Bernard M. Baruch, noted philanthropist and adviser to the President on war-production matters and post-war readjustment, was presented last night with The Churchman Award given annually to one who has rendered distinguished service in “the promotion of good-will and better understanding among all people.”
Herbert Bayard Swope was toastmaster and Thomas J. Watson, a trustee of the churchman Associates, made the presentation. The ceremony took place at a dinner in the Waldorf Astoria. Hotel attended by 1,600 leaders of all walks of American life. Tribute to Mr. Baruch was paid by a distinguished array of speakers including James F. Eyrnes, Directors of the Office of War Mobilization; James Forrestal, Secretary of the Eavy; Robert H. Jackson, associate Justice of the Supreme Court; Robert P. Patterson, Under Secretary of War; William M. Jeffers, president of the Union Pacific Railroad and former rubber director for the War Production Board; the Right Rev. G. Ashton Oldham Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Albany, and Dr. Guy Emery Shipler, editor of “The Churchman.”
The citation accompanying the award read; “An American whose heart beats in sensitive response to the highest aspirations of all men everywhere, and whose economic wisdom, freely expended, sees beyond the horizons of material need the longing of humanity for the spiritual enrichment of life; for his magnanimity in the promotion of education; for making possible the achievement of new goals in the field of medical research and the alleviation of suffering; for his championship of ethical standards in business enterprise; for his tireless leadership toward a world of tomorrow built on the sure foundation of understanding and brotherhood. To one who, talented in understanding and cherishing the ideals of American democracy, has enriched the commonwealth by life-long devotion in action.”
CALLS ON AMERICA TO BRING PEACE TO ALL NATIONS OF GOOD WILL
In accepting the award, Mr. Baruch declared that the United States had before it the vista of a peace that it could either make beautiful or distort. “When the war is war,” he said, “no country will be able to improve the well-being of its people without our help. Peace will be almost meaningless without betterment of daily existence. In that crisis Uncle Sam will show himself to be neither profligate nor parsimonious. He will be fair, and that means to himself as well as to others.”
Emphasising that “America has never forgotten – and will never forget – the things that brought her into being and that light her path,” Mr. Baruch said, “In assessing our position, let us remember that; great as our physical strengths are, they are made even greater by the fact that our spiritual armor is untarnished by self-gain; all our steps toward self-protection are steps to save the world – to bring peace to all nations of good will.”
Mr. Eyrnes said that America lost the last peace not on the battlefield and not at the peace conference, but in the forum of public opinion and in the Senate of the United States. “This time,” he declared, “all of us, Republican, Democrats, Catholics, Protestants and Jews, must be on our guard to see that America takes her proper place in the community of nations.”
Secretary Forrestal, characterizing Mr. Baruoch as “a great American whose life if an example of tolerance, human sympathy and practical wisdom,” expressed hope when this war is over “we shall be able to lay the foundations for some kind of an international order which will eliminate war as a means of resolving international disagreements.
All the speakers praised the seventy-three-year-old Mr. Baruch for his long record of service to America.
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.
