“1900, the social century, the century of Peace,
Your pioneers salute you,” wrote Fried that Millennium Day.
By his life’s end, World War I had recently ceased,
And he was selling his letters in Vienna, for food – to pay.
Fried, a Jew, was born in Vienna and moved to Germany
Where he started a publishing company, enthused by studying Peace.
There, he published continually. The Peace Watch soon would be
The mouthpiece for the movement. As for his beliefs,
He thought arms and ‘disarmament’ were not a ‘peace’ process,
That arms contributed to valuing violence, not progress,
That we should reorganize society and therefore test relief:
The merits of peace were law and reform. Then doom arrived.
The war forced him from Germany. He lost his health and money,
But kept on writing until he died – his writing, his legacy.
June Edvenson 