Speech of Senator Harry S. Truman to Public School Children Independence, Missouri, "Teaching Peace"

TEACHING PEACE Armistice Day is a celebration of the ending of the Great World War eighteen years ago--a War brought about by envy, greed and misunderstanding among the great European powers. This great country of ours became involved in an effort to help the (French and English) (Democracies ) against the Imperial own Governments of Germany and Austria, and to protect its honor. 1 Peace between nations is just like peace between individuals. When nations really want peace, peace and tranquil- - lity will reign, but when nations become avaricious and over- bearing, lose all sense of honor and forget humanity and their honorable agreements, then comes war and wholesale murder, along with untold suffering. We all want peace. No one who has seen war wants to see it or take part in it again. War is not necessary to the settlement of disagreements between nations and peoples, any more than mob violence is necessary to settle individual mis- understandings. Fighting instinct seems to have been natural to man from the beginning. Savages use clubs to take what they want and to keep it. As man became more civilized, he devised ways to avoid personal violence in the settlement of disputes. He created law and machinery to make it work. But in order to effectually have individual peace, man had to have police force to maintain it. He set up courts to hear grievances between man and man, and the decisions of the courts are enforced by the EX ADMPY us