The Carlisle independent., 1910-05-12

within that territory, and the equally
 explicit agreement that (aside from
 the very rare cases where the nations honor is vitally concerned) all other
 possible subjects of controversy will be submitted to arbitration. Such
 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
 sufficient number of these treaties
 would go long way towards creating
 a 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 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 con- pleting the court of arbitral justice, constituted at the second Hague con- ference, and for rendering 1t 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
 1 may venture the suggestion, it would 1, be well for the statesmen of the
 world, in planning for the erection of this world court, to study what has been done in the United States by the Supreme court I 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 l and good relations among and be- 1 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
 There are. of course, fundamental diff ferences between what the United i States Constitution does and what we should ever attempt at this time to
 secure at The Hague; but the meth
 ods adopted in the American Consti-
 tuition to prevent hostilities between the states, and to secure the suprem-
 acy of the federal court in certain
 classes of cases, are we'll worth the | study of those who seek at The Hague
 to obtain the same result on a world scale
 Undue Growth of Armaments.
 In the third place, something should be done as soon as possible to check 1 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 power which really does believe in | peace should place itself at the mercy 1 of some rival which may at bottom l have no such belief and no intention l of acting on it. 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 if those great powers honestly bent on peace would form a 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 Tn 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
 renounce the right to protect himself , by his own efforts until the cemmu-
 nifty is so organized that it 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 soma form