face of stealing and selling innocent young maidens into the "white slave" life, and there is scarcely a large city that is free from this awful crime — a crime that is as much worse than ordinary slavery as the cesspools of iniquity are worse than the fair cotton fields of the erstwhile Southern slave plantation. Men may not sell one another into ordinary slavery; but the "sweat-shop" is in evidence; and who would compare the slavery of the "sweated toilers," with no possible hope for release, with no one to care for them when sickness or loss of employment overtakes them, with the slave who has a master that would at least see that he was cared for when sick and that he was properly fed? But there is no need to continue the list to tell of the discontent that is causing the bomb to wreck buildings, and the rioter to spread terror before him; there is no need to enumerate the cities in which "grafting" is debauching everything in the way of a public office, and the evil thing refuses to be suppressed; there is no need to make mention of the fact that everything in the shape of vice and crime is protected by these "grafters," great and small; there is no need of giving the detail of the recent meeting in which prominent men expressed their fears and sounded a warning note because of the incontrovertible fact that crime is without mistake on the increase; there is no need of giving the list of the nations that are increasing their war and navy appropriations every year in order to prepare for a war that all feel must come. All these facts are before us in the world, and the list is only begun. We must keep actual conditions before our minds, else we might find ourselves looking in the wrong direction for peace. We must not dream; we must think soberly. The Prince of Peace has promised peace to all the world. But it is not coming in the way in which men are looking for it. He has said that just before the close of time the nations would be "angry." They would be in a fury of war preparation. He has also said that in that same time there would be the strongest talk that there would be no war, but that everything would be peace. He has shown in His Word that these two conflicting sentiments — war and peace — would keep right on side by side until the time when the people would say "peace and safety;" and when that time is reached, He says that "sudden destruction" will come upon those who are thus saying "peace and safety." They say "peace and safety" when everything shows that the world has gone war-mad. Men say "peace and safety" when they are making untold millions out of building war equipment. And they will continue saying "peace and safety" until the war-crazed demons, portrayed with apocalyptic vividness, drive the nations of earth on to the great war plains of Armageddon. How marvelous, how appalling, is the war preparation of this time! And how extensively and how vehemently are the peace assurances made right in the face of the great "Dreadnoughts" that are so rapidly built and of the awful guns that are forged to arm them! How inconsistent and how contradictory are these opposing activities and sentiments! And how absurd it is for man to turn hurriedly away from helping to forge a great cannon of unprecedented power, and rush off to give a speech before a "peace society," only to turn back with a rush to take up his work again on the gun! These things seem too incongruous to be true. One would hardly expect such inconsistencies among sane men. But nevertheless they are the most striking facts in the world at the present time. Two thousand years ago the Word of God pictured this thing plainly, and told us what it would signify. The picture of universal peace that Mr. Carnegie is so untiringly keeping before the world, is certainly a beautiful one; but it has no comparison to the beauty of that which the Word of God presents that will soon be realized by those who are ready to receive it. The great event of all the ages is just before the world. That Man of Nazareth, and of Gethsemane, and of Calvary, is about to return to the earth. And when He comes He is the Prince of Peace. And the brightness of His righteous glory when He appears as King of Kings and Lord of Lords will destroy every one in whose heart there is burning the fire of cruel war. Let us be consistent, and look at matters as they are in reality, and be ready for that glorious day when the Prince of Peace shall come.