Bajer, a Dane, received the prize – finally,

For his tireless efforts for Scandinavian unity:

The ‘Scando’ ‘empire’ approach did not work, said he,

And supported Arnoldson’s enthusiasm for “neutrality.”

A soldier who watched Denmark’s hapless war-time fate,

He left that to found the Nordic Society of Free States.

He argued that Nordic monarchies should give way

To republics with common foreign policy goals.

He believed, also, in arms for defence’s day,

But arms held by the people, not their lords.

His work for Nordic neutrality became

The whisper today’s republics boast – with acclaim.

Arnoldson’s work for Peace in Sweden and Norway

Encouraged “neutrality.” He was mocked and scorned.

“I desire peace on earth,” he once wrote.

Radical, “I want all armed forces to be abolished.”

And, “I want a joint police force to be created . . .

That force to be subject to an International Supreme Court.”

All states would have the duty to refer

All international controversies to it,

And be subject to its judgements, to defer

To the “worldwide referendum’s” decision docket.

He supported Norway’s 1905 independence.

For that was called ‘traitor’ in Sweden, his recompense.

Reserved Renault also won the Prize that year,

A Frenchman. Diplomacy grew from his belief

That Peace via international law had no peer:

He brought this law to the peace conventions, his ‘brief.’

A bookseller’s son, he became truly erudite,

A professor and French state consultant.  His particular insight

Brought agreement from unlikely state and business partners,

Including at the Hague convention on naval ‘war waters.’

His skill at guiding parties to embrace common intents

Gained him praise and remark. Then he sought to implement

The new law on aggression, and on “disengagement.”

His first love was teaching this law to his hundreds of students.

“There are many different friends of peace,” he lectured,

Imbuing the law with potential, a common juncture.

Ernesto Teodoro Moneta won the Prize

For his decades of work in Italy, now unified.

There, he fought, as most did, to pry Austrian control from their land.

And when done, as a writer and editor, took a stand,

Suggesting that Italy do what was needed to forgive

The French, an arbitration treaty. Persuasive,

He always encouraged peace with his work, not evasively,

But championed issues of practical merit, progressively,

Such as turning armies into civilian defence forces.

After working as an editor for thirty years, his dream was

To end violence, write and spread peace by all possible means.

Thus, he chronicled and spoke of the varied work on that theme.

His last goal was a “peace league of European states,”

To expel border dangers, envy and nationalistic hate.

Ted Roosevelt’s accomplishments were vast:

He fought police corruption in New York;

Enlisted Hague arbitration in order to die-cast

A peace with Mexico; next, drove a fork

In Spain’s Philippines access and its rights;

And mediated peace between Russia and Japan.

But his tactics were often force, and always might.

He helped rebels create Panama, and then he banned

Other nations from building or using the upcoming Canal . . .

His expansionist agenda was called ‘petit mal.’

He saw nations as civilized or not civilized, and when not,

Believed it a boon to industrialize them – by peace or shot.

He believed in “some form of international police power,”

“Willing” and “competent” to stand forth at the appointed hour.

Theodore Roosevelt next won the Prize,

Though many found this near a crime.

The first ‘statesman’ to win, he was, in many’s eyes,

“The most warlike citizen.” (-New York Times)

Born asthmatic, a weakling in New York,

He was tutored and grew strong with sport.

His move West helped prepare him to mount

The “Rough Riders” in Cuba.  To recount,

He said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick,”

Which read: police your way in … and theirs out.

When Republicans eventually decided to ‘pick’

Him by running him as VP, what a bout:

Their surprise was complete when the President died

And the young ‘Cowboy’ succeeded to office, untried.

Bertha founded the Austrian Peace Union,

And was active in the Bureau of International Peace

In Bern, attending men’s meetings she was not allowed in,

And wrote, in ‘the Future,’ internationalization would not cease.

Nobel had said to her “My factories may well

Put an end to war before your congresses.”

She took this kindly – Alfred, she claimed, would ‘sell’

His scientific innovation and technical progresses

To bring humankind forward. Alright, he said,

And made a promise to her in that stead:

“Teach me, convince me, and I will do something great

For the movement.”  And then she did that, as we know:

This promise resulted in his gift to Peace when dead,

Of the Prize, itself, the result to which Bertha’s work led.

In The Machine Age, she chose to attack states

Who glamorized nationalism and military might.

As she wrote, “I wanted to express the thought

Of war that was burning in my soul.”  Debate

Swirled wildly, with praise, critique, translations and alarm

When her ‘opus magnus’ hit, Lay Down Your Arms!

A study of war she made – not of who won –

The history of those who fought them, when it was done.

Lampooned by many a cartoonist, she made her name

Mean unrelenting perseverance, and her fame,

And her story synonymous with Peace, convincing critics.

Bolstered, she strode to new issues: women, anti-Semitics.

Lay Down Your Arms!, noted both Nobel and Tolstoy,

Became a seminal work of the 19th century.

Bertha von Suttner received the Peace Prize for

A life of writing, work and lecturing on peace.

Born in Prague, a countess . . . but not more,

Her sex was not correct, for the times, at least.

Tell how, when none to marry could be found,

She failed at opera, then answered an ad which wound

Up bringing her face to face with, do tell:  Alfred!

Although, friends for life, she never shared his bed.

She raced back to her true love, Arthur, who’d written,

“I can’t live without you.” Secretly, they wed,

Then moved to escape the social censure they were found in:

Married ‘across class.’ To the Caucasus, they fled.

Her writing (anonymously) developed in stages,

But her pen wielded truth that would sound, down the ages.

The Institute of International Law, we see,

Became the Prize’s sixth recipient.

Founded in Belgium in 1873,

Its motto, “Justice and Peace,” was succinct.

Gustave Rolin-Jacquemyns had shared his view

That sovereign states be ruled by rule of law and, too,

Not war or violence. But, bolstered by free trade

And cooperative ventures, Peace’s path be laid.

Not many had heard of it before – that is,

“International law,” as codified it would become:

Through efforts of members to analogize,

The “customs of war” and arbitration into one.

Harmonizing the laws of ‘war’ and ‘peace,’ still done,

Meets goals of law and of transparency, hard-won.