The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-21
ARBITRATION ARGUED
SOLICITOR PENFrELD D1CUssEs
 PRoBLE1Gs.
Tells of Dream of the Czar and What ! [ Has Been Done TowArd It's \ Realization, at the
 Hague.

Albany. N. Y.,, Jan. 20.-William L.. Penfield Solicitor of the State Depart ment, was the principal speaker before the New York Bar Association today His topic was Some Problems in Connec- ton with International Arbitration
 MT. Penfeld spoke on Some problems of international arbitration" and pre- faced his address by saying that the Bar Association of the State of New York laid before the President of the United States in 1S96 @ memorial which contains the essential bases on which The Hague tribunal was founded. MT. Penfield. then pointed out the defects In the mixed claims commissions. The ex- perience of which," he says, Suggests one of the minor yet important and un- solved problems of international arbitra- ton. These commissions" he continued. "as ordinarily constituted consist of one member selected from each of the liti- gant States and an umpire chosen from third State. It not infreauently hap pens that the commissioners appointed from the lltigant States show their pa- triolc and even partisan bias In their written opinions; or. in their effort to be impartial, by an unconscious leaning the other way, and so denying justice to differ "A opinion, as they almost invaria- bly do in a doubtful case, 1t goes to the single umpire, who Is often required to pass on a complicated state of facts and to decide difficult questions involv- ing vast sums of money and important principles of public law-questions which could tax the learning and Ingenuity of the Supreme Court of the United States even when instructed by repeated trials in the lower courts and by full argu- ments on the final hearing There is no body of judicial decisions which, on the whole, is less satisfactory than those of mixed commissions. Members of those commissions, as well as arbitration trib- unals, should be appointed on the same considerations that govern the appoint ment of members of the Supreme Court. Even this course could not cure the rad ical defect which Is suggested in the re- port of the committee.
 Either the commissions should all be selected from third States, or the num- bers of the members of the commission should be increased so as to include at least three members from a disnterested State or States.
 ''In his invitation to participate in The Hague conference the Emperor of Rus sia only included two American States the United States and Mexico. There are twenty-six signstory States to The Hague convention, under whose proyis- ions each of the high contracting parties can appoint the maximum number of four arbitrators.
 While provision is made for the adhe sion to the convention by other States, this can only be had in accordance with a subsequent agreement of the signatory , States. This consent it has thus far appeared to be impracticable to obtain. The result is that The Hague Tribunal as now constituted. is practically a Flu rOpean tribunal. There is ground for ap prehension that 1t may remain an exclusively European tribunal if the United States Government adopts the self-denying ordinance suggested in the report of the committee. It has done so thus far. for in both eases to which 1t has been a party before the tribunal the arbitrators were selected from third States. Will the European States rise to the same level as that al- ready taken by the United States Tn the selection of arbitrators:
 This involves the consideration of the questions suggested In the report of the ! committee, whether the arOitratOrs sncu!d all be chosen from third States or whetiI- CT some in equal numbers, should be se- lected from each of the arbitrating States and a preponderant number from third | States. If the later course should fe (Continued on Page Eighth