rt is a step in the right direction. The
peaceful settlement of the Venezuelan boundary dispute was an honor to
the nations involved. And the work of the International Commission of
Inquiry in the Dogger Bank episode between Russia and England is
significant of the trend. Again, a modern innovation was wrought when
the International Conference in 1906 settled the conflicting interests
of Germany, France, and Spain in Morocco. Within the last century the
powers ratified over two hundred treaties, each providing for the
peaceful settlement by tribunals of specified international disputes.
It is true that most peace treaties have dealt almost exclusively with
legal questions. The nations have hesitated to submit all
international differences to a court of arbitration. But the spirit
for arbitral settlement is widening. And this spirit is not for a mere
avoidance of war, but seeks the substitution of a better method than
war for determining justice between nations. Each nation has its own
individual problems to deal with, and in this respect all cannot
proceed according to set rules. The movement does not mean the
extinction and obliteration of nationality and national rights. The
individual has not been minimized because he consents to submit his
differences with his fellow men to a court for settlement. And this
must be the ultimate attitude of nations whose honor we have a right
to guard jealously.

What, then, shall be our program? Whatever attitude is to be adopted,
most people agree that the day of universal peace is far in the
future. The Balkans and Mexico remind us of the difficulty lying
before the coming generations. But the numerous peace societies whose
purpose it is to circulate authentic documents, that the great mass of
citizens may be brought into sympathetic touch through accurate
information, are doing much for the cause. The erection of the Hague
Court gives something lasting and tangible to work from. And, above
all, the nations will rise to higher standards principally by adopting
the ideals of the individual. As man has risen above his barbaric
ideals, so will the nations throw their military expenditures into the
coffers of public welfare as they come more and more to judge their
successes, not by victories in war but by achievements in education,
commerce, industry, and artizanship. And, proceeding with such aims,
the established international court must be the medium through which
all differences