Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-05-06

4 ILLUS Gil AAAO40 ~ O. -
tween such nations, if they are drawn
with the explicit agreement that each
contracting party will respect the 9th
er's territory and absolute sovereignty
within that territory, and the equally
explicit agreement thIt aside from
the very rare cases where the nations
honor is vitality ~concerned) all other
possible subjects Of controversy will
be submitted to arbitration. Such a
treaty should insure peace until one
party deliberately violated 1t. Of
course, as yet there is no adequate
safeguard against such deliberate VIC
lation, but the establishment of a
sufficient number of these treaties
would go a 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. 1t has been we'll said
that the first Hague conference
framed a Magma Charta for the ma
tons; it set before US an ideal which
has already to some extent been real
lied, and towards b full realization
Of which we car all steadily strive.
The second conference made further
progress; the third should do yet
more. Meanwhile the American gov
eminent has more han 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.
1t 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
l may venture the suggestion, it would
be we'll 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. l cannot help think
ing that the Constitution of the United
States, notably in the establishment
of the Supreme court and in the
methods adopted for securing peace
and good relations among and be-
tween the different states, offers GER
tain valuable a~nalogies to what should
be striVen for in order to secure,
through The Hague courts and confer
ences, a species Of world federation
for international peace and justice.
There are, of course, fundamental diff
f%erences between what the United
States Constitution does and what we
should ever 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 Hague to OBJ
tain the same result on a world scale.
Undue Growth of Armaments.
In the third place, something should
be don as soon as possible to check
the growth of ornaments, especially
naval ornaments, by international
agreement. No one power could or
should act by itself; for it is eminent
ly undesirable, from the standpoint Of
the peace of righteousness, that a
power which really does believe in
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of some rival which may at bottom
have no such belief and no intention
of acting on it. But, granted sin
cerity of purpose, the great powers of
the world should inc 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 a few years ago, n would
still be of use; but the agreement
should go much further.
Finally, it would be a master stroke
if those great powers honestly ben 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 owe
to enforce the decree of the court.
In any community of n size the au-
thority of the courts rests upon actual
or potential force; on the existence of
a police, or on the knowledge hat b
~able-bodied men Of the country are
both ready and willing to see that h
DEGREES of judicial and legislative
bodies are put into effect. In new and
wild communities where there is vic
lence, an honest man must protect
himself; n 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 com
munity retain theirs. He should not
the right to protect himself
by his own efforts until the commG.
mtg is so that it can effec.