Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

Page 19 text:

alip i8paaanablettP00 of pparp. Speech delivered by JEROME H. JOYCE, JR., Winner of the Maryland Intercollegiate Oratorical Peace Contest. O much has already been said here and elsewhere on the subject of International Peace that it would be difficult and perhaps presumptuous to attempt to select a phase of the question which has never been treated before. However, there is one particular aspect upon which too much stress cannot be laid, namely: The Reasonableness of Peace — The Logic of Peace. This specific viewpoint penetrates to the very heart and sinew of the whole question, and can be treated and under- stood without the perusal and citation of tiring statistics. The peace movement, as we all understand it, is an organ- ized endeavor to substitute arbitration for force in the adjust- m ent of international problems ; to do between the nations what has already been done within the nations. And it is my pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to endeavor to show you that this would be a reasonable and just means of settlement. During the ages when barbarism held sway, when one man offhandedly wronged another, the only redress was in physi- cal combat. As likely as not the aggrieved party was subject to the indignity as well as the pain and suffering of defeat and the loss of the object causing the contention. But in the present era of civilization, when one man infringes on the rights of another, the injured party does not employ the (17)

Page 18 text:

JEROME H. JOYCE, JR

Page 20 text:

unreasonable and foolhardy method of the aborigines to re- cover his property or honor. The modern man refers the con- troversy to a neutral third party who has delegated authority to act as judge; the arbitrator weighs the arguments of the two men and gives his decision in favor of the one whose rea- sons are the weightier. In this way (except in rare cases), the contending parties receive the respective treatment they de- serve. In other words justice has been meted out, and it was dispensed, not by chance or by the demonstration of power, but by due consideration of the merits of the case. This mode of settlement is worthy of rational creatures. And, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot insist too strongly upon this: We are rational creatures. When beasts, irrational animals, have grievances against one another they resort to bloody conflict. This is the means used by the lowest grade of the animal king- dom. It gives birth to all the vile and degenerate passions of their nature, those of the instinctive murder, hatred and re- venge. AND ARE WE TO MAKE USE OF SUCH MEANS AS THESE, TO SETTLE OUR GRIEVANCES? ARE WE, WHO ARE RATIONAL BEINGS, THE CHOSEN AND HONORED OF THE CREATOR, MADE TO HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS, SELECTED FROM ALL HIS CREA- TURES, AND ALL WHOM HE COULD IN POTENCY CREATE, TO RECEIVE THIS MARK OF DISTINC- TION— RATIONALITY— WHICH PLACES US IN AN EXALTED POSITION IN HIS CREATION OF THE WORLD,— SHALL WE REJECT THIS WONDERFUL GIFT, THROWING IT BACK AS IT WERE IN THE FACE OF OUR MAKER, CRYING, WE WILL HAVE NONE OF IT? WISDOM ANSWERS NO. A just feeling of pride takes possession of us; for we realize that we are the chosen of God’s creatures. And we can give no better or nobler outward expression of our appreciation of this sublime gift than by employing it in the adjustment of international problems. Proceeding to a wider and more serious plane, namely: In- terstate Controversies, we find that the same process of settling disputes prevails. The contending parties again refer their differences to a third party and are almost invariably satis- fied with the decision.