Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-04-26
TIE JUDGE MILLS
ORATORICAL CONTEST
Continued from First Page.)

nation, say the United States should
refuse to abide by the decision of the
court. The United States owing to
the size Of it's territory and the variety
of It's production. is probably the most
independent nation on the globe
Probably there is no other nation
which has more fully within itself
the resources necessary to a comfort
able life. But if the United States
were to reject a decree against her
from the court of Arbitral Justice,
what would happen The other powers
would not even fire gun, they would
simply say to the United States. you
have cast your self out of the world :
no citizen of yours shall cross our
borders; no goods of yours shall be
received into our markets, no goods Of
ours shall go into your markes; no
ship of ours shall enter your ports and
no ship Of yours shall enter ours, not
even the United States could success
fully defy such an act of international
communication And if she should
attempt to force her traffic upon her
neighbors, she would have to enooun
ter the allied fleets of the world.
The other suggestions are eq ually
sane and efficient They are not
hasty conclusions but are the product
of long painstaking Investigation
and represent deep thought and sound
reasoning. They are neither radical
nor inconsistent. international arbi-
tratration is the logical outcome Of
the worlds religious, moral and
economic advancement. 1t is merely
an extension of organization to inter
national affairs similar to those which
the people Of the civilized countries
enjoy. Organization has become as
essential to national welfare as or
ganized government has been for in
dividual welfare in the past.
But you will ask, How about re-
suits ~ What has arbitration done for
thepeace movement. Has 1t been etfec-
tive. Has it been popularY Is it
more than a pre- tentative of war ?
Can it ever be cure2 What is it
doing today? A record of what has
been done by arbitration and what is
being done today is significant
/. More than two hundred and
fifty controversies have been settled by
arbitration during the past hundred
years and at least sixty since the
present century opened. In every case
the settlements have been final.
During the same period only four
notable conflicts have been decided by
war.
2. Two Bague conferences have
been held, one in 1899 the other in
1907, the latter representing all of the
fifty nine nations of the civilized
world At the second Hague con
ference three fourths of the nations
were willing to sign treaty in favor
of compulsory arbitration.
8. There are several semi official
societies working for peace. The
most important of these is the Inter
national Parliamentary Union, which
has mem bership of three thousand
of the fifteen thousand of the mem bers
of national legislatures. Thus we see
one out of every five of the worlds
legislators is committed to the arbi-
tratyop YuovaYuont
Beside this union there are several
other semi official and six hundred
non official peace societies which are
working chiefly in Europe and the
United States.
Then there is the Nobel Committee
which awards prize of forty thou
sand dollars to the man or woman
who does the most for peace each year,
Mr.. Carnegie recently made a gift
of ten million dollars to the arbitra-
tion causes. It is the noblest and
most browning benefaction of his
career Mr., Carnegie has stated that
the five hundred thousand dollars of
interest which this fund will yield
yearly shall be used to promote the
cause of peace, and when war ceases,
as war inevitably must when nations
learn the better way, it shall be used
to abolish the next greatest scourge of
mankind
Today one can not pick up news
paper or magazine without finding in
it something about international
peace. The arbitration movement is
attracting the attention of every civil.
liked nation of the earth. 1t has be-
come the most important political
subject Of the hour Now we who
advocate arbitration do not suggest
radical, Utopian measures; do not
propose sudden and reckless disarma
1nent, but we do call for sanity and
justice in international affairs. And
we do maintain that the conditions
to-day warrant a change That at a