New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-20
ARBITRATION A STEP
Business Men for international
Union with Final Court.

Mohonk Lake. n. Y, May 19.-The Bust
ness Mems Association of the Lake Mo
honk Conference on International Arbitra-
ton, representing between fifty and sixty
chambers of commerce in the United States
and Canada, this afternoon adopted a dec
laration to be presented to the conference
tomorrow, in part as follows:
The business interests of the world are
keenIy alive to the abnormal conditions
that from time to time destroy the conf
dence OF peoples and interrupt the work
ings of their interdependence. The great
est and most distinctive of these are those
Of the apprehension or the positive real
ization of war. Nothing can be of greater
importance than such agencies as Will pre-,
vent these conditions from arising or VIII
quickly end them whenever they do ap-
pear.
Among these agencies the first in impor
lance are those that develop mutual conf
dence and respect and beset love OF JUS
tce and devotion to the right. We reaf-
terests are and will Increasingly continue
to be a powerful factor in preserving the
peace of the world
We hold that justice and righteousness
are prerequisite conditions to true business
prosperity, and while we recognize that
arbitration Of the disputes between lnol-
YiduaIs and nations is the best means yet
available for settling them we regard ar
bitration as but an intermediate station on
found in an International union whose ar
bitral court of justice Will be the hnal
court of the world, from whose decision
there can be no appeal
DR.. Charles w Eliot. president
emeritus of Harvard University, and
Rear Admiral ]. B. Murdoch, L. S. N,
addressed the conference tonight Dr.
Eliot said in part
It is a solid fact that an overwhelming
majority of the English people Cpl fee d II 70
that they keep ready for instant action
fleets capable of preventing invasion and
the cutting off of the food supplies ana
the raw materials which come to them over
seas; and SO long as they seriously dread
catastrophes of that nature they VIII keep
on building preponderant fleets. They must
have security against such ruinous calaml-
ties
On the whole the only way. in which
promoters of peace can at this moment
make Roadway against the apprehension of
invasion is to urge the making OF arbttra-
ton treaties which contain no exceptions
and the establishment of permanent court
Of arbttral justice The reduction Of arma-
ments on land must await the establish
indeed. neighboring nations by twos or
threes can make local agreements for
reduction analogous to the invaluable ar
rangement made in 1877 between the United
States and Great Britain concerning arma-
ments on the Great Lakes.
Rear Admiral Murdoch said the officers
of the United States navy were for peace
and for every legitimate means by which
it can be secured and guaranteed The
question of arbitration was accepted i'm
plicitly.
Simeon Z. Baldwin, formerly Chief Jus
tice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut,
this forenoon pointed out some of the
faults of the present court of nations set
UP at the first Hague conference and ex-
pressed a hope that the proposition TO
make the judges of the International Prize
Court ex-off1cio judges Of the Court Of Ar
bitral Justice, which was Endorsed by this
government last year, would receive gen
erai Endorsement
II. B. F. Mcfarland, Of Washington,
former Commissioner of the District of
Columbia, declared that this proposition,
favored by Secretary Knox in d circular
note to the powers last October would be
adopted, and that it's success would in
after years be considered the greatest
achievement of the Taft administration
James Brown Scott, Solicitor OF the State
Department and a delegate to the second
Hague conference. brought an authorized
and directed" quotation from Secretary
Knox, predicting that the third Hague
conference would find a permanent court
of arbitral justice in session at The Hague
and that many powers were accepting the
proposition, at least in principle DR..
thanks of the conference to Secretary
Knox for selecting this occasion for tho
announcement