Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Peace Movement, The

PEACE MOVEMENT, THE. Men have dreamed of universal peace at least since the days of the Hebrew prophets and the early Church fathers. The Latin poets too, Vergil in particular, had their conception of a Pax Romana. In the Middle Ages Dante in his “De Monarchia” (c. 1300) laid down some general principles that are the forerunners of arbitration. But it was not until two or three centuries later that definite plans were formulated for a world parliament and a world court. The most famous proposals were those of the King of Bohemia (1462) for an international parliament backed by an international military force; of Emeric de Lacroix (1623) for a permanent congress of nations sitting at Venice with universal free trade; of the great jurist, Grotius (1625) who in his famous “De Jure Belli et Pacis” argued for an international congress and an arbitration tribunal; of William Penn (1693) who proposed a representative congress of nations, an arbitration tribunal and the proposal of coercion of any state which should refuse to submit disputes to arbitration. During the eighteenth century there was a growing interest in world federation; but it was more prevalent among philosophers such as Leibnitz, Jeremy Bentham and Kant than among statesmen and men of affairs. After the Napoleonic wars there was much popular support of the idea of world peace; but the formation of the Holy Alliance (1815), ostensibly designed to prevent war, degenerated into an agency of reaction.

That same year (1815) there was founded the first Peace Society the world ever saw. It was established in New York by the merchant David Low Dodge; and in 1815 the Massachusetts Peace Society was started in Boston by Noah Worcester and William Ellery Channing. By 1826 there were about fifty peace societies in existence in America, the most notable being the American Peace Society organized in 1828 in New York by William Ladd. Indeed the first half of the nineteenth century is marked by the popularization of the Peace Movement through societies and lectures such as those of Charles Sumner. In 1816 a Peace Society was formed in London, and in 1830 in Geneva. In 1843 an international peace congress was held in London; the ideas advanced were those already familiar, although the enforcement of the decrees of the arbitration tribunal was to be left to international public opinion. In 1847 Elihu Burritt, “the learned blacksmith” of Connecticut, went to Europe to agitate for a congress and court of the nations. The next year a peace congress was held at Brussels, and in 1849 another congress met there under the presidency of Victor Hugo. An interesting feature was the introduction of the peace movement into the legislative bodies of various States. The resolution of Massachusetts in 1832 in favor of arbitration led the way; in 1837 a petition was presented to Congress; and in 1853 a resolution in favor of international arbitration was adopted by the United States Senate. The movement spread rapidly. Leading statesmen, including Cobden, Peel, Disraeli and Garibaldi, supported it; and even Napoleon III. is credited with the desire to call a European Congress to bring about arbitration and the limitation of armaments. But Prussia objected. During the next thirty years the advance of the peace movement was delayed by the Crimean War, our Civil War, and wars in Italy, Austria, France and Germany. There were, to be sure, many peace societies formed; and eminent European jurists influenced the future development of the movement by emphasizing the necessity of a legal basis for international relations. Arbitration treaties won more and more popular support. In 1887 an English delegation under the leadership of William Randall Cremer, member of Parliament, visited America to lay before President Cleveland a document signed by 232 members of Parliament in favor of a British-American arbitration treaty. In 1889 the first World's Peace Congress was held at Paris. During the next decade the movement spread rapidly; the well known Lake Mohonk conferences in the United States begun in 1895; the work of J. de Bloch on war published in 1898, and the attitude of the Socialist and Labor parties in Europe were important factors.

An important step forward was taken when on May 18, 1899, the first Peace Conference called by the Czar of Russia met at The Hague. Twenty-one European states were represented as well as the United States, Mexico, China, Japan, Persia and Siam. The most important act was the establishment of a Permanent Court of Arbitration sitting at The Hague. It is to the credit of the United States that after this court had met for two years without being called to adjudicate. President Roosevelt at the suggestion of Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, arranged with President Diaz of }} Mexico to send to the Tribunal the so-called “Pious Fund Case.” Roosevelt also referred to The Hague the Venezuelan case which had been sent to him for arbitration.

The United States was also instrumental in calling the second Hague Peace Conference which finally assembled, again upon the invitation of the Czar of Russia, on June 15, 1907. This time forty-four nations were represented. “Here for the first time practically the whole world met together under one roof and for world business.” If the practical results were disappointing, the conference nevertheless adopted some important conventions looking to the pacific settlements of international disputes; to limitations upon the use of force for the collection of debts, and to the regulation of explosives in time of war. At this conference preliminary steps were taken for the summoning of a third Conference in 1915; but of course the World War (1914-1918) effectively interfered with the undertaking.

The World War also ended for a while the peace propaganda in the belligerent countries, although it accentuated the need of a better world organization. In 1914 there was started in England a movement to do away with secret diplomacy under the name of the Union for Democratic Control. In 1915 in the United States there was organized the League to Enforce Peace, having for its object the formation of a league of nations bound by treaty to arbitrate all disputes and to use joint military force to coerce recalcitrant members. Of this league ex-President Taft was president. It won a good deal of popular support and was particularly active in the days of the Paris Conference which met at the end of the war.

Since 1918 most of the discussion of the Peace Movement has centered about the League of Nations (q. v.). The objects of the League as stated in the preamble are:

“To promote international co-operation and to secure international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just and honorable relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among governments and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organized peoples with one another.”

The Covenant of the League of Nations was made an integral part of the Treaty of Versailles which during the year 1919 was ratified by all the leading nations of the world with the exception of the United States. The League was formally organized in 1920 with a permanent Secretariat seated now in Geneva, Switzerland. The Council of the League consisting of representatives of nine powers, including the United States, held two sessions without, however, the presence of any representative of the United States, and the Assembly of the League, consisting of representatives of all the nations that have ratified the Covenant, met in September at Geneva.

In the United States the rejection by the Senate of the Treaty of Versailles with the Covenant of the League was undoubtedly a disappointment to many who were eager for world peace. Others, however, felt that the Covenant had many faults and that the United States could contribute more by forming another less rigid association of nations or by holding to its traditional aloofness from European affairs. In the campaign of 1920 both great political parties asserted interest in the cause of world peace, the Democrats indorsing without reserve the Covenant of the League, and the Republicans advocating measures that would promote world peace without committing this country to all the obligations of the League.

Since the election of Mr. Harding there has been continued discussion of the best methods to promote peace. The World War has had great influence upon the whole peace movement, on the one hand by showing the fallacies of pacificism, and on the other hand by emphasizing the need of better world organization. It needs no prophet to assert that in the coming generation the peace movement will develop along the lines of a league to enforce peace, an international court and limitation of armaments.