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AN APPEAL TO TEACHERSSource: American Advocate of Peace (1892-1893), Vol. 54, No. 5 (AUGUST, 1892), pp. 109-110Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27899733 .

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AMERICAN ADVOCATE ?P PEACE. 109

we are the offspring of a special creative Providence. We are brothers in the high sense of having a special work to do in the moral and spiritual outcome of human ity as a whole. We each are a factor in the moral econ

omy of the universe, which economy, according to the purpose of God is the highest good of all.

Fifth, Peace among men depends upon whether or not each individual can be at peace with himself, which is in reality peace with God. Self-respect, self-adjustment to the Father of spirits is a prerequisite to harmony with spiritual brethren. If God will reconcile us to himself, then the starting point of our peace with others is made.

As we are at peace with ourselves we become at peace with those around us.

These considerations lead to the affirmative answer as to whether man is a creature of peace. The fact that

men are spiritually related as co-workers in a great racial

plan, which is none other than the purpose of God who has but one common object in all created individualities, makes man a creature of harmonious and peaceful rela tions.

The common goal of human attainments is the good of all. And this is not necessarily reached by the edge of the sword, the death or subjugation of one part of human

ity by another, but rather in the councils of the wise sit ting as brethren, with the conviction that peace is the one thing desired and that peace is the means of attaining this end. How well could humanity adjust itself, if it were to recognize that to reason together for each other's interests is the highway to one's own interest and the welfare of all !

Could we think for a moment that the Creator would make the material things of the universe to exist in har monious relations and create high intelligences to live in discord ? No. Whatever man may have done and how ever much he may have walked in darkness, his ways are being corrected and he is moving toward a peaceful goal. Our better understanding of the nature of things, the purposes of life, and of the Gospel of Peace point to the time when men and nations will sit in one Universal Peace Congress, to counsel as brethren as to the principles of harmony with God and peace among themselves.

The Committee of the International Peace Bureau, of

Berne, have issued the following appeals to teachers and to university students. We are glad to lay them before the readers of the Advocate, and hope they may be

widely copied into other journals, especially into those

dealing with educational questions.

International Peace Bureau,

Berne, Switzerland, May 12, 1892.

AN APPEAL TO TEACHERS The task resting upon those charged with the education

of youth is at the same time sublime in its moral grandeur and full of serious responsibility. It is you who are

training future generations, and it is you that future gen erations will remember, in their prosperity or in their

adversity, blessing you or attributing to you their mis fortunes.

The impressions made upon children are deep and last

ing ; you may by your teachings as well as by the feelings which you cause to germinate in young hearts predispose your pupils to benevolence towards all, to justice, to

humanity, as, on the other hand, to selfishness, to the habit of domineering, and to brutal passions.

Permit us then to address ourselves to you, in the name of those who are seeking peace by means of international

arbitration, that we may lay before you the resolutions

passed, on the subject of primary and secondary instruc

tion, by the Universal Peace Congresses, held at Paris in

1889, at London, in 1890, and at Rome in 1891. " The Congress believes that war is often presented to

young people under a false light, and desires to call the attention of teachers to their influence and consequently to their responsibility in this matter. It implores them to teach their pupils to honor peaceful deeds and those who have wrought them, and to set forth, in their true colors, the losses and misfortunes caused by wars, whether suc cessful or disastrous.

It recommends also to parents to consider seriously what sort of an education ought to be given to their chil dren on this subject, and persuaded that the stories and sports of early life make a profound impression on the minds of children, it begs of parents to be extremely careful in this respect.

The Congress protests against the employment of mili tary exercises given as physical exercises in the schools, and proposes the formation of life-saving brigades instead of those having a quasi-military character ; and it insists upon the utility of getting the Examining Boards whose duty it is to prepare the questions for examinations to feel the necessity of directing the minds of children to the principles of peace.

The Congress, convinced that one of the most effica cious means of disseminating ideas of

humanity, frater

nity and peace is to inculcate these ideas in the minds of the rising generation by instruction in the schools, decides :

1. To make an appeal to primary school teachers as well as to instructors in the secondary schools, inviting them to teach their pupils the principles of human solidar ity, of arbitration and of peace, and in this way to become the real expounders of modern pedagogy.

2. To invite the Peace Societies to disseminate these principles among teachers and pupils, by using all the means in their power.

3. To address petitions to Ministers of Public Instruc tion in the different countries, to ask them to add, in the courses of instruction in the Normal Schools and in the programs of entrance examinations for the primary schools, in addition to the notion of love of country, that of human brotherhood ; and to disseminate instruction among the people by means of public lectures whose prin cipal aim shall be the moral elevation of individuals.

4. To ask, furthermore, the Ministers of Public In struction to make it a point, in special instruction to be given to school teachers, to insist upon these pedagogical reforms and to recommend to them to teach their pupils the practical application of the principles of arbitration.

5. To recommend also to these Ministers that in the courses of moral instruction in the secondary schools the duties of humanity and fraternity be developed as much

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110 AMERICAN ADVOCATE OF PEACE.

as possible ; that in geographical teaching special atten tion be given to ethnography ; that in lessons in history those events be brought into prominence which have con tributed most to civil and political progress ; that teachers may carefully explain institutions in regard to the times in which they have existed, and not insist too much on that which produces or perpetuates hatred between peo ples.

6. To entreat these same Ministers of Instruction to have adopted as text books those containing these reforms in instruction, and to encourage the publication of them by means of prizes given to the authors."

Such are the wishes which we present to your kind

attention, persuaded that we shall not have appealed in vain to your generous sentiments in regard to the youth whom you love and whom you desire to see advancing, through your help, toward a future of concord and of

peace whose dawning you shall have caused them to see.

AN APPEAL TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

It is upon you, young men and women, called as you are to apply later in life the principles of science to the events of public as well as of private life,?it is upon you that the friends of peace among men and of justice between nations depend for the accomplishment, in future

generations, of the work in which we are engaged and

upon which we are spending what strength our age still

leaves at our command.

Three Universal Peace Congresses, met at Paris in

1889, at London in 1890, and at Rome in 1891, have

given serious attention to the role which university (in America, also college) students must play in this age so

decisive for the future of humanity. In these congresses resolutions were passed of which

the following is a r?sum? : 44 The Congress expresses the wish,?

1. That measures be taken in the universities of Europe and America for cultivating among the students the spirit of respect and friendship for foreign nations.

2. That, with this aim, the professors of history in each

university give a course of instruction in the complete history of the progress of civilization and of the political, social and religious institutions among all nations, and

especially that they call attention to the special services rendered by each nation to the progress of humanity.

3. That the necessary modifications be made in the laws governing each university, in order that no obstacle

may prevent a student of one university from doing part of his work in another, without in any way hindering the

taking of his degree ; and that the students of different nationalities may come in contact with one another and thus free themselves from all feelings of hatred and from all prejudice against foreign nations.

4. That an appeal be addressed to university students, recommending to them to labor for the triumph of the

principles of peace. That, consequently, a meeting of university students

and a fraternal f?te be held annually and successively at the different seats of the Great Universities, the purpose of these annual gatherings being the study of the means by which the above mentioned objects may be attained, and the/e?e having in view contests showing the results of physical education and also contests in prose and poetic composition on the great theme of concord and international co-operation.

Besides, the Congress earnestly urges the strong, intel ligent university students to undertake the task of found ing and multiplying in their midst new peace associa tions."

Such are the ideas of the Friends of Peace. We ask

you to examine them without prejudice, and to labor with all your youthful ardor and confidence for the promotion of what you shall have found just and good in them. You will then have strengthened the foundations of a

future, happier than is the present, and will have wrought a good as well as a useful work.

From the Bishop of Durham's speech at the Annual

Meeting of the International Arbitration and Peace Asso ciation :

At the most solemn hour of my life this question was put to me among others,

44 Will you maintain and set for ward, as much as shall lie in you, love and peace among all men? " and my answer was, 441 will do so by the help of God." It is in virtue of that charge which was laid upon me, that promise which I made, that I am here this afternoon. You will notice that there is no limitation in the words. It says,

44 Love and peace among all men."

If you compare those words with corresponding phrases in other services you will feel their eloquent power. I confess, indeed, and with shame, that we have not yet fully and boldly recognized the duty that is thus laid upon us, for it specially belongs to those who are placed in such a position of responsibility as has been given to us. The question of peace involves the widest interests ; it regards a remote future ; it is raised above all party divisions ; it needs the support of a great faith. I know quite well the difficulties and the hindrances which beset the work of forwarding peace, and the temptation of using bold words when there is no necessity for corresponding action. But in spite of this, the duty remains, whether it is hard or easy, and it must be recognized. And, further, I main tain, without any reservation, that in taking a wide retrospect of the course of the world's history, its whole tendency is towards that great end for which we work.

Whether we regard the course of human association or the development of moral ideas or the growth of opinion on this subject itself, the movement is uniform in the same direction.

Looking back over the history of the last century, we I see that already two most important steps have been taken in this direction. A hundred years ago the French Revo lution crowned the conception of individualism with that

memorable watchword 44 Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." It gave a striking and impressive portraiture of the single

man, and out of that there grew a kind of vague senti mental cosmopolitanism ; but that is not the fellowship of nations for which we look. We must not try to sweep

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