The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-11-05
PEACE CONFERENCE
WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED AT
THE HAGCE.
Resume of Great International Meet
ing To Reduce Horrors of
War.

/
The Hague has ended without ac-
icomplishing such definite results as
enthusiasts had hoped from it. No
battleship has been laid up, no regi-
ment disbanded. on account of any
thing the wrangling peacemakers
have done, and the American feet
| is still scheduled to go to the Pacific
Yet the conferrees cannot be accused
of sparing labor. The pioneer Hague
conference of 1899 accomplished its
important work in seventy-two days.
The conference of 1907 toiled for a
hundred and twenty-five days, from
June Is to October IS. II succeeded
lin framing thirteen conventions
which on their face semed to repre-
sent substantial additions to the law
of nations. They covered:
"First-The peaceful regulation of
conflicts.
Second for an inter-
national prize court.
Misunderstanding the rights and
duties OF neutrals ON land.
"Fourth-Regulati the rights
and duties of neutrals at sea.
"Fifth-The laying of submarine
mines.
SIXTH The bombardment of
towns from the sea.
"Seventh-The matter of the col
lection of contractual debts.
"Eighth-The transformation Of
merchantmen into warships.
"Njnth-The treatment of captur-
ed crews.
"Tenth-The inviolability of fish
ing boats.
"Eleventh-The invioability of the
postal service.
"Twelfth-The application of the
Geneva convention and the Red Cross
to sea warfare, and,
"Thirteenth-TYhe laws and Gus
toms of regulating land warfare"
The powers are to have until June
so, 1908, to sign these agreements.
1t will not escape notice that of the
thirteen conventions prepared by the
"Peace Conference" eleven relate to
methods OF warfare. They are all in
the direction of mitigating the hard
ships of war, but still they recognize
war as a thing to be provided for.
The two treaties that are designed
directly to prevent breaches of the
peace are the first, relating to the
Regulation of international conflicts.
and the seventh, covering the collee-
ton of contractual debts.
The agreement about debt-colect-
ling represents a real advance. When
the South American republics took up
the "Drago doctrine" and induced
the United States to take qualified
partnership with them in that enter
prise, it was not supposed that II
would be possible to induce the Eur
ropean powers to consider the matter
seriously. But while the conference
of course, would not go to the full
length OF the Argentine proposal, II
agreed unanimously that force
should not be used for. the collestion
of contracthal debts until after an
attempt had been made 10 settle the
dispute by arbitration. That puts an
end to such buccaneering raids as
speculative European capitalists have
often induced their governments to-
make upon the ports OF small Latin
$3.50
The American delegates made a
gallant fight for obligatory arbitra-
ton, but were blocked by Germany,
which OBJECTED to tying herself up in
advance with pledges to arbitrate dis
putes with every power in the world
But her representative called atten-
ton to the fact that Germany al
ready had arbitration treaties with
Twenty Of the forty-four powers rep
resented in the conference. This
suggests an aspect of the work of the
gathering that is more encouraging
than the meagre roll of resolutions
lactualiy adopted. Many advanced
propositions received the assent of
the great majority of the powers, but
they could not be included in the
final act because they were few OBJ
iectors. But there is no reason why
the countries that favored them
should not be used for the collection
selves. They would not have the
force of general International law,
but with the bulk of the civilized
world united in observing them the
recalcitrants might be expected to
come in one by one, 1t was In this
way that privateering was practically
abolished by the declaration of Paris
han a century ago, although the
United States and Spain refused to
Sign that agreement at the time and
were not bound by it. When those
powers began to fight each other they
voluntarily observed the principle to
which they had declined TO pledge
themselves.
The reason given by the United