Wilson’s prize was awarded in ’20, with Bourgeois,’

The League of Nation’s President, an equipoise.

Bourgeois had stopped a coup d’etat in France

As Paris’ Chief of Police. He later advanced

To Secretary of State. He brought about social reforms

From within, embracing human rights norms:

A minimum wage, education, unemployment,

Sick, accident and retirement benefits implemented.

At the Hague, he argued compulsory arbitration

Be used in disputes posing threats to Peace, and went

To Versailles. He watched Wilson propose the League,

But thought the concept needed power, was too weak to succeed.

He embraced France’s Freedom, Equality, Fraternity,

And felt France had upheld these values, but not Germany.

“It would be the irony of fate if my

Administration had to do chiefly with foreign affairs,”

Said Wilson before he became President. Why,

Then Fate struck. He was first abroad, aware

Of the war’s desperate pull, and the need to act influentially.

Yet his efforts to remain neutral were given the sting

When the public swayed to enforce rights, balanced and free.

This meant wading into the war, “a fearful thing . . .

But the right is more precious than peace.” His clarion call?

Democracy, the right to a voice, to participate

In one’s government, nations separated as states, all

Free in peace and safety, each for all.

He suffered a stroke after weeks of a non-stop campaign

For a League of Nations, and then, its Father he became.

Even before the war broke out, the Red Cross

Was busy developing new ways to aid those in need

During wartime, and had, as well, set up an office

To deal with prisoners of war, by particular deeds:

To identify who they were, where, and what

Their requirements were for support of all kinds,

To share these details with their families, to cut

Through all levels of bureaucracy. Then funds

Would be distributed to benefit prisoners of war,

While demanding all nations observe the rules for

Protection of medical staff, for example, on ships,

And possible prisoner exchanges for family kinship.

For their aid to prisoners of war and their next of kin,

And the alleviation of suffering as goals, the prize they won.

As World War I’s grueling progress killed,

Another killer stalked its prey more silently,

Infecting 500 million globally, its will

Reaped the lives of 50 million, easily.

It is now believed to have begun around

The year 1915 in North America.

Carried to Europe’s war fronts, it stunned

The young! Media limited word of its spread

By agreement – to maintain ‘morale’ during war,

While Spain (which was neutral) reported its … dead.

The name, ‘Spanish flu’ – was that what the young ‘died for?’

It was exacerbated by aspirin’s emergence – ‘business acumen’

That prescribed high doses as curative when it was anything but,

As the virus changed, as cultural harms were wrought.

The Peace of Versailles was a mixed bag of terms, they said,

The nations defeated could not un-do their dead,

In particular, Germany was in chaos and thoroughly vanquished.

The peace plan claimed not to exercise any vengeance,

But compromises included, for many, too great a loss.

Land losses were hard, but worse was the disgrace

Of being blamed and then billed what were enormous costs

For reparations – unpayable due to war losses apace:

Such that debtors begrudged their new ruination,

Sewing new seeds of hatred while delaying repairs,

While fascists and communists vied for revolution,

And common men wondered, ‘How could this be fair?’

Peace was not cheap, although new nomenclature,

“Collective security,” would punish aggressors in the future.

Thus did the Serbs’ small seeds of unrest blossom

Into a devastation at sea, a flotsam

Of British cruisers sunk by German U-boats.

Torpedoes – new and improved – were used to smote

The ‘enemy,’ their neighbors. Mines, also known as

The ‘cowardly weapon,’ were laid (breaking rules) in the North Sea,

Bringing danger to neutral countries’ economies.

“Everything trends towards catastrophe and collapse,”

Said Churchill in 1914. So also observation

Aircraft lead to planes with new tech machine guns.

Bombers and zeppelins raked skies while land deaths stunned:

The ‘no man’s land’ between the trenches held

The blood of millions, wounded and killed – felled

By propaganda and conscription. Who won?

In World War I, eight million were killed within

The space of five years, and you ask how it began.

With just one death; some say, it took just one

To begin to undo the work that had been done

For Peace.  So let this story be instructive:

A Serb killed the Austrian prince. That was decisive.

Austria attacked the Serbs, and partly due

To treaties between nations, so ensued

‘Supportive’ warring as Germany attacked France

Through Belgium, Britain’s guarantor, by chance.

Then Russia attacked Germany and Austria-Hungary

And, tricked, the Ottoman Empire too. By 1917,

The Russian revolution forced its pull-out,

When the U.S. blasted in to force a ‘rout.’

La Fontaine, in Brussels well-bred, embraced

The peace movement early. Ridiculed for his taste,

He persevered, dragging others and the broad law toward

Policies of peace in education, women’s rights and forward –

As a Socialist, believing that worldwide association

In all areas held the key to eventual cooperation.

To this end, he founded the International Bibliographic Institute,

Documenting all international interactions – to avoid disputes.

At the 1912 Peace Congress, he helped ban wars’ air military,

And encouraged all to oppose all wars of conquest.

He felt Peace could reign globally in Socialism’s repository,

Via transnational congresses, which would serve global peace best.

His Socialist freemasonry made this year’s award contentious –

But his efforts live on, uniting our world, a great humanist.

Elihu Root, the U.S. Secretary of War,

Did much for Peace in that capacity,

And also as Secretary of State, by arbitrating for

Peace. His position was that nations should treat

Others with nobler intentions than ‘colonial powers’

Had been doing abroad from Europe for many years,

While he faced critique that ‘having America as your friend’

Meant accepting its ‘exceptionalism’- without end.

He worked hard and respectfully in order to expand –

To the Philippines, Cuba, Latin America and Japan –

The ‘civil society’ that he felt made others friends,

Which included supporting a Hague court to judge amends.

Resolving controversies before war, he foretold,

Would limit our barbarism and respect negotiations’ role.

“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.