The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-28
In FAVOR OF ARBITRATION
Address of DR.. Merrill +. Gates TO
the Congregational Club.
Fayors Permanent International
Peace Congrcss-Justice brewer on
The Hague Conference - Annual
Meeting and Election of Officers.

| Meeting and Election of Officers.
The Washington Congregational Club
! held its annual meeting last night at the
! First Congregational Church. Beginning
/ at 6 O'Clock. a reception was held in the
! parlors of the church, followed at $3.50 by
| a business meeting and election of Of
I ficers for the ensuing year. 4 banquet.
| prepared by the ladies of the church.
was held in the church after the meeting.
| Post-prandial addresses were delivered by
| Justice David ]. Brewer, the outgoing
president, and by DIR. Merrill f. Gates.
the newly elected president of the club
Music during the dinner was rendered hy-
a male choir and by female choir under
the direction of Prof. BisChoff. who ac-
companied the singers upon the piano.
Grace was said by Prof. n. +. Sawyer.
and benediction was invoked ny the Rev.
5. NJ. Newman. ID. ID. Humorous recita-
lions We're given by Mrs. Edith Wooder-
son Lamb.
The subject discussed by the speakers at
the banquet was Arbitration: In Court.
or by Wager of Battle?'' Justice Brewer
presided at the table and introduced the
subject.
Justice Brewer was troubled with bad
throat and spoke briefly. He talked of
the value of The Hague Peace Conference
as being Il step toward "A final cessation
of the settlement of difficulties by the
sword, aud called attention to the results
already gained in the establishment of
permanent arbitration tribunal which
was open to the discussion OF disputed
questions among nations. Justice Brew
err paid a tribute to the memory of Hugo
Gratus. the father Of international
law. whose principles and doctrines have
become SO great factor toward estab-
fishing peace ard in ameliorating the
conditions Of war.
Throughout his address Justice Brewer
was frequently applauded. In conclusion,
he said: AT the conference at The
Hague We stood shoulder to shoulder
with Great Britain against war. 1t is
the dream of the future that war shall
cease as the arbiter Of international dis
putes. it is to be desired that the United
States should take the lead in that direc-
! ton. 1t is the solemn call to all people
and especially. to the young men who are
about to take the reins of government
in their hands to make this the law of
our nation and eventually of the world.
The world win follow and the time will
come which now the angels sing Of
peace on Garth
Justice Brewer. with a few compliment
tary remarks. introduced DR. Gates. who
was formerly President of Rutgers Col
lege, n. j.. and more recently of Am
herst College. Mass. At each of these
colleges. during his presidency, DR.. Gates
filed the chair OF ethics and political
science. He was one of the speakers at
the rational conference to advocate
permanent international tribunal for
arbitration. held at Washington in April,
1886. He said in part
The establishment of permanent
court for international arbitra ton is a
problem which has involved. from the
first the fundamental principle of inter
national law. our confidence that per-
manent tribunal between nations will
command the allegiance of States rests
on our belief in the permanently of princi-
pies Of justice our faith in the grow
ing morality and conscientiousness of
States as persons in the moral world.
The modern State differs notably from the
medieval State. Custom, tradition,
precedent blindly followed. shaped the
medieval State. The modern State con-
sciously shapes its own life, according to
principle. in the light of reason. The
modern State. recognizing international
law. regards Az States as jural personals
ties. equal III rights before that law
- No man is self-sufficient said Plato;
and We say. no State is or can be self-suf-
fcicnt. We live too late in the history of
the race TO be insular in our conception
of the State. There is, there must be a
society of nations. No State can come to
its full development save in that society
Of States, in jural relations with other
States. And no State has any natural
rights which are inconsistent with the
equal rights Of all other States.
For the most intelligent nations in the
world, the peoples with the greatest ma
tive and acquired aptitude for the politics
Of peace and the sway Of law. it ought to
be possible TO find a modus vivendi which
shall maintain Justice and shall not
threaten a resort to war.
Society has always made it's advances
l.' appeals TO reason to common sense
TO conscience, instead of to brute force
Progress in civilization always means the
substitution of law for violence Pro-
gress leads straight TO a permanent tri-
bunai for the peaceful and just decision
of international differences.
Nations should be able to avoid the
chances of war, as we significantly call
wars arbitraments, and to live under the
lawn law obeyed. because it is right
and reasons ble--in decisions by perrna-
nent tribunals deferred to because they
are nationally constituted, are provided
for in advance Of the differences to be
adjudicated by them-in short, because
they are permanent, as righteousness is
permanent We believe that such tribun-
ais can be established between States as
they have been between individuals in the
same State. We believe that they will
be respected and deferred to when es-
tablished, not from fear Of physical force
to be held over mems heads. from behind
the judges bench, but because they will
utter the law whose seat is the bosom of
God, her voice the harmony Of the world.
Some means are so obviously adapted
to evil results that we know them as
accused when we see them. No proposed
good can Justify the choice of means SO
bad. Such Is war, as voluntarily chosen
means for securing justice.
But there are other means ana meas
ures which are so obviously fitted for the
attainment of good ends that they seem
the good which is sought as end
through their use. SO directly and in
evitably do they tend to its attainment.
Their use is in itself an education to man
and races. Is not a permanent interna-
tional tribunal for our English-speaking
nations. at least, such a measure?
While we have the Anglo-SaXon aver
sion TO coming under the sway of eX-
IRENE theories. let us not fear "A right and
wise measure simply because it approves
itself to the philosopher as REASONABLE
and philosophically sound. and TO The
poet beautiful and fun of promise
The truth is that political science is the
practical science of righteousness in So
Ciety. Politics Is applied morality. High
politics are the crown of social morality
A true political philosophy says Kant
cannot advance step without first uay-