Salmon O. Levinson, Chicago attorney and chairman of the Chicago Committee for the Defense of Human Rights Against Nazism, upon whom the French government has just conferred the decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, is internationally known as the “Real Hero of the Kellogg Peace Pact.” He was the first man in the world to conceive the idea of proceeding against war by outlawing it and from him came the greatest peace movement of all time–the outlawry of war.
Ambassador Laboulaye personally decorated Mr. Levinson in the French Embassy in Washington last Friday. The citation accompanying the decoration stated that it was awarded in recognition of Mr. Levinson’s work for the outlawry of war, which preceded and laid the ground work for the Briand-Kellogg Pact of Paris outlawing war. He also is cited for his other general contributions to world peace.
“The story of the outlawry of war,” writes Dr. Paul Hutchinson in the Christian Century, “now substantially consummated in the Kellogg pact, is the story of this one man’s consecration of ten years of tireless personal labor, first to win key men and women to his idea, and then to work with them and through them in each new phase of the movement according to the strategy which own brain conceived.”
“There were others,” Dr. Hutchinson continues, after mentioning the names of the late Senator Knox, Dr. John Dewey, Dr. John Haynes Holmes, Col. Raymond Robins, Senator Borah and Justice Florence E. Allen, “but these were the principals. Without exception, all were won to the cause of outlawing war by Levinson’s direct personal presentation of his idea. He was prophet, but he was also an apostle. His vision was like Isaiah’s. His energy was like St. Paul’s.”
“The debt which humanity owes Salmon O. Levinson is greater than that due any other man whose name is associated with this act abolishing war as a legal institution,” Dr. Hutchinson said in conclusion.
Honoring of Mr. Levinson by France is felt by his colleagues as recognition of that country for his inspiration and help to Aristide Briand for the French diplomat’s proposal of April 6, 1927, to the United States in which he proposed formal recognition of the outlawry of war.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
