The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-03-29

more are occasionally made non-pro-
ductive wealth-consumers. and are Ii
able at any time to become wealth
destroyers. Is ii strange that. in spite
of the increased efficiency OF labor.
many European countries are steadily
drifting towards bankruptcy? Is it
strange that every year hundreds of
thousands of their inhabitants seek
new homes on this side of the Allan
tic?
War is dreaded now as never before.
A combination of old-time ferocitv
and modern science would be annihila-
ton, not in centuries as when our
Anglo-Saxon ancestors conquered Brit
ain, but in weeks and even under the
less lnhun1an usages of today there
may be substantial annihilation of an
able-bodied male population. There
was an approach to this in the late
Southern Confederacy, and the wea-
pons then in use were as much inferior
to those of 1893 as they were superior
to those of the aborigines.
Most men fear poverty more than
death, and. under present conditions.
mere interruption of business and loss
of confidence is widespread ruin. Also
the proportion of destructible and in
destructible property has vastly in
creased. The bombardment of a rich
city now would probably destroy more
wealth than any city of the same size
contained hundred years ago
Meantime the printing press, rail
way, steamship and telegraph are
bringing the nations nearer together.
Ever increasing millions of men read,
travel. observe and think. Individual
ly and through the agency of syndi-
+r1rc cfc oc
of them are investing their money in
foreign lands. As artificial barriers
and the difficulties of time and space
are removed and as capital like water.
finds it's level, flowing the earth
around, people realize more and more
that nations are neighbors and that
imperative self interest demands
neighborhood peace.
Private wars belong-to past ages.
Modern Kings. like the humblest com
moner. bow to the decisions of their
supreme courts. Only independent ma
tions still claim a right 10 settle their
disputes by wholesale butchery. Is it
visionary to predict this barbarous
method can hardly survive the horrors
of another great European war?
Civilized nations consist of law-abid-
ing men, fairly intelligent. just and
humane. not one in q thousand of
whom. except as n soldier ever thinks
Of killing his neighbors. Their only
justification for doing so as soldiers is
that while courts protect individuals
from each other and enforce their
rights and redress their wrongs. no
human tribunal has like jurisdiction
and power over independent nations.
IF such a tribunal could be establish
ed the excuse for international blood
shed would be removed Pope Leo
XIII. advocates exclusion of armies
from national borders, but what rem
edy can neutral border a paper
fence, afford for the disputes out of
which modren wars arise? Meanwhile
the German emperor insists upon in
creasing his army, which would mean.
of course, a corresponding increase of
other armies.
The method generally proposed is
arbitration. It's inherent weakness fs
that it requires nations, when so ex-
cited and angry that they cannot set
tie their differences by treaty. to agree
to arbitrate, to agree upon arbitrators,
to agree upon issues, to agree upon the
manner of stating them (often the
strength or weakness of a case). to
agree upon time, place and methods of
procedure, and to accept as final a de-
cision which is binding only in the
forum of conscience or on the battle
field. The most signal triumph in the
interest of peace, the Geneva arbitra-
tion, was a triumph over difficulties
which would have no existence il
there were a permanent court created
for the adjudication of international
rights and composed Of one justice
from each of the great civilized nations.
The pride, true or false, that resents
arbitration as "A lowering of national
dignity, would be prompt TO demand
the judgment of such a court and
would be irrevocably pledged to abide
the result Such a proceeding would
be hostile, not cOnciliatory. 1t could
not be attributed to weakness. meek