The Green Forest tribune., 1910-05-13

within that territory, and the equally explicit agreement that (aside from the very rare cases where the nations honor is yitally concerned) all other possible subjects of controversy will be submitted to arbitration. Such a treaty should insure peace until one party deliberately violated it. Of course, as yet there is no adequate safeguard against such deliberate vio- lation, but the establishment of a sufficient number of these treaties would go long way towards creating world opinion which would finally find expression in the provision of methods to forbid or punish any such violation.
 Work of Hague Tribunal.
 Secondly, there is the further de- velopment of The Hague tribunal, of the work of the conferences and courts at The Hague. It has been well said that the first Hague conference framed a Magma Charta for the na tions; it set before us an ideal which has already to some extent been real ized, and towards the full realization of which we can all steadily strive. The second conference made further progress; the third should do yet more. Meanwhile the American gov ernment has more than once tenta- lively suggested methods for com pleting the court of arbitral justice, constituted at the second Hague con ference, and for rendering it effective. It is earnestly to be hoped that the various governments of Europe, work ing with those of America and of Asia, shall set themselves seriously to the task of devising some method which shall accomplish this result. If I may venture the suggestion, it would be well for the statesmen of the world, in planning for the erection af this world court, to study what has been done in the United States by the Supreme court. l cannot help think ing that the Constitution of the Uni ted States, notably in the establish ment of the Supreme court and in the methods adopted for securing peace and good relations among and be- tween the different states, offers cer- tain valuable analogies to what should be striven for in order to secure, through The Hague courts and confer ences, species of world federation for international peace and justice
 Undue Growth of Armaments.
 In the third place, something should be done as soon as possible to check the growth of armaments, especially naval armaments, by international agreement. No one power could or should act by itself for it's is eminent ly undesirable, from the standpoint of the peace of righteousness, that a power which really does believe in peace should place itself at the mercy of some rival which may at bottom have no such belief and no intention of acting on 1t. But, granted sin cerity of purpose, the great powers of the world should find no insurmount- able difficulty in reaching an agree ment which would put an end to the present costly and growing extrava- gance of expenditure on naval arma- ments. An agreement merely to limit the size of the ships would have been very useful few years ago, and would still be of use; but the agreement should go much further.
 Finally, it would be a master stroke fl those great powers honestly bent on peace would form league of peace, not only to keep the peace among themselves, but to prevent, by force if necessary, its being broken by others. The supreme difficulty in connection with developing the peace work of The Hague arises from the lack of any executive power, of any police power to enforce the decree of the court. In any community of any size the au- thority of the courts rests upon actual or potential force; on the existence of police, or on the knowledge that the able-bodied men of the country are both ready and willing to see that the decrees of judicial and legislative bodies are put into effect. In new and wild communities where there is vio- lence, an honest man must protect himself; and until other means of se- curing his safety are devised, it is both foolish and wicked to persuade him to surrender his arms while the men who are dangerous to the con- munity retain theirs. He should not renouncc the right to protect himself by his own efforts until the commu. nifty is so organized that 1t can effec- lively relieve the individual of the duty of putting down violence. So it Is with nations. Each nation must keep well prepared to defend itself un. til the establishment of some form of international police power, compe. tent and willing to prevent violence as between nations.