Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-05
ONE MAN S WORK
FOR WORLD PEACE
LAKE MOH0NK CONFERENCE
AND ITS FOUNDER
A. X. Smiley Has Devoted life and
Fortune Toward the Abolition of
War-His Guests Take Meas
ures for This End

LAKE MOHONK, May 1.-Rarely
has great reform shown more strik-
ing evidence of progress than has the
peace and arbitration movement dur
ing the past few years. Since the first
| Hague conference in 1899 an ever
changing series of events has been
tending in the direction of better inter-
national relations. Set over against a
great war, we find successful Hague
court settling four cases involving four
teen nations; a network of arbitration
treaties, forty-four in number, limited
in scope but nevertheless strong guar
antorS of peace; an arising world senti-
ment which did not little to terminate
the RuSso-Japanese war; and the de-
velopment of an international respect
and good will which has we'll expressed
itself through such agencies as the
Alaska boundary tribunal, the North
Sea commission and the Algeciras con-
ference. Arbitration has become
world subject, engrossing alike to cab
inets and peace societies, executives
and private citizens.
At this moment the great nations
are witnessing impressive demonstra-
tions of interest in the second Hague
conference which meets June 15. In our
own country a great national arbitra-
tion and peace conference recently drew
together in New York thousands of
Americans and secured official recogni-
ton from city, state and nation. 1t is.
indeed, encouraging that the coming
Hague conference should evoke so
great and widespread interest.
The reasons for this general interest
will hardly be found in anything new
that has been said of the horrors of
war, the burdens of militarism or the
expense of great armaments. The ex-
planation is rather that the nations are
finding new ways to adjust many con-
troversies without bloodshed or dis
honor, and that the people are coming
to realize that any present hope of
doing away with war lies not in remov-
ing it's causes but in finding new means
of dealing with those causes; not by
unqualifledly condemning war, but by
codifying international law, allaying
international distrust and extending
and making more judicial the applica-
ton of arbitration through the Hague
court and like agencies. In the gen
eral acceptance of this principle the
movement against war has found a
basis for sure, even if slow, progress.
One Mans Work
In this connection it is interesting to
note the work of one man and OF an
institution of his creation which for
twelve years past has been urging on
the American public, with no little sue
cess, this very principle which is now
being so generally accepted. That man
is Albert K Smiley, a business man of
clear insight, the owner of vast pr1-
vate estate at Lake Mohenk, N. Y.
Here in 1895 he invited about fifty
prominent persons to meet as his guests
and from that rather unique house
party grew the Lake Mohonk confer
ence on international arbitration which
has become of considerable national
significance. The conference is remark
able as being perhaps the first and
only meeting in the interest of peace
at which it is distinctly stipulated that
neither peace nor war shall be dis
cussed Attention is concentrated on
arbitration and kindred agencies as
practical means of adjusting 1nterna-
tional differences. The wisdom of this
course has been demonstrated in the
growth OF the conference in numbers
and influence. Each annual meeting
now numbers more than three hundred
persons, eminent in all walks of Amer
lean life, the highly cosmopolitan char
acter of the conference, made possible
by its limited scope, constituting its
greatest strength.
Three great measures steadily and
persistently advocated by the confer
First Ar international court of
arbitration.
Second-Arbitratio treaties, both
special and general.
Third-Some form of international
congress with advisory powers.
1t will be seen that the conference
has not .hesitated to hold out a high
ideal, but true to the practical, hav-
ing stated it's ideal, it has begun at
the foot of the ladder to build up the
practical details leading to it. Now
that an international court has be-
come a fact and the movement for
arbitration treaties has assumed con-
siderable proportion, the conference is
specially emphasizing the Importance
that The Hague conference of this
year take a short step toward an in
ternational congress by making The
Hague conference a permanent insti-
tuition with regular periodic meetings.
Has Permanent Office
The conference maintains perma-
nent office at Mohonk lake, through
which an active educational propa-
ganda is carried on throughout the
nature of it's work is seen in the fact
that in the past three years it has
built up a voluntary cooperative as
sociation of 100 of the largest busi-
ness organizations of the country, rep
resenting thirty-seven states, through
which it can exert an immediate and
powerful influence on the general pub
lie. 1t has also secured the active CO.
operation of nearly a third of the col
leges of the United States. For these
reasons although its members still
come as Mr.. Smiley's guests and its
personal nature is as strong as ever,
it as come to be regarded almost as
national institution.
Not the least striking feature of the
conference is its meeting place, Lake
Mohonk. where within hundred miles
of New York city and on single es-
tate nature has given as fine a speci-
men of her handiwork as can be found
east of the Rockies. Crag, lake, wood
land and valley are thrown together in
a bewildering and inspiring combina-
tion which once seen is never forgotten.
The thirteenth annual meeting of the
conference is to take place May 20 to
"a, with DIR. Nicholas Murray Butler,
president of Columbia university, as
presiding officer. Among the speakers
will be Chief Justice S. e. Baldwin of
Connecticut, Hon. John Barrett, direc-
tor international bureau of American