1916-3-5 Plea For The Armenians

PLEA FOR THE ARMENIANS Dinner Speaker Says America Should Protest Against Massacres MARCH 5, 1916 Reminding his hearers that in 1823 President Monroe, Daniel Webster, and the entire American nation protested against the massacre of the Greeks by the Turks, George Haven Putham. speaking last night at the dinner of the Stationers and Publisher's Board of Trade at the Hotel Astor, asserted that the United States today should protest against the similar massacre of the Armenians. "It is the duty of all of us," he said, "at this crisis to support the President in fulfilling the duty of the republic, the Government and the American people. It is our duty to protect Americans, Whether they be at home or abroad. One hundred years ago France went mad under Napoleon. Today we see another great nation which has been affected by madness. It is the duty of the other States of the civilized world to surround it, to stop its fury, and to drive it back to the kennel, where it can do no harm. "To me it is a disgrace that this country has done nothing to protect the Armenians from massacre by the Grandsons of the men against whom our government and our forefathers protested when they massacred the Greeks. Today, I regret to say, we seem to do nothing yet it is the plain duty of the United States to use its influence to relieve the smaller nations from pressure and to prepare to take our place in their interest in the conference that will conclude this war." "The President of the Board of Trade, Arthur P. Jackson, presided, and the toastmaster of the evening was Stephen Farrelly. The other speakers were the Rev. Cyprus Townsend Brady and Burges Johnson, Professor of English at Vassar College.