From The Indianapolis Times, Monday, December 27, 1915: Rev. Albert Hurlstone, in his sermon at Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal Church last night, made a plea for preparedness. “As time slips from us in the year’s passing, preparedness is the duty for the individual, the church and the nation. A nation need not be accused of militarism because precautions are taken to equip armies with weapons of defense. All civil police may be dismissed as an indication of peaceful notions and so leave citizens to the mercies of the lawless, as a nation may at this hour of the world’s life risk being unprepared to defend its interests. Unless we have a properly equipped navy and army sufficient to meet an emergency, we might as well throw our Monroe Doctrine to the four winds….A nation should be prepared,” said Dr. Hurlstone.
From The Indianapolis News, Tuesday, January 4: Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Indianapolis, a Ford Peace Ship Oscar II passenger, sent a sympathetic account of its purpose: “What’s the real mission of the peace pilgrims? To end the war…. Can we end the war? I don’t suppose that anyone expects the end to be simultaneous with our arrival, but all of us hope….to shorten the war. All believe this pilgrimage will arrest public attention, divert it from war to peace, stimulate other private initiative, and encourage peace workers in all lands….We are not hair-brained lunatics bent on a fool’s errand, but simple hearted men and women, with no illusions in regard to ourselves, but with faith that anyone of us, with God, constitutes a working majority in that council where each step along the path of human progress is determined.”