Thinks Peace to Be Centuries Away
IN a recent address before four hundred students in Harvard University, Dr. Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus of the institution, said: "During my two years of travel in the far East, in the employ of the Carnegie Institute, I found conditions very discouraging to an advocate of peace. During that time Italy was at war merely for purposes of obtaining territory. Russia was invading Persia, while England looked on without taking any steps for effective interference. Also the Chinese revolution was at its height, and this revolution showed the terrible limits to which war can go." Following these statements, Dr. Eliot suggests a universal education to develop the masses to the place where they will have peace instead of war, and then adds: "I myself think that this will take centuries. My report to the Carnegie Institute has not been acceptable to many of the so-called promoters of peace, because they can not wait long enough. They want universal peace within a century. Moreover they fail to see that under present conditions of society, strong armed forces are necessary." When we regard the facts as shown in the world, we must recognize that the nations are rapidly preparing for the Armageddon war predicted in the book of Revelation. But the divine Book also tells of a class who will be saying, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," and who will finally reach the point where they will in unison say, "Peace and safety," when they are standing under the forbidding shadows of sudden destruction. The facts concerning the conditions in the world are strangely out of harmony with the sentiments expressed by many people, and it is a marvelous thing that this strange contradiction between fact and theory could have been so clearly outlined by the inspired men of the sacred Book.