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Show 96 97 perfection; others because they wish the \\ hole movement for the abolition of war to fail. ()thers do it purely from ignorance. \\ihat have the two Hague Conferences really done toward bringing about that state of world organization and cn-operation, the result of which \\ill. as l~ universally conceded, bring the general peace of the world and tina] relief from the ruinous bur~ dens of "bloated armaments," because it will establish the reign of law among the nations as it now prevails among individuals throughout the civilized world? lflemllmwvv >l » A. Ahl mum lniust, for lack of time, forego the task of attemptingr to inter" pret the immense gniticance of some of the special conventions adopted by the Second Hague Conference which exclude warlike operations entirely from certain fields and make war in general much more difficult and less likely to occur at all. In this list fall the convention forbiddingr the bombardment of unfortified coast cities. towns and ports: that prohibiting: the collection of contract debts from a debtor nation by force until arbitration has first been tried or refused; that rendering the international mail service inviolable. fishing vessels and vessels charged with religious, scientific and philanthropic missions exempt from capture; that prescribing a declaration of war before hostt ties are begun; those concerning the rights and duties of neutrals in land war and naval war: that placingT severe restrictions on the layingr of submarine mines: that providing for the creation of an inter- national prize court; and the declaration prohibiting the < charge of projectiles and explosives from balloons. Most of these conventions, while rectiienizincr war as still, under international law, a legitimate means of attempting to maintain or secure justice in certain emergencies. nevertheless deal it a heavy blow of condemnation as a wild. lawless, cruel institution; and they have extended the reign of law in a very marked way into fields where heretofore brutal lawlessness has reigned. The world will neth‘ again fall below the level to which these conventions have lifted it. lt is fast rising to a very much higher level. Now to the real point of the important work of the Con- ferences. 'J'he liirst Hague Conference gave us the Permanent International L‘ourt of Arbitration, to which twenty-five powers finally became parties by ratification of the convention. This court has now for eight years been in succe ssful operation, and not less than four controversies have been referred to it during the past year. The Second llague Confe rence enlarged and strengthened the convention under which this court was set up, and made the court the tribunal not of twenty-five powers but of all the nations of the world. Though reference of disputes to this tribunal is still in general voluntary, a majority of the important nations have already, by special treaties with each other in pairs, pledged themselves to refer to its jurisdiction all disputes of a judicial order and those arising in the interpreta tion of treaties. It is reasonable to believe, therefore, that we have arrived at a stage in the (lCVClt'tpfllCDt of our movement when there already exists among the nations a substitute for war practi cally, if not theoretically, adequate for the adjustment of all their disputes, without resort to force, in a way to conserve the honor and vital interests of the separate governments. Another step of still greater moment was taken by the Second Hague Conference in the direction of providing an adequate sub- stitute for force in the settlement of intern ational differences. It voted without a dissenting delegation for the principle of an International Court of Arbitral Justice, with judges always in service, and holding regular sessions. It failed to agree upon a method of selecting the judges for this high court of the nations, but it laid its plans for the court before the government s and recommended to them the study of the question with a view to arrivingr at a solution satisfactory alike to the small and the great powers. It is safe to assume that havingr agreed so thoro ughly upon the prin- ciple of a world court of justice, the gover nments will speedily solve the difficulty in regard to the selection of the judges, and that we shall have in a comparatively short time the august tri- bunal which will render war between the power s of the world scarcely thinkable. I have already alluded to the manner in which the subje ct of a general treaty of obligatory arbitration, to be concl uded by all the nations jointly, was treated in the Second Hague Confe rence, and that such a treaty failed by the votes of only five of the powers there represented. To understand the full significanc of what e was done in this matter, it must be remembered that the Conf er ence voted without a dissenting voice for the principle of obliga - |