[From an editorial in the New York Evening Post, New York]

Ambassador Houghton, in a noteworthy address at Manchester, England, has set forth clearly the reasons why an armed alliance of the English-speaking peoples of the world is inadvisable. Such an alliance could only result in similar alliances among other nations and turn the world into the sort of armed camp Europe has been for centuries. Nothing has produced more wars, more economic distress, or retarded the progress of that continent more than competition in military power. When the world was more widely separated, combinations were necessary for protection against sudden wars, but the improved methods of communication and the existing machinery for peace have made such alliances no longer obligatory. The great need of to-day is not colossal preparation for wars that are to come, but same limitation of armament. The United States and Great Britain can perform no higher service than to set the example. The peace, happiness, and well-being of the world depend upon a sound and cordial understanding between nations, not on arms. This understanding already exists between the American and the British peoples, because the two nations "look out on the world very much from the same point of view and have identical interests."

[From an editorial in the Scottish Congregationalist, Edinburgh, Scotland]

Man is born free. That is the most fundamental fact in life. You can't get deeper down or further back than that. To keep that always in mind is the one thing needful for clear thinking on the great questions where human relationships are concerned. The desire for freedom is instinctive. We are free to act or free not to act, free to obey or free not to obey. ... Without freedom we would be mere marionettes, pulled this way and that by the strings of circumstance. If we were not born free we could not be moral beings. It is because we are free to choose the right or to choose the wrong that we are moral creatures. If we did not have this freedom we could not be responsible for our actions. Nobody could blame us for doing wrong if it were not in our power to do anything else. ... The fact of freedom lies at the root of morality. But here is an important point. No man is free to use his freedom in such a way that it endangers or encroaches upon the freedom of another. No man is free to use his freedom in such a way as to injure society. ... Man is born free. No man is free to use his freedom in such a way as to take away the freedom of others. ... What do the clashing of arms, the hostilities of nations, the rivalries of national commercial interests mean, but just this, that one nation or interest is trying to get advantage of some other nation or interest; it is the freedom of one set of men struggling with the freedom of another set of men, trying to limit and possibly ultimately take away the freedom of the other for its own aggrandizement. ... It is as we use our freedom that we rise to higher levels of conduct. ...

As ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them. If Jesus had never said anything else, he nevertheless said enough to save the world from all its trouble. What is wrong with the world is just that we do not think along the line of this teaching. Suppose we did! How we see one another depends on how we think of one another. Back of your action lies the thought of which the action is the expression. As ye would that others should think of you, think ye even so of them. You are likely to make more of people by thinking the best of them than otherwise. That was Jesus' method. He recognized the gold gleaming amongst the dross, and he wrought at that till only the gold was left. To know the truth about human nature you must believe the best. That is the secret of freedom from misunderstanding and unfriendly relations in life and errors of judgment. The gold in human life is brotherhood, and if only men realized this they would know the truth, which alone can save the world from all that is opposed to the will of God.

[Dr. Edgar E. Lowther, as quoted in the Tribune, Oakland, California]

The most economical investment all the nations could make and the quickest way to pay off their debts would be to curtail expenditures for some prospective war and spend the money on the machinery of peace. What is now needed is not the courage to wage war but the courage to wage peace. The success of America in leading the world in the great moral reform of prohibition should also be an inspiration in leading the crusade for a warless world. War is not only an institution but also a state of mind in which the chief factors are distrust and suspicion. In the day when man will put faith in his fellow-man, when nations shall trust one another, war will come to an end. If we believe in the redemption of human nature, we must believe in the possibility of a warless world. The militaristic system that was back of the World War is founded on international suspicion. As long as nations suspect each other, as long as they give the lie to each other, though it be in the polite language of diplomacy, there will be war. The perpetuation of militarism is a lack of faith in the higher side of human nature, that the relationships of nations can always be friendly and regulated by law and reason. ... President Coolidge well said in his Trenton speech: "As it is necessary to change the heart of the individual, so it is necessary to change the hearts of nations. This has often been referred to as moral disarmament. Altogether too much of international relationship has been based on fear. Nations rejoice in the fact that they have the courage to fight each other. When will the time come that they have the courage to trust each other?"

[From the Dawson Weekly News, Alaska]

Locarno struck a death blow to the little tin soldiers, rows of which the French children were wont to align at Christmas time. The department stores and toy houses no longer carry extensive lines of them, and the multicolored uniformed little chaps have practically disappeared from their windows. The Paris municipal council is also confronted with a proposal emanating from a Communist councilor asking the suppression in all gifts of toys made by the city to poor children in the schools of such articles as rifles, cannon, pistols. Thus the minds of the French youth will not be directed toward thoughts of war, the motion says, but trained in the spirit of peace.

[From an editorial in the New Outlook, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

A very interesting conference took place recently in the city of Toronto of a group specially interested in the promotion of world peace. The occasion was the visit to Canada of a few men representing the American Council of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship Through the Churches, this visit following the recent organization of a Canadian branch of this society. A full day was spent considering how these two organizations, both branches of the English society, could best promote the purposes of peace, especially as between their respective countries. One of the very positive convictions reached as a result of the interesting discussion was that peace between nations could be assured only as an active feeling of good will between the peoples was established through close association and contacts. In our complicated modern life it was not possible to expect that the causes that lead to international differences and disputes between related nations could be removed or guarded against, but it could be expected that such a feeling of good will and mutual appreciation might be engendered as would prevent these differences and disputes from leading to any serious consequences until adjustments could be made. It was clearly seen that nothing can be a substitute for that active feeling of good will that comes from appreciation through knowledge and intimacy, and that regulations and agreements are absolutely ineffectual without it. As to what might be done in the way of bringing about a better state of feeling between the people of the United States and those of Canada this unofficial conference decided to ask their respective societies to appoint small cooperating committees to outline possible courses of action. ... It was interesting to find a very positive conviction that the church paper should be one of the very effective instruments for the creating of the international mind that is so much needed in the interests of world peace.

[From the Children's Newspaper, London, England]

Japan is entering on a new era, and its official title has been declared as Showa, meaning Light and Peace. The new emperor has issued a message to the people of his outlook upon the world, and we take from it this passage: "With our limited gifts, we are mindful of the difficulty of proving ourselves equal to the great task that has devolved upon us. The world is in the process of evolution. A new chapter is being opened in the history of human civilization. This nation's settled policy always stands for progress and improvement. Simplicity instead of vain display, originality instead of blind imitation, progress in view of this period of evolution, improvement to keep up with advancing civilization, national harmony in purpose and in action, beneficence to all classes of people, and friendship to all the nations of the earth. These are our cardinal aims." All the world will wish that Japan may prosper in the fulfillment of these noble purposes.

[From a letter from Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, in the Manufacturers Record, Baltimore, Maryland]

I ... wish we could get our people to think more in terms of righteousness and less in terms of materialism. We are too apt in this country to base all our policies and beliefs upon dollars and cents. Naturally, we must always bear in mind the economic aspect of any venture, legislative or otherwise, on which we embark, but, personally, I feel that should be simply a factor in determining a policy, not the factor. ... Prosperity and business development must be the servants of righteousness, not its masters.

[Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin, M. P., as quoted in Great Thoughts, London, England]

I am sure that we who in our daily duties have to deal with the affairs of countries all over the world sometimes look with apprehension on what may come from a too narrow sense of nationality—that very sense of nationality from which so many people at the time of the peace looked forward to as bringing in its bosom better things. Love of country, one of the finest and most natural sentiments that exists, must never be perverted into love of ourselves at the expense of hatred of others.