☮
Historisk amerikanskfredsgruppe som fungerede i
mellemkrigsårene, 1920-1936?.
Blandt de aktive i organisationen kan nævnes præsten
Charles Fletcher Dole (1845–19271 og Wilbur
Thomas fra the American Friends Service Committee. Dr. Scudder and the World War
"When the war opened I was a pacifist and opposed all preparations
by our government for fighting. In Hawaii in 1915 this was also a
local issue in our legislature, and at public legislative hearings
I took a decided stand against preparedness.
"But the war propaganda finally got me and I came to feel it the
duty of our nation to enter the conflict in order to end war and
help democratize the world. I was un- willing to take this stand
and remain at home safe while our soldiers were being killed; so I
tried to secure a chap- laincy, but was refused because of age. I
did, however, succeed in getting a Red Cross appointment in Siberia
as director of the department of civilian relief. I felt that after
many years spent in Hawaii the chances at my age of surviving the
rigors of that climate were not good an expectation not at all
justified by what soon proved to be the wonderful healthfulness of
the Siberian winter.
"But what I saw in Siberia, what issued at Versailles in treaty and
League making, and the rest of the after-war history, with all the
illumination as to how warfare through propaganda deceived, and
even yet, nearly five years after the armistice, continues to
deceive; what untold burdens and suffering, lasting far beyond its
continuance, war causes; its inability to serve as a democratizing
factor, and its power to rob a free people like ourselves of not a
few guarantees of liberties, have convinced mo that I was wrong;
that a part of the blood-guilt of the world is mine, and that I owe
every possible effort I can muster to help atone for the greatest
crime in human history.
"I am one of the millions in all lands who have sworn 'Never Again'
and who are dedicated to absolutely unrelenting opposition to the
war spirit, with all its abhorrent family of crushing taxation,
preparedness, so-called defensive measures, provocative tariffs and
restrictions upon the free intercourse of peoples through prejudice
of race and nationality." The Advocate of Peace, 1923 s. 318. Arkiv:
Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
Litteratur
Hamlin, C.H.: The War Myth in United States History.
Intro. by Charles F. Dole.
- New York: Vanguard Press/Association to Abolish War, 1936). 92
pp