Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1919-07-18

ne state, and the Prussian BELIEF
that might is a force Of more prac-
tical 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 const-
tutes an actual internationalism that
will not be denied; and if we will
have our law accord with the exist
ing facts which have temporarily out
distanced it, we must develop in our
law as real an internationalism.
Otherwise, our international law
will be and can be only futile theory,
with no power to control actual con-
duct. for no law which is out of
accord with existing facts can prove
a real factor in human development
If therefore there is to be such a
thing in the future as international
law there must be some legal organ
ization of international society; in
some form or other there must be a
league of Nations.
Paradoxical as it may seem, free
dom can come only through law
The absolute individual freedom
which the anarchist dreams of in a
society without government is in fact
a logical impossibility; because the
removal of all restraint by the social
organization could only mean that the
liberty of each would be put at the
mercy Of every other individual who
cared to rob, or plumber or wreck
another's home. 1t is only by curb
ing the anti-social and criminal i'm
pulses Of all that each member OF
the community can attain that secur-
ity and freedom from intolerable in
reference which makes possible free
dom Of action and liberty Of life.
This self-evident principle is
clearly true 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, if every nation is
free TO follow its unbridled and chau-
whistle ambitions, no people can be
free to follow its own chosen des-
tiny and desires. Under the system
of international lawlessness which
has prevailed in the past there
has been in fact no real freedom or
national independence. Prussia COM
planned that she dare not disarm be-
cause she feared the French war of
reVanche; France was forced against
her will to adopt a burdensome sys-
tenn of military CONSUMPTION because
of Prussia's army, Nations which
wanted peace were compelled to
build huge navies and burden their
populations with heavy taxes in prep
aration for war. No nation was mas
ter even within its own house. The
increase in the military budget of
neighbor state forced an increase in
the home budget, quite apart from
home desires. A Balkan quarrel in
which America on the other side of
the world had little interest finally
resulted in forcing peace-loving
America into the sacrifice of count
less of her men and of her money!
to gain-what? No land, no treas
ure, no economic privileges. To gain
freedom alone-freedom to work
out a nations own destiny unimpeded
by the sinister designs and selfish
ambitions of other peoples. There is
only one way in which such freedom
can be obtained. Only through some
international organization of society
to suppress and curb the unjust and
oppressive aggression of large states
upon small or of combinations of the
criminally minded upon the law abid-
ing,-only thus can national freedom
i, d liberty ever come.
FRANCIS BOWES SAYRB,
Assistant Professor of Law,
Harvard University.