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The Vegetarian World Forum THE VEGETARIAN No. 3 Vol. 3 - AUTUMN 1949 pp.12-13
To those of us who have worked for, and through the First American Vegetarian Conference at Dr. Anderson's beautiful Camp Hygiology at Rhinebeck, New York, last November, and who have laboured since then for the First American Vegetarian Convention at Camp Aurora-Ayres Estate, Lake Geneva, August 21st to 27th, the actual fulfilment of the plans for that Congress holds great promise, not only for the American Vegetarian Movement but for vegetarianism throughout the world. We believe that here at Lake Geneva at the First American Vegetarian Convention at last will come into being a National Vegetarian Organisation for which the millions of vegetarians in this country have so longed hoped, wished and prayed. The beginning of the realisations of all the hopes, aspirations and prayers from the earliest vegetarians in this country down to the present time can and must be realised when we meet in August, otherwise we will have failed. The time is propitious, for people are searching for not only material security but security in physical, mental and spiritual health, and surcease from the insecurity of a decaying social structure. The philosophy of vegetarianism in its broadest aspects is the answer. The fears, concerns, and disillusionments of all will disappear when it is accepted. We owe so much to all the early pioneers from Graham, Jackson, Alcott, etc., and down through the years of Lust, Miller, Maxwell, to the present. Every decade required and produced a pioneer to keep the philosophy alive in a country ridden by excessive prosperity, exploitation of the health of the many by the few. In a seeming conspiracy centred around processing, adulteration and devitaminising and demineralising of food, combined with the deterioration of the soil through emphasizing the value of artificial or chemical fertilizer, supplemented by a system of teaching those who became sick, under that vicious combination, with nostrums, vaccines, and inoculations as nefarious as the selfish and deceptive conspiracy against nature which produced the illness, man has deteriorated and is dying long before his time. Man is intended to be well, healthy and happy. He can so be by, adopting the true Vegetarian Philosophy in its broadest concept. To vegetarianism has fallen the task of regenerating a decadent race and stabilising a world tottering physically, mentally, economically and spiritually. The programme we have set up at Rhinebeck and since for recommendation
to the House of Delegates at the Convention at Lake Geneva, in which our
dear friend, Kaj Dessau, of Copenhagen, Denmark, Hon. Secretary and Co-Chairman,
had and has a most prominent For once the National Organisation is born, we recommend immediate action to forge strong bonds of affiliation with the International Vegetarian Union. We hope for immediate co-operation and participation in the International Vegetarian Union programme to bring about a better world order, wherein the fundamentals of peace a desire to preserve instead of destroy, an irresistible urge to create instead of a thirst to kill, and a security born of the bountiful gifts, the goodness and fulness of the earth, for all those who honestly labour, instead of a security controlled by the manipulation of money with a disregard for honest toil and just rewards thereto. Peace is before us, but not without fighting and labouring. Not a bloody war, but a war of education of all people to the benefits of the simple, natural tenets of the natural vegetarian way of life. That is the ultimate aim of the First American Vegetarian Convention
That is our Aim!
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