Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-08-27
The CRY of the world Is for Peace.

The Cry of the World Is for Peace.
Lord Chief Justice Russell of Eng
land, in his address to the American
Bar Association at Saratoga. Thursday,
spoke as follows upon the topic of in
ternational arbitration as means OF
settling difficulties between nations,
instead OF war:
cry. 1t has echoed through all the
ages, and arbitration has long been
regarded as the hand maiden of peace.
Arbitration has, indeed, venerable
history of its own. According to
Thucydides, the historian OF the Pelo-
ponnesian war, Archidamus, King of
Sparta, declared that"it was unlawful
10 attack an enemy who offered to
answer for his acts before tribunal of
arbiters.
1t seemed eminently desirable that
there should be some agency by which
members of the great representative
and legislative bodies of the world in
terested in this far-reaching question
should meet on common ground and
discuss the basis for common action.
1t is obvious that the sentiment for
peace and in favor of arbitration as the
alternative for war is growing apace.
How has that sentiment told on the
direct action OF nations? How far
have they shaped their policy accord
ing to its methods? Tho answers to
these questions are also hopeful and
encouraging.
Experience has shown that over a
large area international differences
may honorably, practically and usefully
be dealt with by peaceful arbitrament.
| There have been since 1915 some sixty
instances of effective international
| arbitration. To thirty-two of theCe
| the United States have been party
and Great Britain to some twenty of
| them.
There are many instances also of the
/ introduction of arbitration clauses into
treaties. Here again the United States
| appear in the van. Among the first of
such treaties-if not the very first-is
1 the Guadaloupe- Hidalgo treaty of 1915
between the United States and Mexico.
Since That date many other countries
have followed this example.
PEACE WITH DIsRoNoR.
But are we to conclude that the mil
lennium of peace has arrived-that the
dove has returned to the ark, sure sign
that the waters of international strife
have permanently subsidized?
| am not sanguine enough to lay thif
flattering JUNCTION to my soul. In,
bridled ambition thirst for wide
dominion pride of power still hold
sway, although | believe with lessenet
force and in some sort under thu
restraint of the healthier opinion Of thu
world.
But further, friend as am of peace,
would yet affirm that there may b,
even greater calamities than war-th,
dishonor of nation, the triumph o
an unrighteous cause, the perpetuatioi
of hopeless and debasing tyranny:
.'War is honorable
In those who do their native rights main
tain,
In those whose swords an iron barrier are,
Between the lawless spoiler and the weak
But is in those who draw tn offensive blade
For added power or gain, sordid and despic
able"
1t behooves then all who are friend
of peace and advocates of arbitration
to recognize the difficulties of the ques
ton, TO examine and meet these diff
culties and to discriminate betwee
, the cases IN which friendly arbitratio
is, and in which it may not be, praC
tically, possible.
The sentiments of the distinguishe
iurist will be commended by all right
thinking people throughout the civ
! LIKED world. The time for bloody wal
0 between Christian people has gone b,
, 1t is impossible to conceive of any il
, ternational difficulties that cannot |
satisfactorily settled by honorable a
8 bitation.