Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-04-16

- ebtSMAtChS DAlEY HibUNEJS
villages and ports by naval force.
1t is understood that all Of these sub
iects shall be considered at the second
| conference. : mi
The first conference also adopted
two resolutions relating to naval and
military armament. The first was:
The conference is Of opinion that
the restriction Of military charges,
which are at present a heavy burden
on the world, is extremely desirable
for the Increase Of the material and
moral welfare of mankind. 2 I'll
\ The second was: .s3s a
| The conference expresses the wish
that the governments, taking into CON
sideration the proposals made at the
conference, may examine the possibil-
| ity of an agreement as to the limita-
| ton of armed forces by land and sea
and of war. budgets. Z s.sy5
| The government of the United
States has, been of the opinion that the
subiect-matter of these resolutions
ought to be further considered and
discussed in the second conference;
that the subject is in the nature of
unfinished business and can not be
ignored, but must be dealt with that
there ought to be, at least an earnest
effort to reach, or to make progress
toward reaching, some agreement un-
der which the enormous expenditure
of money and the enormous withdraw
al of men from productive industry for
warlike purposes may be reduced or
arrested or retarded
Limiting Use OF Force.
The government of the United
States has also considered that the
second Hague conference might well
agree in putting some limitation upon
| the use Of force for the collection of
ordinary contract debts due by one
government to the citizens of another.
| 1t has long been the established pol
icy of the United States not to use it's
army and navy for the collection of
such debts. We have not considered
the use Of force for such purpose
consistent with that respect for the
| independent sovereignty Of other
members of the family of nations
which is the most important principle
of international law and the chief pro
| lection of weak nations against OPP
preston. It seems to us that, the prac-
tice is injurious in it's general effect
upon relations of nations and upon the
welfare of weak and disordered states,
. whose development ought to be en-
couraged in the interests of civiliz-
alton, and that it offers frequent temp
tation to bullying and oppression and
/ to unnecessary and unjustifable war
fare 1t may be that the nonpayment
Of public debts may be accompanied
by such circumstances of fraud and
wrong doing or violation of treaties
as to justify the use OF force as a last
resort; but we hope to see an Inter
national consid Iteration of the subject
which shall discriminate between such
cases and the simple nonperformance
of a contract with a private person,
and to see resolution in favor of re
i lance exclusively upon peaceful
/ means in cases of the latter class. It
may well be that the principle Of ar
bitration can be so extended in its
application that the class of adven-
] turers who have long been in the habit
OF trading upon the necessities Of
weak and distressed governments may
be required to submit their often ex-
4 brilliant and unconscionable demands
to an impartial tribunal before which
| both parties may be heard both as to
the validity and the amount Of their
claims and the time and manner Of
i payment to which they are entitled.
4 The record of the cases which have
been submitted to arbitration during
recent years show that the total
awards OF the arbitraI tribunals have
amounted to a very small percentage
/ of the demands submitted. It Is diff
cult to resist the inference that the
claims of private citizens who seek
the good Offices OF their own govern
ments to obtain payment from other
countries generally need investigation
i by fair tribunals rather than immedi-
ate and peremptory enforcement.
The Needs Of the Hour. h
What we need for the further de-
yelopment Of arbitration is. the substi.
tuition OF judicial action for diplomatic
action the substitution of judicial
sense OF responsibility for diplomatic
sense of ponsibility. We need for
! arbitrators, not distinguished public
i