The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-28
THE FIRST CASE
mEroRE "sUPREME COURT OF
 THE WORLD"
Dr. Edward E. Hale Compares It tc tho First Hearing Before Su- preme Court of the United
 States.

S0o 6lf8t dear1uS 6elore Su-
 preme Court of the United
 States.
 New York Times.
 The first of September has been fixed n the time for the first t al before tho Worlds Tribunal. the case under consideration being the "Pious Fund claim. This fund originated in 1897 in gffts from Charitable persons for the purpose fof establishing and supporting Roman Catholic missions in the Califor- uias and for converting the heather or that region.
 The gifts were made in trust to the Society of Jesus. In 1767 the spanish M Crown made an order expelling the Jesuites from Mexico and California, ans. took over the property of the order and administered the fund through com mission appointed for that purpose. When Mexico achieved independence she sue ceeded to the trust and continued to ap- ply the proceeds of the fund to the main tsnance of the missions.
 On the cession of Upper California to the United States, Mexico ceased to pay the Catholic Church there its portion of tho interest on the ..Pious Fund.-" and the arrears were made the subject of claim by the prelates of California be- fore the mixed commission of 1S6S Sir Edward Thornton, the umpire, the Mexi- can and United States delegates disa- greeing. held that the interest of the fund should be apportioned equally be- tween the Church in Upper and Lower California, and that Mexico should pay to the Upper California Church in an- nual interest of s43.ososs, which for twenty-one years. from Feb l. 1S4S. to 1oDe, when notifications of the claims convention were exchanged, amounted to $o0a, ,700.79 This amount was paid in fun.
 The Pan-American Conference.
 After that time Mexico made no fur ther payment, and for twenty-eight years nothing was done until 1897. when, on complaints made by the Roman Cath olic Bishop of California, Minister Clay ton was instructed to press vigorously for payment of over 100000 of withheld interest Mexico repudiated the indebt- edness. holding that the umpire in 1889 had exceeded his Jurisdiction. which did not extend beyond the time of the treaty. As a. result of the Pan-American Con- ference last winter and its recommenda- tons on the subject of disputes between American republics, an agreement was reached to refer the case to the Inter national Tribunal, the Supreme Court of the World
 It is the first case to be brought for trial before this august international tribunal. We have heard quite as much as was good for us of complaints from the kind of people who like to make com plaints, because The Hague tribunal has not acted in one case or another. which the grumblers think should have been settled.
 ''why does not your Hague Conference tolra hAld psfulantly. A little as if they should ask Chief Justice Fuller of our Supreme bench why he does not step out from the courtroom and quiet any two Senators who may happen to be fighting in the Senate Chamber To which cynical question the proper answer has been that the time had not yet come.
 At last, however, and perhaps not to the entire satisfaction of the grumblers the time has come. The Judges are se- lected by the two nations. Mexico and the United States, and the date for the hearing has been appointed.
 In all this affair the analogy between the organization of the world and the or ganization of the thirteen States on the seaboard of the Atlantic in 17S9 is very curious. The truth is that the United States has furnished the object lesson in the whole affair. How is 1t that those thirteen States have been united. and that they have added to their number thirty-two more States?
 It Is because they agreed in 17S9 to sub init their disputes to a Supreme Court. This Supreme Court had cognizance of all cases possible of dispute or discussion be- tween States excepting African slavery. That exception cost us the civil war. With that one exception the Supreme Court has kept peace between thirteen, thirty three, and now forty-flve States, who agreed to submit their disputes to a Su- pYeme Court
 Thus there are hundreds of thousands of intelligent men in Iowa and Missouri who hardly know that there was once a question of boundary between these States. It was a question such as has created wars hundreds of times in his tory.
 There was once a similar question be- tween Massachusetts and Rhode Island Why did these States not fight with each other? Why did not a sheriffs posse from Missouri meet another posse from Iowa, and a deputy sheriff wound an other deputy sheriff? Why did not each Governor call out soldiers, and the sol- diers fight? That was the way in old times. Because there was supreme tri- bunal. The supreme tribunal settled it. and the world has forgotten the cause of war. The existence of this Supreme Court has made the forty-ive States which it united to be the strongest of nations.
 Impressive Object Lesson.
 This object lesson is too important to be kept out of sight And the real states men of the world, such men as the Elm peror of Russia and William Mckinley. and Lord Salisbury, and Andrew D. White. and Dr. De Martens, who has been called the Chief Justice of Christen- dom, they and men not known by name succeeded three years ago in organizing for twenty-four nations an international tribunal. of which the only duty is the same as one of the duties of our Supreme Court
 Poor China might have been the twenty fifth of these confederates. Her so-cail- ed government declined, and now she is Knocking at the door and begging to have the tribunal try one of her unfortunate questions.
 When our Supreme Court was organized in 17S9, it met and made some orders of administration and appointed some ofl- cers, and then adjourned. Nobody had a case ready for 1t. Perhaps nobody dared bring one in. At the end of three months the Judges met and again adjourned. No