New-York tribune., 1905-02-12


will Nobel directed that the Peace prize should be
given to 1.-THE person" who best deserved It, The
committee decided that institutions and societies, as
well as individuals, should be eligible for the Peace
DriZe This probably explains why they devoted the
Peace prize of 1902 between the permanent secretaries
of the Bureau de la Pax at Berne and OF the Inter
parliamentary Conference. 1t certainly accounts Tor
the decision to give the prize OF 1904 to the Institute
of International Law. AT the same time, they had
wished to subsdiZe these institutions, it would have
been better to have awarded the sum direct As 1t
was the secretaries naturally regarded the prize as
personal and retained the money
There is reason to believe however that the prize
was so awarded at the last moment order to avoid
the necessity of awarding it to Professor Martens OF
ST. Petersburg whose claims to the Peace were so
overwhelming that who looked into the question
with an impartial eye could resist the conclusion that
the merits there literally other person In the
running But in this case the strong scandinavian
animosty to the Russians came into play. Although
Professor Martens had risked his position by the free
dom and vehemence with which he had denounced the
insensate policy of General Bobrikoff in Finland, he
was a Russian and that was enough
Of the one hundred and sixty thousand dollars
awarded as prizes for the promotion peace all except
forty thousand dollars passed into the pockets OF the
prize winners 1t their right In the of the
first poor old Red Cross Dunant penness and thus
the prize of twenty thousand dollars he ped to pay
his debts. w. K. Cremer, although only a working
man who occupied a seat in the British Parliament
the labor member for Hoxton, decided when the prize
his way to the most part OF 1t in endowng the
Arbitration League wOrkng-cla organization for
promoting international peace. So signal manifes-
tatiOn of public spirit the part of old radical
shoemaker deserves special note. Professor Finsen
who dying when he received his prize, handed 1T
over to the cause which he had devoted his life
Of the Others the only prize winner prior 1904 who
regarded the forty thousand dollars trust for Others
instead of a reward for himself was Suly PrudhOmme
the French poet Out of the forty thousand dollars
he has created annual prize of three hundred dollars
which is be allotted to the most deserving young
poet who is not rich enough to publish book. In
1904 Lord Raylegh announced his intention to hand
his prize the University of Cambridge, England
The Nobel Norwegian Committee, besides distribut-
ing the prizes for Peace has decided to set apart
portion of the funds for the formation of interna
tonal Nobel Peace Library The library present
designed, will contain four thousand hundred
volumes; but it's aim have a complete collection of
all literature bearing upon the subject of Peace Arb
traton and such cognate subjects international and
civil law, well the correspondence these sub
jects which has passed between the scientific
academies. 1t in fact the desire to make per-
manent of this correspondence that the idea of
the library originated Christiana is a rather Out-Of-
theway place for the site of such international IL
brary If Carnegie already had provided more
than adequately for a similar library The Hague
the International High Court of Arbitration would
have been the natural custodian of the Peace library.
The following a complete list of all the winners of
the Nobel prizes, with brief particulars as to the
reasons why they considered worthy of high
honor
The formal distribution of the prizes takes place at
half past December each year at Stockholm
DID MI a M g " al n N