we call upon our country not only to consider the past but to earnestly
consider our present aud our future as a part of the American people.
To them we declare our needs, now and tomorrow, as those primarily
of Americans struggling for enlightenment and that competency that is
consistent with American citizenship. We do avow our hopes and our
destiny inseparably united to that of the people of the United States of
America and that our hearts and minds are now and forever loyal to
our country, which we would serve in our fullest capacity as men and
Americans.
Unto this declaration I do set my hand and seal this 28th day of
September in the Year of our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Fifteen.
Done at Lawrence, Kansas.
Attest:
Sherman Coolidge, President,
Arthur C. Parker, Secretary.
An inner view of the Conference and its personnel revealed at once
the dangers and the great possibilities of the organization. In the
hands of selfish men looking for personal honors and political power
the Society would at once deceive those who put their hopes in it and
then miserably fail. Any attempt to make the Society a clearing house
or court of review of special cases would stamp its membership as prejudic
ed and hasty in judgment. The easy way in which special cases and
complaints were put up in the conference without debate or evidence,
showed on the part of some a lack of understanding that the Society
especially states as one of its objects, “ To direct its energies exclu
sively to general principles and universal interests and not allow itself
to be used for any personal or private interest.” There was danger
also in over-riding all rules, principles and laws by individuals bent on
personal ends.
Members should not be admitted without investigation in the future
if the Society is to guard its welfare. It must also be seen that the
stated principles of the Society constitute its real groundwork and that
the members, both associate and active who join, become members to
support such principles. No individual or group in a conference has
any right to attempt to overthrow those principles, else a conference does
not and cannot express the aims of the Society. Any attempt to over
throw those principles would be a flagrant betrayal of trust, not to say
a ususpation of authority.
In the hands of honest men, with no personal motives for position or
honors, the Society cannot help but succeed. Its succeess will come, not
through the demands for rights or by the presentation Of grievances, but
by its dignified upholding of great and eternal principles. Out of these
principles the detailed good that is sought will flow. A review of the
Conference I latform will indicate in a measure the force of this state
ment.