Peace
Performed by William H. Taft
Recorded October 1, 1912
I am willing to admit that
war has accomplished much in the progress of the world.
I am willing to admit that there are certain crises
in the forward march of Christian civilization that
perhaps could not have been met than in any other
way than by the sword. I am willing to admit that
war develops certain heroic traits in men and furnishes
a test for the evidence of the highest character.
Perhaps too, it trains and disciplines people. But
the other side of the picture justifies the prayer
of every man, of every civilized man, that war should
be abolished and that the suffering, cruelty, corruption
and demoralization that follow in its train should
be, as far as we can bring it about, lifted as a burden
from the human race. It is our duty to take every
legitimate and proper step we can to persuade the
nations of the world to settle their controversies
in some other way. They are looking to us as a country
independent of entangling alliances separated from
all possible attacks by two wide oceans; rich, powerful,
and in a situation where nobody can accuse us of being
afraid of any nation or of taking this step because
we are afraid of war, if war were a necessity. It
is the common people of the world that are interested
in this business, they know when we have war, it is
they that have to bear the burden. Its their
sisters, and mothers and daughters that have to wait,
trembling, to hear the news from the battlefields
to learn whether their dear ones have bitten the dust.
Its the grave mass of the plain people that
Lincoln loved so well that have to stand the brunt
of war. They do not have the glory of coming home
with the gold lace and the feathers and all that falls
to the leader. They are not elected President because
they happen to be successful. They know the demoralization
that follows in the wake of war. We should lead the
way and all doubts as to our constitutional authority
should be resolved in favor of our stepping forward
as a nation with the power, the wealth, the fortune
and the opportunity that God has given us to help
along the movement of Christian progress towards permanent
peace.