The Washington times., 1918-12-03
An Editorial For Young Men
Under TWenty-One

This editorial two very important subjects
THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS and THE FREEDOM
or THINKING.
You viii from on until the peace Of Versailles is
signed hear good deal of talk about the former mostly
from people who know very little about it.
Z But you should feel obliged to discuss this question
we suggest that you go the library and look some
thing regarding young named Grotius who more
than three centuries ago wrote pretty nearly everything
there Is to say regarding the question about which
the most able Of dozen nations are to begin an
argument
6 The interesting thing is that Grotus when he wrote
bis great treatise On the laws of the seas, WAS ONLY
TWENTY-oNE YEARS OLD.
he was however already one of the leading Latin
scholars Of Europe having written commendable in
the Roman language when he was nine years old
~ He was university student at twelve and interna
tonaIy known at fifteen At sixteen he doctor of
law and Of the which to him was that of
ships captain named Heemskirk.
This captain representing the Dutch East India Com
pauy had captured rich Portuguese gaeon in the Straits
II Malacca
The question arose as to whether private company
had right to take prizes and Grous given the task
Of the modern capitalsc awyernamely, to prove that
corporations can do no wrong
In the preparation Of his Grous Investigated the
grounds of the lawfuness of war in general
He claimed and proved to the court that private
sshp Of the high either by individual nation
could not be established but that the free to all
This doctrine he explained and demonstrated at length
IN the twelfth chapter Of De Jure Praedae book which
he wrote in 1904 when he was just at his majority
In broad way his conclusion was that
at is the right of every nation to navigate the high
seas without permission of obstruction from any
nation, and that group of nations has any exclusive
right to the pamony of all Such the rule and such is
the practice of nations time of peace. In time of
begerent nations are by the consent of all permitted to
give battle upon the high to destroy the fighting forces
Of the enemy wherever found to visit search neutral
merchantmen order to satisfy themselves that the vessels
service
The freedom Of the seas although limited by war, is
not abogated by it. and in time of the freedom of the
obtains means and requires that neutral vessels may
lawfully trade with the enemy unless its ports closed
by blockade declared and maintained the form required by
the law of nations; that the ports not legally block
AIDED neutral vessels may still carry their cargoes to enemy
they fall within the category of contraband and the neutral
ports nterposed to conceal ultimate destination of the
enemy"
That is the doctrine which up to now has been the
basis Of every international treaty that during three hun
bred years had involved the question of maritime laws
is the center about which all the coming arguments at
Versailles will revofve.
There is much more that you will read about Grotius
How he was dramatst before he great theologian
How, becoming involved in a religious war he was at
thirty six cast into dungeon with sentence of lifelong
imprisonment How he spent his time in prison in trans
latng from Greek into Latin the masterpieces of the
Hellenic dramass How with the connivance of his wife
who chose to occupy his cell with him. he escaped by being
carried out Of the prison in the chest in which his books
had been brought in to him.
You viii follow his entertaining career in half dozen
Kingdoms until his death in 1916.
And always you win be impressed with the VALUE
OF THINKING.
There is only absolutely free process of man
There is only one universal freedom, THE FREEDOM
OF THINKING. No cell can limit thought, no punish
ment can circumscribe mind
Grotius Intellectual marvel as he was proclaimed by
the great men Of London and Paris and Amsterdam had
In his youth half the facilities for acquiring KNOWLEDGE
that the schoolboy Of Washington has today
But he THOUGHT he studied, and the habit of
thinking, like any other habit increases with practice
grows stronger with continuance
And when in the cables from Paris you read in con-
necon with the discussion of the great question of
time laws the Of Grous remember that his present
importance because three hundred years ago boy as