Everybody at this time is extremely careful about being nonpartisan. I don't care a rap about being non-partisan. I am for disarmament.

I was for a Democratic League of Nations. I am for a Republican one, or any other kind. I believe in taking action upon questions of this kind and not waiting too long. It does not matter what party is in or who is President. Our country is not judged by its parties, it is judged as a nation.

To-day there isn't anybody in the world that knows what we are going to do; nobody in any other nation and nobody in this nation knows what we are going to do. But I ask you if there is anybody anywhere at this moment with an earnest crusading spirit who is campaigning to arouse America to lead in this matter. Oh, no! We are as stolid and as indifferent apparently and as inactive as though there was not before us the greatest question which was ever presented to the nations of the world.

It is a curious kind of psychology that is upon our nation. We have always been a nation in favor of arbitration. It was this country, I believe, that signed the first treaty of that character. We were leaders in it. We don't believe in war as a nation. We are a peaceful people, and we are believers in the ideal of the voice of the people settling questions and not force. Well, then, we are the appointed ones to lead in this question.

It is difficult for any one here to believe what has been the result of the war on the other side. It is not possible to quite comprehend it without seeing the effects for oneself. Over there, where they are still war-worn they are trying to pull themselves together, trying to build up their old life on their bad money and bad economic conditions and bad feelings of every kind. We live in paradise over here in comparison; we are disgustingly fat and altogether too well-clad.

All of this we have. Then it becomes us to lead. How are we going to lead? Not by standing back and waiting for somebody else to speak. Not by waiting, waiting. While we are waiting we will get another war. It is only by action. There isn't anything that can't be done in this country as a result of popular opinion. It is the government. There never

was a President and there never was a whole Congress (I am not so sure about a Senate) that would not yield to popular opinion. It can do anything.

The people in this room to-night, were there no others interested in all the world, could put an end to war if they would put themselves to it. One vote is of no value. Two votes are of no value. But a thousand votes standing for a common cause can be a wedge which will set the pace for political parties in the direction of those thousand people.

If we but stand together and know what we want we can get it. We want peace. We all want peace. We want to abolish that antiquated, barbarous, ridiculous method of settling differences by killing each other. We all want peace and yet we all stand back for somebody else to act.

Well, let us make a resolution, each and every one of us, to consecrate ourselves individually and collectively to the business of putting war out of the world.

It isn't necessary for a Republican to become a Democrat, nor a Democrat to become a Republican, but it is necessary to rise above the partisanship of either and both of these parties and say: "Here is a national issue, greater than any party or any man."

Let us work then; let Mr. Harding know; let the Senate know. Let them know that we as a constituency of Congress expect action.

It is a terribly grinding thing to any one of us who has ever so little international interest to know what people abroad say of us. I don't like to have people say that we are a provincial nation and I don't like it because I know we are.

The other day a letter came from the President of the Suffrage Association in France. She said in telling something of the new spirit that has come in France as a result of the difficulties over the reparations that they have withdrawn the invitation for the next Suffrage Congress to be held in Paris because the feeling is such that if German delegates were to come they might not be treated well. She said: "Oh, if we could only know what the United States is going to do!" I have heard from one, two, three, four nations that nobody knows what we are going to do.

Our aloofness, our isolation, our silence upon the question! Oh, Americans, let us be silent no more; let us send a message across the sea and join hands with the men and women of every land who want to put this terrible thing out of the world. We can do it. But there must be no timidity among us; there must be no cowardice.

You know the most popular thing that anybody can say upon a public platform to-day is to say, "Let us stand for international peace." The most unpopular thing that anybody can say is, “Let us stand for it in this particular way." He who wants to stand for this question and really wants to get behind and boost must do it with the understanding that he can afford to be unpopular; that he can afford to stand against the world; and I tell you it does not matter if there are only four or five together who are in the right, they may stand, and stand fast, and all the world will come to them, and all the world will surrender to them.

Then, let us get this vision: here we are called. How infinitely greater and higher is that call than anything of all the wonderful things that are being discussed! I say to you women, you know that war is in the blood of men; they can't help it. They have been fighting ever since the days of the cave-men. There is a sort of an honor about it. It seems to me that God is giving a call to the women of the world to come forward and stay the hands of men and say: "No, you shall no longer kill your fellow man."

LORD CECIL

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Lord Cecil has maintained the great tradition of his family which for centuries has supplied England with statesmen. He has been a prominent and independent leader of the Conservative party for many years and is well known in this country through his advocacy of the League of Nations. He was created first Viscount of Chelwood in 1923 and became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1924. The present address was given on the occasion of a dinner in his honor by the Pilgrims, January 2, 1925, at the conclusion of his speaking tour in this country. Mr. Chauncey Depew presided at the dinner and delivered an address of welcome which is printed in Volume I.

MR. DEPEW, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :-My first duty is obviously to thank your Chairman for the very kind and flattering things that he has said of me. I was very grateful to him for everything that he said. I admit that there was one moment in which I felt a certain qualm of nervousness, when he began talking about lecturers from the other side of the Atlantic [laughter]; I didn't quite know how that was going to end. [Laughter.] But, fortunately, his courtesy got the better of his sincerity. [Laughter.]

Well, I thank you most heartily, and I am deeply grateful to you for being kind enough to entertain me to-night at dinner. The occasion, joyful, as it is, has an element of sadness for me, for it reminds me that this is my last evening in the United States. I deeply regret it. I deeply regret that my stay has been so short. I deeply regret it for many, many reasons, but among them because it has made it impossible for me to accept the invitations which I have received from other parts of your great country, and particularly because it has been impossible for me to visit the British Dominion

of Canada, which I should have very dearly liked to have gone to, if I could have possibly managed it. I have the warmest possible feeling for my Canadian fellow subjects and for their great kindness to me on the last occasion when I visited them.

But it would be wrong for me in saying that, not to thank you once again, from the very bottom of my heart, for your marvelous courtesy and consideration to me the courtesy and consideration which you always show to every guest who comes to your country.

You know as well as I do that American hospitality is proverbial throughout the world. Indeed, I was thinking to-day that if you followed the custom that prevails in some countries and an adjective were given to you; like you speak of "La Belle France" or "Merrie England," I think you would have to speak of "Hospitable America." It is only for one reason that I don't describe it as "princely," and that is for fear of unduly flattering princes. [Laughter.]

And really, if I may be allowed to say so without impertinence, it isn't only hospitality; it comes, if I may venture to say so, from the genuine kindness of your hearts. I like to think that that great quality is more easily displayed in the case of an Englishman than of any other guest. I remember last year, when I had the pleasure of being here, I had the honor of being received by your late President, Mr. Harding, and he received me with that cordial geniality which was well known in his case, and was good enough to ask me how I was getting on and how I had been received, and I told him that I couldn't exaggerate the kindness which I had met with on all hands; and he gave other reasons, but he said, "After all, one great reason for that is that you are an Englishman." And I must say that if he had searched the whole language for a compliment or a saying which would have pleased me, he could not have found one better than those few words.

I had the great honor this morning of being received by your present President, Mr. Coolidge, and in the course of conversation he too expressed his great gratification at the friendly relations which prevail between the two countries. In some mouths that would be a mere banality, a platitude. But if I may say so, England and America have one additional bond at