Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/19

Rh most eminent and popular writers. At Vienna, near which she resides, the celebrated baroness has founded a Peace Society in which figure some great names and personages of high rank, and this is far from being the only society of this kind in Austria. In Hungary, finally, where the Interparliamentary Association is to meet this year, a peace society recently held, under the direction of the national poet Jokai, an inaugural meeting with ceremonies which rendered it, in itself, a great event.

It is needless to say that all these societies have organs of their own, more or less widely circulated; newspapers, pamphlets reviews; that they hold meetings listen to speeches, and so far as their resources permit, send out tracts and programmes in considerable numbers. Thus, if I may be excused for mentioning myself in this connection, the French Arbitration Society has published in succession three of my recent speeches, "The Peace Question," "The Future of Europe," "The Firearms of the Future." And so great is the contagion of noble ideas that eighteen months ago I was honored with an invitation to preside at the Catholic Club of Paris and to deliver an opening address, the occasion being the delivery of a speech before the club by a young and talented lawyer, M. Desclozeaux. And quite recently, in January cf the present year, I was called upon to deliver a lecture on the subject of peace, before the four hundred young girls of one of the upper elementary schools of Paris, with the full authority and sanction of the Superintendent of Elementary Instruction, M. Buisson. Previous to this, at the distribution of pri/cs in one of the great lycées of Paris, at which I had the honor to preside, the professor who delivered the customary address, which is always submitted beforehand to the authorities, made a very open allusion to the "peace crusades" as the grandest and most noble work of the age. Such an allusion could not possibly have been made a few years ago.

At the same time the language and tone of the newspapers in every country have been greatly modified. Formerly they affected to be unaware of our existence and passed over in silence facts of the greatest importance. The great debate of July 8,