The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1909-05-06
Is the Fond Hope Of the
Second National Peace
Conference.

CHICAGO. May I've have me
in this second National Peace Con
gress in the. interests not of an un
realizable dream, but of a great al
ready triumping reform. said Dr.
BENJAMIN F. Trueblood, secretary o
the American Peace Society, al tn,
opening session OF the second Nation
al Peace Conference. -The peac,
movement has passed its theoretica
period. It is far along toward til,
completion of Its practical stage !
continued the speaker.
The men and women, now grea
host. who believe that the day is pas
when blind brute force should direc
the policies of nations and preside q
the settlement Of their differences
are now thoroughly organized. a
hundred years ago there was not &
society in existence organized IL
promote appeal to the forum of rea.
son and right in the adjustment o,
international controversies. Toda,
there are more than 500, nearly every
important nation having Its group Of
peace organizations" DR.. Trueblood
mentioned some of these and told
OF the work they are doing. continu.
ing he said:
Movements Real Strength.
1T is this far-flung pacific public
sentiment of the world, growing con.
stantly, crossing all boundary lines,
disregarding an language barriers. or
ganized and having its definite we'll
dtgested program, that constitutes the
real strength and the promise OF the
peace movement. Out Of this has
come all the rest-the Limitation and
restriction of war; the splendid tri-
umphs OF arbitration, the Hague Com
ferences. the International Court of
Arbitration. the beginnings of a
World Parliament and Of Supreme
Court of the nations. 1t is on this in
telligent organized public sentiment,
to which governments are compelled
to listen, that we must still rely abso-
lutely for the accomplishment of what
yet remains to be done to bring the
nations to sane and rational relations
to each other and to relieve them from
the torturing nightmare of militarism
with which they are still obsessed..
The position which the peace
movement has reached is no less dis
tinctiy determined by the practical at
tainments OF arbitration. Within the
las 20 years so rapid has been the
triumph of arbitration that more than
100 international differences have
been disposed u by this means. or he
tween five and six year for the
whole twenty Years. Arbitration is no
longer an experiment. It is the set
tied practice Of the nations. A score
of disputes today go naturally to ar
bitration where one gives rise even
to talk of war.
Whole World Interested.
THE first Hague conference, ten
years ago. gave us the Permanent In
ternational Court of Arbitration,
which has now been in successful OPP
Grafton for about eight years, and dis
posed OF several important controver-
sizes. This Court was strengthened
and improved by the aecond Hague
conference two years ago. and by the
admission of the South and Central
American states to 1t has become the
Arbitration Court not of the twenty
six powers that gathered at The
Hague in 1893. but of the entire
world. This tribunal is now taking
practically ali the International diff
ferences not adjustable by diplomacy.
Within year these have been refer
red to It the Casa-Blanca dispute be-
tween France and Germany the fish
cries controversy between this country
and Great Britain, certain questions
in controversies between our govern
ment and Venezuela, and dispute be-
tween Norway and Sweden.
Within less than six years more than
80 treaties of obligatory arbitration,
stipulating reference to The Hague
Court of all questions OF judicial
order and those arising in the inter-
probation OF treaties. have been con-
cluded between nations In pairs, 30
of which were negotiated the last
year by our distinguished ex-secre-
tary of State Root. and ratified by
both the President and the Senate.
Arbitration has won its case. There
remains. in fact, but one further step
in its development, and that Is the
conclusion of a general reaty Of obli-
gatory arbitration to be signed by all
the nations together. stipulating the
reference to The Hague Court of all
international differences not capable
of solution by diplomacy. A treaty
Of this order, limited somewhat I'm
scope, came much nearer adoption at
the second Hague conference than is
usually known. Thirty-five of the for
ty-four delegates voted for 1t, and
only five against 1t. a vote of seven to
one. or by the populations of the ma
lions represented, of more than seven
to one, leaving out of account the four