The New York Times/1925/12/14/4,000 at Cathedral Celebrate Locarno
Great Crowd Gives Thanks for Treaties—Many Nations Represented.
BISHOP MANNING FOR COURT
Dr. Butler Says We Are Held Back by Irreconcilables Defying the People's Will.
JOHN W. DAVIS WANTS US IN
Sees Entrance as Good-Will Sign—Colorful Procession Precedes Impressive Ceremony.
A solemn service of thanksgiving for the signing of the treaties of Locarno and in the interest of international peace was held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine yesterday afternoon. In the colorful procession which marched into the cathedral from the old synod house were military officers bearing the flags of the seven nations which signed the treaties, representatives of all the Protestant denominations, Bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Church, clergy of the diocese and officer and trustees of the cathedral.
Every seat was taken long before the service began at 4 o'clock and many in the aisles and galleries and jammed the chapels. Among the 4,000 persons present were the Consuls of a score of nations, American army officers, Supreme Court Judges, public officials and prominent men and women in many walks of life.
The speakers were Bishop William T. Manning, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University and John W. Davis, former Ambassador from the United States to Great Britain.
Urge We Enter World Court.
In vigorous language the speakers urged American adherence to the World Court. Bishop Manning prayed that America might move forward to take her place in sharing the work of the world without delay.
"From this great representative gathering we send to the Senate of the United States the message that a small group of irreconcilables shall not be allowed to hold back America from the service that she owes the world," he declared; "that the judgment and the conscience of our people are with our President in this matter and that our participation with the forty-eight other nations in the World Court must no longer be delayed."
Bishop Manning read a message from President Coolidge commending the gathering.
Dr. Butler Sees Defiance.
President Butler was unsparing in his criticism of the "irreconcilables," whom he attacked as "a very small group of the office-holding class, placed by accident and legislative seniority in a position where custom permits them to play a very large part in the disposition of such questions," and he charged them with "defying the will and betraying the interests of the American people."
Dr. Butler put the question as to whether a "small group of officeholders" was "to be permitted indefinitely to defy public opinion and to hide itself behind the rules and conventions and courtesies of a legislative body which the people have elected to do their will?"
He answered it by quoting the immortal words of Cicero in exposing the conspiracy of Cataline in the Roman Senate, and concluded, "The time has come for the Government at Washington to produce a Cicero."
Mr. Davis joined with the other speakers in praising the signing of the treaties of Locarno. He appealed to all Americans, whether Democrats or Republicans, whether from the North or South or East or West, to follow the leadership of the President in demanding the prompt adhesion of America to the protocol of the World Court. He drew a picture of America as having been entrusted with many talents, and concluded by asking, "And when the dread arbitrament shall come, what will America show for her talents to the Lord of all the earth and the Judge of all the nations?"
When the procession filed into the Cathedral to the music of the processional hymn rendered by the organist, Miles Farrow, it was observed that the flag of Germany, for the first time since the war, was being borne into the edifice with the flags of the other nations which took part in the Locarno treaties. These were Belgium, Great Britain, France, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
A uniformed color guard carried the flag of each nation except those of Germany and Czechoslovakia which were borne by civilians. The British flag was topped with a knot of crêpe for the late Queen Mother.
The scarlet divinity hoods of the clergy, the uniforms of the officers and the furled flags gave a dash of color to the dim vaulted cathedral, which was heightened by the massed black and white of the congregation. President Butler wore his Louvain collar in recognition of the fact that the fund of the restoration of the Louvain library had been completed. The cathedral clergy were vested. A brilliant figure in blue and white was the Most Rev. Archbishop Alexander of the Greek Orthodox Church, who was accompanied by Father David Saul, priest of the Assyrian Church of Irak. The Russian Orthodox Church was represented by the Right Rev. Archimandrite Benjamin, who appeared for Metropolitan Platon.
Led by a crucifer and the white surpliced choir, the procession moved through the south ambulatory, down the south aisle and up the centre aisle to the choir and crossing, wheer they took seats in designated places.
The President's Message.
Bishop Manning, who delivered the address of welcome, read the following letter from President Coolidge:
The White House,
Washington, Dec. 8, 1925
My Dear Bishop Manning:
I have your invitation to attend the "services of thanksgiving for the signing of the Treaty of Locarno and in the interest of international peace," to be held in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York on Sunday, Dec. 13.
I regret that pressure of public business will prevent my acceptance. All gatherings intended to further international understanding are to be commended. Most sincerely yours,
The Right Rev. William T. Manning, Bishop of New York, Synod House, Amsterdam Avenue and 110th Street, New York City.
Bishop Maning's Address.
Bishop Manning's address follows:
"Four years ago we offered up our thanksgiving in this Cathedral for the calling of the Washington Conference on the Reduction of Armaments, and for the leading part in it taken by our own land.
"That conference has had results more far-reaching than any of us yet realize. And today this great and notable assembly, including representatives of our own Government and of the Governments of many other nations, and of every element in our national life, civic and religious, is gathered here to celebrate another major event on the road to international peace, the historic conference of Locarno.
"That conference was a triumph of the spirit of brotherliness and good-will over the spirit of distrust and fear and hatred. It marks the highest step yet reached in the bringing-in of peace and fellowship among the nations. Greater far than its specific agreements is the moral effect of that conference on Europe and upon the world. It is no overstatement to say that it marks an epoch in the world's spiritual history.
"It has produced a new atmosphere of faith and hope and courage in which the followers of the God of Peace shall go forward to still further victories over the god of war.
"Everywhere men are recognizing that advances previously regarded as almost impossible can be made in that spirit which we hail as the spirit of Locarno.
"Along the world's highway where the forces of war and destruction have so long marched we hear now the victorious tread of the armies of peace. It is a most moving and significant thing that up this cathedral aisle are carried today the flags of the seven nations who have signed the Locarno agreements.
"We rejoice and give thanks with all our hearts for Locarno, but in our thanksgiving there must be the note of regret that our own country was not there present.
"As we give thanks today let us make it our prayer and our indomitable purpose that America shall now move forward to take her share in this great work for the world and that without delay we shall follow the lead of our President and have our part in the establishment of the World Court.
Wants Politics Excluded.
"Partisan politics have no place in the consideration of this question. It is a question of the highest moral and spiritual import upon which the churches must be in the lead. It is peculiarly fitting that we should express ourselves upon it here in this great temple of the Prince of Peace at this time when the Christmas message of peace on earth and good-will to men is stirring in all our hearts.
"Our country has been foremost in declaring its belief in the principle of arbitration. It is high time now for us to move.
"From this great representative gathering we send to the Senate of the United States the message that a small group of irreconcilables shall not be allowed to hold back America from the service that she owes to the world, that the judgment and conscience of our people are with our President in this matter and that our participation with the forty-eight other nations in the World Court must be no longer delayed."
Dr. Butler's Address.
Dr. Butler, who was next on the program, spoke as follows:
"The public opinion of the world has come a long way in the two years last past. The lessons of the great war have finally been learned, and at Locarno those lessons have been written in the international law of mankind. The agreements at Locarno, now made treaties, differ from so many of their predecessors in that they represent by far the major part of the public opinion of the nations signatory thereto. They are agreements and treaties not alone between Government but between peoples.
"They are the most important happenings in the public life of man since the Treaty of Westphalia nearly 300 years ago. That treaty brought to an end religious war and legalized religious persecution, established freedom of thought and freedom of worship, and set the nations of modern EUrope on their feet, each to go its way, in the long process of nation building. They have conflicts and wars without number, culminating in the great war, the greatest that humanity has ever recorded, and, please God, the greatest that history will ever record.
First Hague Conference.
"It is seventeen years almost to the day since the Czar of Russia, for whom a tragic and cruel fate was all unknown waiting in the distance, summoned the nations of the world to conference at The Hague to consider the questions growing out of competitive armament, out of new and strange and cruel instruments of destruction, out of the lack of necessary machinery for the establishment of arbitration and judicial process among the nations.
"From that day to this the great argument has gone forward, and finally it has come to this:
"The nations of the world, particularly the nations of old Europe, ask for security, then for judicial process, and then for disarmament. They have at Locarno taken the longest step forward that can possibly be conceived toward the establishment and protection of security and toward the introduction of judicial process as an alternative to armed force.
"What of the Government and the people of the United States?
Describes Court Scenes.
"There are two memories which crowd in upon me at this hour. During the Summer of 1910 I was privileged to sit under the roof of one of the historic buildings at The Hague. It was fitted up as any courtroom might be. Precisely at 10 o'clock the Crier with his familiar 'Oyez, Oyez' announced the coming of the court. Counsel and the small company of auditors rose while five Judges entered, as they may be seen to do any day in an American courthouse. One was an Austrian, one a Hollander, one an Argentinian, one a Canadian and one an American. The presiding Judge, without further formality, bowed to counsel on the left with the simple formula, 'Counsel may proceed.' Sir William Robson, Attorney General of England, who was surrounded by his juniors, arose in his place and continued his argument in the Newfoundland fisheries case, which involved a century-old dispute between Great Britain and the United States.
"A few days after Elihu Root, chief counsel for the United States, presented his argument in similar fashion to the Court. Here, it seemed to me, was one of the most notable scenes in modern history. Two great Governments which for a full hundred years had been in conflict over a question which, however trivial in fact, seemed of great importance to those who were directly affected by it, had agreed to submit their case to arbitrament by a court. Nothing was heard of reservations as to matters of national interest or national honor, but the facts and the law were stated and left to tell their own story. In due time the Court rendered its decision and the Newfoundland fisheries case passed forever from the list of those causes which might excite ill feeling, international friction and possibly even lead to international war.
Decides Great Principle.
"A few years later, in the summer of 1923, it was again my good fortune to be at The Hague and to sit in the courtroom of the Peace Palace, built by the generous gift of Andrew Carnegie. The courtroom was crowded, for a principle of large importance was to be decided by the Permanent Court of International Justice. Slowly and with great dignity the Judges filled to their places, among them Judges representing the citizenship of Holland, of France, of England, of Spain, of Cuba, of Japan, of Great Britain and of the United States.
"The presiding Judge began to read his opinion precisely as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States may often be heard to do at Washington. Diplomats and students of international law hung on the words of the Court, for an important principle was being decided in a case that involved Finland and Russia. In substance, the Court declined to give an opinion when one of the parties litigant had refused to appear and make an argument. It was then settled that a sovereign State could not be haled into the Court without its consent or against its will.
Sees No Cause for Alarm.
"What is there in these two incidents to stir alarm in the most timorous American breast? What is there here to frighten any man or any nation whose cause is just and reasonable and who does not either seek a quarrel or show willingness to drift into one?
"Why should this great congregation be assembled today, and why should 10,000 other meetings be going forward in all parts of the United States to urge that our Government shall associate itself with the Permanent Court of International Justice and with the principles for which it stands? Was not the suggestion itself of American origin? Did not the American delegation at the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899 save that conference from rack and ruin by proposing and securing the adoption of a Permanent Court of International Arbitration? Di not the American Secretary of State instruct the American delegation to the second Hague Peace Conference in 1907 to do all possible to transform the Permanent Court of International Arbitration into a Permanent Court of International Justice? Was not this done by the second Hague Peace Conference in respect to everything except the mode of selecting the Judges, and had not that one remaining question been almost solved by diplomatic negotiations between nine powers before the outbreak of the great war? Why, then, should we still be urging the Senate of the United States, supposedly a body representative of American public opinion to take a step to which both great political parties are formally committed with the approval of nine-tenths of the people of the United States in its every part? This is the declaration which the National Convention of the Republican Party adopted at Cleveland in 1924:
"'The Republican Party reaffirms its stand for agreement among the nations to prevent war and observe peace. As an immediate step in this direction, we endorse the Permanent Court of International Justice and favor the adherence of the United States to this tribunal as recommended by President Coolidge.'
The Democratic Stand.
"This is the declaration which the National Convention of the Democratic Party adopted at New York in 1924:
"'It is of supreme importance to civilization and to mankind that America by placed and kept on the right side of the greatest moral question of all time, and therefore the Democratic Party renews its declaration of the confidence in the ideal of world peace, the League of Nations and the World Court of Justice as together constituting the supreme effort of statesmanship and religious conviction of our time to organize the world for peace.'
"What then is the dissent and who are the dissenters? We are told that they are the irreconcilables. Irreconcilable to what? Surely, it cannot be to established American policy, to American good faith, to American honor and to American interest. Such objections as have been urged do not rise to the height of rational argument. If the other great nations wish to choose their share of the Court's membership through the agency of the League of Nations, to which we do not belong, certainly that need to be no concern of ours. The Court is quite as independent of the League of Nations as our own Supreme Court is independent of the President.
Sees People Defied.
"The simple fact is that a very small group of the officeholding class, placed by accident and legislative seniority in a position where custom permits them to play a very large part in the disposition of such questions, are defying the will and betraying the interests of the American people. They are doing all in their power to make sure that we do not regain any part of that moral leadership in the modern world which we won and held from McKinley to Wilson, and which we then let slip through our fingers. It is possible that public opinion is powerless in the United States when an international policy involving a great moral question is at stake? Is a small group of officeholders to be permitted indefinitely to defy public opinion and to hide itself behind the rules and conventions and courtesies of a legislative body which the people have elected to do their will?
"When Cicero arose in teh Roman Senate to expose the conspiracy of Catiline, these are the words with which his immortal oration opened: 'How much further, Cataline, will you carry your abuse of our forbearance? How much longer will your reckless temper baffle our restraint? What bounds will you set to this display of your uncontrolled audacity?'
"The time has come for the Government at Washington to produce a Cicero."
Davis Urges Adherence.
Former Ambassador Davis, who followed, said that the reason why the thanksgiving celebration was being held was that it seemed to be evident beyond peradventure that the pendulum has definitely swung in the direction of reason and not of force.
"All honor to the statesmen who brought about that result," he said.
"All glory to the nations who participated in it, and may there not be an opportunity for America and for Americans to do something more than extend a mere message of congratulation and felicitation at this result? Is there not a great national gesture, if it were nothing more, that America can make at this moment to show that the words she uttered are words that come from the heart and from the rason alike?
"I join Bishop Manning and President Butler in felicitating the American people upon the opportunity that awaits them near at hand and in rejoicing that behind the leadership of the President of the United States on this great question there is no party or sectional division at this hour, and whether Democrats or Republicans, North or South, East or West, we follow his leadership in demanding the prompt adhesion of America to the protocol of the World Court."
Representatives of Powers
Sir Harry Gloster Armstrong, British Consul General, representing Sir. Esme Howard, the British Ambassador.
Adre Brouzet, Acting Consul General of France, representing Emile Daeschner, French Ambassador.
J. T. Johnston Mall, Belgian Consul in New York, representing Baron de Cartier, Belgian Ambassador.
Dr. Karl von Lewinski, German Consul General, representing the German Ambassador, Baron van Maltzan.
Emilio Exerio, Royal Consul General of Italy, representing Giacomo de Martino, Ambassador from Italy.
Dr. Jaroslav Novak, Consul General of the Czechslovak Republic, representing Zdenek Flerlinger, Minister from Czecheslovakia.
Dr. Sylvester Gruszka, Acting Consul General, representing J. Ciechanowski, Minister from Poland.
Other Powers represented were as follows:
Felipe Taboada, Consul General of Cuba; Dr. Charles Winter, Royal Hungarian Consul General; Rafael Diaz, Consul General of the Dominican Republic; Arthur B. Luis, Consul of the Republic of Latvia; Neal Dow Becker, Consul General of Bulgaria; Dr. Freidrich Fischerauer, Consul General of Austria; T. Tileston Wells, Consul General of Rumania; Ziang-Ling Chang, Chinese Consul General; Louis H. Junrod, Consul of Switzerland; Edouardo Higginson, Consul General of Peru; M. Macheras, Consul General of Greece; Michael Hellinckx, Consul of Luxembourg; Charles W. Atwater, Consul for Siam; G. R. de Yeaza, Consul General of Ecuador; J. J. Bielskis, Consul of Lithuania, and Frederic Hudd, Canadian Trade Commissioner.
The officers of the diocese who were in the procession were Treasurer R. M. Pott, Secretary, the Rev. Charles K. Gilbert and Chancellor George Zabriskie. The cathedral clergy included Dean Howard C. Robbins, Canons Robert Ellis Jones and George F. Nelson and the Rev. John Mark Ericsson. Bishop Manning had the place of honor at the end of the procession.
Other Protestant denominations were represented in the procession by the following:
The Rev. Dr. Howard Duffield, Presbyterian; the Rev. Dr. Walter Laidlaw, non-parochial; the Rev. Dr. Frank Mason North, Methodist; the Rev. Dr. John L. Davis, Methodist; the Rev. Pastor R. Anderson, Danish Lutheran; the Rev. Dr. A. H. Evans, Presbyterian; the Rev. Dr. Anson P. Afterbury, non-parochial; the Rev. Dr. Samuel Trexier, Evangelical Lutheran Synod of New York; the Rev. Dr. J. R. Duryee, Dutch Reformed; the Rev. Dr. Arthur Judson Brown, Presbyterian; the Rev. Dr. Raymond C. Knox, representative of Columbia University; the Rev. Dr. Frederick Lynch, Church Peace Union; the Rev. Dr. Williams I. Haven, Bible Society; the Rev. Dr. Thomas Burgess, Secretary, Foreign-Born Americans Division, National Council, Protestant Episcopal Church; the Rev. Dr. Stanley White, Presbyterian.
Others present were:
Mrs. Mark K. Simkhovich, Chairman of the New York Council for International Cooperation to Prevent War, under whose auspices the service was held; Mr. and Mrs. Alton B. Parker, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Lamont, Mr. and Mrs. Norman H. Davis, H. Kashiwagi, Attorney General Albert Ottinger, Justice John Procter Clarke of the Appellate Division, Supreme Court Justices Aaron J. Levy, T. C. T. Crain and Louis D. Gibbs, Major Gen. Robert Lee Bullard, Colonel George W. Burleigh, Chairman of the Welcoming Committee; the Rev. Thomas Burgess of the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Rev. Caleb R. Stetson, rector of the Trinity Church; Mrs. Robert Bacon, John Fraser Munro, representing the St. Andrew's society; Brig. Gen. William M. Cruikshank and John Marsh, N. Y. County Commander American Legion. The service was broadcast by the municipal radio broadcasting station, WNYC.