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48 GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS | 2021– 2022 CONFERENCES ENVISION POST-WAR PEACE By SCOTT SANDERS A t a time of war, a small Ohio village and the college within it also thought of peace. These thoughts focused on how things should be once the Second World War ended and to be ready for it when it was over. Postwar planning for the vil- lage of Yellow Springs started event called The Little Peace Conference. The proceedings began as they so often seem to in a small town (stereotypi- cally, anyway): with a parade. Held over the course of four consecutive Sundays (the last session on the 4th of July), the conference was chaired by the Village Mayor, Lowell Fess (Antioch College class of 1915), also a veteran of WWI. Delegations formed to represent local institutions (churches and the College), organizations (the Civic and Cooperative Clubs and the League of Women Voters), and constituencies (Rural Community and Organized Labor) and public meetings were held in the auditorium of the John Bryan Center, then still the high school. The Attorney General for the State of Ohio and the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court provided opening remarks, but most of the floor time went to local residents. Former Antioch College president Arthur E. Morgan followed with a speech entitled “The Community Design,” setting the stage for the postwar planning sessions to come. Two days were devoted to discussions on Public Works and Improvements and one to Social Services. The PR for the Little Peace Conference was the “viral video” of its day. Willard Van Dyke of the Overseas Film Bureau, a division of the Office of War Information (OWI), was on hand for the closing session to consider the possibilities of interna - tional publicity for the confer - ence using motion pictures. Van Dyke saw the LPC as the perfect vehicle to dispel prevailing notions abroad that the United States would Delegates representing local institutions and organizations at the Yellow Springs Peace Conference meet - ing in the gymnasium of John Bryan High School, July 1943. | PHOTO BY H. LEE JONES , COURTESY OF ANT IOCHIANA, ANT IOCH COLLEGE with local veterans of the First World War, notably playwright Harold Igo and restaurateur Bill Pohlkotte. Both men had come home to a United States completely unprepared for the return of nearly five million soldiers, and both had experienced privation and unemployment as a result. Thought became action in the summer of 1943 and formalized in a landmark LITTLE PEACE CONFERENCE Yellow Springs United Methodist Church In service when COVID-safe. Sunday School, 10 a.m. (September–May) SundayWorship, 11 a.m. (Services always streamed onYellowSpringsUMC Facebook &YouTube pages.) ChurchOffice, 937-767-7560 • Pastor Rick Jones, 937- 470-9741 Corner of Winter & Dayton Streets • Established 1850