THE CHAIRMAN:

We have present a distinguished Japanese educator, PROFESSOR MASUJIRO HONDA, of the Higher Normal College at Tokio, Japan. We should be very glad to hear from Professor Honda.

REMARKS OF PROFESSOR MASUJIRO HONDA.

Ever since I began to notice Western aggression on the East going side by side with Christian Mission work in so-called. heathen lands, I have been wondering why eminent divines and great philosophers have not expounded the theory of the existence of a responsible soul or Christian conscience in a Christian nation as well as in a Christian individual. Now at last I have the joy of seeing with my own eyes a clear, practical demonstration of the existence of such a responsible soul at least in this great country, in this most inspiring and ennobling of all possible gatherings of men and women, the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration.

A man may keep some of the old unregenerated nature and yet may well be called a Christian, if his better part responds to the call of highest truth and responsibility. We need not wait until all the nations of the world become equally civilized and moral, before we begin to think of the existence of the international responsible soul. My sincere desire, therefore, is that the Hague Conference may so develop as to testify to the exisence of such an intelligent Christian conscience in the civilized world as a whole. As for Japan, I may be permitted to say that we Japanese have perhaps more of a responsible soul as a nation than as private individuals. If you show us good examples to follow, if you assure us for instance that China can be allowed to secure her territorial integrity and peaceful development without the dire necessity of her becoming a military power to protect her own rights, my countrymen will be only too glad to join the great movement for international arbitraton, for reduction of armaments, and for universal peace. But, without some such guarantee against European encroachments, Japan will feel obliged to encourage our next door neighbor to arm herself more effectively. It is our common self-defence.

With apologies for personal reference, my hobbies hitherto have been lepers and animals. For fourteen years I have been trying to help some of over forty thousand lepers in our country, for the large majority of whom very little is being done to alleviate their dual tragedy of shame and suffering. I have also been a promoter and secretary of the Japan S. P. C. A. I used to explain to my Japanese friends that I tried to be kind to helpless lepers and dumb animals because my health was too delicate and my stature too small to venture to espouse a greater cause. But,

added to my little experience in humanitarian effort, the actual sight and hearing, during the recent war, of. untold agony and sacrifice, though bravely and willingly borne, has led me to the bold attempt of contributing a tiny drop to the ocean tide of this world-wide cause which you embrace, and to resolve to devote the rest of my days to enlist stronger and bigger men than my little self in this new campaign for peace and justice. In doing this I hope that my seven years' study of Jiu-Jitsu, that art of pliancy, will be of some use, because it aims at controlling the opponent without using brute strength against brute strength, but by yielding to his strength, and because it teaches that we can win a greater moral victory through accepting a defeat gracefully rather than by conquering our antagonist with violence and injustice. (Applause.)

THE CHAIRMAN: fore the Conference? "No." It is a vote, in its duties.

Are you ready to vote on the motion beAll in favor will say "Aye." All opposed. and Dr. Gilman's Committee is continued

DR. D. C. GILMAN: I move that our chairman, Hon. John W. Foster, be added to that Committee.

Dr. Gilman's motion was unanimously carried.

MR. ALBERT K. SMILEY: I move that the Committee be further enlarged by adding Professor Masujiro Honda.

Mr. Smiley's motion was also unanimously carried.

THE CHAIRMAN: For the information of new members, I will say that toward the close of each Conference there is presented a platform or series of resolutions, which are the gathering up of all the thought and discussion on pending questions. This platform will now be submitted to you by DR. GILMAN.

DR. D. C. GILMAN: I am charged by my colleagues in the business committee to come forward at your call and present a platform upon which they are agreed. I take the liberty of saying to this company of ladies and gentlemen that it has been an extremely difficult matter to reduce to a compact statement the sentiments of an assembly brought together, particularly here, holding so many different points of view, because of their difference of opinion. The platform which I am about to present is not the work of one man, nor of the sub-committee of three men, nor of the large committee of fifteen who have considered it, nor of this miscellaneous company of ladies and gentlemen, who have favored us with their suggestions; it is rather an attempt. made, through the business committee and its sub-committee, to phrase, as well as we could, the important points on which we are

all agreed, leaving aside others in which we are deeply interested and upon which some of us would like very pronounced views uttered. You perhaps think this is a little non-committal, but remember we are speaking for a very large number of persons. We hope to address the country at large. We anticipate that this platform, if adopted by this assembly, will be sent to the President and to other persons in authority, and perhaps will reach the members of the Hague Conference. So I beg you to consider it as an attempt to reduce to a compact form the views upon which we all agree, leaving aside those on which we might possibly differ. The platform is as follows:

(For a copy of the Platform see page 7.)

On behalf of the business committee, Mr. Chairman, I submit this platform and move its adoption. (Applause.)

THE CHAIRMAN: I understand that JUSTICE BREWER, of the United States Supreme Court, will second this platform.

HON. DAVID J. BREWER: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I did not intend to say anything when I came here, for I came to listen and to learn; but I second the motion to adopt this platform, although it does not come up to my desires. I believe however, a half loaf is better than no bread, and I am used to frequent contests in a rather contentious court, in which not infrequently I find myself in a minority of four, over-ruled by what we call "a cruel majority of five," and I recognize the fact that the great majority of opinion here is in favor of going as far as this platform goes, but no farther. Personally I do believe, however, in the full scope of what was said by Dr. Abbott, and our President; I am in favor of that resolution offered by Mr. Paine (Applause); I believe in the wisdom of this Conference taking the highest ground and that the result in the long run would be beneficial. (Members: Hear! hear!) It is said as a matter of history that at the great convention in Chicago, before the Civil War, which ended in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, when the effort of the leaders was to frame a platform which should not offend the business interests of the North, one was drafted which contained no reference to the Declaration of Independence, and when it was read, having been carefully prepared so as not to offend, a young Republican member arose and moved that the convention endorse the Declaration of Independence. That motion swept through the convention and through the country, and Abraham Lincoln became President!

Now, there are two lines of objection to an advance declaration in reference to the objects of this Conference, the desire for universal peace and the settlement of all disputes by arbitration. Those lines are not perhaps both represented here. One is a

line of timidity and hesitation; and the other the line of business and interest. There are many here, who say they believe fully in limitation of military and naval armaments, really wish that this country would take the lead, and that no country is so able to take the lead and so safe in doing it as this. (Applause.) But they say that the men in charge of public affairs at Washington know the condition of things better than we do, and that if we go too far, we shall offend them, and that they will fail of accomplish anything that it is better to move slowly, educate and crystallize public sentiment before insisting that this nation shall take the lead in the limitation of armament, military and naval. It has been said here by my friend, Mr. Findlay, that we have become a world power, that Manila and Santiago led up to Portsmouth and enabled us to bring about peace between Japan and Russia. That was a fine epigrammatic statement, but I fear that it does not accord with the lessons of history. When an American laid the Atlantic cable, he joined this continent to the old world, and the business men of this land, so magnificently represented here last night have brought all nations into our family, and that is the family of nations. (Applause.) It is the tremendous accumulation of resources, the wonderful extent of our industries, that have brought all nations into the close relationship which they now sustain to us. There is the source of the power exercised wisely and nobly by President Roosevelt. But the power was in the people back of him, and in the power which they had been accumulating through years and decades of commercial industry.

There is no danger to this country. We can stop our military and naval armaments today, with absolute safety. (Applause.) There is not a nation on the face of the globe that will attack us. If there is war between this country and a European nation, it will be because we commence it. Talk about the prowess of this nation,-it was my pleasure and perhaps that of some of you, to be present at what was called the "Last March of the Grand Army of the Republic," some ten or twelve years ago in Washington. That Army marched through Pennsylvania Avenue from the Peace Statue down in front of the White House. All day long, from early morning till night, those men marched through the streets. They carried no weapons. The Grand Army cap was the only thing that told that they had been veterans on the battlefield, and yet as they marched firmly all the livelong day, a hundred thousand strong, in front of the reviewing stand, I felt as I never felt before thrilled with the thought of the magnificent strength of this nation and the certainty that it was safe against the assault of every nation in the world! (Applause.) I have seen a parade of thirty thousand soldiers,-artillery, cavalry and infantry,-with all their arms and equipment; I have been in our fortifications with their immense guns

moved by machinery as easily as a boy moves a toy pistol; I have been on our great ironclads and seen those wonderful engines of death; but I never had in my life such a sense of the power and strength of this nation as when I saw those unarmed veterans march silently down the avenue before the Chief Executive of the nation! And when to them you add those gallant soldiers who fought under Lee, and who now will fight for the Stars and Stripes as they fought for the Stars and Bars, you may be sure that no nation will attack us! And when I say that I felt that sense of the power of this nation, I may add that that feeling was not confined to myself, alone. Many a diplomat from foreign nations, as I know, looked at that procession and felt that here was a nation that it was not safe to attack. So I do believe that it would have been wise, if we had all agreed in this, to have made a distinct declaration that it is the sense of this Conference that this nation should take the lead in the limitation of armaments, military and naval, and then go before the next Hague Conference and say, “We are doing it,-follow in our footsteps!" (Applause.)

I do think, passing a little from that, that we must realize the growing feeling in favor of peace and arbitration. The great heart of the American people beats in sympathy with that movement. It is no longer today a question to be settled by monarch and parliament or by congress alone. The common people,— the people upon whom Abraham Lincoln rested, are the ones who are ruling this country and will rule the world, and you may be sure that the great heart of the common people of this land beats warmly and strongly in favor of peace and arbitration, and they will stand by and support them, and one day (for all law is simply the crystallization of public opinion into force) they will see to it that it is crystallized into the law of this nation, and with this into the law of the world, that disputes between the nations as between individuals shall be settled by law in the courts and not by force and bullet. I beg your pardon for trespassing so long. I again second the motion to adopt this platform. (Prolonged applause.)

THE CHAIRMAN: DR. ST. CLAIR MCKELWAY, Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, has a word to say on the Platform.

DR. ST. CLAIR MCKELWAY: It seems to me unnecessary to add thoughts, even if one could, to those whose minds are already made up. The resolutions offered by the chairman of the committee meet with the approval of every one here. They are resolutions of commission, which suggest others that have been marked by omission. There are other resolutions which some here would have placed before us. They have been frankly intimated by Judge Brewer. They are not