Balkans, but the Industrial Revolution has produced a
multitude of influences that are knitting the nations into an
indissoluble unity. Men are beginning to realize the integrity of
mankind, and a world-consciousness is arising. Kindness and
justice--yesterday but community ideals--are extending their sway
throughout the earth. Even while bayonets are bared in conflict and
cannon thunder against hostile camps, the magic of our civilization is
weaving bonds of union that cannot be broken. Peace, not war, is the
true grandeur of nations; love, not hate, is the immutable law of
God; and so surely as governments and kings are powerless to divide
when home and factory would bind, some not too distant day will find
the battle flags all furled, the sword's arbitrament abandoned, and
the world at peace.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE

By FRANCIS J. LYONS, University of Texas, Austin, Texas,
representing the Southern Group

First Prize Oration in the National Contest held at Mohonk Lake,
May 28, 1914

EDUCATION FOR PEACE

Time was when war was beneficial. Historians have justified the spread
of knowledge by the sword. At the world's awakening, it was well that
the new thought should be diffused even at the sacrifice of human
blood. It was justified because there was no other means. We have to
cast our imagination back through the centuries and realize that then
there were no railroads, no telegraph, no newspapers; that man was
bound by narrow limits; and the elemental processes of the world were
undiscovered. We do not criticize Alexander for conquering the eastern
perils, for he carried in his phalanxes the spirit of new-discovered
thought. We do not denounce Rome for piercing the unknown realms with
her legions, for she was the mother of a new belief. But this was at
the dawn of history, when erudition was in its struggling embryo, and
the physical was the better part of man. Man went forth to battle as a
religion.

The world grew partly wise, and man preached the gospel of
brotherhood. But it did not last. The changing of the peoples
smoldered the fires of rising intelligence, and the world rolled back
again in darkness--a darkness long and black. Centuries passed, and a
new light came, slowly but courageously. Man blinkingly came forth,
dazed and unsteady. The light grew, and man grew with it; but rooted
deep in his heart was the love of war of his ancestors. In a different
spirit, it is true; but it was there,