CHAPTER XXXIII 



ROOSEVELT FOR WORLD PEACE. 



De:livkrs Addre:ss before Nobki. Prize Committee in Ciiris- 

 TiANiA — Compared to a Rushing Human Engine — Visits 

 Stockholm — Welcomed by Royalty — Pays Tribute to 

 King Edward. 



FEARING no other nation and entertaining aggressive designs 

 upon none, the American people as a whole doubtless approve 

 the views expressed by Colonel Roosevelt in the Norway address in 

 which he urges the establishment of a great permanent tribunal of 

 arbitration, and the formation, among the leading civilized coun- 

 tries, of an enduring league of peace. 



Aside from the personality of the speaker, however, their 

 interest is largely theoretical and humanitarian. An overwhelming 

 majority of the citizens of the United States will agree vv-ith him 

 and with other prominent publicists in holding that the welfare of 

 mankind would be immeasurably enhanced if the expansion of 

 armaments could be checked in pursuance of a policy looking toward 

 their eventual reduction to minor proportions. 



Yet while both thi-s idea and the idea of settlii'g all interna- 

 ional disputes by hearings before a qualified and authoritative court 

 are excellent in theory, no method has so far been advanced by 

 which the closely packed nations of Europe can be induced to forget 

 their racial, political and commercial rivalries ; and American public 

 opinion is unquestionably in favor of maintaining an adequate de- 

 fensive system for the United States, remote as it is from Europe 

 and Asia. 



Colonel Roosevelt, on May 5th, at Christiania, before a most 

 distinguished audience, entered upon the most difficult field of 

 European politics by delivering an address on "International Peace" 

 before the Nobel Prize Committee. 



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