The Green Bag
544
even result, after patient perseverance,
strengthening the reign of law among
in some form of modified disarmament the character of which cannot be fore seen. But the jealousies of the several
nations rather than toward the estab
lishment of peace as a summum bonum under all circumstances. But they
powers, and their commercial ambi
seem to have drifted from the position
tions, will long render complete dis
of Elihu Burritt, who asked sixty years ago for a congress to define and develop international law and to create an inter national tribunal to apply it, and from that of Horace Bushnell, who defined the peace movement as the growth of law. They might, perhaps, in many instances do more helpful work by reviving some of the principles formu
armament,
saving
the
retention
of
some form of naval police necessary to the preservation of international order,
utterly impracticable. There are ‘other forms of agitation which may be more useful. In the judgment of Mr. Andrew Carnegie the establishment of inter national arbitration is more important than disarmament. It was with the purpose of securing disarmament that the first Peace Conference at The Hague, in
1899, was called, and the
effort failed. That is not a reason for not bringing it up at the third Peace
lated two generations ago, suggestive
of the measures likely to prove most
efficacious in the peace conferences of the future. President
Taft
touched
upon
the
be
crucial issue of the hour, and supplied the peace societies with food for thought
faced in their logical order, and there is
when, at the dinner of the American
little to be accomplished by working for remote ends which cannot be at
Peace and Arbitration League given in his honor last March in New York City, he professed himself unable to see why questions of national honor should be excluded from the disputes
Conference.
But
problems
must
tained till the immediate obstacles have been removed. Disarmament is
an important ultimate goal of the movement for international peace, but
covered
it can come only when the body of international law has expanded so as
There will be great difliculty in fact in
to provide rules whereby all nations may settle their differences, and a per
manent international court has been established to administer such law. For this reason Secretary Knox is at
present most interested in bringing
by
treaties
of
arbitration.
getting the powers to consent to this
proposal. The same considerations which render impossible their conver sion to the policy of disarmament must necessarily deter nations like Great Britain and Germany from agreeing to submit questions involving "vital
about the permanent establishment of
interest" or “national honor" to arbi
the proposed Court of Arbitral Justice,
tration.
and for this reason, we imagine, dis armament is unlikely to have the fore most place in the program of our
in any way detract from the impor tance of unconditional arbitration as an
State Department for years to come. Peace societies are adopting resolu
tions in favor of disarmament.
These considerations do not
ultimate goal of international diplo macy.
Considered
President’s
position
in this
is
light
sound.
the
And
They
wherever it is possible to negotiate a
are free from much of the sentimental ism which their very name connotes, and are bending their energies toward
treaty on this basis let it be hoped that governments will rise to the oppor tunity. There is, however, no prospect
