/ y^o A v> l^orilr |Dcace jfouniialion •Pamphlet Series FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE ADDRESS AT PORTLAND, MAINE OCTOBER 10, 1912 BY SAMUEL B. CAPEN President American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Published Quarterly by the WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION 40 MT. VERNON STREET, BOSTON October, 1912, No. 7, Part III Entered as second-class matter April 18,1911, at the post-office at Boston, Mass., under the Act of July 16,1894 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/foreignmissionswOOcape FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE. By Samuel B. Capen. In the thirteen years since you called me to be your president we have considered together many phases of the foreign missionary problem, especially with reference to the home base. I come to you to-day with an entirely different question, but one which is very much upon my heart and which seems to be more timely now than ever before, the question of “ Missions and World Peace.” I bring this matter before the Board at this time because the work of all missionaries is being hindered by the preparations that the Christian nations are making for possible future wars between them¬ selves, and their readiness to strike a weaker and a non-Christian nation. This is of especial importance to the American Board, for more than one-half of our missionaries are in the war zone, 203 in Turkey, and 126 in China.* CHRISTIAN AGGRESSION AGAINST THE EAST. Many heard Mr. Shuster, when he returned last spring from Persia, tell of his personal experiences and of the conflict in that unhappy country. Mr. Shuster called special attention to the fact that all three of the cases of spoliation and tyranny which have shocked the conscience of the world in these recent months have been cases of the aggression of so-called Christian nations upon Mohammedan peoples. These addresses of Mr. Shuster were emphasized by an article which appeared in the Japan Advertiser in Tokyo, from which I quote:— The first act in the Persian tragedy is that the Persian people are guilty of the unpardonable crime of possessing a magnificent country with magnificent resources; and this crime constitutes the crime of crimes which Christian Europe, armed to the * III had had any misgivings about the timeliness of this subject, it would have been dispelled by the addresses yesterday and to-day from the missionaries from China, Japan and Turkey. In the case of the latter country the people believe that the attack of Italy is more than a war of one people upon another, even an attack of Christianity upon their religion. 4 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE teeth, can neither condone nor overlook. From the danger signals that are already flashing forth it is easy to foresee that the victory of Russia and England over Persia will not only mean the subjugation of a practically unarmed nation by two fully armed powers, but the present triumph, if it does come, will surely contain an aftermath, which will have to be reaped by the victors. The world is accustomed to associate Russia with a merciless and despotic barbarism. The case will, how¬ ever, be different for England, one of the two makers of the Persian tragedy. British prestige must undoubtedly come out of this transaction heavily besmirched; and in the backbone of England’s empire, India, British justice must come to be looked upon askance and British reputation must suffer as it has never suffered yet. It is well also that missionaries and supporters of Christian missions to the “heathen” should know that the Oriental mind now defines Christianity as battle¬ ships, cannons and rifles devised and constructed for the plunder of the earth, and that the bleeding figure on the cross which missionaries hold up to the view of non-Christian peoples gets blurred out of their sight, for on their horizon looms largely the figure of the armed robber with cannon and rifles leveled threatening “your country or your life.” Then there has been the attack of Italy upon Turkey, which has aroused the conscience of the civilized world. Turkey said in sub* stance, “We will submit Italy’s grievance to any tribunal that nation cares to name and abide by the results.” This Italy refused, and practically asked to have Tripoli handed over in twenty-four hours. We can well appreciate the evil results which come to all our mis¬ sionary work from such events as these. The missionary is put upon the defensive to explain why so-called Christian nations should be guilty of such high-handed proceedings. The eyes of the world are upon the new Republic of China; but how have the Christian nations in the past treated that old Empire? In 1840 she destroyed some chests of opium, and then England compelled the Chinese, against every principle of justice, to admit opium into all her ports. In 1896 Russia compelled Japan to give up Port Arthur, and subsequently took it herself. In 1897 two German Catholic priests were killed in a riot in the Shantung province. Out went the German fleet and took Kiao-chau Harbor, a large sec¬ tion of country, the right to develop all mines and railways in that province, and a large indemnity besides. Soon after this England stepped in and helped herself to Wei-hai-wei. She had already taken Hongkong as an indemnity after one of her opium wars. Franee moved up from Annam; and so it has gone on until China, with a coast line as long as from Eastport, Maine, to the Panama Canal, has hardly a harbor left. Then, in 1900, after the noted Boxer uprising, an indemnity of FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 5 $333,9° o , oo ° was imposed. The payment was to be distributed over thirty-nine years, and the total sum payable was $728,820,704. That is China’s experience with Christian nations! In Tung-chou alone, a city where the Chinese made no resistance against the allied armies and where there was no fighting, 573 Chinese women of the upper class committed suicide rather than live after the indignities they had suffered from the soldiers of Christian nations! An old Chinese missionary at Silver Bay last summer called our attention to the fact that there are 100,000,000 children in China needing to be educated, and the resources of the new Republic should be used for this important work. They greatly need a common educa¬ tion that will bind all classes in the Republic together and make it one united nation. Yet, yet, under the influence of the Chris¬ tian nations, she is using her resources for developing a great army and navy to defend herself against the said Christian nations. Europe especially ought to hold down its head in shame at the sad results of its bad influence. Is it any wonder that all of the Western nations seem to many of the Chinese to be still “barbarians” because of their fighting? In the light of all this can we wonder that the Na¬ tional Review of China a few months ago should say that “Persia has been bullied almost to death, and Russian intriguers have sup¬ ported her ex-Shah’s attempt at a counter-revolution; that Morocco has been the cockpit of Europe for the past few months; that Turkey is now being driven at the point of the sword to commit national hara-kiri; that China is alternately clubbed on the head and stroked on the back by her dear friends in the north or across the water, with the Powers of Europe observing a cynical neutrality”? We rejoice to add to the credit of the United States that our relations with China from the days of Anson Burlingame have been almost without reproach, except for certain features of our exclusion laws. The Chinese recognize this, and it gives the American missionary the greatest opportunity that has ever come or that can ever come to this great nation which contains one-fourth of the human race. THE ECONOMIC AND MORAL ASPECTS OF THE PEACE MOVEMENT. In this world movement of what has been called “War against War” we see a great effort to prevent a further sapping of the life of the nations, and of directly and indirectly crippling their ability 6 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE to exercise their largest influence for humanity. Success in this effort would remove a great obstacle to missionary success. There is an economic as well as a moral aspect to this problem. First. Take the material , or economic , side. It is a sad fact that 67 per cent, of the expenses of our Government are being expended either because of past wars or in preparation for possible future wars. It has been well illustrated by a man having an income of $1,000 a year who is spending $670 to pay for the expenses of former fights or in preparation for new ones, and is leaving himself only $330 for house rent, food, clothing, fuel, education of his children, etc. Last year the figures show that the United States spent on preparations for future war a per capita of about $3.33. Of this total sum we Congre- gationalists, therefore, have had to pay over $2,250,000, or three times as much as we have given for foreign missions. The condition across the sea of course is worse than it is with us. The annual German expenditure is $731,000,000, and of this $318,000,000 is spent for war expenses in one way or another. It is stated that every farmer in Germany is burdened with the equivalent of the maintenance of six non-producing men in arms. Four million men are under arms in Europe at an annual expense of $1,682,000,000, thus absorbing the life of these nations. If these conditions can be changed, and the fear of war removed by arbitration agreements, not only will the bulk of this immense sum be saved, but these men themselves could be returned to the ranks of peaceful citizens, and perhaps be able to earn as much besides. We need courts of arbitration and a world peace to save the nations in the social revolution that is going on. The world is full of labor strikes, and men ask for larger wages be¬ cause of the increased cost of living. With total debts of about $27,000,000,000 and an annual interest charge of nearly $1,000,000,000, the nations of Europe are running into universal bankruptcy. All the nations of the earth are so closely interwoven that a disaster to Europe would be a tremendous blow to us, followed by a panic and disaster which would seriously impair all missionary enterprise. Not only that, but in order to keep up in the race our Government is increasing its battleships at an enormous cost. The Massachu¬ setts commission on the high cost of living properly included mili¬ tarism, and the waste and expense which is the natural result, as one of the chief causes. A modern battleship at a cost of $12,000,000 amounts to more than the income of the American Board for a decade, and the annual expense of running it is equal to our total yearly FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 7 income. All this expense is a hindrance to the whole moral influence of our nation to the people on the mission field. The return by our Government of one-half of the Chinese indemnity and its use by China to educate students here in our colleges is worth more to bind China to us and make for universal peace than the presence of half a dozen battleships. It is well also to remember that, if President McKinley could have had his way, he would have preferred to go without any cash payment from China. His view, which he sought to impress upon others, was that a Chinese nation capable of doing business with the Western world was a far better guaranty of peace and progress than any sum which might be extorted from China as an indemnity for the Boxer outrage, and which bound her prac¬ tically to international financial control. Second. But this is more than an economic question: it has to do with morals and religion. Need I remind you that our Civil War cost this nation, including both North and South, about a million of men, and that the wars of Napoleon cost Europe three millions of men? The effect of this on Europe was that the nations have been repopulated in part by those who are physically weaker, for the best went into the army and had no offspring. It is said that the wars of Europe have reduced the stature of the French nation nearly two inches. We are no longer having the “ survival of the fittest, but the survival of the unfittest.” If that has been the effect of past wars, we note also the hates and the unholy ambitions that are now being fostered by the war camps of the world in keeping up an armed peace. In the light of all this we see how great the injury is to all our moral, religious and missionary interests. OUR ALLIES. In this effort for universal peace and the recognition of a brother¬ hood as wide as the world, our missionary interests will have many strong allies. First. We have the great commercial interests of the world. It is an interesting fact that the recent arbitration treaties of Presi¬ dent Taft were indorsed by about 200 boards of trade and chambers of commerce in cities containing 20,000,000 people. To show the world-wide interest of the business men in this great subject, at the Fifth International Congress of Chambers of Commerce held last month in Boston, the question of arbitration was given large 8 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE place by the foreign and American delegates alike as the most impor¬ tant question for them to consider. They recognized that all business and financial interests are thrown into chaos by anything that in¬ terrupts the peace of the world. This Congress was the most impor¬ tant meeting of business men that the world has ever seen. It was therefore a great moment when, under the leadership of the Presi¬ dent of the Congress, M. Canon-Legrand, a resolution which he had drawn covering the whole field of international arbitration was passed with the greatest enthusiasm. On the impulse of the moment the members of the Congress sprang to their feet, some stood on the chairs and waved their hats. It was a great message of the commercial leaders of forty-five nations to the governments of the whole world. Few scenes more significant in human history have ever been witnessed. Second. We have with us the great labor interests , for they recog¬ nize that in the case of war they would suffer the most because of the interference of business, the lack of work and the general unrest which is created. It is believed that the peace of Europe for the past thirty years has been due to the working classes of Europe more than to any other single cause. Third. It is of special interest to know how the men of the Grand Army respond to this movement. I have rarely had a more inter¬ ested audience than on last Memorial Day, when I delivered an address upon this subject before one of the posts of the Grand Army. These men recognize the truth of what General Sherman said, that “war is hell,” and they do not wish others to endure what they had to suffer. Gallant General Sheridan has left his record also, that the world would settle its differences by arbitration. At the Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, last May, in some respects the most effective address was made by Admiral Chad¬ wick, commander of the flagship in the battle of Santiago. Fourth. We have a great propaganda going on in our schools and colleges and universities , and young people everywhere are beginning to recognize that it is more honorable for a nation to be great in peace than in war. A university is a far more glorious sight than a Dreadnought , and it will not be in the scrap-heap in twenty-five years. Fifth. We also have with us not only the great peace societies of the world and all the influences which grow out of the Mohonk con¬ ference, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the World Peace Foundation, but we have the good will and oneness FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 9 which is growing up among the students of the world through the World Student Christian Federation and through the International Young Men’s Christian Associations. Finally, one of the greatest in its power for good is the mighty work that is going on through world-wide Christian Endeavor. Here are 79,000 societies in a hun¬ dred denominations in practically every nation, with a membership of about 4,000,000 members.* Dr. Clark has shown anew his wonder¬ ful statesmanship in making, as a part of the work of this mighty movement, peace among the nations. Young people thus bound together all over the world are not easily going to fight one another to satisfy the wicked ambitions of their grasping rulers. It is stated that there has never been a movement which has made such rapid progress and taken hold of all classes in society in so brief a time as the movement to end war between nations and to substitute in its place universal arbitration treaties and a permanent Court of Arbi¬ tral Justice. OUR ANTAGONISTS. It is well for the missionary leaders not only to know their allies, but their chief antagonists, in this struggle for world peace. At the Conservation Congress in Carnegie Hall last April some of us heard Dr. J. A. Macdonald, of Toronto, speak in the place of W. T. Stead, who went down in the “Titanic” while on the way to this country to speak on world-wide peace. Dr. Macdonald had recently had in London an interview with Mr. Stead, extending late into the night, in which they discussed what they could do to break the power of the leagues in every nation that exist to keep up the war spirit. These leagues directly and indirectly are the greatest enemies to progress. They grow more bitter as they see the rapid advance of the peace movement. There are navy leagues in this country and in Great Britain, Germany and France, and these leagues play one nation against another. The picture of every warship built is published in other nations, and they are urged to build more and larger battle¬ ships, and so the waste goes on. In the French Assembly and else- * At the European Christian Endeavor Convention held this summer at Christiania the subject of peace had a prominent part in the program, and the chief speaker was Dr. Raynvald Moe, the secre¬ tary of the Nobel Institute. There were nearly 1,000 delegates present from Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain,Finland, Hungary, Switzerland and other lands; and the convention passed the follow¬ ing splendid resolution:—■ “The European Christian Endeavor Convention in Christiania, 1912, requests all the National Christian Endeavor Unions to present a petition to their respective governments and parliaments that the movement for arbitration in all conflicts between the nations, and mediation in all controversies at home, be promoted more energetically than ever, so that the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, may reign over the nations, and the growth of His kingdom be furthered among all men.” IO FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE where the increase of our navy is given as a reason why other nations should increase theirs. We build more and they build more. They build more and we build more. An army leader has recently pro¬ claimed publicly that war is the opportunity and duty of a great nation, and many newspapers gloat over the weaknesses of rivals, and write insulting articles to arouse the passions and keep alive the war spirit. It is always interesting to notice every time a naval appropriation bill is to come before Congress it is preceded by a war scare, usually with Japan. This noisy and frightened discussion has been well called by President Butler of Columbia University “profitable patriotism”: we might call it “pulmonary patriotism”! It is said that in Great Britain one man in every five is interested directly or indirectly in the preparations for war either for the army or navy! No wonder the war scare is kept up by selfish interests, and the forces that make for righteousness will always have to fight the interests that make money out of human hate and strife. Another foe is the “jingo” injiuence of minorities represented in the “yellow press.” The German chancellor said in the Reichstag a few months ago that “wars are not planned and brought about in these days by governments, but noisy and fanatical minorities drive nations into war.” The United States was driven into an unnecessary war with Spain in 1898 largely through the power of the “yellow press.” Let me quote a few words from Mr. Root: “There are no international controversies so serious that they cannot be settled peaceably if both parties really desire settlement; while there are few causes of dispute so trifling that they cannot be made the occasion of war if either party really desires war. The matters in dispute between nations are nothing: the spirit which deals with them is everything.” In 1915 we shall have lived a hundred years in peace with Great Britain, yet John W. Foster has pointed out that there have been eight differences with England each of which might have brought on war, had the spirit of war been the controlling thought. With the speedy completion of the Panama Canal the Pacific Ocean will become the center of the world’s strategy. If there is to be a storm center anywhere, it will be there. The swift-going steam¬ ship and the cable have brought the East and the West together, so that the Pacific has become nothing but a ferry. We must treat as brothers the Chinese and Japanese nations. Missionary progress must not be hindered by wicked attacks and by war scares of the “yellow press.” FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE II THE DEBT OF DIPLOMACY TO THE MISSIONARY. It is possible in the limits of this address to give but a few illus¬ trations on this important subject. In the volume entitled “American Diplomacy in the Orient,” by Hon. John W. Foster, there is this forceful sentence: “Up to the middle of the last century the Christian missionaries were an absolute necessity to diplomatic intercourse.” Certainly, no diplomat of our day has had so wide an experience or has the right to speak with so much authority. This statement is cor¬ roborated by the Hon. William B. Reed, a former United States minister to China, who says, “I could not have advanced one step in the discharge of my duties, could not have read, or written, or understood one word of correspondence on treaty stipulations, but for the missionaries.” To begin with, we owe to missionary philologists nearly one hundred and fifty dictionaries, including Judson’s and Stevens’ for the Bur¬ mese, Morrison’s and S. Wells Williams’ for the Chinese, and Hep¬ burn’s for the Japanese. These are the basis of language and, of course, of all intelligent intercourse between the East and the West. Dr. Peter Parker and Rev. E. C. Bridgman, missionaries to China, were made the Chinese secretaries of the Caleb Cushing embassy in 1844. Dr. Parker twice served as charge d'affaires in China and as a commissioner to negotiate with the Chinese Government in 1856. Rev. Dr. S. Wells Williams was interpreter to Commodore Perry in his first visit to Japan in 1853 and afterward was secretary of legation in China. W. A. P. Martin translated into Chinese Wheaton’s “Elements of International Law,” encouraged in this by our early great minister to China, Anson Burlingame, and Sir Frederick Bruce, the British min¬ ister. Dr. Martin also had translated Woolsey’s “Elements of International Law” and two or three other similar works. Most of these were reprinted in Japanese, and have had large influence in shaping the international policy of two empires. They showed the public men that something besides force was recognized among Western nations in their dealings with one another. Then there was the great work of the Hon. Chester Holcomb, a former missionary of the Board, who served as secretary of legation in China for many years, and who was a master of the Chinese lan¬ guage. Some of us have heard him tell of his work on treaties, every letter written with his own hand. 12 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE Dr. H. N. Allen by helping a wounded Korean prince helped to open Korea to the missionaries, and then he himself was appointed American minister to Korea by two Presidents. Both China and Japan recognize the greatness of the service of the missionaries, in whom they have had perfect confidence. As evidence of this, the Japan Mail has said, “No single person has done as much as the missionary to bring foreigners and Japanese into close intercourse.” Sir Charles Warren, governor of Natal, has said: “For the preser¬ vation of peace between the colonists and the natives, one mission¬ ary is worth a battalion of soldiers.” When we think of this subject, one of the first names that comes to our mind is that of Rev. Dr. John H. DeForest, one of our great missionaries to Japan, who has left us so recently. He not only had the entire confidence of the Japanese officials, who honored him in many ways, but he had also the confidence of the diplomats of the Western nations. He did great service only a little while before he died in his defense of Japan against the attacks of the “yellow press” and of others,—a service which did much in a critical hour toward making public sentiment in the right direction. The great service which he rendered in promoting peace between the nations was recognized by the American Peace Society, which made him one of its vice presidents, and by the emperor of Japan, by whom he was decorated. May I repeat again the incident which some of you may have heard me mention before, but which is so perfect an illustration of this subject that I venture to repeat it here? Nearly four years ago about fifty gentlemen were invited to meet together at a home in New York City to pay their tribute of regard to a gentleman who had once represented our nation officially in one of the great capitals of the Old World, and who was going out again to represent our Gov¬ ernment in a position of high trust. After several gentlemen had commended him for the good work he had been able to do in the past, he told them the secret of his power and influence in diplomatic matters. He had been often invited to meet with the ambassadors of the great Powers to discuss great international questions. When very complicated matters arose, he always asked for a week’s time to consider them, and it w r as always granted. During the week he went over the situation confidentially with three men living in this capital, and, after obtaining their opinion, he went back to the FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 13 conference, and gave his judgment, which was always accepted. Two years ago at the World’s Missionary Conference in Edinburgh I met a gentleman at a social gathering, and alluded to this incident. To my surprise he replied, “The British ambassador was in the habit of consulting these same three men.” The gentleman was quite familiar with the facts, for he was also a representative of the British Government in an official position. The interesting part of this incident is that the three men who were thus consulted by the representatives both of the United States and of Great Britain had all of them held a commission of the American Board. Here, then, were three of our men who, through the representatives of the United States and Great Britain, were helping to shape the diplomacy of the world at one of the most important world capitals. One of these ambassadors has been known again and again to send for one of our missionaries to advise with him upon important state matters, once even summoning him in the middle of the night because of the gravity of the question that had to be considered on the morrow. Different officials in our State Department have also spoken of their obligations to our missionaries for information. It is easy to see how this may be. The minister or the consul is subject to change every few years, and often he does not know the language of the country to which he is accredited. The missionary, on the contrary, lives on in the same community twenty, thirty, and sometimes forty years. He knows the people, their language, their modes of thought, their traditions, their history. He has a mass of information of inestimable value that he can communicate to any government official. We have time for only one more illustration, and it is found in the story of the new Chinese Republic. There was great danger of war between the North and the South, which, if it had started, might have involved the peace of the world. Edward S. Little, a former missionary, now a business man and the honorary treasurer of the United Society of Christian Endeavor of China, came to the front as peacemaker. He sent a proposal to Yuan Shi Kai and to Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the president of the Provisional Republic, suggesting that they appoint a commissioner to consider terms of peace, with the further offer of his own home at Shanghai as a place for holding this peace conference. The plan was approved, and two commis¬ sioners were appointed. The home of Mr. Little was given up for this purpose for six weeks, he serving often as “middleman,” ac¬ cording to Chinese custom in harmonizing differences. The wonderful 14 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE success of these commissioners was the saving of China from a bloody conflict. Let us not forget that much of this success was due to this Christian business man, a former missionary, who by his years of faithful service in missionary and philanthropic enterprises had won for himself universal confidence. Furthermore, it must never be forgotten that it was because Dr. Sun and so many of his compatriots were trained in our missionary schools and had come under the Christian influences of the West that the success of this wonderful movement for better government was made possible. The nations are beginning to realize more and more what they owe to the missionaries. A Chinese leader was asked “when the recent revolution began/’ and with great wisdom he replied, “The day Robert Morrison landed in Canton.” We must not forget the forward look in this summary. There are in the Protestant mission¬ ary schools of the East nearly 1,300,000 students of all grades under missionary training. In these schools are being shaped the future leaders of every nation. The work done by our missionary teachers in training Chinese students has been one of the largest factors in helping to bind China to us. What is true in China is true else¬ where, and is to become more and more true as the schools for Chris¬ tian education are being rapidly increased. It is these students of to-day, the leaders of to-morrow, that are to bind this world together. There would have been no new China or Korea or India or Turkey if there had been no missionaries, and the diplomacy of the world would have been powerless without their aid. Western civilization, with its accompanying evils, is everywhere crowding into the East: it is the Christian missionary, educator and physician, that serves as the antidote to all these evils and shows what Christianity is. It is the missionary who has been the peacemaker, and it is his influence that is making possible a closer oneness between the nations. THE UNITED STATES A WORLD POWER. In this struggle for world peace our missionaries have a great asset in the influence of the United States as a world power. We sometimes talk as if this began at the time of the Spanish War. That is not really true. In the eyes of the world it may seem so because the nation then became more conspicuous, but we have always been a world power because we have usually stood for righteousness and FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 15 for the rule of the people. The history of the world since the estab¬ lishment of our nation is the proof of this. Look at South America and the British colonies; look even at Great Britain herself, as she has moved so steadily forward along the line of democratic ideas; look at Japan and Turkey and China, and see how we have influenced other nations in the direction of democracy. A GREATER WORLD AND MISSIONARY POWER. We have thus seen that the American missionary for the last fifty years has been the greatest power in bringing the nations of the Near East and the Far East into closer touch with the nations of the West. We have also seen that the influence of ail missionaries is being seriously hindered by the so-called “armed peace” of Europe and by the increasing expenditure of these nations in preparation for war. This evil and hindrance seems to be increasing every year as the na¬ tions are struggling to increase the strength of their armies and the size of their navies. I think it is also evident that the United States, from its position, its history and its freedom from alliances with other nations, is the most powerful single missionary unit in the world. Facing now the future, it is vital, therefore, for our missionary influence that the touch and impact of the United States upon the Orient shall be more and more Christianized. I believe it is true that, if our nation would take a stronger position in its moral leader¬ ship along the lines of arbitration and world peace, the power of every American missionary would be doubled. Only a few idealists cared for these things at first. Not until our generation has it really taken hold of the people as a whole. It is becoming now a part of the great missionary and philanthropic movement of our day. God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth; every man is a brother of every other man,—all have been made alike in God’s image. Every human being has infinite possibilities, be he black or brown or red. Modern missions have shown that people in no country are so de¬ graded that they cannot be saved. The cannibal of yesterday can become the Christian leader of to-morrow. The world is beginning to see, and our missionary interests must take part in declaring, that men must no longer be slaughtered, that duels between nations must cease, for they are both inhuman and unchristian. When the world Powers are burdened to the breaking point by preparations 16 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE for war, and all our missionary interests are hindered and in part neutralized by the warlike plans of all Christian nations, the Ameri¬ can Board and the churches whose servant it is should bring their influence to bear upon international life in the movement toward world-wide peace. Our nation will attain its truest grandeur if it will aid our mis¬ sionary interests by assuming more strongly than ever a moral leader¬ ship in behalf of justice and righteousness and fair dealing in all the world. We ought to try to make every nation feel that other nations are their friends, and not their enemies, and that the Ten Commandments are as workable and as important between nations as between individuals. The churches of the Christian world are giving money by the millions every year to make a better Orient. They have a right to insist that their work shall not be hindered and sometimes undone by the wickedness of our commercial inter¬ ests, the selfishness of our politics or the grasping of the territory of a weaker by a stronger nation. The Baroness von Suttner, in an address in the First Congregational Church in San Francisco a few weeks ago, said, in speaking upon international peace, that Americans are fifty years in advance of Europe ethically. We want the United States and its statesmanship to be “born again” into a still larger service for every nation, and to be ready for any program which will make for brotherhood and world peace. FOUNDATIONS LAID FOR INCREASED POWER. The foundations for this were laid in these latter days by Secretary Hay, who made the world see that American diplomacy had but two controlling maxims, the “Golden Rule” and the “open door.” The brilliant tenures of office of Mr. Hay and Mr. Root have given our nation wonderful prestige. There may be others here who were present in 1904 at the great Universal Peace Congress in Boston. When Secretary Hay spoke, every one was conscious that, figuratively, the ears of the governments of every nation in the world were listen¬ ing at the telephone to hear what he had to say,—the whole world was his audience. In a similar way, when President Taft made his memorable address a few months ago, proposing to include in his pacts for international arbitration with England and France even questions of national honor, thus going farther than any other great statesman had ever gone, he in turn caused the whole world FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 17 to listen. That address and that proposal made possible a won¬ derful session in the British House of Commons, and the impressive words of Sir Edward Grey marked the occasion as one of the most momentous in recent years. Certainly, all nations should be in sympathy with the “anti-conquest resolution ,” introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman McCall of Massachusetts. This resolution authorizes the President to instruct the delegates of the United States to the next Hague Conference and the Pan- American Conference to express to these bodies the desire of the United States “that in all treaties of arbitration, amity and peace to be negotiated by the signatory powers in the future, a preamble be inserted by which the powers mutually recognize their national independence, territorial integrity and absolute sovereignty in domestic affairs, and that they will not seek to increase their terri¬ tories by conquest, and to endeavor to secure a declaration to that effect from the conferences.” It is believed that, if this principle could be adopted by the powers, it would do more than almost any¬ thing else to bring about a limitation and reduction of armaments and make possible conditions of universal peace and a permanent Court of Arbitral Justice. What we need is to arouse the moral conscience of our nation, and especially our great missionary interests to support more strongly these utterances and efforts of our great leaders. A CLOSER TOUCH WITH THE ORIENT. Nothing could bring us into closer touch with the Near East and the Far East than for our mission boards to take an advanced posi¬ tion in this great world-wide movement. Turkey, chafing under the feeling of wrong that has been done to her by Italy, is in a mood to enter thoroughly into sympathy with such a plan. China has always been opposed to war. Confucius taught her people that nations, as well as individuals, should settle their differences by appeals to right and justice. In the spirit of that teaching the soldier has for generations been considered inferior to the farmer or the business man. After Japan was opened by Commodore Perry to the knowledge of the West, she was shocked by the bloody history of the Western world. One of their great moralists begged the Japanese Government for the privilege of going on a mission to the West, that he might plead with these nations to put an end to bloody wars which two hundred and fifty years of peace had made so 18 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE distasteful to Japan. Of greater importance still is the statement made not long ago at Mohonk by Professor Honda that “ Japan’s boundless ambition, whatever her mistakes and shortcomings, is to b'e behind no other nation in doing the right thing in the right way.” The present vigorous Japanese Peace Society, with some of the leaders in our Kumiai churches as officers, and the American Peace Society of Japan, composed of resident Americans, show how strongly the peace idea is rooted in our sister nation. In the province of Manchuria there is a great cemetery which the Japanese have consecrated to the burial of the Russians who died in the battles in that vicinity. When the Russian army retreated, they left thousands unburied: the Japanese army collected every bone and every bit of uniform and every broken weapon that they found upon the field of battle and buried all with military honors. The graves of the soldiers have been marked with iron crosses in the Greek form, and those of the officers with similar crosses of white marble. When the cemetery was dedicated, Russian ecclesiastics and military commanders were invited to share in the ceremonies. It has been well pointed out that it was fifty years after the battle of Gettysburg before we invited our brothers in the South to meet us where they fought with the men of the North, there to thank God together for a united country. What took fifty years for us to do, the Japanese have done in five years. A nation that can forgive as Japan has forgiven and show it in this beautiful act has cer¬ tainly caught the spirit of Christ and taught us a lesson to which we may well give heed. Well may we call the men of such a nation our brothers, and so live as to come into a closer bond with them among the nations of the earth. THE GOOD WILL OF OTHER NATIONS. In this work we have the good will of other nations as one of our largest assets. We are so situated on this continent with the great oceans between us and other nations that we can easily be a leader for world peace. It is significant that at a recent meeting Sir Edward Grey told Dr. Mott and Mr. McBee that it was possible for our nation to take the initiative in matters like these, because we are free from all entangling alliances and therefore our motives would not be questioned or our suggestions be open to suspicion. No nation has ever had such an opportunity as ours, and no time in our history FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 19 has been so propitious for pressing this great question as the present moment, when we are beginning to plan for the great celebration of a hundred years of peace with Great Britain, and when the program for the third Hague Conference is about to be made up. LIMITATION OF ARMAMENT. The present policy of great military and naval expenditures by the Christian nations is a travesty on our Christianity. When Dr. David Starr Jordan went to Japan last year as a representative of the World Peace Foundation, he was cordially received by that nation. But it was significant and just that the press of that coun¬ try should criticize the conditions which prevailed in lands which, while holding great peace congresses and sending out peace workers, continue to increase their own equipments for war. It is all-im¬ portant to have international conferences and treaties, but I believe that, if our nation would, without waiting for any other, take the initiative and call a halt in our great expenditures for naval armament, the world would soon follow us. We are strong enough to do what is right. Who is going to attack us? Not England, whom we love to recognize as our “mother country”; not France, who gave us Lafay¬ ette and other leaders in the war of the Revolution, and who has never ceased to be our friend; not Germany—why should she cut off her hundreds of millions of dollars of business with us, her best customer across the sea, and threaten revolution within from her business, manufacturing and labor interests? not Japan, whose people, as a whole, love us as their best and most faithful friend, who know also that they could not safely add to their present burdensome debt, and that the hour of conflict with us would be the hour for Russia to recapture Port Arthur and Korea. The men who try to stir up strife between our nation and Japan or any other nation are guilty of high treason. I am not unfamiliar with the argument that an increasingly stronger navy is an assurance of peace. But there is another side to this; namely, the temptation there is to provoke a quarrel in order to use these ships. Colonel Gadke, a German military officer of acknowledged authority, has recently said, “It is only partly true that armaments are the insurance premiums of peace: with better right they might be called a con¬ stant menace to peace.” Von Moltke many years ago said in the Reichstag that it is mutual distrust which keeps the nations in arms 20 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE against one another. Can any one imagine anything that will more surely create distrust than to be continually adding battleship to battleship? Our navy kept efficient at its present size is large enough for all purposes of defense; and the thought of anything besides defense in connection with it is wicked. GREATNESS IN SERVICE. The early months of this year saw a great series of meetings all over our country in the interests of the Men and Religion Forward Movement. In all these meetings, emphasis was put as never before upon the social service of the church. We have come to a new day in this regard. In the generations preceding ours the emphasis was put upon the individual life, and the thought seemed to be largely of a future salvation. But to-day we are recognizing the message of Jesus for society as a whole and for the world of to-day. While never forgetting our individual responsibilities to God, we are recog¬ nizing now that our churches have duties to society and to all the nations. Jesus taught that, for every individual, greatness consists in service. What is true of the individual is true of the nation. Nations are spending money by the hundreds of millions for armies and navies in the belief that that is making them great. Let the United States teach the world that it is the soul, the heart, the purpose, the ideal of a nation as of an individual that makes it great. Wars, as a rule, do not decide moral questions: they only decide which nation is physically stronger. That which will make this nation really great is service to every nation. How shall we serve? By increasing our navy and thereby saying to the world that armies and navies are power? No, brute force is not the greatest power: the mightiest power in the world to-day is not force, nor ambition, nor fear, but love. Write it large, Love; and the mightiest expression of that love was on the Cross. The United States will do its largest service for the nations by showing its love and good will, and by taking the leader¬ ship in bringing the nations to mutual confidence and trust and love each to the other. The present effort for a permanent arbitral court and for world peace is an effort to make our Christianity prac¬ tical to every nation. What is the use to preach the angel song of “good will,” unless we cease our preparations for war? Mr. Beecher used to tell of men who “prayed cream and lived skim milk.” FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 21 That is what the Christian nations in large measure are doing to-day. Service then, I repeat, for the whole world by the mighty power of love should be the mission of our nation. When we prove this more and more by our national policies, then will every missionary of this Board and of every Board have his power and influence doubled, barriers and partitions will be removed, and we shall hasten the ful¬ filment of the angel song of nineteen centuries ago, “ Peace on earth, good will to men,” by making it a present reality. THREE GREAT WORLD MOVEMENTS. We have come to a critical hour in the world’s history. Let me speak of three of the great world movements which promise much in the advancement of the kingdom of God. The first is looking toward the closer union of the various branches of the Christian Church, the outlook for which has never been so bright as at the present time. The union of work in the foreign field is shoving what is possible here at home. A united church which would strike a common blow everywhere for Christ and humanity would double the present power of the church, divided as it now is. The second movement is that of the Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh Conference, winch is making a scientific study of the whole mission field, not only to see how the position of the present forces may be better adjusted, but also to ascertain what forces of men and money are needed to preach the gospel in the unoccupied fields to the millions who have not yet heard of Jesus Christ. There is a growing feeling that the churches’ gifts of money and life are pitiably small in proportion to the greatness of our wealth and of our opportunity. It is hoped that, when this committee reports, it will submit a plan large enough to lead to the putting up of the money and the putting in of the men that shall make possible the planting of the cross of Christ everywhere in this generation, and thus conquer the world for him. This is to be the challenge to our united churches. But back of these and before these and as a basis of these there is a third movement. That there may be a united church, and that there may be this oneness of operation, we need first to remove all national hatreds and jealousies by a plan that will provide for the settlement of every international dispute by arbitration, in¬ cluding those so-called questions of “national honor,” to the end 22 FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE that great standing armies and navies may be abolished, except to the extent that they may be necessary for police service. Every missionary enterprise in the world will halt and hesitate till this is done. One of two things will happen at an early day. The crushing debts of the nations will lead to bankruptcy and disaster and panic such as the world has never known, or a great war will come which, because of its awful slaughter and expense, will in like manner im¬ poverish the nations. In either case the incomes of all missionary organizations, home and foreign alike, would be so impaired that not only would all advance cease, but it might even be necessary to call home men at the front. A retreat instead of an advance—what a fearful object-lesson to the non-Christian nations! It is right for us to go on urging an increase in gifts of money and of life on a far larger scale than ever before, but at the same time we must not be blind to the awful peril that confronts every missionary interest to-day. A friend abroad this summer has been sending me quota¬ tions from the newspapers published there in smaller places, and they are full of words looking to a coming war. I have been reading, also, extracts from the debates in the House of Commons and in the French Chamber of Deputies. Some plan must be speedily consummated to relieve the burdens and tensions which are growing so rapidly among the nations, for the strain is too great to be endured for very long. We shall be false to the missionary interest we hold in trust—yea, more, we shall be false to him who is the Prince of Peace—unless we are more earnest and determined in this matter. It is a great time to live, and these are great things for us to work for together. In hearty accord with the Christian forces of Great Britain and Germany and of every other nation, let us strive for the moral leadership of the world along the lines of universal peace and brotherhood. Then we shall be the better able to give effectively the glad news of our Christ to every one, everywhere. And we can have a great ally at once in the Far East. The new Em¬ peror of Japan, following the long-established custom of that nation, has chosen the single word “ righteousness ” as the motto of his reign. It is a happy providence that his name translated into Eng¬ lish is “Enlightened Peace.” He recognizes in this noble act, what so many leaders of his people have felt, that Japan now needs to lay the emphasis upon high moral character, that she may be increas¬ ingly a world power among the nations. Let the United States and FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD PEACE 23 Japan clasp hands over the ocean with the noble purpose of making our combined influence tell mightily for righteousness and peace around the world. The federation of the world for God and human¬ ity, let this be the ambition, the purpose, the prayer of every patriot; and of every Christian. INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY Edited by EDWIN D. MEAD PUBLISHED BY THE WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION CLOTH BOUND ADDRESSES ON WAR. By Charles Sumner. 8vo, xxvii+321 pages. Postpaid.$0.60 AMERICAN ADDRESSES AT THE SECOND HAGUE CONFERENCE. Edited by James Brown Scott. 8vo, xiviii+217 pages. Postpaid . . . 1.65 DISCOURSES ON WAR. 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