The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-02-01
Universal Peace
Analysed.
Continued from page One.)

Continued from page One.)
career has proceeded with surprising
cruelty against the very men who
helped him to his wealth. He started
in life without an education and, while
in business, had little time for study.
In after life, when be had retired, he
nobly attempted to perfect himself in
general knowledge, and, having no di-
rect heirs, he gave one hundred and
thirty million dollars for more or less
benevolent purposes. All credit to
him for that! He made arbitration his
special hobby, and wrote several articles
on this subject, all of which l have
read. can positively assure you that
none of these articles would have been
accepted by the respective magazines,
If they had been submitted by a less
well-known personality. Magazines
must cater to public taste, and they
know that great name is bound to
attract notice, no matter how good or
bad the article may happen to be. Mr..
Carnegie's writings have never been
taken seriously. They did not deserve
it, as most of his contentious were
! childish. For instance. In 1871 Ger
many annexed Alsace and Lorraine,
two provinces which had originally
belonged to Germany, but which had
been in French possession nearly two
hundred years. France has never
ceased to feel sore towards Germany
on this account. To alleviate the ILL
feeling, Mr.. Carnegie proposes that
Germany should retain Alsace, bat
surrender Lorraine to France. If that
were done, the bone of contention
would in no wise be removed. But it
is real nice in Mr.. Carnegie to propose
the giving away of whole provinces
which do not belong to him.
His latest absurdity; that five or three
nations could compel peace on earth, is
still more ridiculous. There never
have been, are notnow, and never will be
five or even three nations which are i'm
mune from fighting among themselves.
Besides, the very word compel implies
that those nations should be sufficiently
armed to enforce their international
police duty, and such force, of course,
means War.
We are further told by the author
that Ex-Mayor Low and Prof. Elliott
advocate that an examination in arbi-
tration history should be made
obligatory on all students before enter
ing college. l entertain profound re-
spect for the two gentleman. 1 believe
they are misquoted and that they
never made the alleged statement.
For arbitration, so far, is nothing but
a problem and has no history. The
Hague Tribunal has been created
through the initiative and personal in
fiuence of Gear Nicholas II. who is by
no means bright, and who himself has
not lived up to what he preached. One
case OF arbitration, in the way we use
the word, was contaminated in 1881,
when Leo XIII. decided dispute be-
tween Germany and Spain in respect
to the Caroline Islands. Another dis
pute, Samoa, in which this country,
Germany and England were interested,
was decided by King Oscar, of Sweden.
Both these affairs were of minor i'm
portance, and would not have led to
war in any event. That is all the his
tory there is of arbitration. When the
representatives of the nations assem-
bled at The Hague Conference all of
them declared right at the start that
their country would not accept arbi-
tration in any case in which their ma
tional honor were concerned. They
might just as we'll have said: ave are
ready to arbitrate if 1t suits our
purpose; if not, then there will be war
war to the bitter end! For
nations honor is an extremely flexible
commodity, that can be extended to
almost any possible state of affairs.
Suppose Germany, or France, should