Frederick J. Libby

“ We must subdue in our own hearts the swiftly rising prejudice by nursing, often by an effort of the will, the kindly thought that follows tardily. We must seek to know and understand those we hate; for then, as Charles Lamb discovered, we cannot hate them. Cooperation must replace isolation; progressive world organization must replace international anarchy ”

“ Similarly in furthering the only policy that can [11] save our country and our civilization from being ruined by another war, we must talk, talk, talk and talk, talk, talk—in the press, from the pulpit, in the schoolroom, in books, from the billboards, in public meetings, and through the programs of club and lodge and grange. We must work as men in haste, remembering that we are sure only of this “period of exhaustion,” in which to build machinery and world opinion, both strong enough to bear incredible strain. ”

“ The honest outlawry of war demands a higher development of the will to peace and justice than has been observed among great nations in the past. This is why it is the third rather than the first step to be taken. Yet, until aggressive war has been branded as a crime, and until the aggressor has been defined, the prevention of war will be haphazard, and the growth of an effective world opinion against war will be slow and uncertain. ”

“ CONFERENCE ON REDUCTION OF ARMAMENTS
Both the League of Nations and President Coolidge have given expression to the universal desire to reduce the burden of armaments in the interest of economy and world peace. Armaments, speaking generally, express a nation’s fears or the ambitions of its controlling classes. Reduction of armaments will follow increasing world security and still more extensively an increasing sense of security, which is a very different matter. We are used to our armaments as we are used to locking our doors at night. ”

“ Potential causes of war confront us on every hand. Peace has not come. Our military men tell us that getting ready for war is the way to peace. It is their duty to prepare the nation for war. This method, however, will not bring peace. It will only hasten another world war, and that would fatally weaken our white civilization. ”

“ THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WITH RESERVATIONS
As a court can deal only with legal disputes, and as the most dangerous disputes named above are political and economic rather than legal, it is clear that the World Court alone will not end war. A town meeting of the world under some name is as necessary as the court. This fact is generally recognized and the idea of a League of Nations is nearly everywhere accepted. ”

“ A civilization shot through with hate cannot continue long after it is fully equipped with poison gas and airplanes. Even for self-preservation we must cultivate goodwill—goodwill between classes and religions and nations and races. ”

“ Our realists are going to discover some day to their astonishment that the “practical” policy they are seeking, the policy that will bring security with justice and peace, is this very policy of audacious friendliness functioning through appropriate machinery. We can climb up to peace in no other way. ”

“ Despite two glaring instances of Congressional insularity that are at present in our minds—passage of the Japanese Exclusion Act and two years’ delay in taking up the World Court—in the long run and haltingly a democratic government obeys the people’s will. If we want international law and order in place of war and chaos, we must say so and keep saying so. ”

“ A court of justice has long been recognized by American statesmen as the cornerstone of world peace. It is clear to anyone who thinks that some provision must be made for the settlement of legal disputes. ”

“ Events have justified the founders of our Republic in giving the Supreme Court no force but public opinion to support its decisions as between states. The system has limped at times, but it has always worked better than attempted coercion would have done. ”

“ Hate has been growing in Europe. Militarism has been given a new lease of life in Germany and in Japan. The question of race equality has been made a permanently living issue to be coupled in future years with the problems raised by white domination over peoples that want to be free. ”

“ Militarist and narrow nationalist groups in every country flood the press with propaganda breathing fear or hate. A new race in armaments has started. Our Monroe Doctrine, in view of the growing importance of the immigration question, contains dangerous possibilities insofar as it may be regarded as a commitment to go to war for Latin-American policies. ”

“ It was talk in the press and talk from the soapbox and talk in the circles in which one moved, talk with convincing earnestness, talk with arguments that reached down to the motives on which men really act. ”

“ I have come to the conviction, however, that America should now consider joining the League of Nations with such reservations on Articles X and XVI as will relieve us from every legal and moral obligation to go to war or to undertake any coercive economic measures that might lead to war. ”

“ Taken in conjunction with certain acts of aggression on our part and with the utterances of our jingoes, which are reprinted from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, it injects poison constantly into our relations with Latin America, so that our military guarantee of two continents brings us no gratitude but only suspicion from our grown-up and unwilling wards. ”

“ There is no substitute for goodwill. There is no mechanism of intercourse that can dispense with it.”
I am convinced of the correctness of Secretary Hughes’ conclusion. We must be better men if our [12] race is to survive. ”