Evening star., 1915-09-24
James Brown Scott Says
Great Conflict Doesn't Shat
ter Faith in Its Benefits.
SOME GOOD IS FOUND
IN PRESENT STRUGGLE
Strife Strengthens Legal Principles
Which Nations Adopted to Check
International Crime.

THE recurrence of war affords nj
more reason for losing faith in inter
national law than the recurrence OF
private crime would be a justification
for abolishng domestic law and substi
tuting a reign of internal anarchy
says James Brown Scott, secretary o,
the Carnegie Endowment for Interna
tional Peace. in the 1915 year book OF
the endowment recently published.
DR.. Scott's statement occurs in the
report of the division of international
law of the endowment. of which he Is
the director. In submitting this report
he says. he feels the necessity of re-
ferr!ng to the war that has torn Europe
into two great military camps during
the last year.
1T has been common during the last
few months" he says. ito meet with
statements that the present war In
Europe has demonstrated the ineffec-
tivenesS of international law, both
conventional and customary. to bind
nations in their mutual intercourse in
peace and to restrict and control their
actions in war. In support of these as
sertions. we are referred to the failure
OF the nations now at war to appeal
to The Hague tribunal, in accordance
with the provisions of the convention
for the pacific settlement of interna-
fional disputes. before resorting to
force: to the conversion of a country
whose neutrality had been solemnly
guaranteed by long-standing treaties
into one of the principal battlef1elds OF
Europe; to the atrocities and devasta-
ton in violation of the laws of land
warfare and of civilization and human
fN- The conclusion drawn from these
facts. real or alleged, is that it is a
waste of. time further to discuss the
principles of international law or to
advocate their more general accept
ance.
Such statements. it is believed. are
these of persons whose powers of per-
ception are limited to the single prob
lem in hand. If war had the effect on
international law which we are told
the present war has had or will have
the system would never have come into
being and been developed through CEN
turies of we'll nigh incessant war into
the strong and well formed body of
principles which we find at the present
day. Just as a repetition of private
crime moves US to increase our legal
safeguards to private life and property
and points the way, SO also does the
recurrence of war result in strengthen
Ing and developing of the legal prin- =
ciples which nations have adopted as
a check on international crime. The
action of one nation or a group of ma
tionS cannot undo overnight a collec-
tive work of all the nations extending
over period of time measured by
centuries.
Sense Of Justice in Nations.
war has not been abolished, but
warfare has taken on some of the re-
fnements and amenities of civilization.
This may seem a small matter and a
trifiing change to those who condemn
the system and who would Danish it
from the face of the earth: but it is a
fact that from the desire to regulate
war a sense of justice has entered into
the relations of nations, and that from
the regulation of war that system of
jurisprudence which we call the law of
nations has largely sprung. This is
indeed very happy and a very COM
forting. though an unexpected, result.
Thus. in this evil-and war is at least
an evil. often crime-with which we
are confronted. indeed enmeshed and
surrounded. we may nevertheless find this
comfort-from seeming evil still educ
ing good'-that by the persistent regu-
latlpn of that which should not exist
We have called into being a system OF
law by means of which peace will ulti-
mately result
1T cannot be denied however. that
wars are now less frequent than in the
pa st, Notwithstanding the greatly in
creased complexity of international re-
ls;ions and therefore of the pretexts
for war. If this be admitted. as it
must. it would seem that international
law has been substituted for the force
formerly employed in these innumer-
able disputes, which now no longer re-
quire ii for their settlement. The de-
velopment of the principles of interna-
tional law and the extension of their
application. concurrently with the de-
crease in the causes and actual out
breaks of war, are convincing proof OF
the permanency and effectiveness of the
system.
The trouble with our critics Is. II
their criticism be sincere, that they
seem to labor under the delusion that
the abolition of war, or the general
substitution for it of legal methods. is
the work of a single lifetime or of a
single generation. A fair knowledge OF
human history or an average amount OF
experience in practical human affairs
leaves no foundation for such an illu-
sion The lives of men are nothing as
compared with the lives of nations. and
each generation can only hope to wit
ness slight and perhaps sometimes fal.
tering steps of progress. Each wal
must be compared with its predecessors
TO determine what, If any, effect 1t may
haye upon the future Of internationa