Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1919-08-07
FREEDOM CAN COME
0RIi THROUGH Law"
a Professor ct Law ut Harvard Una
versisy Gives His Views
en- Ratification

-N-'eaA Aa~sSAS " NAC past SGt-
eTal huRdle 81 years is the clocklihe
X i,e.ity with which az the begin
n.ns OF each century cataclysmic
v.osid wars have broken out and
threatened the onward march Of civ
IL zatlon. In spite of the contrary
Tres g. tie great mass Of the
wo Ids pee pie. A; the beginning OF
tie Seventeenth century 1t was the
bloody Thirty Years War which de-
vaEiaiea Eu' ope like n plague; at the
beginning OF the eighteenth century
Il r-as iae long struggle between Louis
XIV and the Allel States OF Europe:
a. tina beginning of the nineteenth
Il was the far-rcaching Napoleonsc
Wars which swept Europe like
consuming FIRE. At the conclusion of
cry one OF these wracking wars
tle stateTmen of an exhausted
Europe. sincerely anxious to guar
antee and secure the future peace
d the world. concluded epoch making
treaties. b. which the map of Europe
was substantially remade. In the full
belief that the formula had at last
occn !o1al for permanent and en-
du:inE peace. Yet each peace proved
as transitory as the one which pre-
ceced It; and at the beginning OF
the twentieth century we have found
ourselves once again plunged. quite
-ai-s; the wishes Of the great
r. iDrity OF mankind. into q cata-
c'ysmic struggle, recalling all the
SAVE gerry OF the Thirty Years War
thrce centuries before.
Cause ard effect ar chanceiess
P1| eternal: can pny one who reads
h'st1ry truly doubt but that n we
r~7rlude n peace today. no different
-'hsta1ce or structure from the
Pace of Munster OF 1s4s. th> Treaty
Of Utrecht Of 1713. or the Treaty of
Vienna Of 1915. II win be only n
question Ct time tin we are once
rihle world war than that through
which We Rave Just passed? n the
Treaty of 1919 docs no more than
~ rea-FanPe boundaries ani impose
i7,'cuniiies. II II allows the contin-
uaticn Of the old international law
ieFsreFs. and fails to organize inter-
na;iQr1l society into m ordered
community of states. there can be
40 mistak!ng the fact that all the
sT-rv OF the past four years will
have been largely In vain: for a.
surely as night follows day. within
4 measurable period of tlne we
she'll have TO face the same agony
e~sin.
International iawlessness may have
suited we'll enough at n time when
states were In fact seif-sumcinG and
insulated units But that time has
passed. Whether we Ike Il or no
internationaiiEm has come In fact.
Since the Industrial Revolution some
great nations have transformed
themselves from agricultural into
preat Industrial communities; the
very existence Of these nations de-
pends upon the uninterrupted inter
rational exchange of their mann
featured goods for raw products and
fpocstuffs. If England were cut OF
from international intercourse today
she would Etarve inside Of n few
months. Mos ally and psychology
cally. no less than economically. ma
tions have ceased TO be isolated
ur,ts. The national Prussian theory
1f the State, and the Prussian belief
that might In force OF more prac-
teal value than right, has borne its
International fruitage in the wreckage
of homes all around the world. The
Bolshevism Of Russia is the vital
concern OF America on the opposite
hemisphere. Dependency and inter
play OF nation upon nation consti-
tutes an actual decentralization that
VIII not be denied: and ~ we VIII
have our law accord with the exist
Ing facts which have temporarily out
is'anccd 4 II. we must develop in our
law as real an internationaliam
Otherwise. our International law
will be and can be only futile theory.
9 lth 10 rover to control actual con
duct; for no law which In. out OF
accord with existing facts can prove
real factor In human development
= therefore there IS to be such a
ihiag in the future as international
law. there must be some legal organ-
iza''on OF international society; In
some form or other there must be q
tE aSge of Nations.
TaradoxicaI IS 1t may seem, free
II car come only through Iag.
he absolute Individual freedom
"a!oh ,he anarchist drean rms Of In
soc.. :. Without government Is in faei
i@Ii-ai iinp1ssibflisy: because the
renewal ot all restraint BY the Bocia.
, 8 , zlticn ooald only mean that the
liberty OF each would be put at the
mercy OF every other individual who
cared 10 rob. or plunder or wreck
anotheT's home. It Is only by curb
ing the anti-sociaI and criminal i'm
pulses of all that each member OF
the community can attain that secur-
ity and freedom from intoIerabIe In
reference which makes possible free
dom OF action and liberty OF life.
This self-evident principle fs
clearly tue Of international. no less
than Of national life. II within the
family Of nations there Is no method
Of restraining or keeping In check
the criminal state IL every nation In
tree 10 follow it's unbridled and chan