The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-05-25
YESTERDAY AT THE ARBI-
TRATION CONEERl

sfoner of Education, today spoke on
The Public Schools in the Movement
for International Arbitration" be-
fore the Conference on international
Arbitration held here today. He said:
By way of iltoduction, | may ven
ture to repeat the recommendation
touching this subject contained in my
first annual report as commissioner
of education, which is now in press.
This is for an annual commemoration
on May Is. in the schools of the Uni
ted States of the opening of the first
Hague Conference. While no one Will
attach supreme Importance to the
special observance of one day in the
school year, even such annual emp
paasis upon this theme will not be
without its value. 1t is not with a view
to propaganda of an isolated reform
that this day is entitled to its special
placet in our school calendar. bu
with view to a neglected and es-
sential element in general education.
And that element is appreciative un-
derstanding of other peoples than our
own. II is just this element of a liber-
al education which should be emp
hasiZed in the schools, not one day
in the year but throughout the year
Even way down in the elementary
schools, the effort of our little Ameri-
cans to overcome the primitive dis
pies of foreign lands is a liberalizing
influence.
But this after all is but a small
part of what the schools ought to do
to promote international arbitration.
The most that we can do in the long
run is to foster the genuine spirit of
arbitration, and to establish those
modes of thought tnat dispose men
TO arbitrate their differences.
The method arbitration would
seem to be merely the method of com
promise through the agency of a third
party, but essentially il is more than
this. For every well-conductsd inter
national arbitration contributes to
the building up of a higher conception
of international obligations. of world
relations. and is accordingly in its
effect the bringing of the disputants
together on higher and more stable
ground than either of them occupied
when the strife began. 1t seems clear
that this is the very type of thinking
which is characteristic of modern
education at its best. 1t is the type
of thinking which should be promoted
in schools of every grade. in the in
terest of liberal culture rightly under
stood 1t is by promoting such cul-
ture and establishing such modes of
thought among our people everywhere
that the public schools can lay the
surest foundation for the arbitration
principle. In the heat of national an
ger il is too much to expect that any
people will welcome from its OppOn-
ent the suggestion that there are bet
ter grounds on which they may hope
to meet. If, however, our people have
been trained from their youth to rec
OgniZe in every snarp difference of
opinion the possibility of their being
higher and better ground of agree
not fail to be in time a little greater
readiness to appeal to an impartial
world. to peoples not involved in the
dispute, and TO respect the Sugges-
ton from without of n better way to
an honorable peace.
The schools of our whole people
may properly contribute to the move
ment for international arbitration on
ly in ways tnat contributes to the
general purposes of education, but
positive improvements in education
are called for today in ways that
must inevitably reinforce the arbitra-
ton movement. Among these ways
are endeavors to promote among
given people, as our own, a more
intimate and appreciative knowledge
of the character of other modern ma
tions with whom this people has to
do; the promotion in the schools of
that type of thinking which readily
passes beyond its partial convictions,
no matter how earnestly held, to
larger views in which opposing con-
victions may find their rightful rec
ognition and come to agreement: the
teaching in the schools, as part of
instruction in morals and civil govern
ment, of some of the principles of
legal justice. which snail enable our
people to adjust themselves freely
and consciously to the reign of law
in all great human affairs.
Address BY Andrew S. Draper.
The following address was also de
livered by Andrew s. Draper, Com
missioner of Education of the State
Of New York:
/ am not prepared to oppose all
warfare. In my opinion the deliberate
Judgment of an enlightened people
ought to have its way after every 9TH
er alternative has failed. But l do
BROWN-No. ..
not agree to the endless accretion of
fdle armament and unusable forces.
The educative influence of il is bad.
The surplusage of il is exactly op-
posed to the only legitimate purpose
of 1t.
1t would seem that any general and
efficient scheme for settling interna
tioaal controversies must depend up
on (a) ripening public sentiment. tb)
a permanent court of such exalted
character that no people with a just
cause would fear its determinations.
(c) a steadily augmenting code of
legal principles which ought to gov
era International conduct
The sentiment is crystalizing; the
forerunner of the court is already
In being and the permanent court
seems likely: the code has augment
ed slowly while it's only opportunity
was through agreements in treaties,
but it will be more rapidly expand
ed as there is a place to submit is
sues and as determinations multiply.
This is what I would like to aid
and therefore what would be glad
to have the schools promote. There
are schools In all countriesIt would
seem as though. with little govern
mental favor, official records aid our
frea com, k-atirr, tizar.a