The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-10-25

"<HE FIRST case laid before
the arbitration tribunal ut
Il Hague has resulted in u ver-
dict in favor OF the United
States. The claim was not disputed by
the defendant To the action and the
only issue which practically occupied
til" judicial conservatism of the asses
sors was the sum total of the amount
due and the time and rea sonableness
of the accruing interest upon It,.
Mexico and the United States are not
merely sister republics upon the same
continent. but next door neghbors,
whose civilization. if different in many
respects. is rapidly becoming similar in
The main. IF the Hague court had
never been called into existence the ad-
judication of the Pous fund would not
have raised international difficulties be-
tween the two governments. The Hague
decision has created no precedent. nor
can we rightly attribute to its award
the measure of Importance that has
been accredited O it in some quarters.
Our staid and matronly contemporary.
the Boston Transcript. is almost be-
side itself in the effusion of its graft
tude for the advanced step We have
taken in this matter. We have in
truth taken no advanced step. nor has
the Hague areopagus superseded in
any particular the measure Of i'm
purrance due to the Paris boundary
commission which had to decide upon
III,
able distance of leading to war be-
tween Great Britain and the United
States. Disputes or disasreementS Of
the PiOuS fund stamp have for hum
dreds of years been settled and satiS-
factorily through the good offices Of
arbitrators appointed by one or other
of the sovereigns of European coun-
tries whose aid was invoked. Although
such mediation has hardly ever been
refused. ii is well known that the honor
was rarely welcomed. The Hague
court admirably fills ii long felt want
in such limited spheres of conflicting
interests between nations. But that it
has a broader future in the face of the
disposition and arma anients of the world
is not proba Bile.
The Transcript is SO prepoSSessed
with the importance Of the Hague de-
cision that it claims that the court is
no longer ii barren ideality." what
ever that may mean. 1t can indeed be
Il vital instrument of beneiicence in in
ternatianal affairs without diverging
materially from the subaltern position
which it seems destined to occupy
Wars have arisen from such trivial as-
srandisementS and cOnceted national
sensiblity that one is at loss to decide
whether they We're the result of the
deliberate Judgment of rulers and
statesmen responsible for their actions
or the objective record of manacal
impulses. When il nation has made up
it's mind to go to war it juStifieS its
course by declaring that war is in
evitable. The inevitableness is meas
ured by the actual or delusive strength
of its batallions and the relative in
feriority of those of the prospective
enemy. The court of the Hague did
not prevent the Boer war nor did
either of the cOmbatants during the
negotiations that led up to it suggest
that it could. although on the surface
the points in dispute seemed eminently
capable of adjustment by arbitration.
Millennial anticipations have a psy-
Geological interest, but the realities of
life are too overwhelming and too
important to leave any room for doubt
of The lamentably slow progress we are
making toward them.