The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-06-20
THE FEDERATION jj
 OF THE WORLD
The United States Destined to Lead in Peace Move ment-Possibilities of the Bartholdt Bill Before Con gress - Will Roosevelt Head the Peace Delega- tion President Taft Is to Appoint?
Hamilton Holt.


 Editor of the Independent.
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau9
 There is now pending before Con- gress a bill introduced by MT. Bar tholdt of Missouri providing for the appointment of a commission to visit the chancelleries of the world and re- port back to Congress articles of world federation. limited to the maintenance of peace, so that our recommendations to the Third Hague Conference of 1915 may be well considered and far reach ing. President Taft has given advance ns~aflon hsa 1 nssans esaruaD sO of he commission ofSkve to be appointed as soon as Congre8 has passed the act. It will be the first time in history that a government has officially recognized that the true philosophy of the peace movement requires world federation as a prerequisite for universal peace.
 The only two powers that ever have CT ever can govern human beings are force and reason-war and law. The problem before the world is how to decrease the area of war and increase thesa area of law until war vanisheS and law envelopes the world. At the pres ent moment the world is organized into hfty-nine nations claiming in- dependence and within their territories -nominally at least organization, law and peace prevail We have already learned to substitute law for war in cities and states and even up to the nity-nine nations; but in that inter national realm in which each nation is equally sovereign, the only way al 2 the present moment for nation to secure its rights is by the use Of force. In other words the nations are in that stage of civilization today where with our a qualm they claim the right to settle their disputes in a manner they would put their owns subjects to death for initiating. The peace movement, therefore, is nothing but the process Of substituting law for war.
 But how can we best create law in the international realm. Certainly not by the cumbrous methods of the pres ent Today there is no such thing as a code of international law which is binding on the nations which are at perfect liberty to accept 1t or reject it as they wish. We must have behind ii some conscious political organiza- i tion to give it sanction and validity and that implies a federation of the world
 The history of the orga nizatIon of ther, united nations" which gives sanction to international law, will cor reeI6nd to the history of the organi- xafion of. the thirteen American col eaies. into one nation. The Declara- -tion of Independence foreshadows the declaration of interdependencel
 The beginnings of world organiza- tSpn. however. have already taken place Tn the Hague Court and the re- cufcing Hague Conferences we, see the germs of. the international court and the .parNam ent of man. The problem is how to develop these so that they will become the judicial and legisla- tive: departments of a powerful world cdnstitution, just as our Articles of Confederation and Constitutional Con greSs developed into the present Uni ted States Constitution which cen- tury of storm and stress has not broken. The problem. therefore, be- fore the world Is to perfect the Hague Courts and Conferences so that fn- ally, if it be deemed necessary, we may even add a world executive and thus create the united nations in the very image of the United States.
 The peace advocates from Penn and Kant and Hugo and Burritt down to Haie and Barfheldt and Carnegie have long realized that world federation is the key to peace and disarmament Even Mir Roosevelt in his remarkable Notel peace address the other day at Christiania goes so far as to urge league of peace to abolish war, para
 
 government themselves, however, have not vet officially recognized that world organiza tion Is the goal of interna- t.onal effort The passage of the Partholdt bill, however, will remedy this and guarantee to the peoples of the world that the United States IS in earnest and ready to take the lead in the practical and promising method of obtaining international peace.
 T. seems the destiny of the United States to lead in the peace movement. me United States is the world in miniature. It is a demonstration that All the races of the world can live in peace under one government and its Ctef value to civilization is a demon stration of what this form Of govern rcnt is We have settled more dis putes by arbitration than any other nation. In ell history no men have cone more to spread the gospel of peace than two Pennsylvanians, Will liam Penn and Benjamin Franklin, coming down to more recent times It is probably a fact that the late Fred erick W. Holls Of New York had more to do with the establishment of the Haeue Court than anyone else, while NIT. Carnegie has gwen it a palace in which it shall hereafter sit. The United States took the first care to the Hague Court that ever came be- fore it. MT. Bartholdt was the hrst
 
 parliament and suggested turning the Hague Conference into a real inter national parliament. Elihu Root plan ned the idea of having the Second Hague Conference create a world court modelled in the United States Supreme Court, and now Secretary Knox has announced it's early establishment President Roosevelt's Christiania ad- dress is nothing else than a plea of the fedora ton of the world. Does not ! the last sentence of MT. Poosevelt's address indicate that he would feel com pelled to accept the appointment on the commission which President Taft is to offer to him if MT Bar thoidt's bill becomes a law? He says: But the ruler or statesman who l should bring about such a combina- ton Qsas sue of peace) would have i earned his place in history for all l time and his title to the gratitude of all mankind"
 If the world federation commission ! is appointed by the United States | government with Theodore Roosevelt | as chairman, can anyone believe that | the day will not be brought measur- ably nearer, when as Victor Hugo | plpphssied in 1S4a "the only battle field will be the market opening to cozhmafee and the human mind open ing to new ideas
 THE CONSERVATION OF