The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-05-05

opment of The Hague tribunal, of the
work of the conferences and courts at
The Hague. 1t has been well said that
the first Hague conference framed a
magma charta for the nations; is set
before Us an ideal which has already
to some extent been realized, 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 government has more
than once tentatively suggested meth
DDS for completing the court of arbi-
trail justice, constituted at the second
1 Hague conference. and for rendering
| it effective 1t is earnestly to be hoped
that the various governments of Eu-
rope, working with those of America
and of Asia. shall set themselves seri-
ously to the task of devising some
method which shall accomplish this
result. If l may venture the sugges-
ton, it would be we'll for the states
men of the world. in planning for the
erection of this world court, to study
what has been done in the U1ited
States by the supreme court / cannot
help thinking that the constitution of
the United States, notably in the estab-
lishment of the supreme court and in
the methods adopted for securing
peace and good relations among and
between the different states. offers
certain valuable analogies to what
should be Striyen for in order to Sc
cure, through the Hague courts and
conferences, a species of world fed
Grafton for internationl peace and JUS
tfce. There are. of course, fundament-
al differences between what the Unit
ed States constitution does and what
we should even attempt at this time
to secure at The Hague; but the meth
DDS adopted in the American constitu-
ton to prevent hostilities between the
states, and to secure the supremacy
of the federal court in certain classes
of cases. are we'll worth the study of
those who seek at The Tague to OBJ
tain the same results on world
scale.
In the third place, something should
be done as soon as possible to check
the growth of ornaments, especisll4
naval ornaments, by international
agreement No one power could Or
should act by itself; for it is eminently
undesirable, from the standpoint
of the peace of righteousness, that &
power which really does believe in
peace should place itself at the mercy
of some rival which may at bottom
have no such belief 20 no inten' i
of acting on it. But, 6 lted sincerity
of purpose, the great powers OF the
world should find no insurmountable
difficulty in reaching an agreement
which would put On end to the present
costly and growing extravaganza of
expenditure on naval ornaments. An
agreement merely to limit the size of
ships would have been very useful a
few years ago, and would still be OF
use; but the agreement should go
much further.
Finally, it would be master stroke
ii 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 ia connection
with developing the peace work of The
Hague arises from the lack of any
executive power, of any police power
to enforce the DEGREES of the court.
In any community of any size the au-
thority oftse courts rests upon actual
or potential force; on the existence rf
a police, or on the knowledge that
the able-bodied men of the country are
both ready and willing to see that the
DEGREES 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 Sc
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 community re-
tain theirs. He should not renounce
the right to protect himself by his
own efferots until the community is
SO organized that it can effectively re-
lieve the individual of the duty of put
ting down violence. So it is with ma
tons. Each nation must keep well
prepared to defend itself until the es-
tablishment of some form of interna-
tional police power, competent and
willing to prevent violence as between
nationas. AS things are now, such
power to command peace throughout
the world could best be. assured by
some combination between those great
nations AS things are now such
and have no thought themselves of
committing aggressions. The combina-
ton might at first be only to secure
peace within certain definite limits and