The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-24
CONG RATUL ATOMS
Sent Oscar and N0rWe-
gian Cabinet.
BY International Peace Congress at
Lucerne. Speech OF American Dele
gate, Samuel R. Thayer, Loud
Iy Applauded.
Iy kpplauded.
(By the Associated Press. )

Lucerne, Switzerland, Sept. "a
its session today telegraphed congrat-
ulations to King oscar, of Sweden,
and to the members of the Norwegian
cabinet on the pacific solution of the
difficulties between Sweden and Nor
way.
The following is from the address
delivered by Samuel r. Thayer, one
of the American delegates, who was
loudly applauded.
Mr.. Thayer said in part:
THE objections to arbitration, /
think, may be fai~'- epitomized as
follows: All governments are either
conditioned or founded on force; the
embodiment of force is sovereignty. 1t
may not always be aggressive, some
times constructive, sometimes persua
sive, but the result is that consolida-
ton of national power which sup
presses sedition, repels invasion, exc
cutes laws, compels peace 1t is
claimed in every instance that where
any other judgment than a nations
own has a power Of decision, to that
extent the nation subject to it ceases
to be sovereign. 1t seems to me that
this reasoning is founded on mistaken
conception of SOVEREIGNTY as applied
to national life. Nations, like individ-
ualS, sustain certain relations toward
each other which cannot be disregard
ed and the obligations growing out
of those relations necessarily put
limitation upon sovereign so that no
nation is absolutely sovereign except
within its own territorial limits, as a
result nearly all of those pretensions
that fall under the definition of fun
damental rights, policies, national
honor. ETC., are in most instances,
properly arbitrable because their arbi-
tratiOn involves no abnegation of SOW
ereignty used in its right sense.
Among the twentieth century pro-
blems, there is one other that de-
serves more than a passing notice,
viz: To what extent, if any, shall pref
erential treatment be accorded to
those nations that adopt coercive
measures in enforcing pecuniary
claims which are rightfully arbitrable?
/ shall not stop TO discuss this ques-
ton before this assemblage further
than to say the utterly erroneous and
perfectly indefensable decision of The
Hague tribunal in the Venezuela mat
ter whereby, in a court of equity, pref
erential rights are accorded to Eng
land and Germany over the United
States and other powers, has awaken
ed the disapproval, if not the con-
demnation, of the friends of arbitra-
ton everywhere. That a premium
should be bestowed upon the powers
in question for putting in jeopardy
the very existence of weak power
over a matter which public opinion
finally compelled these same powers
to submit to a third party for determi-
nation, has done much to unsettle
the confidence of the public in the
usefulness of that tribunal as we'll as
the equity of its judgments. That this
mischievous deliverance may not re-
main as a precedent to embarrass in
the future, it behooves the friends
of arbitration everywhere to pro-
nounce against it through an organ
lied public opinion of such force as
to bring about speedy revocation of
that unjust judgment"
Several resolutions were passed rel
ative to the refusal of Russia and
Japan to accept mediation and call
ing the attention of the nations to
The Hague conference to the violation
of the pacific principles in the Ports
mouth treaty of peace.