ly life--miners, mariners, policemen, firemen, men of
every station, displaying the nobility of their souls often unheralded
and unsung. The venerable William T. Stead, bearing across the ocean
his message of international good will, sacrificed his life on the
_Titanic_ that others might live. He was a hero, yes, but a hero of
peace.

It would be an insult to your intelligence to prove the self-evident
proposition that war is uneconomic, unscientific, unchristian. The
movement for its elimination, above all, is logical and practical, and
should appeal to every man. Is it nothing to you? Yes, it is a great
deal to you. Merely let your imaginations picture the day when the
seventy per cent of our national revenue now sacrificed on the altar
of folly is diverted to the arts of peace, to the amelioration of
social conditions, to advancing the happiness of our people--at peace
with all other peoples in the assurance of international law and love.
Ladies and Gentlemen, if we but do our duty, the dawn of that great
day will come in our generation!

THE ASSURANCE OF PEACE

By VERNON M. WELSH, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois

First Prize Oration in the Western Group Contest, 1913, and Third
Prize in the National Contest held at Mohonk Lake, May 15, 1913

THE ASSURANCE OF PEACE

The birth and rapid rise of the present movement for international
peace are events of recent years. The nineteenth century found its
welcome in the smoking cannon and crimsoned fields of Hohenlinden. At
its close the first great peace conference of The Hague was in
session. One hundred years ago Napoleon was sweeping across Europe in
his terrible attempt to create an empire. To-day France, England, and
America have agreed on treaties that declare for unbroken peace.
Touched by the wand of progress, the Utopian ideal of yesterday has
become the dominant political issue of to-day. It is pertinent, then,
that we seek the true nature of this revolution. Is it borne on the
crest of a popular impulse that will recede as rapidly as it has
risen, or is it a permanent movement, the product of natural forces
working through ordinary channels?

The nineteenth century represents a break with the past. Swept into
the mighty current of transition, the habits and customs of a thousand
years have disappeared. With the development of natural resources, the
establishment and growth of the factory system, the use of means of
rapid communication, na