New-York tribune., 1909-03-04
ONE NATION Or NAVY

The letter from the Rev DR. II. z. Mendes
which was printed in The Tribune the other
| day presented in terse and eloquent form pro
posals and arguments which have been made
many times and at great length by various ad-
vocates of disarmament arbitration and peace.
| OF the sincerity and benevOlence Of the ideas
| expressed there can be no doubt. Concerning
| their theoretical deslra bility we may all be
| agreed. But we must reCretfuly say that of
! their practicabity, now or hereafter. within Il
! period sufficiently limited to be worthy of more
| than abstract and academic speculation. there
! are doubts so grave as strongly TO suggest i'm
| possibility. The pan urged by DR.. MendeS
provides for international court Of arbitration,
composed of the foremost jurists OF all nations
entirely free from instructions or limitations
|. from their respective governments, to which
all international disputes of whatever char
acter must be referred and to the decrees Of
which every nation must submit under penalty
of being socially, commercially and in every
other way boycotted by all other nations.
Let what that implies First. all ma
tions must voluntarily enter such compact
For If even one remained outside it would be
an outlaw nation which might remain armed
while the others were disarmed and would
thus be Il serious menace TO them-a wolf in
a sheepfold. TO what. then. would all nations
thus have to agree: To submit their most
Austria We're to revamp her claim to soy
ereignty over Switzerland, as in Gessler's time,
Switzerland would be bound to let an alien
court decide the matter. and, if the decision
were unfavorable. to surrender her indepen-
dence without demur Or if some foreign
power were to complain that the American pro-
tective tariff was a hardship to it, we should
have 70 acquiesce in the submission Of the mat
ter to a court in which we had only one repre-
sentative among fifty or more, and If the de-
cisiOn We're against should be compelled
at that alien dictation 10 abandon our protective
policy.
In view of the great difficulty which has been
experienced at The Hague, and more recently
at London. in getting part Of the nations to
agree on some comparatively minor matters
we should say that mathematics would he
taxed TO express the ratio of improbability
that all nations would could he persuaded
voluntarily TO assent 10 so sweeping and radical
q scheme Yet If one did not or If one refused
to submit to any decree Of the court however
oppressive, all the rest of the world would
Immediately inf1ict upon It the very treatment
which when applied on q small scale TO in-
dividuals. families or communities is by gen
eral consent regarded rs abominably brutal
and unhuman
1t really ought to be obvious TO those who In
duIge them that these visions OF universal ac-
cord could be realized only in all the ma
tions of the world became in substance a sin
gle nation But that is q condition which the
world has never known within the limits of
history. and toward which it manifests no per.
ceptible inclination. The distinction between
Egypt and Persia, between Greeks and bar
barians. between Rome and Carthage was not
more marked and insuperable than that he
tween the various nations of to-day. SO long
as that spirit Of individual nationality exists
each nation viii insist upon being in the last
analysis the arbiter of Its own fate. And we