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Show 204 20: "1' them all I international peace and jit‘~tiee: but the gin-MN The Advance Registered by the Two Hague Conferences believe to have been the two ('Ulll‘CrUlNKH at The llague. For these coiliel'eii<'< H, like the great heroes or in:titutiom of hi~tory, l‘iior. \VILHAM l. lli:i.i,. embodied in thenieelves nearly all the forcea or were exponents m.‘ ‘NJDUW IHUIH Mu. l'inistiirx r. ,\l|:\ll'.lil\',< oi: 'iiiI: l'Itu‘ii Comm ‘ss: I am very glad of the opportunity to [:i't‘~eiit this topic to this‘ audience. \\'hen Clio. Muse of History. shall take tip her pen to paw final judgment upon "The Advance lx't'j;i>tt'i‘eil by the Two llag‘uc Conferences." we know not new pree «sly what verdict >he will record. For new. elme ak we are to the toil and >triiqgle< oi the Titans who ehaped and fawhioned the institutiom of lllf!\'t‘ cuti- ferences. and breathlevly endcaroring ax we are to catch tip with the full significance of the events which those ltlnlllllllfitlfi have already ushered in upon a wondering world. it is inevitable that we >hould see them 01in as through a glass and darkly. Again, so far-reaching through the realm of international relations is the \cope of the conferencea' work that to attempt to estimate the adVance regi>tered by them is like an attempt to estimate the results of the application of steam to indn>try or of democracy to government. For already it i~ cl ‘ar that the Hague Conferencck' are to international law what the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries \X'élS to human industry. or what the ri\e of the American Republic wax to human gorerninent. .‘tut despite the difficulties of tlii< ta>k, it is natural and titling; that it >hould be undertaken. For when the traveler from some sunken \‘alley climbs the winding path up a mountain side toward< its snow'»eappe(l summit, and rests for a moment front hi9 toil upen SOINL‘ projectingr headland. it is well for him to look back upon the progress he has made and calculate from it the direction and if possible the distance of the path which lies before ll 1. And when a great nation like OUTS, in its a~cent from the Valley of the Shadow of \Varfare tip toward; the sunlit summit of iterpetual peace and junice, comes to such a resting: place ax i~ afforded by this National Peace Conqrtrs in Chicago, it in it‘s? to the pa>t and should be helpful to the future for it to extinzate the progres.‘ it ha> made and to con<ider its present position. The civilized world. in common with our own country, by.- made we rt man." in>trumentalitie< in it< great ascent towarrb of nearly all the inntrumentalitiea which have been achieving for the world its renowned victories of peace. Amongr the~e forces I would mention, first, the international .rolidiirity which has superseded the superficial international mini/v of the pzet. Asgemblcd in the llall of the Knighh, in the Second Hague Conference. were the representatives of the fortyfour aovereigu xtates which share between them the destinies of practically all of the population and nine-tenths of the territory of the earth. In the pre:<ence of the world thus assembled for the first time in hiatori' in a single room was solemnly and definitively proclaimed the great fact. fundamental in international relationx‘, that the nations form a «high: family, each member possesxing inalienable riglit< and boiinden dutiei. This ideal of an interna- tional family, Ion,"r talked about and dreamed of by international jttl‘lFtS. wa~ embodied in the various conventiom adopted by the dele< conferences. wa< fully and freely expreked by many of the oi the me <nes~ con.~ciou the upon in borne been has and gratex the intertious as never before. it has enormously atreugthened nothingr ebe, probnational cr/irit dc (OVfJT. and lllln accentuated a; of that inter-int» abl)' could have done the exi~tenee and growth \zuictiou or inter‘ [tonal public opinion which it already the chief l'Chllk'Cl. tor the national agreements: The potency of this decent in many ~lrtl<tltg shown wa< family the of rest the of opinions llritain to adhere in instances. For example. it induced Great rejected in 1890‘, lllt)\'(‘, 1907 to the two declaration»: which it bullet.~ and ot bomb: namely, prohibiting the me of "diim-duni" or deli-teriiflius gases. Vlflllth a~plr of who<e object i.C the diffusion. nt ('ourt or ,\rbitra- lt induced (iermam' to accept the lr'ermane conver<ion to the principle tion in 1899. and tU-Ett‘lflflllnCL‘ its entire 1oo7, 'lt induced hpam in on arbitrati and practice of obligatory 135" "'lmh and Mexico to adhere to the Declaration of Part; in . and to ‘ Switzerl and China . induced eering lt prohibited privat l they and custom: oi' wartare _which adhere in 1907 to the laws ttpii )‘ l'ejCCtC‘d in 1809. ‘t‘tt.lll it induced the nineteen l.Ztlttl-.\Ilti_ |