Volume Vi Part 12 (2/2)

The permanent International Court of Arbitration was declared to be organized and ready for operation by April, 1901. At that time there were seventy-two judges appointed by twenty-two of the signatory powers, It is readily seen that the advantages of such a court are that unprejudiced arbitrators are selected, rules of procedure are defined, and decisions rendered are more liable to be accepted in future cases and thus a code of law will be formed, So many cases have been submitted to this tribunal that it has been said that a government which will not now try arbitration before resorting to arms is no longer considered respectable. This court was convened for the first time May 18, 1901.

The first case coming before the tribunal--the Pious Fund Case--was presented by the United States and Mexico, September 15, 1902. Up to 1846 the Mexican government had paid annual interest on some property administered by it but belonging to the Catholic church. Part of it was situated in what is now California. After 1848, when this California estate came under United States jurisdiction, Mexico refused to pay that part of the church outside of Mexico its share. This difference between our Government and Mexico the Hague Tribunal took up.

Agreeably to chapter 3, t.i.tle 4, of the agreement, each party named two arbitrators, and the latter, acting together, an umpire. In case of an equality of votes a third power, designated by agreement of the parties, was to select the umpire. The arbitrators chosen were M. de Martens, of the Orthodox Greek church; Sir Edward Fry, an English Protestant; M.

a.s.ser, a Jew, and M. Savornin-Loman, a Dutch Protestant. Decision was reached within the prescribed thirty days and announced October 14, 1902. It favored the United States contention, giving its proportion of the Mexican payments to the Catholic church in California.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

President Castro of Venezuela.

A second case, involving issues of war and peace, arose from the action of Great Britain and Germany against Venezuela in the winter of 1902-1903. Subjects of these as well as of other powers had claims against Venezuela. That country was in financial straits and its creditors pressed. December 9, 1902, British and German war-s.h.i.+ps sunk or seized some Venezuelan vessels; next day they landed marines at La Guayra, who took possession of the custom house; the 14th they bombarded and demolished a fort at Puerto Cabello. Through the good offices of the United States the matter of debts was referred to the Hague Tribunal.

The German claims were decided by two representatives of Germany and two of Venezuela, or, if they disagreed, by an umpire whom the United States selected. So with the other claims. The tribunal fixed the order in which Venezuela should pay the different countries, and the United States was charged with overseeing the payments, a percentage of Venezuelan customs receipts being reserved for that purpose.

In 1903 Andrew Carnegie donated $1,500,000 for the purpose of erecting a ”palace of peace,” the permanent head-quarters of this court. The deed of trust states: ”The establishment of a permanent Court of Arbitration by the treaty of the 29th of July, 1899, is the most important step forward, of a world-wide humanitarian character, that has ever been taken by the joint powers, as it must ultimately banish war, and further, being of opinion that the cause of peace will greatly benefit by the erection of a court house and library for the permanent Court of Arbitration,” etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The new Peace Palace, The Hague, Holland.

The site of this building, which will be ready for occupancy in 1912, is near The Hague. Its exterior will resemble some of the old city walls to be seen in Holland. The various governments which were parties to the treaty have contributed materials for the completion of the interior and objects of art for decoration. The United States presented a large marble group of statuary called ”Peace Through Justice.”

Two notable congresses were held in the United States during the year 1904, for the purpose of promoting the peace of the world. The Inter-Parliamentary Union held a meeting, the twelfth in its history, in connection with the World's Fair at St. Louis. This organization was founded at Paris in 1888 by thirty members of the French Chamber of Deputies and ten members of the British Parliament, for the purpose of promoting the cause of peace and arbitration. Scoffed at from the beginning, the Union continued to grow until it included parliamentary delegates from every European country having a const.i.tutional form of government.

The meeting of the Union at St. Louis was the first to be held in the United States, for this country took no part in the organization until 1903. Russia and Turkey, having no parliaments, are not represented in the meetings of the Union. It is a noteworthy fact however that the Czar sent an official representative to the meeting in 1896 and that it was due to his report of that meeting, more than to any other cause, that the Czar invited the nations to send representatives to The Hague in 1898.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ten men seated around a conference table.]

Russian and j.a.panese Peace Envoys in session at Portsmouth, N. H.

In the congress at St. Louis, representatives from the deliberative bodies of fifteen nations were present. Among these delegates were some of the well-known public men from Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, the United States, and various other countries. They were practical men and not dreamers.

Two important resolutions resulted from the gathering. One of these called upon the powers to intervene and put an end to the war between Russia and j.a.pan. The other invited the President of the United States to call a second peace congress, similar to the Hague conference. The resolution, addressed to President Roosevelt, stated that there were a number of questions left unsettled from the first Hague conference and that new problems had arisen since that time which demanded readjustment, such as the use of wireless telegraphy in the time of war.

On October 3 of the same year an international peace congress was held in Boston. Numerous congresses of this nature have been held from time to time since the meeting of the first one in London in 1843. Since the year 1888, when a congress was held in Paris, an international peace congress has met each year with the exception of 1895, the year of the Boer war, and in 1898 and 1899, on account of the Spanish-American war.

The first of these congresses in America was held in conjunction with the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, 1893. There were in attendance at Boston distinguished statesmen, clergymen, scholars, and professional men, and a number of noted women, representing the many peace and arbitration societies in Great Britain, Germany, Austria, and numerous other countries.

On the Sunday before the opening of the congress, special services were held in many of the Boston churches and the peace movement was discussed by distinguished preachers from Europe and America. In the deliberative sessions, which were held in Faneuil Hall, the Old South Meeting House, and other places, the first session being opened by an address by Secretary of State John Hay, the following topics, among others, were discussed: the work and influence of the Hague Tribunal; the reduction of the armaments of the nations; education and the peace sentiment. But here, as in every previous congress, the two topics to receive primary consideration have been arbitration and disarmament. At all times there has been the urgent appeal to the nations to abandon the brutality and injustice of war and to adopt the humane and just methods of peace.

In response to the resolution adopted at St. Louis, President Roosevelt, on October 20, 1904, invited the nations which had taken part in the first Hague conference to another conference at the same place. But in his message to Congress of that year he defined very clearly his own position, condemning in no uncertain terms the thought of peace at any price. ”There are kinds of peace,” he said, ”which are highly undesirable, which are in the long run as destructive as any war. The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven weakness, the peace of injustice--all these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous war.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: Building appears to be a church.]

Building where the second Peace Conference was held, The Hague, Holland.

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