New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-16

problem. There can be no question
that Mr.. Harding would use to the
utraost this unique ability.
We cannot do better than quote
from Mr.. Roots original criticisms
to describe those juridical functions
which must be added to any associa-
ton of nations if the cause Of peace
is to be fully served:
"The scheme LOT the Paris covenantl
practically abandons all effort to pro-
mote or maintain anything like sys-
tenn OF international law or a system
Of arbitration or Of judicial settle
ment, through which a nation can as
sert its legal rights in lieu of war.
It puts the whole subject of
arbitration back where it was twenty
five years ago. Instead Of perfecting
and putting teeth into the system of
arbitration provided for by the Hague
conventions, it throws those conven-
lions upon the scrap heap.
cit is true also that Article XIV
mentions a court Of international JUS
tice and provides that the executive
council should formulate plans for such
q court, and that this court shall when
established be competent to determine
matters which the parties recognize as
suitable for submission to it. There
is no agreement or direction that such
court shall be established or that
any questions shall be submitted to it.
international law is not mentioned
at all except in the preamble, no meth
cd is provided and no purpose is ex-
pressed to insist upon obedience to
law, to develop the law, to press for
ward agreement upon its rules and
recognition Of its obligations. All
questions of right are RELOCATED to fhe
investigations and recommendation of
q political body, to be determined as
matters of expediency
~ confess I cannot see the Judgment
Of three generations of the wisest and
best of American statesmen, concurred
in by the wisest and best Of all our
allies, thus held for naught. I believe
with them that necessary as may be
the settlement Of political questions
upon grounds of expediency it is also
necessary to insist upon rules of in
ternational conduct founded upon prin-
ciples; and that the true methods by
which public right shall be established
to control the affairs of nations is by
the development of law. and the en-
forcement Of law, according to the
judgments of impartial tribunals.
should have little confidence in the
growth or permanence of an interna-
tional organization which applied no
test to the conduct of nations except
the expediency Of the moment"
Mr.. Roots eloquent plea for the
Hague treaties of arbitration did
save them from the scrap heap-the
revised covenant corrected this
oversight. But his con-
structive proposals fell upon deaf
ears. The league is to-day one-sided,
the diplomatic and political
preventfves of war, doing little Or
for the development of in
ternational law.
We cannot go into the Root prof.
ects in greater detail now. A crucial
question is that of interrelating the
political league with the courts of
law. A large and diff
cult problem must be faced here as
in other respects. The task calls for
the utmost of ability. 1t is fully as
and difficult labor as
that Of creating a political league ac-
complished at Paris. The Republi-
can party is pledged to this labor Of
the league as yet but
half formed. The Democratic party
is not. The Tribune believes that the
party possesses very
great personal abilities for the work.
1t hopes and believes that every
friend of enduring peace will decide
to place this task in the hands ready
and competent to perform it.