Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-05-15
Worldwide Peace
Worldwide Justice

I Peace. DR.. Abbott also took occasion
to criticise the United states for an
,nullirg the treaty with Russia, and re
ferred TO the recent ant-alicn DILL
passed by the California legislature Il!
an example of American unwillingnes!
To live up to a distasteful treaty. HI
said, in part:
! christians have not stood and ough
not to stand fer peace at any price
They have recognized and they ough
to recognize that there are worse
Things than war, bad as war is. 1t is
iquite possible to pay too high Il price
for peace Our fathers would have
paid too high 81 price if. in 1116. they
had bartered liberty for peace. The
> generation of the Civil War woulo
have paid too high price if, for the
sake of peace, they had allowed the
country TO be rent in twain and a
great slave empire to be founded. eN-
tending from the Ohio River to the
Gulf of Mexico. and perhaps including
Mexico and Central America.
More progress has been made to-
ward peace in the fourteen years
which have elapsed since the first
Hague Conference than was made in
all the years which preceded. Why
| Because the movement has been one
net primarily for international peace,
but primarily for international justice.
| Enduring peace is possible only when
| it is the fruit of justice.
When plan for securing justice
was proposed that promised to avoid
the tragedy of war. mankind began to
listen. The proposal is nothing less
than a substitution of an appeal to
reason for the appeal To force. Before
this substitute can be successfully
adopted three conditions are nccessa-
Try:
There must be developed in the civ
ilized nations sense Of justice strong
enough to overcome race, religious and
national prejudices:
This international conscience must
|creatc some permanent tribunal which
can give it official and authoritative
Expression:
And there must be developed in
every nation such a sense of honor
that, having once submitted a question
to this tribunal. its decision will be ac
eepted not perhaps without criticism,
but without resistance or serious COM
plant.
we Idu IL Will russia. w
believed that she violated that treaty
in refusing to recognize our passports
when issued to American citizens of
the Jewish faith We should have
proposed to Russia TO submit the in-
depreciation of that treaty to the
Hague Tribunal. Instead of so doing,
we. with passionate haste, annulled it.
I'VE made treaty with Great Brit
ain in which we agreed that all the
vessels of the world should have equal
advantages in their use of the Panama
Canal Great Britain thinks we have
violate that treaty in exempting
Goa stwise vessels from Canal tolls.
Some Of our ablest lawyers are of the
same opinion. Yet, unless vigorous
measures are taken to arouse a pub
lie sentiment in favor of submitting
the Interpretation of that treaty to
the Hague Tribunal. it is probable
that the controversy between America
and Great Britain on the subject will
remain unsettled. provocative of alien
alton and dissatisfaction on both sides
of the Atlantic.
I'VE made a treaty with Japan
granting certain privileges to the
Japanese. The State of California,
without waiting for consultation with
the Japanese people and without con-
sidera ton for their feeling, has passed
an act which to the Japanese seems
violation of the spirit of that treaty.
and there is danger that. as the re-
suit. the friendly relations between
Japan and America will be seriously
impaired.
1T cannot be too strongly affirmed
that it is worse than useless to make
a general arbitration treaty, and then
when any conflict arises which arouSes
popular prejudice and eXciteS popular
disregard our treaty obliga-
tons on the ground that it is either
not consonant with our interest or with
our honor to submit the question to
foreign tribunal. The greatest peril
to-day of the Peace Movement. which
seeks to substitute an appeal to rea-
son for the appeal to force. is not the
limitations upon our general arbitra-
ton treaties; it is our failure to car
ry them out when international con-
troversies arise.
America is one of the rishtest
countries on the globe. Make it also
one of the weakest. and it would invite
assault. 1t is the first duty of a gov
eminent to protect it's people in the
enjoyment of life and liberty. If it
fails to afford such protection it has
no right to exist. America there
fore, must have an army sufficient in
size, equipment and efficiency to pro-
| tect its citizens from violence at home.
and navy sufficient to protect its
lcoasts and it's commerce from attack
and to enable it to take it's share IN
the fulnllment of those world obliga-
tons which belong to all the civilized
nations of the earth.
| I'VE can establish peace only by es-
tablishing justice. To do this we mus
by voice and pen develop in the natior
a public conscience which will demand
the fulfillment of arbitration treaties
already made before undertaking t
make other treaties still more general
we must seek to develop a public sen
timent in the civilized nations of tn
world which will both create tribu
nal for the establishment of interna
tional justice and peacefully enforc
its decisions; and until that is accom-
plished, and the appeal TO reason /
accepted by our own people and tn
peoples of the world as real SuDStl