and altruism and justice. It would by its very effect upon
individuals tend to develop the qualities it demands, and would prove
a mighty influence for uplifting the intellectual and moral standards
not only of men but nations. It would by its very international nature
annihilate all national antipathies and promote an era of universal
good will and genuine understanding.
To send a husband or father, glorious in the perfection of physical
manhood, out on the field of carnage to be slain in an effort to
settle international difficulty or to uphold fancied national honor,
is unquestionable barbarism. It is far more humane to terminate
disputed questions by arbitration than by the keen-edged sword.
International peace compacts can hold mankind together by unbreakable
yet unburdensome bonds and greatly promote prosperity and social
progress. The wanton woe and waste that inevitably follow in the train
of war will soon be things of the past. The twentieth century, already
so full of radiant promise, so enlivened by a new social conscience,
will devote its collective energies to the abolition of war and the
substitution of its successor--a world-court, based on the facts of
humane solidarity and the principles of international peace.
THE PRESENT STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION
By BRYANT SMITH, Guilford College, North Carolina, a Senior in
Guilford College
Prize-Winning Essay in the Pugsley Contest, 1912-1913
THE PUGSLEY PRIZE-ESSAY CONTESTS
In 1908 Mr. Chester DeWitt Pugsley, then an undergraduate student in
Harvard University, gave $50 as a prize to be offered by the Lake
Mohonk Conference for the best essay on "International Arbitration" by
an undergraduate student of an American college. The prize was won by
L. B. Bobbitt of Baltimore, a sophomore in Johns Hopkins University.
The following year (1909-1910) a similar prize, of $100, was won by
George Knowles Gardner of Worcester, Massachusetts, a Harvard
sophomore. A like prize of $100 in 1910-1911 was won by Harry Posner
of West Point, Mississippi, a senior in the Mississippi Agricultural
and Mechanical College.
The prize of 1911-1912, of which John K. Starkweather of Denver,
Colorado, a junior in Brown University, was the winner, was the first
offered to men students only (other similar prizes having been offered
to women students) in the United States and Canada.
In the fifth Pugsley contest (1912-1913) the prize was awarded to
Bryant Smith
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