The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-22
MAKING A BETTER WORLD


 waters one has been living when the discovery is made that a great big thing has been going on and approach ing completion without so much as attracting more than passing notice, and certainly without the full signifi- canoe of it being appreciated. The great big thing now demanding atten- ton is world movement for a better extension of general knowledge of in ternational relations. Even as the sol idarity of the United States rests to a very great degree upon the com munity of thought of one hundred and ten million people who read the same news every day, who hear the same expressions of opinion in one Ian guage, and who have like traditions from childhood and from schools and colleges, so it is proposed that all the peoples of the world shall acquire a common understanding, if not com mon expression, and that the rights and privileges as we'll as the duties of all shall be not only defined, but be studied and understood. To this end it is necessary that there shall be some representatives from the several nations who will first acquire the knowledge and also a place where the knowledge may be im- parted-in short, an international school and a corps of teachers and students. Such an institution will be the leaven that will spread knowl- edge through the world, until there will no longer be ignorance of what constitutes international law, nor doubt as to the proper practice of it.
 Not so many centuries ago there was no such law, and even down to our day there was doubt expressed if there was or could be such law. Might ruled, and whoever had the power made the law. The world was in state of organized brigandage, only the brigands called themselves kings and emperors, and appealed to Heaven as giving them authority to conquer and command. AS late as 1914 of the present century great people, headed by great brigand, went forth, asking Gods blessing, to slay and devour. It was a terrible and devastating raid by a great horde of robbers, exciting resistance from world in arms, and failing simply be- cause it's leader had miscalculated the growth of new spirit in the world, a spirit of understanding that the time had come for human unity against the brigandage of the past ages.
 It was in 1907 that the idea was advanced that there should be cul- tivation of this spirit of understand ing. Why not, asked Professor Nip polf, in attendance upon the second peace conference, have an academy of international law and resorted to by students from the different nations, so that by the common knowledge there might be developed an interna- tional spirit, and sense of interna- tion rights and international duties? M. Nelidoff answered that the idea was of great appeal, and that he did not doubt that MT. Andrew Carnegie, the donor of the Peace Palace at The Hague, would approve of it. This proved true, although it's realization was delayed by the World War, and last week there was opened in the palace, as the result of what was said and done some nine years ago, the Academy of International Law, the fulfillment of the second of the dreams of men of international repute, the establishment of the world court of international justice being the first.
 On an afternoon of July there was brilliant assembly in the Peace Pal ace court room of men distinguished in intellectual aIhievement, hailing from all parts of Europe, and there, under the auspices of the president of the world court and the president of the Carnegie Foundation in Holland, the academy was formally opened, and with more students applying than there were places at disposal. It was very fit, said James Brown Scott, rep resenting the United States, that this enterprise should begin in the country of William the Silent, who Established on a solid basis liberty of thought, without which intellectual develop ment would be nothing but a dream instead of a right acquired for every one," the country also of Grotius, "the Miracle of Holland," who established the foundation for the structure of the laws of nations, without which the arbitrary government of man could not be internationally replaced by a government of law"
 The academy, now opened to stu dents, is really fruit of the 1907 peace conference, but, says the corre- spondent of the New York Times, it is largely due to America that the dream has come true, through the untiring work of James Brown Scott, and, sec ondly, to the Carnegie Foundation, which provided the necessary money.
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