Invite All Nations To The Peace Party.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 12, 1913:
Conferees Would Celebrate 100 Years of Peace by Promoting Universal Goodwill.
ENGLAND AND U. S. MAY ACT
Governments of Both Countries Requested to Formally Invite World-Wide Participation.
    All nations are urged to Join the United States, Great Britain, Canada,
    Newfoundland, Australia, and the Municipality of Ghent in making the celebration, of 100 years of peace among English-speaking peoples signalize a new era of international good-will. The invitation is contained in a manifesto unanimously adopted by the members of the International conference that met last week in New York to discuss plans for celebrating the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. This document, which was made public yesterday, reads as follows:
    "Representatives of Great Britain, of Newfoundland, of the United States, of the Dominion of Canada, of the Commonwealth of Australia, and of the Municipality of Ghent, having been in conference concerning an appropriate celebration of the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which marked the end of the last international war between the British and American peoples, unite in offering to the Governments and the peoples of the civilized world an earnest invitation to take part in making this celebration in every way worthy of the 100 years of peace that it commemorates.
    "We invite such co-operation to the end that it may be made clear and unmistakable to public opinion everywhere that the time has come when international rivalries and differences, though numerous and severe, may be settled without the carnage and horrors of war. Although it be unreasonable to disregard the possibility of conflict arising in the future, out of mutual or partial misunderstanding, yet we gratefully recognize that the chances of misunderstanding have been largely eliminated by the degree in which modern science has facilitated intercourse and accelerated communication. "We are, therefore, encouraged to hope that the development of letters, science and the arts, of commerce, industry and finance, of mutual knowledge, trust and good feeling on the part of those who owe different allegiances and who speak different tongues, may profitably absorb the energy of mankind, as well as offer opportunity for the display of the noblest and finest traits of mind and of character.
    "Great Britain has been a colonizing nation, and the United States has drawn to its population various and powerful elements from different countries and from different flags. Therefore, a century of peace between Great Britain and her dominions beyond the seas on the one hand and the United States on the other hand touches directly both the interests and the imagination of every land to which Great Britain's sons have gone, as well as those of every nation from which the present-day population of the United States has been drawn. Such a celebration will not only mark the close of a century of exceptional significance and importance, but it will call attention to an example and an ideal that we earnestly hope may be followed and pursued in the years to come. What nations have done nations can do.
    "We respectfully request His Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of State of the United States to transmit this invitation, through the proper official channels, to the governments of the world, in order that both by the participation of governments and by the co-operation of men of good will in every land this celebration may be so carried out as to mark not merely the close of one hundred years of peace between English speaking peoples, but the opening of what we sincerely trust will be a fresh era of peace and good will between all the nations of the world."