Nicholas Murray Butler

Nicholas Murray Butler ( born April 2, 1862 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, † December 7, 1947 in New York) was an American philosopher and writer. He got together in 1931 with Jane Addams Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

Life and work

Training and academic activity

Butler was born in 1862 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of an industrialist. He studied at Columbia College in New York City and graduated with a thesis on Immanuel Kant from. 1884 was awarded a doctorate as a philosopher and 1888 he was appointed professor of philosophy at Columbia College. In 1893 he also took over the chair of pedagogy and 1902 he was President of the College, which he restructured to Columbia University. Only in 1945 at the age of 83 years, he resigned as president of the University.

Peace work

Butler worked very early active in the peace movement and campaigned for international understanding. Although political offices were repeatedly offered him as governor, ambassador and even U.S. Secretary of State, he refused this. In 1907 he founded the American section of the Committee for the defense of national interests and international reconciliation, the Frenchman Paul Henri d' Estournelles de Constant had founded. From 1907 to 1912, Butler participated in the preparations for the formation of the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 1921.

In 1910 presented the American Industrial Andrew Carnegie a foundation of 10 million dollars for the establishment of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is available, largely brought by Butler to do so. This foundation presented in the following years one of the main financial pillar of international peace work dar. Butler was director of the Foundation Company in Washington, DC and from 1925 president of the same. In his role, he was a popular contact the U.S. president, who used it as an external consultant. Occasionally, he also took over diplomatic functions, such as a meeting with the Soviet Prime Minister Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and the Italian leader Benito Mussolini. Which was founded after the First World War, the League of Nations was Butler skeptical.

The 1927 published by Aristide Briand idea to outlaw war as a political tool supported Butler and he campaigned for it in the U.S.. In this way he became one of the main sponsors of the 1928 closed Briand - Kellogg Pact.

Policy

As a member of the Republican Party Butler was also politically active. Between 1888 and 1936 he participated in every Republican National Convention in part as a delegate. As U.S. Vice President James S. Sherman died eight days before the presidential election in 1912, where he should attend again next president William Howard Taft, Butler was nominated by the Republican National Committee as a replacement. However, he was not elected to the office of Vice President since Taft only won the states of Utah and Vermont, which he landed only in third place behind Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt.

1916 Butler sat for the nomination of the former Foreign Minister Elihu Root as a Republican presidential candidate one, but the party chose Charles Evans Hughes. In the elections of 1920 and 1928, he applied himself as a presidential candidate, but each remained unsuccessful.