"The French Minister of War has just sent home a soldier named Gontaudier, whose story is not commonplace. Gontaudier emigrated to the United States as a lad, and joined the Quakers. When his time came to serve in the French army, he returned to France and, before the military authorities, stated that his religious principles forbade him carrying a rifle. He was courtmartialed and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Having served his sentence out, he was sent back to the regiment. There he stated that his religious views had not altered, and he was again sentenced to two years.

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Probably this second penalty for one offense was illegal, but legality, as everybody knows, is held by courts-martial as a thing to be honored rather in the breach than otherwise. He had served the greater part of this second sentence when attention was called to his case by the Aurore. General André, Minister of War, at once decided that he should be sent to serve his three years in the ambulance corps. It now turns out that Gontaudier, being the only son of an aged mother, was liable to one year's service only, and ought to have been sent away long ago. The Minister of War has just recognized this."

Peace Bureau.

The International Peace Bureau at Berne has sent the following letter to the presidents of Chile and the Argentine Republic, in view of the amicable adjustment of their boundary dispute:

"Mr. President: In the name of the Permanent In⚫ternational Peace Bureau, established at Berne in 1891 by the societies devoted to the peace movement throughout the world, we take the liberty of expressing to you how much we appreciate the conciliatory attitude of the Chilean and Argentinian governments on the occasion of the controversy which has threatened to bring desolation and sorrow among peoples of South America. We do not undertake to pass judgment on the causes of the dispute, but we have the firm hope that you will persevere in your efforts to hold in check the dangerous excitements and evil passions which tend to war. The line of moderate and prudent conduct which you have so far followed in order to prevent an appeal to arms assures to you the esteem of the civilized world, in whose view a war between the two nations would be an event disastrous to the cause of progress and of justice, as well as to the material interests of the populations, the two essential elements of which are labor and peace."

Eleventh
Peace Congress.

Monaco, who is greatly interested in the peace movement, and much desired to have the Congress meet in his principality this season, could not receive it in the autumn. So April has been decided upon, as two other congresses are to meet there that month. If any of the members of the American Peace Society expect to be in Europe at that time, and will be willing to represent the Society, we shall be glad if they will inform us at once. The time is short, as the meeting of the Congress is only two months off.

Alaskan Dispute.

In a recent letter to the Nation, Mr. Thomas Willing Balch of the Philadelphia Bar claims that there is nothing in the Alaska boundary dispute to arbitrate. After discussing the meaning of the treaty between Russia and England in 1825, on which the claims of our government rest, he says that "the evidence in the case is all in favor of the United States." "There is no more reason for this country to agree to refer its right to the possession and sovereignty of this unbroken Alaskan lisière to the decision of foreigners than would be the case if the English empire advanced a demand to sovereignty over the coast of the Carolinas or the port of Baltimore, and suggested that the claim should be referred to the judgment of the subjects of third powers." This seems to us a most extreme position to take. We have no more doubt than Mr. Balch that the evidence is all in favor of the United States. But British and Canadian statesmen and publicists do not think so, unless we are to set down a number of the most eminent of them as downright liars and deceivers. This we hardly feel justified in doing. Again, to be unwilling to let such a case go to arbitration, for fear of a decision against us, is to greatly underrate the intelligence and conscientiousness of any three or five public men from foreign nations to whom the case might be referred. If the evidence is all in our favor, it is impossible that such a body of men could find it to be against us. Mr. Balch's comparison of the Alaska case to the supposed one of the Carolina coast or the port of Baltimore is most irrelevant; for in the one case there is a border line between the two countries, in the other supposed one none at all.

from the Throne.

When the British Parliament was opened, on the 16th of January, King Edward read his own speech, written for him of course by the ministry, from the throne. He declared that his relations with other powers continued to be of a friendly character, though he did not explain exactly what he meant by "friendly." It was probably this sentence which led Lord Rosebery to call the speech one of the most "jejune"

ever placed on the lips of a monarch. The King must have known while pronouncing the word that there never was less foreign friendship for England than now, and justly so, because never before in her history has she more deeply offended the Christian conscience of the world. A still more "hungry" part of the speech was the passage in which the King declared that the humanity, even to their own detriment, of his troops in South Africa in their treatment of the enemy was deserving of the highest praise. Over this "lean" utterance peers, peeresses and high officials broke out into loud and longcontinued applause, which broke all the dignified traditions of the House of Lords. The King hoped that the international conference on sugar bounties might lead to the abandonment of a system which unfairly weighted his sugar-producing colonies. He referred to the conclusion of the Canal treaty with this country, under guaranties that its neutrality would be maintained and that it would be open to the commerce of all nations. He also mentioned the conclusion of the treaty with Brazil for the arbitration of the Guiana-Brazil boundary question. He regretted that the war in South Africa was not yet concluded, but declared that the area of it had been largely reduced, and that industries were being resumed in "his new colonies." Whatever one may think of Lord Rosebery's epithet "jejune," the King's speech is certainly much more remarkable for the serious things which it ignores than for those which it mentions, important as some of these are.

Congress Closes

The Pan-American Congress closed on Pan-American the 31st ult. The families of the delegates were present by invitation at the final session. After its close the delegates were received by President Diaz, who congratulated them on the eminently practical results of their labors. He expressed the hope that each one of them on returning home would be a messenger of peace and of confraternity among the American republics. In his address closing the Conference, Señor Ignacio Mariscal, the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke in part as follows, as to the advance made of the principle of arbitration, the most commanding subject before the Conference:

"You have advanced in practice the great principle of arbitration, the peaceful and the educational solution of international controversies, so as to render less frequent the barbarous appeal to force. Ten delegations have reached an agreement and signed a treaty of compulsory arbitration with exceptions similar to those that figured in the Washington treaty, which miscarried in 1890, a fate which we may reasonably hope is not reserved for the present convention. Nevertheless, it is not the principal triumph obtained in the matter of arbitration.

That triumph is undoubtedly the unanimous agreement of all of the delegations, in spite of their apparently radical divergence as to the application of that great principle, to submit for settlement to the permanent arbitration court of The Hague controversies that arise among the governments of America due to the claims of private individuals for indemnities and damages. When the convention in question once comes into force, these complaints and claims which most inflame the minds of men and embitter international relations will be settled peacefully in the manner dictated by equity and the highest considerations of expediency. Finally, you have unanimously agreed to recognize the principles proclaimed by the Hague peace convention, and are prepared to become parties to the conventions concluded by the conference. And in order to secure admittance to one of them you have empowered the governments of the United States and Mexico, who are among the signatory powers, to conduct the negotiations which such admittance entails; by this means all our sister nations of America will secure, among other advantages, a clear right to appeal to the eminent court established at the capital of the Netherlands, whenever they may desire that it should adjudicate their controversies."

Not Useless to Protest.

The Watchman in a recent number, speaking of the influentially signed remonstrance against the proposed vast increase in naval expenditures recently sent from Boston to Washington, says:

"The strongly worded protest so influentially signed against the huge naval appropriations seems to us to overlook the fact that these expenditures were involved in treaty of Paris with Spain. These vast appropriations the policy adopted by our government in negotiating the cannot be withstood after the policy that makes them necessary has been adopted. The time for effective protest was more than three years ago."

It seems to us that this position of the Watchman, whose editor is opposed to the policy adopted in the treaty of Paris, is untenable from every point of view. First, we do not see the evidence that the new program of naval increase is involved in the policy adopted in the Paris treaty. Some increase in the navy is doubtless involved in that policy, but nothing like that proposed. It is nearer the truth to say that the policy adopted at Paris has grown out of naval development and exploits rather than vice versa. The naval increase has been steadily going on since 1885, and has only been quickened by recent events. But if these increased expenditures, or, in other words, a large expansion of the navy, were involved in the policy, is that a sufficient reason for withholding protest? Shall a great national sin be allowed to go unprotested after the initial stage until it reaches

its culmination? Can we not often, by exposing the dangerousness of the first fruits of such a policy, thus best secure the ultimate abandonment of the policy itself? Was it useless to protest against the greed of the slave power for new territory because such greed was involved in the nationally accepted system of slavery? The Watchman would hardly so contend. The policy adopted in the treaty of Paris with Spain is producing so many evil fruits that we should be a nation of hopeless weaklings if we held our mouths about them. It is the continued protest of so many people throughout the nation against these evil fruits that is bringing the country to its senses about the wickedness of the policy itself. This policy, from many present indications, at least in its worst features, is fast losing its hold on the nation and is certain before long to be abandoned. The people who originated this naval remonstrance were among the strongest of the original protestants three years ago, and it is a most favorable omen that many others, who at first did not protest, are willing to join them now.

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Perhaps the most pungent and timely part of Mr. Vanderlip's article is that in which he frankly reminds us of the way in which our sudden rush into swollen military expenditure is imperilling our industrial supremacy. He gives some striking utterances of foreign statesmen and financiers on this subject. The Russian Minister of Finance, M. De Witte, said that militarism is the nightmare and the ruin of every European finance minister,' and thought the fact that the United States had no great military burden' to be no small part of her good fortune. But our foreign rivals are watching with ill-concealed glee our fatuous course in going out of our way to bind such a burden on our backs. One of the most eminent of European financiers' said to Mr. Vanderlip, when asked how the Old World could possibly withstand American competition: Something will happen. ... It may be that it is your colonial policy. We are glad to see you going into the Philippines. We will welcome the time if you are going to measure strength with us as a military power.'

"The actual weight of our military burden is understated by Mr. Vanderlip. Comparing the United States with Europe, he finds that we pay out for army and navy only $205,000,000 a year, as against $1,380,000,000 spent in Europe. But the only fair comparison is that of per capita taxation for military purposes. Mr. Vanderlip's Europe' means 336,000,000 of inhabitants, who thus have to pay $4.10 each for the support of army and navy. But the 76,000,000 of Americans are now paying (counting in, as Mr. Vanderlip should have done, the $140,000,000 a year in pensions) $4.50 a head for the same purposes. Already, therefore, we are gratuitously crippling ourselves with military expenses in a

way to give our competitors hope, and our colonial and military ambitions are calling for more money every year. Was there ever such a clear case of national folly? At the height of our great opportunity, with the markets of the world at our mercy, we stupidly cling to a fiscal policy which turns the hand of every trading nation against us, and then proceed further to weight ourselves in the race for commercial supremacy, where we might so easily have a clear course, by committing the very blunder our anxious competitors were hoping we would fall into, — that is, we sap our strength and dissipate our energies by going in for costly colonies and a burdensome military establishment."

Brevities.

During this year the navy will be increased by the completion of one battleship, three protected cruisers, four monitors, sixteen torpedo boats and sixteen torpedo-boat destroyers. There are under construction eight battleships, six armored cruisers, nine protected cruisers, one gunboat, four monitors, sixteen destroyers, nine torpedo boats, seven submarine boats; making a total of sixty vessels.

City and State, of Philadelphia, has published in pamphlet the evidence which it declares to be "morally conclusive proof that the so-called water-cure' torture has, during a period of nearly two years, been systematically used in the Philippines, under the ægis of our flag, to produce political or military results." The pamphlet is excruciating reading to one who loves his country's honor.

At the annual meeting of the New York State Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador, said: “The Bar Association, held at Albany on the 21st ult., Mr. fundamental duty of diplomacy is to enforce respect for the provisions of international law and so foster their continuous development, thereby rendering essential service to the advancement of civilization and

strengthening the social bond which links together the

nations of the world."

The British government has already expended more than sixty-two million dollars for horses alone in the South African war, the whole number of horses used to the end of October last being three hundred thousand nine hundred.

... Great Britain has decided to take the same course adopted by the United States and return to China that portion of the imposed indemnity which may not be required to cover actual expenses and damages.

Hon. Henry B. Metcalf, in a recent letter to one of the Pawtucket (R. I.) papers, says that the thing which troubles him most about our Philippine proceedings is "whether our Christian nation is really trying to find an honorable method whereby slaughter of Americans as well as Filipinos may cease."

In a recent address Mr. Bryan gives the following definition of patriotism: "I do not think I can define patriotism better than to say that it is that love of country which leads a man to give to his country that which his country needs at the time that his country needs it."

Oscar S. Straus of New York, Minister to Turkey under both Presidents Cleveland and McKinley, has been appointed by President Roosevelt a member of the Hague International Court of Arbitration, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of ex-President Benjamin Harrison. Mr. Straus is a diplomat and publicist of very high standing. He considers the setting up of the Hague Court the most important event of the past century.

In a most illuminating speech in the House of Representatives the other day, in criticism of the carelessness and log-rolling of pension legislation, Congress man Talbert of South Carolina showed that since the Civil War the government has paid out in pensions over two and a half billion dollars, and that at the present time there are about one million pensioners on the list, or one person to every seventy-five of the population. The pension bill of the United States is annually greater than the cost of the standing army of any European

country except Russia.

A Christmas letter from the women of Switzerland, having tens of thousands of signatures, was sent to the women of Great Britain, imploring them "to insist upon a speedy end being put to the unspeakable sufferings of the innocent Boer women and children and to the horrors and bloodshed of the war."

The

The treaty providing for the cession of the Danish West Indies to the United States for the sum of five million dollars was signed at Washington, January 24, by Secretary Hay and Danish Minister Brun. Danish government has given notice that it will submit the question of cession to the inhabitants, who are not expected to offer much opposition, as under the treaty they may retain their Danish allegiance if they desire so to do.

A petition has been presented to the Massachusetts Legislature for the establishment of an industrial arbitration court, signed by a number of influential persons, among them Professor F. Spencer Baldwin of. Boston University, and E. H. Clement of the Boston Transcript. The form of court suggested by the petitioners is like that which has been for several years in operation in New Zealand.

A Massachusetts petition has been presented to Congress through Senator Hoar, signed by more than ten thousand bankers and manufacturers, praying for the establishment by treaty of reciprocal trade relations between the United States and Canada.

The Hon. Whitelaw Reid, as special commissioner, is to represent the United States government at the crowning of King Edward VII., and the Hon. J. M. L. Curry, who was our minister to Spain when Alfonso was born, is to represent our government at Madrid at the accession of the young King to the throne.

On his forty-third birthday the Emperor of Germany conferred territorial titles on all his regiments which had previously had no distinctive names. In the course of his army order on the subject he said that "the army and the nation were one." He has an increasing number of subjects who think that the nation is something more than and different from the army.

On the 12th of January the French Arbitration Society held a grand banquet at the Palais d'Orsay, Paris, in honor of its president, Frederic Passy, on his reception of the Nobel peace prize.

At the Collier's Weekly banquet given to its staff on January 27, a letter was read from Cardinal Gibbons in which he said: "War must not be. Apart from all religious considerations, I pray for peace because of the commercial interests at stake which would suffer perceptibly in the event of war with European powers. Indeed, with commercial interests so strong, with ramifications so varied, the United States and all Europe will think twice before resorting to clash of arms, finding bills of lading more profitable than bills of war."

During the year 1901 the Boer war cost Great Britain $305,350,000, and the expenses at the present 237,800 British troops still in South Africa. time are given as $22,500,000 per month. There are

On January 19, Dr. Darby, secretary of the Peace Society, London, received the following cablegram from J. D. Casasus, Mexico City: "Yesterday the International American Conference sent to the secretary of foreign relations its unanimous adherence to the Hague Convention, and also a treaty of compulsory arbitration signed by the delegates of ten republics represented in the Conference, obligating themselves in cases of diplomatic privileges, rights of navigation, boundaries, validity of interpretation and enforcement of treaties. It is a pleasure for me to congratulate you upon this new triumph of peace among nations.

Justin McCarthy, in an article in the New York Independent of January 9, thus writes: "There is at last a large party arising in Great Britain who are not afraid to proclaim that some terms of honorable peace must be. sought for which the Boers can accept without the surrender of their national independence at all events, without the surrender of their right to national self-government. The old catch-words about fighting to a finish, carrying on the war to the bitter end, and leaving to the Boers not a shred of independence, are seldom heard in England just now."

The Protestant churches of France, in an address to the Protestant churches and the government of Great Britain, speak thus: "Without taking one side or the other, but impressed by the evils of the war and of the scandal which the prolongation of this conflict causes to Christian consciences, we, the undersigned, respectfully entreat the government of Great Britain to consent to overtures of peace, still hoping that the court of arbitration can be brought into service to bring an equitable accord between an heroic people, few in number, and a great nation which, in the midst of the world, has so often raised its voice in favor of liberty and justice."

In an instructive address on Hugo Grotius and International Arbitration before the Holland Society of New York, on January 16, Clinton Rogers Woodruff of the Philadelphia Bar declared that as the Supreme Court of the United States has become the greatest tribunal in Christendom, so the Hague tribunal is destined to become the greatest of courts of the world.

The Gillette-Lodge bill, which forbids any American to sell firearms, opium or intoxicating liquors to the natives of the Philippines and certain other islands in the Pacific, has passed the Senate and is now before the House, where it ought at once to be approved without a dissenting voice.

Edwin D. Mead, on his recent return from half a year abroad, thus speaks in an interview in the Springfield Republican: "Nothing is more impressive to me, after months of absence, than the great change in public opinion on the Philippine question since last spring.. I think there is little doubt that a majority of Americans see clearly to-day that the McKinley policy was a terrible mistake."

Correspondence.

B. FARRAR, of Arkansas City, Kansas, writes to the editor of the ADVOCATE OF PEACE as follows:

"Your first article in the January number, 'Work for the Coming Year,' is brimful of good thoughts, advice, suggestions, entreaties, etc. The first paragraph is right to the point to stimulate thought, zeal, and practical observance of the truths and excellent suggestions contained in all the other paragraphs.

"One of the chief characteristics of our time is burdened conscience in regard to war,' you say. I thoroughly believe that remark, though I have seen to this date but little tangible evidence of the fact. The fire is burning, however, though it is still smothered.

"I am making the ADVOCATE do work here by circulating it among pastors and others, and I know that the mighty truths therein published cannot be very long crushed and ignored. Others are, doubtless, doing as well or better than I. Now, how can we do more and better work sowing the seed which the great and good Society is putting into our hands? We are the sowers. The field is the world. The great mass of the people believe in war, save here and there an isolated exception.

"This city in which I live, Arkansas City, Kansas, has a population of about seven thousand, with about three thousand outside of the city who get their mail at this office, making ten thousand in all. Of these I am the only subscriber to the ADVOCATE OF PEACE, so far as I know, and I know of but one person beside myself within our P. O. limits, namely, the local secretary of the Y. M. C. A., who is first, last and all the time opposed to war and in favor of peace. We have two orthodox preachers, one the pastor of the Congregational Church, the other, retired, a united Presbyterian, a D.D., and accounted a very able preacher. He was a chaplain during the Civil War, and boldly stands up for war, including the present one. The other pastors are mute regarding

war.

After outlining a plan for the organization of peace meetings, for educational work along peace lines, Mr. Farrar further says:

"We find the motive power in the last paragraph of the editorial alluded to. I hope all will take special

Because the workless millions rise with fiery eyes
And rend with battle-songs the dreaming skies?
God pitieth their plight —

Oft cried aloud and would have hovered them,
E'en as He would the headstrong hosts of old Jerusalem;
He seeth the starving babes, the needless sacrifice.

Not Truth nor Sense
Will say war's right,
Because there shineth, now and then,
Along the warring lines of sinning men,
God's light of recompense.

He seeth and saveth every grain of good
That lies ungarnered 'mong the festering brood;
He knoweth what the heart-starved warrior might have been.

Night answereth unto night,
Men's ignorance to men;

Oh soul, be strong, lest night be doubly dark, alway!
Oh speed the time for which the angels pray,

When, with dear Love's insight,

The dusky bride shall marshal starry throngs And answer thus, unto the perfect Day, "No more shall deeds of war or violence be done!"

Gentle and Mighty.*

BY IDA WHIPPLE BENHAM.

The Child that in the manger lay,

A babe, a lamb, yet strong to bless, -
Dwells in the contrite heart alway,

And proves the power of gentleness.

*Read at the American Friends' Peace Conference, Philadelphia, December 13, 1901.