A Century of Peace

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 19, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 32.

A Century of Peace

The powers of the world do not want war. Eminent statesmen tell us this again and again. There really is no need that they should go to war. We have a standing demonstration of this in the Perry Peace Monument now in progress of building at Put-in-Bay, on Lake Erie. It is second only in height to the Washington Monument of the national capital,—335 feet from base to the top. It is there to commemorate the one hundred years of peace between Great Britain and the United States. It also commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the naval battle on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, won by Oliver Hazard Perry, who captured the British fleet under Barclay. But preeminently it is designed to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which has kept peace ever since between Great Britain and the United States, and preserved the neutrality of the Great Lakes for a full century.

During this entire century there has been one of the longest boundaries in the world between different powers, but no armed soldiers or patrolmen have been needed to keep the peace, notwithstanding the fact of the rigid customs laws which prevail on either side. And yet despite this example, the nations of the world are continually preparing for war, fitting themselves for the great Armageddon.