THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES WORLD ORGANIZATION BY RAYMOND L. ISRIDGMAN PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL LTNION GINN & COMPANY, BOSTON Copyright, 1905 By RAYMOND L. BRIDGIVIAN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3T^«^ NOTE Some of the following chapters, in more or less dif- ferent form, first appeared in magazines. " The World Legislature," first of the series, was published in The Atlantic Monthl I/, March, 1903; "National Sovereignty Not Absolute," in The Arena, April, 1904; "The World Constitution " appeared in The Neiv England Magazine, July, 1904; and "The World Executive," in the September number of the same periodical of the same year. "World Organization Secures World Peace" first appeared in Tlte Atlantic Motithlg, September, 1904. Acknowledgment of the courtesy of the publishers of these magazines in consenting to the use of the articles in this volume is hereby gratefully made by the author. Ill 627445 CONTENTS Page Chapter I — World Unity 1 Fiiuls the existing unity of mankind the condition from which the organization of tlie world as a single political body is sure to be developed. Chapter II — National Sovereignty not Absolute . 6 Urges the point that no national sovereignty is absolute, but tliat only the sovereignty of mankind is absolute. Chapter III — The World Constitution 20 Points out the real world constitution in the rights and rela- tions oF individuals and of nations, and calls attention to a world bill of rights and a world form of government which the nations are now formulating, thougli both are still unwritten. Chapter IV — The World Legislature 41 Shows why the establishment of a permanent world legisla- ture in the near future seems necessary and probable lor the transaction of the business of the world. Chapter V — The World Judiciary 55 Holds that the Hague Court of Arbitration is likely to be the foundation of a world judiciary. Chapter VI — The World Executive 63 Forecasts the development of the world executive depart- ment and shows how germs of it have already begun to grow. Chapter VII — World Legislation already accom- plished 71 Cites instances of world legislation now in practical effect. V vi CONTENTS PAGE Chapter VTIT — World Business now pending ... 77 Mentions important measures of world business already press- ing for attention by a world legislature. CiiAPTEH IX — National Constitutions 88 Shows that widely dissimilar national constitutions are not _^ an obstacle to the organization of the world. Chapter X — The Supremacy of Races 92 Gives reasons to show that world organization, with perma- nent national boundaries am! secure peace, will not interfere with the virility and expansion of races nor check beneficent forces. Chapter XI — The Mind of the World 109 Attempts to give an idea of the world enthusiasm and the woi"ld impetus which would follow world organization. Chapter XII — Forces active for World Unity . . 123 Presents some of the activities which are already operative for the unity of the world. Chapter XIII — World Organization secures World Peace 128 Sets forth that permanent peace between the nations will be an incident of the organization of the world, one among other vast benefits. Chapter XIV — World Peace 147 Pictures .some of the respects in which the world will be revolutionized and prosper under the inspiration and protection of permanent peace. Appendixes 159 The Appendixes consist of documents showing the course and unexpectedly successful progress of the present formal movement for world organization until it was given a recognized standing in the programme of the second peace conference of the nations at The Hague. WOULD ORGiVmZATIOI^ CHAPTER I WORLD UNITY In the following pages the proposition will be main- tained that it is time for direct work to organize man- kind into one political body. Whether the consummation is near or remote is not a pertinent consideration. The one pertinent fact is that tlie time for work has come. In dealing with the affairs of mankind it is best to be honest with ourselves. It is time to drop falsehood and to admit the truth. The great falsehood in world affairs, seemingly held as truth, is that mankind consists nor- mally of separate portions and that nations rightfully have absolute sovereignty. But the affirmation here made is that mankind is one, and that above the sovereignty of nations is the sovereignty of the world as a single body. Blame is here imputed to no one for the persistence of the falsehood. The world has grown up in it. But the world is wiser and better than ever before. The relations of the masses of mankind to each other have changed greatly in recent years, and they are changing rapidly as time goes on. If no action is taken in view of the changed facts, blame may hereafter be charged justly, where formerly it could not have been charged without injustice. 1 2 WORLD ORGANIZATION This effort for world organization makes no apology. It seeks only to secure recognition of truth, followed by- action based upon truth ; and it can justly say that it has a rightful claim upon the attention of the woiid. It has encountered scoffing on the ground that it is visionary or premature, but it is confident that by the power of truth and in the progress of events the scoffers will be converted or silenced ; they are a negligible quantity compared with the many who have already given the effort their sincere approval and are working for its success. As far as the relations of men are concerned the most vital truth is the unity of the race. That unity will in the fullness of time, by its very nature as a fundamental fact, annihilate all divisive forces of color, language, religion, prejudice, class, distance, and ignorance. It will hold mankind together by unbreakable but unbur- densome bonds, and it will bring permanent peace and prosperity in place of the discord and loss which these divisive forces in their perverted phases entail upon men, and will make them subservient to their true function as sources of benefit in their diversity. For all purposes of progress and organization it is safe to rest upon this foundation of world unity. We can afford to leave untouched the dispute of the ethnol- ogists whether the races are of single or plural origin. If they came from one stock, it accords with the com- mon belief and with the declaration of Paul on Mars' hill that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." But if the races are of plural origin, it nevertheless remains WOULD UNITY 3 true that the most diverse races are so nearly alike that many able men of science still hold that the plurality has not been demonstrated. If, therefore, the divergence of the extreme types is so slight as not to convince specialists, it may safely be overlooked as a practical factor in the relations of races to each other and of individuals among themselves as respectively parts and atoms of one immense whole. For practical purposes, for the truth as to the fitness of men to work and to live together, for the truth regarding their mutual rights and duties, for a sound position regarding their fundamental equality as indi- vidual fi'ee wills, it is safe to proceed on the theory that mankind is one in origin, and that the unity into wliich the individuals are created is a stronger centralizing force than any diversity caused by color, climate, lan- guage, religion, or social condition. So it is safe, in working toward the political unity of mankind, to build on the affirmation that every human being from the degraded savage in the depth of Africa to the consummate flower of German universities, the perfection of royal blood, or the creation of Croesus' household, is born into a unity from which he cannot escape, in which he has rights, and to which he owes service, — a unity which comprehends all diversity of human types, a unity which will triumph over all divi- sive tendencies, and a unity which will attain its ideal only when it has organs through which it can act when, in the might and enthusiasm of world consciousness, world pinpose, and world will, it reaches the sublime heights of its own being, recognizes its own dignity and 4 WORLD ORGANIZATION capacity, and essays to do what is befitting its lofty nature in order to promote its own peace and prosperity. It is not to the point to aflirm, even though it be true, that hitherto the divisive tendencies have mastered the vital unity of mankind and made the nations present the pitiable and needless spectacle of fragments of the race in deadly collision. It is not conclusive against pres- ent progress to show that in the past the nations have been like robbers greedy of the property of their victims, or like wild beasts thirsting for each other's blood. A new era has come. " Old things are passed away." Arbitration, already spoken of as an epidemic among the nations, promises to substitute a world court for war as a means of settling international differences. Repeated instances of special world legislation by con- ferences or congresses representing all nations of the earth, or at least many of the great Powers, foretell the development of a world legislature with true legislative functions for all mankind, while the germ of a world executive which has already begun its feeble existence gives promise of the day when the world administration will be developed to the full energy of an official organ. Mankind, being one body, must have organs if it is to do anything ; and political bodies are completely equipped with organs when they have those that will furnish a means to express the intelligence and the will of the organism, a means to determine whether the will applies to particular cases, and a means to carry out the will. In other words, a political organism must have legislative, judicial, and executive departments ; having these in due efficiency and detail, its organization is complete. WORLD UNITY 5 To secure this organization is the present duty of all who would promote the largest degree of peace and prosperity for all mankind. Witli organization the warring of the factions of the body will cease, and the energies of the race can be devoted to overcoming inter- nal evils which in the relations of classes and of persons derange the health of the body. With justice to every part, which is demanded by the health of the whole, will be secured health for every part. With all parts working together witJi a common consciousness of unity, the prosperity and the enjoyment of all individuals included in the mighty whole will so far exceed any present enjoyment that the existing order of things, disorganized, crippled, inefficient, and diseased, will be looked back upon with amazement and shuddering. Organization is tlie inexorable condition for attain- ing this culmination of good. It has already begun to come. The new order of things is already here. It is time now to promote intelligently what has been com- ing without full comprehension by the actors in the events, though they have surely been filled, hi many cases, with the inspiration and strength of prophetic vision. We have a clearer outlook than they, and it is now our opportunity to work in tlie l)righter light and with the better understanding which the progress of events has given us. Events have biought mankind to the stage in which it seems ready to realize the formal unity for which it is fitted and for which it seems to have been created. CHAPTER II -NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY NOT ABSOLUTE Directly across the path of the movement to organize the world stands the obstacle of absolute national sov- ereignty as it is asserted by the nations. But this obstacle is not insupeiable, for in a large view of the world there is no such tiling as the absolute sovereignty of any nation. Upon that point world education is necessary in order to establish a secure foundation for the organization of the world which seems sure to be developed with the progress of mankind. What increases the difficulty in this world education is the fact that no precedent exists in favor of the posi- tion to be established. On the contrary, from the be- ginning of history an unbroken line of precedents of unquestioned authority exists in favor of national sover- eignty. The argument therefore flies in the face of the universal experience of mankind. Yet the organic unity of the race is foreseen by an increasing number of men, and the demonstration which is sufficiently clear already for the prophetic is being rapidly facilitated by the opera- tion of steam and electricity in bringing the ends of the world together. In due time, as the workers for world organization believe, in spite of the unbroken line of precedents, the world will admit that absolute national sovereignty is a relic of a barbaric past and that world 6 NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY NOT ABSOLUTE 7 sovereignty is the dominant fact in the relations of the nations to each other. The fact that precedent is in favor of the doctrine of national sovereignty ought not to be finally convincing in view of the velocity of progress which to-day has little mercy for the doubts and timidity of conservatism. Our average American realizes to-day what was not realized in the past by tyrants, emperors, and great moguls, — that he who stands in the way of progress will suffer a collision, and that it is not the car of progress which will be overturned. Why can there be no such thing as absolute national sovereignty? Because outside of every nation which may claim to be absolutely sovereign exist organized communities of men over whom it has no sovereignty and over whom it claims no sovereignty. The mere existence of such communities establishes relations between them and any nation which may claim to be sovereign, — since both are upon the same planet, — and conditions and limitations are imposed upon any nation which may claim to be supreme. It is true that any nation may deny the fact of such limitations, may ignore the existence of outside nations, may erect an intended impassable barrier around itself and establish a national policy of attempted absolute sovereignty. But there is only one China, and the experience of that country proves the folly of trying to deny the supreme fact in the empire's existence. Greater in the liistory of any nation than the fact of its sovereignty within its limits is the fact that the world is greater than itself, and that to ignore this supreme condition is supreme folly. 8 WORLD ORGANIZATION The existence of other nations is itself a conclusive reason why no nation can be absolutely sovereign. It must have relations with its neighbors. Those relations must affect its internal policy. In fact, it is recognized in civilized governments that treaties are a part of the supreme law of the land. Whatever party Inay be in power in a nation, agreements and formal relations established with other nations must be recognized, at whatever disregard of the national legislation. To this extent already has the world advanced in recognizing the limitations upon national sovereignty. It is in the very nature of things that nations recog- nize their limitations and establish this principle of the supremacy of treaties. The fundamental fact is that outside of themselves are other peoples who will do something to them unless they act so as not to hurt those other peoples. Even if a nation supposes that it can act as it pleases inside its own limits, it finds its mistake if it passes beyond a certain line which the sensibilities or common sense of outside nations regard as the limit of conduct to be tolerated. Spain in Cuba is a sufficient illustration for the people of this country, while the condemnation of the European governments by the outraged sentiment of Christendom for failing to prevent the massacres of the Armenians illustrates what would have been the verdict of civilization if those unspeakable horrors had been stopped by force. Slave traders and pirates are recognized as common enemies of mankind, and slave-trading and piratical peoples, as in the case of Arabs in equatorial Africa and the Mediterranean pirates of the early days of the NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY NOT ABSOLUTE 9 American republic, can, in so far as their deeds offend the common conscience of other nations, be rightfully deprived of sovereign powers at the will of these nations, with no claim to redress. When we come to examine thus the positions already held by civilized nations, it is clear that they practically recognize material encroachments upon the principle of national sovereignty. In order to secure assent to a posi- tion essential to successful world organization, a further clearing up of ideas rather than any radical change is the need of the hour. Common conditions imposed upon all nations make their status substantially the same in their relation to each other. Each people exercises a limiting and conditioning influence upon every other people. Each must recognize conditions which every other must recognize. It is for the common good that these conditions be submitted to. It is somewhat with nations as it is with men. Nations are sovereign ; men are free. But the recog- nized limitations upon the free action of men are no more real than the limitations upon the sovereignty of nations. From the savage up to the highest product of civilization, the individual man, with a will truly free, is yet so limited by circumstances that his freedom is rather a freedom of choice between riglit and wrong than full freedom of choice regarding the acts of life. The savage is not under a code of enacted law like the citizen of the United States; but, in addition to the restraints of force put upon him by surrounding savages, he must, even if he is chief of his tribe, work or hunt or fight in order to maintain his family and his position. 10 WORLD ORGANIZATION _ The civilized man, in addition to the code of enacted law, is under other imperative conditions. Whether he exerts himself in the pulpit, or at the bar, or at the i>low, he is surrounded by conditions not of his choosing, at many of which he may chafe, but which he is forced to observe, though he is at every moment of his life a per- ^son with free will. Free men, as they develop from the savage state up to the condition of subjection to formal law, have recognized their relations to each other and have become organic communities. Just as truly the nations, organic within themselves, are on tlieir way to the organic unity of the whole of mankind, and the attain- ment of organic unity by a race, or by the people under one government, is warrant and prophecy of the attain- ment of the organic unity of all mankind. When that organic unity shall have -been attained, mankind must have some organic form of expressing its will regarding the interrelations of the several parts, and the world legislature is sure to come. Such an organ of expression would correspond to the Congress of the United States for the states composing the political body over which it lias jurisdiction ; and there would be a constant suc- cession of subjects demanding the attention of the world legislature as long as there was any progress by mankind. Interpreting history in this light, the experience of the nations in their development up to their present {)oint of government by law illustrates the process which is going on toward the recognition of a law of mankind superior to all laws of nations. The sovereignty of man- kind, though not yet formally established, is so clearly NATIONAL S()YERETC;NTY NOT ABSOLUTE 11 indicated by the progress of man that it seems only a short step to the formal recognition of that world sov- ereignty which is a necessary condition to the establish- ment of a formal body politic of the world. What is it which the nations are asked to recognize in the case of world organization, as the proposition now stands? It is the simple, supreme fact that con- ditions are over them which they did not create, which are inexorable in their demands for recognition, and whose penalties are inevitable if they are disregarded. " Mankind is one. Will you admit it? " That is practi- cally the form in which the question comes to the nations. Suppose! that the United States invites the nations of the world to a meeting for the purpose of establisliing a legislative body for the world. Will the nations, in acting upon such an invitation, insist upon their sover- eignty to the extent of refusing to agree to world legis- lation unless it is ratified by the home government? Such will be their attitude at first, for nations, like men, are slow to surrender the form of powei-. But ulti- mately, viewed in regard to their relation to mankind, it would be as unwise and as obstructive to progress for the nations to insist upon their formal national sov- ereignty as it would have been for tlie states of the United States to have insisted that no act of Congress should be valid within their limits until it had been approved by the state governments. World relations are not things of human creation. The unity of mankind is not some scheme which cer- tain men have evolved out of their imaginations and are trying to foist upon the world as a machine which 12 WORLD ORGAXTZATIOX promises to work well. Nations are put into the con- ditions in which they find themselves. Already, to a con- siderable degree, they recognize these conditions. They seem to go halfway ; but their timid men are profoundly unwilling to go the other half of the way, — to admit that they are really under conditions which are supreme an3 in the recognition of which they will really find their greatest peace and prosperity. Recoofnition of truth cannot hurt either men or nations ; denial of truths-must always hurt both. The challenge to the timid, then, is this, — that nations are not ultimately and supremely sovereign, that they are parts of an organic whole, and that the recognition of this will be for their unspeakable advantage ; it will harmonize them with conditions which are stronger than national power and which must be obeyed to secure the highest development. If any objector seeks to prove that nations are absolutely sovereign, that mankind is essentially fragmentary and conflict the only prospect, he will make a picture darker than the gloomiest pes- simist has yet painted for the future of mankind. Let us pass on to another consideration, — the readiness of the world for such organization as will recognize the sovereignty of mankind and demonstrate practically that nations are only parts of one organic whole. Most pertinent of the many facts which might be gathered is the concert of the Powers of Europe. In the light of the formal relations of nations here is a very singular condition. So far as we know or have reason to believe, there exists, as the basis of this concert, no treaty what^ ever, no formal or informal alliance, but only mutual NATIONAL SOVERETC.NTY NOT ABSOLUTE 13 good will or recognition of mutual interest upon the matters regarding which there is concert of action, and an agreement of judgment upon the policy which is to be pursued. That is, in their relations among them- selves as a group having similar relations to outside nations, they recognize the common conditions which are over them all and shape their conduct accordingly. Practice under those conditions is steadily at work set- ting up a line of precedents and shaping the course which will be follow^ed in the future for the internal peace of the group and for its combined strength among the nations as a whole. In a dim and partial way the concert of Powers is a recognition of the world consti- tution, and it foreshadows a wider field of agreements among nations whereby the organic unity of all will be recognized and the prosperity of all will be promoted. A pertinent illustration of nations acting by a com- mon understanding, without written agreements, is the joint action by the United States, Russia, Germany, England, France, Italy, and other nations in the troubles in China. These illustrations may be reenforced by the list of over thirty international conferences or congresses which have been held since 1815, — some of them attended by representatives of large groups of nations, — and more especially by the establishment of the Hague Court of Arbitration. Unity of action by groups of nations for their common benefit is becoming increasingly frequent. It is found practicable for the nations to act together ; they have tried it repeatedly and have succeeded. It is no longer an experiment. 14 AVORLD ORGANIZATION World progress, then, has reached the point where it seems almost ready to crystalize around the unity of mankind as the organic principle of existence. The fullness of time seems almost here. Practically the nations have been acting for years upon the same principle which they would act upon if they formally adnlitted that their sovereignty was not absolute but limited by and subordinate to the sovereignty of man- kind. Treaties and alliances, known to ancients and moderns alike, have been, attended in recent years by further development, until a group of nations acts with- out written constitution or binding promise upon a pol- icy toward the one nation, China ; while a concert of Powers of the great nations of Europe holds the rudder true for a continuous policy regarding Avhatever matters may transpire that involve their common welfare. Does not this condition demonstrate the. existence of higher power than national sovereignty, and the recog- nition of that existence by the nations themselves? It would seem as if statesmen were behind the times in not formally recognizing what is so evident. World unity seems ready to drop like a ripened fruit into the hand of the nation which will first pluck it and pre- sent it to mankind. Alreadv the nations, like a team learning to pull together, have had practice. They would not enter upon their new formal relation with- out experience, if they should establish genuine world organization; they would merely exert further the powers they have already exerted in groups, and they would con- cede to the entire world only what they have practically conceded to each other in less extended relations. NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY NOT ABSOLUTE 15 Nominally world sovereignty does not exist. Nomi- nally each nation is absolute sovereign, contradictory as this idea is to the admitted facts in each nation's existence. This condition brings us face to face with the fact that the most important condition which can exist on earth for mankind is not yet formally admitted to exist. The entity of the unity of mankind is denied by the present doctrine regarding the sovereignty of the nations. We are therefore on a fundamentally wrong basis. This error is not merely theoretical ; it is most vitally practical ; it concerns the progress of mankind more than any other political or social truth which remains to be proclaimed. Up to the present moment the nations assert that diverse races and nations have hostile interests, — that what is for the good of one is for the injury of another. Humanity has consisted of colliding fragments crashing upon each other for mutual injury and destruction, save as the greater truth, which they do not yet recognize, has counteracted the theory upon which the nations exist as sovereign. But the greater truth is overcoming the error, and we can already see, evidently in the near future, the recognized supremacy of the sovereignty of all mankind as the dom- inant truth in the relations of the nations, with iiational sovereignty relegated to its proper subordinate place. Sound theory and right practice unite in world sov- ereignty. By the theology which shaped the early development of the United States, Avhose truth is seen in the vitalit}' of the American principles of government, no person was in his natural and right relation unless he was in harmony with the powers supreme over his 16 WORLD ORGANIZATION personal life. This truth is applicable to nations as well as to persons. Unless nations are in their right relation to the supreme conditions amid which they exist, they will suffer from constant frictions, collisions, disturbance of peace, destruction of wealth, and the ceaseless wastes which accompany want of harmony with the-laws which are supreme over them. Mankind as a whole comes under the same truth. If it is not acting as an organic whole when organic unity is its normal condition, thep progress must be hapiiazard, slow, seriously checked at times, and in every way infe- rior to the advance w'hich might be made if the obstruc- tions were removed. Nations severally and mankind as a whole can find their greatest prosperity only by adjust- ment to the higher law. They must put themselves into harmony with forces which condition their very existence and constantly control their action. The historic fact that hitherto nations have shut their eyes to the condi- tions has not removed or weakened them. They are over each nation to-day, inexorable if neglected or defied, but full of beneficence if obeyed. Throughout the swift succession of events which will surely culminate in the formal organization of the world, in the recognition of the supremacy of the world constitution, and in the consequent more rapid prog- ress of mankind, the United States will surely take a leading part. Though we did not originate the Hague Court of Arbitration, we carried to it the first case it had, and thereby set the example of making that court a prac- tical force among nations. Leadership for world organi- zation is in accord with the ambition of our people and NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY NOT ABSOLUTK 17 in line with our institutions. It is a logical consequence of our daily principles and practice more than is the case with any other nation of the world. It accords with American largeness of ideas and with our fondness for a wide field of action. American leadership would pro- mote world prosperity, peace, and progress unspeakably more than any other step that can be imagined. It would involve unselfish sinking of ourselves in the larger whole, but it would be an unselfishness that would give us a nobler pride than any narrower course could possibly awaken. It would mark fur all time the most important epoch in the history of mankind as a unit ; and that fact alone, whatever the mutations of nations and what- ever the degree of world progress in the numberless centuries to come, would inake the name of the Uidted States of America, should it rise to this high leadership, immortal. We are united in practice, to a larger degree than the people of any other country in the world which can com- pare at all favorably with ours in size and prestige, upon the very principles of political organization and action which must be recognized, in a wider scope, in the organi- zation of the world. Ours is the fitness for the initial step, and the fitness which makes the opportunity imposes also the duty. The United States, in the very nature of the case, has the qualifications for contribut- ing to the advancement of mankind in this matter more than any other nation on the face of the earth. But natio!)s maybe suspicious. They may not see the prodigious strength and scope of the idea which we present to them. It is for the people of the United 18 WORLD OlUiANIZATlON States, then, to disarm botli opposition and criticism by taking the attitude which will most surely induce other nations to listen to its proposition and to follow its example. Since renunciation of the claim of absolute sovereignty in the presence of world sovereignty is a condition of attaining the highest ideal, the United States ought to stand before the world frank and open- handed and say that it offers to recognize world sover- eignty as supreme in matters relating to world interests, thus carrying up to a higher level the principles it al- ready recognizes in its internal relations. With that offer, sincere, never to be withdrawn, always to be built upon by other nations, a positive foundation would be laid for the development of a world organization which would in time include legislative, judicial, and execu- tive departments. Who shall take the initiative in the movement for world organization? Men of all degrees of intelligence and capacity for organic action people this round world, most of them, however, out of touch with other men outside of a limited circle, comparatively few of them accustomed to self-government under their political system. The initiative would come most readily from a . people with experience in self-government, with capacity for organization, with some race or national conception of the unity of mankind and of the subordinate place of the nation in the world organism. It might come from a people acting through a limited monarchy whose legislative branch spoke the will of the most intelligent and controlling portion of the people, or whose sover- eign acted in obedience to popular desire. Possibly it NATIONAL SOVEUEKJNTY NOT ABSOLUTE 19 might come from an absolute sovereign who was per- sonally sufficiently progressive and courageous to take the initial step. But the fittest place for the initiative is in the greatest republic of the world. The United States is the fittest and most likely place in which a proposition for world organization in practical form could originate. We have constant experience with the com- plete sovereignty of the states in some fields of action, joined with national sovereignty in others. We are not yet an empire; the genius of our institutions forbids it. Instinctively we act constantly upon the correct princi- ple that local justice is best secured through local sov- ereignty, while in matters of national concern, national authoi'ity, acting through a national executive enforcing laws passed by national representatives elected locally, is best for the security of justice and progress. CHAPTER III THE WORLD CONSTITUTION Inherent in mankind as a body of persons with rela- tions to each other are the principles which make for justice in those relations^ There are principles govern- ing service by men to men and by mankind to mankind. These relations were not made by men and they are beyond the control of men. But the proposition here is that there is coming the organization of the world as a single political body; and the union of mankind into one political body implies a constitution. The formation of the world constitution has actually begun and it is wonderful to see how far it has advanced. The demonstration is strong when the facts already established by international action are put together and interpreted. Different things may be meant by the word " consti- tution" when applied to a nation.. Fundamentally, there are the inherent rights and relations of the people, which may be termed the constitution given by nature. An individual may supply an illustration. A man's consti- tution is the organic total of the mechanical, chemical, vital, intellectual, and spiritual principles which enter into his physical, intellectual, and spiritual structure. So a nation's constitution consists of the organic total of the powers and rights of the people. Similarly, all 20 THE WORLD CONSTITUTION 21 the people of the world stand in some sort of relation to each other. They have their rights as against each other; they have their duties to each other, and the organic relations of all rights and duties are the natural consti- tution of mankind. " Constitution " is the word applied also to the written efforts to express the natural constitution. These efforts are the bills of rights of different states and nations, which in themselves do not directly determine a form of government. The term " constitution " is more pop- ularly used to express the form of government adopted to secure the principles expressed in bills of rights. Over the natural constitution men have no control whatever, but must submit unconditionally. The second use of " constitution " shows men's efforts to comprehend and express the natural constitution. "Constitution" in the third sense is a framing of means to attain the rela- tions which the natural constitution determines and the written constitution attempts to express. In the nature of the case, the natural constitution is and must forever remain unwritten. Other constitutions may be written or unwritten, and may combine a bill of rights and a form of government in one document. A bill of rights is of more importance than a f(M-m of gov- ernment, for it implies a perception of principles and tries to give them exact expression. To secure these principles the constitution which is a form of govern- ment is only a means. Hence the significance, in the case of over u score of the states of our Union, of the fact that they have each a bill of rights as a part of the con- stitution. To secure those rights is the purpose of that 22 WORLD ORGANIZATION part of their constitutions which provides the form of government, and the form is wholly subordinate to the purpose. The rights of the state as a whole and of the peo^jle personally as parts of the whole are the fundamen- tal part of these constitutions. The form of government is conditioned by them, and the framework must be so put together at every point that the rights and the prosperity of the whole shall be secured at every point; this will carry with it the rights, security, and prosperity of every part. I*ublic and private rights and relations are both com- prehended in a bill, or declaration, of rights. For instance, among the thirty articles in the Declaration of Rights in the Massachusetts constitution are the following asser- tions: that all men are free and equal; that religious worship is a duty; that the power of the people is sovereign; that public officers are accountable public agents ; that private property must be protected ; that the press must be free ; that standing armies are dan- gerous to the liberties of the people in time of peace ; that elections should be frequent ; that the right of peti- tion must be preserved ; that there should be frequent sessions of the legislature ; that soldiers must not be quartered upon citizens in time of peace; that the judiciary must be independent of all political or mer- cenary influence ; and that each department of the gov- ernment must be distinct and independent of both the others. That is, the Declaration of Rights concerns itself both with the whole political body and with the ultimate particles of which the whole is composed, rec- ognizing rights and relations in both, and preserving the rights of both amid tlieir relations. THE WORLD CONSTITUTION 23 In the development of government in England and in the United States demands for bills of rights have been more conspicuous than struggles over forms of government. This shows how the sense of the people has seen the truth that the natural constitution is supreme over all human documents or schemes, and tliat it is of the highest importance that peoples should have a right understanding of the natural constitution. Passing down English history from the charter given by Henry I at his coronation in 1101 to the Magna Charta of John in 1215, the " Confirmatio Chartarum " of Edward I in 1297, the legal forms and jury trials of Henry VI in 1429, the Petition of Right under Charles I in 1628, the Agreement of the People in 1619, the Instrument of Government in 1653, the Habeas Corpus act in 1679, and the great Bill of Rights in 1689, it is seen that nearly every one of these vital steps toward liberty for the people concerns rights and relations, not forms of government. Given the right principle in the relations of the people and the upper classes and tlieir sovereign, it seems to have been assumed that the form of government would shape itself to the desired end. In the United States, though nominally there is no national bill of rights, yet really there is one. Tlie Declaration of Independence has a passage which expresses truly, broadly, and grandly rights and rela- tions whicli go to the very heart of the form of govern- ment. It says : We hold these truths to be self-evident: — That all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- tain unalienable rights ; tliat among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hapjiiness.. 24 WORLD ORGANIZATION There is the true spirit and a true form, brief though it be, of a genuine bill of rights. At the end of the Declaration is a further passage which belongs in the same class : that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; . . . and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. When we come to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States a few years later, though it seems to be occupied with the form of government, yet we find in the preamble a recognition of the natural con- stitution of the nation, made by the Creator, and also in the preamble the spirit of a bill of rights : We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insm-e domestic tranquility, pro- vide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establisli this Constitution of the United States of America. Justice, unity, and organic relations are all asserted in these words. So we find on the part of the people a recognition of the natural constitution. Efforts to approximate to it have been made in bills of rights. It appears in the formal constitution, or form of government, whose pur- pose was to secure the rights and to maintain the rela- tions asserted in the bills of rights. Englishman and American alike have shown this appreciation of the natural constitution. England's constitution is said to THE A\()HLI) CONSTITUTION 25 be unwritten. Yet the list given above of documents declaratory of rights and relations of the people shows that it is only the subordinate portion — the form of government — that is not put into the form of enact- ment by the popular will. The bills of rights of Eng- land are written, and they were secured only by terrible conflicts, — by the blood of martyrs for truth and country, who represented the mass of the people against the few. The form of government of the United States, on the other hand, is written. Its bill of rights is short, com- pared with the written forms of P^ngland. But both of tliese countries, notwithstanding this diversity of prac- tice, have moved toward a single goal, — the security of the rights of every person in the nation, rich or poor, white or black. Having seen by these illustrations the nature of con- stitutions and the different things meant by the same word, we now return to the world constitution. Though the world constitution is unwritten, and must always remain so, yet it has been recognized by the world. This has been done specifically by civilized nations. It will surprise those who regard all ideas of world organiza- tion as Utopian to see how far the world has already traveled along this road toward a recognized world body politic. To make this clear beyond dispute, we need first to see just what is meant by international law and by world constitution. International law is fitly named. It is law. It is not constitution. It is an expression of the intelligence and will of the nations upon certain subiects. The world constitution is the unicm of the 26 WORLD ORGANIZATION principles which determine the relations of the nations. Thus far the body of international law relates largely to the practices of nations in war. In a state or nation law implies and reveals a constitution, written or unwritten, back of it and determining its form ; and in the same way international law implies and reveals the world constitution which lies back of such law and determines its form. Though no nation has ever said a word about a world constitution, and J^iiough the very idea may not have been in the minds of those who have given form to statements of international law, yet the existence of that constitution is implied and revealed in the inter- national law regarding practices in war. What is the chief burden of international law? It is that savage practices, that needless slaughter, that violations of humanity beyond certain limits must cease. This is the law of nations. But it depends upon the nature, the rights, and the relations of men. It reveals the true natural constitution upon which all mankind is organ- ized. Here, then, standing in the clear light of inter- national law, asserted by all civilized nations, stands Article I of the world constitution. To put it in words, we may frame it thus : Article I. All men are kindred; tlierefore nations must be humane. The international law which is based upon this prin- ciple illustrates, sharply and sadly, the contradictions and perversities in those who make the law based upon such a fraternal article. International law, affirming the THE WOULD CONSTITUTION 27 kinship of mankind, says practically this : " Provided men are not too savage, all manner of robbery, injus- tice, and slaughter may be perpetrated." In order to formulate rules about killing one another, the nations have based their international law upon recognition of the universal brotherhood of man. Having asserted that fundamental position, they impose limitations upon tlie slaughter, but by no means try to prevent it. National rights may be invaded, impaired, or completely destroyed ; national existence may be ended by force of arms amid fire and rapine and horrible death ; innocent people may be shot by the most diabolical inventions which modern ingenuity can devise, or butchered by cold steel with- out mercy, — provided only that a certain boundary is not passed which the common conscience of mankind has recognized as expressed in this first article of the world constitution. So the great world brute, on its upward development from brutality to spirituality, with its eyes bleared with sin and crime against what is the most fundamental truth of its very being, has seen and recog- nized, and has proclaimed so that it stands evident to all the world the sublime reality : " All men are kin- dred." Conscience-stricken, it issues the command : " Therefore nations must be humane." This article is unwritten. So is the form of govern- ment of England. But the fact that England has no form of government ever adopted as such by the people by one act does not necessitate the conclusion that Eng- land has no form of government at all. Neither does the fact that this article of tlie world constitution has not been adopted formally weigh at all against the truth 28 WOULD ORGANIZATION that, by the general recognition of international law, there is necessitated the establishment of this principle of humanity and kinship as the basis whereon it rests. Directly in line with international law, recognizing the kinship of all mankind and commanding the nations to be humane in their barbarities, is the action of the Geneva Congress of 1864, which established the Inter- national Red Cross Society. But, further and stronger than this, as an expression of the judgment and will of the nations, is the action of the Congress of St. Peters- burg in 1868, which condemned the use of especially barbarous bullets, followed by the Congress of Brussels in 1874 with a restatement of the laws of war and a further affirmation of the spirit of humanity. By their acceptance of the world legislation which was accom- plished in 1874, the nations have formally approved it; and tliat legislation is a distinct revelation and affirma- tion of this so-called Article I of the world constitution. But the nations of the civilized world have tacitly recognized more than one article of the world consti- tution. Other world legislation than the general body of international law has been enacted. Repeatedly the nations have met in formal deliberations, have agreed upon conclusions, have accepted those conclusions, and have declared that they would enforce them. They have established the Universal Postal Union. This includes all the nations of the world. It holds to one agreement the largest combination of different peoples and governments which has ever been formed. Formal action has been taken upon a specific matter which has been reduced to writing. Now the establishment of this THE WORLD CONSTITUTION 29 Union by formal agreement of uU tlie nations is an act of world legislation. It declares the will of mankind. Being a law of the world, it postulates a principle which is a part of the world constitution. That prin- ciple — a recognition of relations — joined with the accompanying obligation involved stands clear in the light of the law ; and so we get what we may properly call a second article in the world constitution : Article II. All men are social ; therefore intercommunication must be universal, reliable, and inexpensive. This declaration, in effect, is necessary as a basis of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union ; and since practically all mankind is embraced in the Union, all the world agrees to this statement of principle. But there are other illustrations of the recognition of the world constitution by action of the nations. In 1875 there met in Paris the Metrical Diplomatic Con- gress. It prepared the international metric convention and provided for a meeting at Paris at least every six years of a general conference on weights and measures. Here is a precedent for the proposed world legislature. The difference is that the latter proposition includes all matters of world interest, while the former includes only the subject of weights and measures. Now this action in 1875 was based upon recognition of something in mankind beyond what was recognized by tlie establish- ment of the Universal Postal Union. Nations all around the world must trade with each othei-, and it is a hin- drance to trade if the operation of weights and measures, whose function it is to determine quantities of goods, 30 WORLD ORCxANIZATION is obstructed by a confusion of standards. Here, then, in the international agreement regarding a common stand- ard of weights and measures, the nations have promul- gated a new law which rests upon the recognition of still another principle in the bill of rights of mankind ; and this principle may be formulated as another article in the world constitution ; Article III. Each part of the world needs all the other parts ; unimijeded exchange of the world's goods promotes world pros- perity; therefore obstacles^o such exchange must be removed. Mankind being one and being organized, at least to some extent, the needs of the several organs for nutri- ment and strength should be satisfied in the quickest and least expensive way. If within the human body free circulation of the elements of food to the parts where they are most needed promotes most the health of the body, and if it would injure the general health and weaken every part in detail to impede that circulation, then, by a like law, it promotes the health of the world organism of mankind to establish free circulation of supplies to every part, and it injures the general health and weakens every part in detail to impede that circu- lation. The use of common weights and measures pro- motes trade, and the vitality of the idea of a world money illustrates the strength and the persistence of the demand for all possible facilities of trade. It foreshadows the success of the efforts to relieve trade of all removable restrictions. But there has been recognized, tacitly, it is true, still another principle in the world constitution. In 1885 THE WOULD CONSTITUTION 31 there was held in Washington, D.C, at the invitation of the United States, the International Prime Meridian Conference. Twenty-six nations were represented, and this large group, including the controlling nations of the civilized world, adopted the meridian of Greenwich as their standard meridian. Individual national standards were set aside, and the nations did not compromise by taking some new meridian hitherto unused by any nation, but they adopted the standard of England. B}^ this action, which was another instance of world legislation, the nations recognized still another principle in the world bill of rights. It may be put into the form of words as follows : Article IV. Mankind advances most rapidly by cooperation; therefore national pride and prejudice must be discarded in order that nations may work together. There was held at Washington in 1889 the Marine Conference, which is said to have resulted in more quasi legislation than any previous world conference. This quasi legislation related to the rules of the sea, — the establishment and regulation of practices of navigation by vessels under the flags of different countries. Its broad purpose was the development of commerce and the protection of property and life. This quasi legislation involved still further recognition of the rights and relations of men as contained in the bill of rights of the world constitution. It is vital, for it goes to the very root of the existence of mankind as one. Recog- nizing the obligation which goes with the rights and relations, and putting the truth into words, we state as 32 WORLD ORGANIZATION follows this hitherto unwritten principle which is back of the international law formulated by the conference : Article V. World movements must be regulated by "^orld intelligence ; therefore the will of the people must be supreme over all the parts. By the very establishment of world law for the control "~of commerce the supremacy of the whole for the good of the whole is plainly and powerfully asserted. In 1890 the Brussels Antislavery Conference, repre- senting the civilized^ world more or less completely, agreed upon measures to suppress the African slave trade. This was an enactment of world law by world representatives (taking them as a whole) to the effect that slave trading must stop. Again a further principle of the bill of rights of the world constitution was recog- nized as the basis of this new law of the world. With the obligation it carries with it the written form may be put as follows : Article VI. Every part of mankind is of right entitled to free- dom ; therefore every power which attempts to enslave men must be destroyed. In 1892 and 1893 respectively occurred the Inter- national Sanitary Conferences at Venice and Dresden, attended severally by delegates of fifteen and nineteen nations. Here was a wholly new subject of world legis- lation, and certain lines of action were agreed upon by the nations represented. Certain things must be done for the health of the world. Back of this agreement of the nations upon a new decree of international law, therefore, stands another article of the world bill of THE WORLD COA'STITUTION 33 rights. With the obligation it carried with it we frame it thus : Article VIT. The illness of one is the peril of all; therefore all must be vigilant for tho health of each and of all. In 1899 occurred the Hague Peace Conference, resulting in the establishment of the Hague Court of Arbitration. Higher in rank than some of the con- gresses already mentioned and of great and lasting importance in the history of the world, this conference is worthy of mention in some detail. In the first place, the last sentence of the Czar's first circular, issued by Count Muravieff, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, recognized the true bill of rights of the world constitution, for it used the words : " the principles of equity and right on which rest the security of states and the welfare of peoples." This recognition the con- ference made its own by incorporating the words into the preamble of the immortal agreement. Further rec- ognition was made in the preamble by the adoption of the clause which reads : ^ recognizing the solidarity which unites the members of the society of civilized nations." Article I of the convention contains, for our purpose, the substance of the whole. It reads : With a view to ol)viating, as far as possible, recourses to force in the relations between states, the Signatory Powers agree to use tlieir best efforts to insure the pacific settlement of international differences. The establishment of the Hague Court of Arbitration was an act of world legislation of supreme importance. 34 WORLD ORGANIZATION Like every other instance of true legislation, it rests upon a principle. This world legislation discloses an- other principle of the bill of rights of the world constitution, recognized and affirmed by all the civilized nations when they signed the Hague agreement, — yes, even by those which are armed to the teeth, ready to fly at each other's throats upon provocation. Sublime amid arms, peaceful amid portents of war, true in the midst of doubters, faitliful amid the sneers of fighting men, it rises, a monument for all time: Article VIII. jNIankind is intellectual and moral, not material and brutal; therefore differences between nations must be settled by reason and right, not by force. With this great affirmation of the sober judgment and solemn purpose of the civilized world, we end this review of articles of the world bill of rights already established, noting the gratifying fact that the United States has been the pioneer in making this affirmation of vital force among the nations. Other congresses and the pan-American conferences are not of sufficient rank for mention here. Now where is the room for skepticism regarding the actual development of the constitution of the world body politic? The facts are sufficient demonstration, and the frequency of the dates in recent years shows how rapid is the momentum the movement has already acquired, even while most men deny that ife exists, and while many who believe in the formal organization of the world say that the times are now inopportune and that it will be a hundred years before the idea THE WORLD CONSTITUTION 35 is realized. To every skeptic the suf'licient answer is, " Look and see." But the case is much stronger yet. Look further. Take up the part of the constitution which follows the bill of rights, — the form of government. The skeptic is answered here as completely as in the case of the bill of rights. Every government must exercise the three functions of legislation, judicial determination, and exe- cution of the legislation. The logical development of the three is in that order. There must be an expression of the will of the government, a determination whether the will applies to the case, and the carrying out of the will if it does apply. World legislatures have sat repeatedly. World legis- lation has been enacted repeatedly. It is in force in the civilized world to-day. Peculiarities which distinguish it from national legislation are these : that world legis- lation is the enactment of bodies called to legislate upon one subject alone ; that there has been no established basis of representation or mode of procedure as world precedents ; that the nations severally have claimed or have been conceded a right of veto upon the enactment ; and that the application and enforcement of this Avorld law have been in the hands of the nations which have agreed to the legislation. But the essence of legislation is there, — the expression of judgment by the delegates and the consent of the will of the ratifying nations. Sufficient illustration is given in the case of the estab- lishment of th'^ Hague Court of Arbitration and the other agreements mentioned above, the agreements hav- ing bmding force and therefore being a self-imposed 36 WORLD ORGANIZATION law. Therefore Article I of the form of government of the world constitution has already been established by the civilized world. It stands as follows : Article I. There shall be a legislative department. Elaboration of sections under this article remains to \ye made, — the establishment of times and places of meeting, the basis of representation, the rules of pro- cedure, the determination of the validity of the enact- ments, and other details But w^orld legislation as an accomplished fact began long ago, and the facts are a conclusive answer to all who doubt. How about the world judiciary? The Hague Court of Arbitration is solely for the settlement of differences between nations. The language of the convention seems to imply that only two nations will be parties to one proceeding. At any rate, the proceedings presuppose differences between nations, and the convention has no reference to a general body of law to be applied to all nations. But, as far as the convention goes, it relates to judicial procedure, — to an appeal to reason rather than to force for a determination of rights and duties in cases of differences between nations. It has to do with an application to particular cases of this will of the nations, — that national differences be settled by reason and right. The very name of "court" and the possession of judicial methods make it probable that broader judicial functions will be added. Here is the germ of a judicial department, something out of which can be evolved, as necessity requires, a world court to pass upon the application of world law to any or to all nations. By THE WORLD CONSTITUTION 37 establishing this court tlie nations wrote the second article of the world form of government. Article II. There shall be a judicial department. But there is no such office as the world executive, the doubter may say. True, there is no world president yet. It is true that the nations rely upon each other severally to carry out world legislation. There is neither a world supreme court to issue an injunction against a nation disobeying the decision of the Hague Court of Arbitration, nor a world marshal to insist that the dis- obedient power must obey, nor a world police or world army to compel obedience. Each nation is to-day world executive for its own territory. That is as far as the evolution has progressed. But there is, notwithstanding, a very evident germ of a world executive. Boards, conunissions, and bureaus are branches of executive departments. Officers of such organizations are executive officers. Now, the Univer- sal Postal Union has a permanent secretary with an office at Berne, Switzerland. That Union is an execu- tive branch created by the world legislation which established it, as truly as the Massachusetts railroad commission, created by the legislature, is a part of the executive department of the state. Right at that point, then, the office of this secretary in Berne, we put the finger and say, " This permanent secretary is a true world executive." It is not necessary to begin with a world presider.t. It is not to the point to say that the secretary's duties may be few. He is the head of a per- manent executive body established by the will of all 38 WORLD ORGANIZATION nations of the world, — for this Universal Postal Union is peculiar in having the formal adherence of every nation on earth. Therefore the nations have estab- lislied tlie third article of the form of government of the world constitution. Article III. There shall be an executive department. This is all accomplished fact. The world constitution, though unwritten, is growing by development, just as the British constitution Jias grown ; and the essential truth of history can no more be denied in the case of the world than in the case of England. Thus far we have noted what has actually been accomplished in the development of the world consti- tution. In the world bill of rights we find tliat the nations have already asserted common kinship, social relations, organic unity, the supremacy of the good of the whole over the seeming good of any part, the supremacy of tlie intelligence of the whole over affairs which concern the whole, liberty common to all, care for the health of the whole, and the supremacy of reason over force. Other points remain to be established, some of which are already recognized in certain localities and inhere equally in all mankind, some of which have been noticed above in the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. In regard to the form of government the nations have already established the legislative, the judicial, and the executive departments. These three cover all possible fields. It remains, therefore, to develop in detail the organism of the world body politic in these several THE WORLD CONSTITUTION 39 departments and there cannot be the slightest doubt that the nations are moving forward to that development. If it were permitted to forecast the future regarding the world bill of rights, it might be noted tliat nowhere yet has there been an affirmation of equality. It seems to be a safe prediction that the Republic of Mankind will include in its bill of rights words like those in the Declaration of Independence : " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal"; or like those in the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights: " All men are born free and equal." Nowhere yet lias there been asserted the control of the property of the world by all mankind for the good of the whole, — a power corresponding to eminent domain in nations and in states of the United States, a power to take private property for the public good. Nor is there exercised a power to control transportation for the good of the whole. No effort has been made internation- ally to prevent evasion of national laws by combinations of lawbreakers in several countries, an evil which is possible because present- international law cannot touch such lawbreakers. It seems reasonable, then, to predict that articles will be added to the world bill of riglits somewhat as follows : World supplies are for the world ; therefore world monopolies must be prohibited. World transportation is for tlu' service of the world; therefore the carrying business of tlie world is subject to the control of the world. Following the common sense of the case and basing the prediction on practice common in the nations of 40 WORLD ORGANIZATION Germanic origin, it may be said that sooner or later the world bill of rights will contain an article of this tenor : Eacli locality has its rights against and its duties to the whole; therefore local self-government and centralized power must everywhere be justly respected. So, one after another, there will be added to the world bill of rights afhrmations of relations and duties, until a declaration is made which, with the world laws based upon it, will secure the ^subservience of every part of mankind to the good of the whole and guarantee to every part " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," protected by the power of the whole. CHAPTER IV THE WORLD LEGISLATURE Before the world had eflicient communication between its parts it could have no intelligence or opinion of its own as a whole. Until it gets some means of express- ing its intelligence and will, it will remain silent even if the intelligence and will exist. But conditions have been established whereby both world intelligence and world will upon some matters have already been developed and expressed, and they are coming to include a wider range of subjects. Achievements of trade and travel, of printing and reading, and of research and in- vention enable each part of the world to know so much of what the other parts are thinking and what they are doing, that the essential preliminary work for world organization is already well advanced, but without con- certed action and by impulse of blind forces. Now a more intelligent and concerted action is neces- sary. An organ whereby the world opinion can manifest itself is becoming imperative. Yet that opinion has already asserted itself repeatedly, and what has been done points clearly the way to what remains to be done. In the organization of the woi-ld an organ for express- ing the intelliofence and will of the world is the first necessity of the three which are needed for complete organization. 41 42 WORLD ORGANIZATION This organ may rightly be named the world legis- lature even though it may be many years before it reaches full development. Practically the same word in different languages (for its Latin origin makes it common to a large circle) expresses the real thing, a legislative body ; whereas other jiames, such as " parlia- ment " or " congress," are used for widely different things and do not have such j)recise significance. In the nature of the case, according to the law of evolution, the world legislature is the first world organ to be developed. It is already needed. World-legislative functions have already been exercised by the civilized and semi-civilized nations, as will be shown hereafter, and now the time is ripe for direct effort for the development of a truly legislative body for the service of all the nations. In order to make the idea seem more natural and feasible, especially for the people of the United States, they may well look first at their own political history. Before the adoption of the present constitution of the United States each of the colonies was a sovereign state. It could come into the Union, or it could remain out, as its people determined. No other state had a right to compel any one to join. All but one had no right to compel that one. But they all accepted the constitu- tion ; new states have been admitted ; and the civil war has settled it for all tim.e that each state is organically a living part of the people of the United States as a political body and that no state has a right to secede. The real constitution of the United States and of every other nation will always remain unwritten, in the THE WOULD LEGISLATURE 43 very nature of the case. But the people will approxi- mate to it as they learn more of the ways of securing liberty and justice to the several parts consistently with the peace and progress of the whole. But, as the unwritten constitution of the United States forced the states into a formal Union, so the unwritten constitu- tion of all the nations of the world taken as a whole is forcing them into formal union, and the consummation is as sure to be reached in the case of the world as it has been reached in the case of the United States. It is especially fitting that the people of the United States should take the lead in this movement to organ- ize the world. The greatest nation having a govern- ment by the people, with the longest experience on such a scale and with the largest success, is best fitted to lead others. We have the form of government which foreshadows the form of world government which will exist when all mankind are brought into organic polit- ical connection. Theoretically our states are sover- eign. All rights are reserved to them which are not formally surrendered, by the adoption of the constitu- tion of the United States, to the central government. In like manner, in matters of world legislation, the nations individually would be expected to surrender to the nations collectively, in passing upon propositions from the world legislature, only such jurisdiction as they should voluntarily yield ; for it is not to be supposed that a major part of the physical power of the nations would force upon a minor part such regulations as might be approved by a majority of the representatives sitting 44 WORLD ORGANIZATION in the world legislature. Settlement of the right of seces- sion and questions involving the inherent rights of the central government would lie far in the future until the rightfulness and scope of tlie organic law of mankind were determined more exactly than would be possible for a long time after the first session of the world's representatives. The organic unity of the world would develop slowly and under unwritten principles, as the British constitution has developed. World legislation hq^ occurred repeatedly, though no world legislature has been organized. This action has been possible only by special meetings for special pur- poses. The essence of world legislation is the consent of the nations to a particular course of action. That is, the will of the world decrees that a certain thing shall be done. When all nations ao-ree we have absolute world action. When fewer than all agree we have action of the same kind but less in degree. In tlie case of the International Postal Union we have absolute world legislation. All civilized nations of the world are in formal agreement upon the propositions involved in the international transmission of mails. The world will has taken specific expression,, and that will is carried into execution in that field of action. That is the most conspicuous and most successful illustration of world legislation, because it embraces organized mankind and is so eminently successful. Pro- vision for stated meetinofs of the International Postal Congress at Berne every seven years for such action as may be necessary to improve or maintain the system makes the illustration complete for our purpose. TIIK WOIUJ) LKCISLATURE 45 But many otlier instances have occurred in which more than two nations have been parties to an agreement regarding some particular matter. Largest in world im- portance has been the agreement of the principal nations of the world, and some of the smaller ones, in the estab- lishment of the Hague Court of Arbitration. Though legislation is not the object of that court, yet the act of establishing the court was in itself an act of world legislation, as far as the signatory nations were con- cerned, of the largest benefit to mankind. Mention may be made of the International Conference in Washington in 1885 for the establishment of a com- mon prime meridian, at which twenty-six nations were represented. At the International Sanitary Conference in Vienna in 1802 fifteen nations were represented. At the Dresden International Sanitary Conference in 1893 nineteen nations were represented. Our pan-American conferences, at which groups of nations have been rep- resented, illustrate further what has already been done by way of reaching an expression of international will upon particular matters, though in no case has a propo- sition for a general international legislative body for promiscuous business been presented. But the point is sufficiently established for the assurance of the con- servative that international or world legislation has occurred repeatedly. What is proposed now is not a new departure, but the establishment in permanent form of a means of expressing the will of the nations, instead of the present imperfect means of calling special meetings with power to consider only special subjects. 40 AVORLD ORGANIZATION Now as to the urgency of the case. Foremost of the poKtical questions of the times is the great and com- plex one, What is to be done to regulate or control the vast aggregations of capital which are exercising unscrupulously their enormous powers as monopolies and taking extortionate sums from consumers in return for their products? All the world is now laid under tribute. At present the world lies helpless because it is disorganized. In the United States we have barely made a beginning in tlie solution of the problem. Most advanced of all the states and more advanced than the general government is Massachusetts. President Roosevelt in his message to Congress in 1902, treating of the problem, mentioned the corporation laws of Mas- sachusetts as the most advanced means yet proposed in the form of law. But Massachusetts is only a spot on the surface of tlie earth. National legislation is in embryo. Publicity as a remedy is the most potent force yet suggested, and the efficacy of that is disputed by the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, in open difference from President Roosevelt. While legislation halts within state and national limits the problem is world-wide. Our interstate law is a sorry success at best. Rut if it were absolutely successful within our boundaries, yet it would fail in the case of international commerce. World trans- portation can be controlled only by world legislation. Monopolies which defy national laws because they are world monopolies can be grappled with successfully only by world laws. Already the necessity is upon us for world legislation, because business transactions now THE WORLD LEGISLATURE 47 extend all over the world and no national legislature will be adequate to protect the people from world monoi)olies. Business necessities, not political theories, demand speedy action by the world, just as business necessities forced the United States into organic union. " What- ever we may think of it now," said Daniel Webster, " the Constitution had its immediate origin in the con- viction of the necessity for uniformity or identity in commercial regulations." Now though the necessity is here, the means of relief is not here. World legislation can be secured only as the nations are educated both to tlie necessity of it and to the means of securing it. But governments of most of the nations are to-day controlled by those who have a direct personal interest in the continuance of the present order rather than by those whose relief from the present order is urgent. Years of effort are neces- sary, in the first place, to educate the nations to the point of recognizing the need of world legislation. Fol- lowing that will come years of struggle by the educated reformers to win tlieir reform against the entrenched opposition of the powerful classes whose interest it is to maintain and perpetuate the monopolies. It is high time, therefore, for the public agitation and education to begin. Sore enough will be the need of reform by the time the peoples of the earth will be able to secure it. The probable course in the establishment of the woi'ld legislature may be outlined approximately as follows : First step. The President of the United States, let us say, acting under the authority of Congress or on his own authority, would send to the principal nations 48 WOULD ORGANIZATION of the world an invitation to meet in Washington for the purpose of establishing and setting in motion, as far as practicable, a world legislature. That invitation might properly contain a statement that the people of the United States believed in the unity of mankind as an organic whole regardless of any man-made laws or Constitutions, and that the people were desirous of a practical, formal recognition of that unity in order that the organic growth, prosperity, and peace of mankind might be promoted. The invitation might further say that the people of the United States recognized that there was a true limit to the nominal sovereignty of so-called sovereign nations, and that they were ready to surrender formally their conceded right to control their own course upon certain matters which might better be placed under the jurisdiction of a world legislature. The invitation might specify, for the sake of a frank and friendly beginning, and in order to stimulate the cooperation of other nations, such matters as postal regu- lations, arbitration, customs regulations, world patents, trademarks and copyrights, world coinage, weights and measures, sanitary regulations for great ports and lines of travel, the collection of world statistics, explorations of geography and antiquities, industrial investigations, and regulation of world monopolies. The invitation might request the invited nations to specify the particu- lars in which they would consider propositions to waive claims of sovereignty, in case they accepted the funda- mental principle upon which the invitation was based. Secofid step. The nations receiving the invitation would severally accept or decline. If any declined, THE WORLD LKdLSl.ATURE 49 then an end of progress for the time would be reached with every such nation. If any accepted, they could, in sending their representatives, eitlier instruct them or omit to instruct them in regard to the claims of sovereignty which they would waive in behalf of the sovereignty of mankind. They wt)uld probably reserve the right to accept or reject tiie specilic legislation proposed. Third stejy. Delegates from such nations as accepted — and two or three nations would suffice for a begin- ning — would organize for action. As each nation, whether small or great, would be on an equal footing of nominal sovereignty with every other, it would doubtless be found expedient or necessary to allow it only one vote, whatever the number of delegates it miglit send. After organization there would suitably follow a declaration, in recognition of the sovereignty of man- kind, agreed to by all the participants in the meeting, to the effect that the purpose of the participating nations was to realize their higher unity by means of world legislation. Then would follow practical world legis- lation, such as would be covered by the terms whereby certain claims to absolute sovereignty had been condi- tionally surrendered by the participating nations, joined with a declaration that it should become operative in the nations severally when accepted by them. Fourth step. The proposed legislation of the first meeting would be referred to the respective home governments for ratification. Then regular sessions would follow according to the precedent established, resulting in the development of 50 WOULD ORGANIZATION mankind, as far as included by the nations represented, into an organic whole. In advancing along this line of progress the nations would be passing over ground previously untrodden. Precedents would be established only after hesitation, doubt, and experiment. Conservatism and old accepted theories would be perpetual obstacles, and only the gen- uine unity of mankind, working out for the benefit of the large majority against holders of special privilege, would be strong enough to surmount the objections and the persistent opposition. Gradually the world would realize that the real world constitution is not a form of government set up by men, but is the aggregate of the conditions in which mankind is placed by a Power superior to itself. All that men can do for their prog- ress and prosperity is to recognize those conditions, and world law, national law, state law, city ordinance, and town-meeting vote, from highest to lowest, each within its sphere, is but a recognition by men of the conditions placed upon them, and an effort to conform to them. Hence, in the light of this truth, world progress is only an adaptation of mankind to conditions. Really there is no such thing as absolute national sovereignty. In the present stage of world progress nations are recog- nized as absolute because they declare themselves to be such, and no power is strong enough to disprove their assertion. But they are parts of organic humanity, sub- ject to its laws. From that relation they cannot escape ; from those laws they cannot break away. In rising to the height of world legislation the nations ^yould be simply recognizing a higher and broader truth THE WORLD LEGISLATURE 51 in their relations tlian they had hitherto admitted. They would not create any new relation, except in a limited sense. They would recognize the truth of their close relations one to another and attempt to shape their conduct in harmony witli those relations, instead of shutting their eyes to the truth and reaping the evil consequences which inevitably befall all who deny the higher truths in the midst of which they live. Judging from experience in the practice under the Hague Court of Arbitration, one powerful influence might surely be counted upon to promote the success of the first attempts at world organization. That would be the high character of the men who would be selected for the service and the extreme sensitiveness of all parties to conduct proceedings with the most scrupu- lous honor. Each nation would select for its servants in world organization the very best men it could pos- sibly produce. Petty reasons and local politics would be very insignificant factors in the selection of these men. All the nation, not a faction or a party, would be represented on the world stage, in sight of all the world and under the criticism of the keenest intellects of the human race. No nation would risk its interests or its reputation by sending any but its worthiest and ablest sons. While legislation was in progress, the world legis- lature, conscious that the world's eyes were fixed upon it, scrutinizing every act and weighing every motive, would be watchful, every member of it, to see that every act was above suspicion. Existing high moral character would be reenforced by a constant earnestness 52 WOULD ORGANIZATION to keep every step of procedure above criticism on moral grounds. A high standard would be set and maintained, which would react upon the nations sever- ally and upon the world collectively, and would pro- mote the efficiency of the organic action and progress of the whole. Association of the nations, when represented by such men, would surely tend to remove misunderstandings and so advance friendliness among the different quarters of the globe. Reasonableness in the positions of differ- ent nations would be seen better than is now possible. World peace, from this added reason, would be pro- moted, and the material prosperity of each part would advance with the increasing assurance that the rights of each would be preserved and that each would be safe from interference in its effort to make the most and the best of itself. European nations have made in recent years striking progress toward a uniform code of law regardmg social and business relations of individuals. In 1874 the gov- ernment of The Netherlands suggested the holding of a conference of European nations to consider the sub- ject. But no conference was Ireld until 1893. Another followed in 1894, and the third in 1900. Delegates from fifteen European governments, including all of the great Powers, were represented at the conference of 1894. A protocol was adopted recommending to these fifteen nations a code of international rules in regard to marriage, divorce, separation, guardianships, bankruptcies, successions by will or descent, and civil procedure relating to foreigners. The government of THE WOULD LKGISLATUIIE 53 Tlie Netherlands submitted to the other governments only the provisions relating to civil procedure. The nations adopted tlieni and they were proclaimed by treaty in December, 1897. In 1902 the government of The Netherlands, as an outcome of tlie conference at The Hague in 1900, announced that twelve European powers had adopted and proclaimed uniform international rules relating to marriage, divorce, separation, and the guardianship of minors in all cases in which foreign subjects or citizens were concerned. Had it not been for the reluctance of Russia and Hungary, there would have been adopted also a rule relating to the succession of property. But the nature of things will surely assert itself, however long the time may be. Mankind is advancing rapidly to the consummation of organized unity, and self-interest, intelligently understood, will hasten the process more and more. Though the Powers may for a time delay full recognition of the world legislature, yet it will be but for a time, and in the fullness of evo- lution the organ of the intelligence and will of the united Powers will reach its development and will enjoy uni- versal recognition. Up to that time it may be that the Powers will dispense with a world court, each by mutual consent enforcing within its own boundaries the will of the world as recommended by the advisory congress and ratified by the Powers severally. But the point will be reached when the superior efficiency of a true world court will be recognized, and then there will be devel- oped a v.^orld organ to determine, for enforcement upon the Powers, the meaning and application of the world 54 \V()K1>I) OIUJANIZATION laws. Following this development, though the Powers may for a time carry out tlie determinations of the court, sooner or later will arise the world executive fo serve instead of the separate service of the Powers. Cases of nations against each other, such as are now referred to the Hague Court of Arbitration, would come before the world court whether they arose under world law or not, and the fact that such cases, arising now outside of the sphere of world law, are referred to the Hague Court makes it -probable that the functions of that court will be enlarged to those of a true world court; and hence it is reasonable to regard the Hague Court as a true beginning of the world judiciary. CHAPTER V THE WORLD JUDICIARY According to the common use of the word " court," as meaning an institution for the interpretation and enforcement (through its officers) of the laws, the use of the word in the phrase " The Hague Court of Arbi- tration " is a misnomer. No law of nations is to be enforced by the Hague Court as it was constituted by the celebrated conference which established it. This court has nothing to do with the interpretation or enforcement of international law. It was created for the settlement of disputes between nations ; and the name of "court" was doubtless applied to it because of the feeling that, as a court is the highest place known on earth for the attainment of justice, and as the employ- ment of reason rather than force in the settlement of the disputes of nations was a great step forward in the establishment of justice on earth, it was eminently fit- ting that this novel and revolutionary institution should be dignified with the most complimentary word in the languages of the signatory Powers to express the thing which they had created. A true court for the purpose of interpreting and applying international law does not exist, save as dis- putes about tlie interpretation of international law or about obligation under international law might be 56 WORLD ORGANIZATION referred to the Hague Court by the disputing nations, just as any other subject of dispute might be referred to it. Yet it is reasonable to regard this court as the beginning of a true system of world judiciary. Its name conveys the idea to the world, even though the fact is wanting to the name ; and when the organiza- tion of the world shall have reached the point where the need of a true world court becomes pressing, it will be most natural for the Powers to say: ''Here is our world court already ; let it perform the required duty." Its fitness would very likely be regarded as esta])lished by its name and by the liigh legal and moral character of its members, and the new function would doubtless be assumed by general consent, due modification having been made in the conditions for constituting the court or for bringing business before it. In the natural order of the unfolding of the organism of united mankind the world court would not delay its appearance long after tlie establishment of the world legislature, though it is to l)e remembered that in all of these processes ample time would doubtless be con- sumed, just as in the geological changes in the forma- tion of the earth's crust what occupies a relatively short time may be a long one measured by the standard of a human life. The increasing frequency of world con- gresses for special Imsiness and the increasing list of subjects upon whicli the Powers are expressing their will and are saying that certain things must be done in relation to them show that the era of a regular world legislature is not far distant, though it may be a long time before its character as an advisory body ceases and THE WORLD JUDICIARY 67 it is clothed by the Powers with recognized legislative authority, as the Congress of the United States has authority over the people of the states composing the Union. But the Hague Court, being first in existence and having the prestige of a world court, would come in time to have the status of the supreme court of the world ; for business would increase and would be classi- fied. Minor cases would be referred to subordinate courts to be established rather than to permit such cases to cumber the docket of the only world court, and there would be no danger that the necessities, the perversity, and the limitations of men would not supply an ample amount of business for such courts to transact. Differ- ent classes of cases would be referred to different sub- ordinate branches ; and so, with the progress of the world, with the development of world business, and with the ramification of world law, there would be evolved a judicial system for the promotion of justice on a higher plane than would be covered by the law of any single nation. The ends of the earth wouUl be brought together. No place would be too remote for the authority of the world court to penetrate. A uniform court method on great matters would help to mold the nations into gen- uine unity, and the reflex action upon the character of nations and of individuals would be great. The duties and obligations of the Powers to the united whole, as well as their relations to each other by twos or threes, would be within the province of the world court to determine under the authority of world law. A wholly new field of judicial action would arise 58 WORLD ORGANIZATION which does not exist now. At present the united whole is not recognized. It has no voice, it has no organ, its very existence is thoroughly denied by all the Powers. Each asserts its own supremacy and each admits no limit to its absolute sovereignty, though the nature of things does compel each to admit that others are also equally absolutely sovereign. But the duties of each to the united whole have no recognition in the very nature of the case, as long as the united whole is not recognized. Hence there remains ta^be developed an entire sphere of action for the world court far more important than that of passing upon the relations of any two nations or of groups of nations to each other. With the establishment of the true world court with full court powers there would dawn upon the vision of the nations for the first time the organ of justice for the united whole of mankind. Supremacy of that whole over every part would be asserted ; subordination of all local interests to the welfare of the whole would be secured by the reasonable and willing consent of the parts ; justice to the smaller parts would be secured ; encroachments of the strong upon the weak would be prevented ; unity of effort by all the parts in pressing forward to higher ideals of civic purity and strength would be promoted ; the moral force of the body poli- tic of the world would be immensely increased ; and though every step would be exposed to dangers from the vice, the selfishness, the pride, the corruption, and the love of despotism that inliere in all men, yet it is reasonable to affirm that, as progress is now made in the nations in overcoming these evils, so it will be THE WORLD JUDICIARY 59 made in the united whole, to the unspeakable benefit of mankind. Benefit to the whole of necessity carries benefit to all the parts. A world judiciary could not be established without giving a mighty uplift to all the world. The very existence of a recognized organ for justice to all nations would give stability and confidence now unknown, and the world would rise to a moral height undreamed of in these days of international lawlessness when the weak have no protection against the strong and when international law still goes no farther than the "accomplished fact" of the annihilation of a help- less nation by an aggressor that has the status of a robber and a murderer. A new day would dawn upon the consciousness of mankind. To-day the final arl^iter between nations is force. In the last resort a race which claims to possess reason as its crowning distinc- tion from the brute throws aside reason and accepts the brute in man as the righteous and supreme source of decision. It is the world brutishness, not the world reason, which dominates the relations of the nations to-day. Mankind knows it; all nations realize that they are under the curse. Hence the moral sense of the world is that which has developed only in an environ- ment where brute force, exerted in its most despotic, most outrageous, bloodiest, and most terrible form, is supreme ; where all justice, all humanity, all rights of the weak, all sorrows of women and children, all toil, suffering, and denth of men are counted as nothing be- fore devastation and slaughter by the strongest brute; and where the existence of nations and the preservation 60 WORLD ORGANIZATION of whole races and types of men are dependent upon the whim of a victorious brute in arms, whose lust for destruction or passion for revenge is aroused to -the extreme. To-day the world is in a state of anarchy and fearful apprehension compared with the serenity and order which would follow the recognition by the Oi'ganized whole of a capable organ for the determina- tion of justice and the enforcement of the rights of each and every part as subordinate to and harmonious with the rights of the whole. So much greater is the whole than any of its parts, that every part, even the most powerful, now staggering under a heavy load of military armament for self-protection, would utter an exclamation of relief and joy on hearing that it was an accomplished fact that a true world court had been established to do justice to all parts of mankind and to preserve the due supremacy of the whole over each and all of the parts. Inspiration by the world court would come in its appeal to the brightest, the strongest, the purest, and the most spiritual minds of the entire race. It would reach all nations ; it would cover a new field ; it would challenge the abilities of the best minds on earth; it would have to do with men in the highest and best human relations ; it would appeal to reason and justice; it would demand the largest constructive statesmanship which the most original and judicial minds could attain ; it would establish precedents of momentous importance in the development of the world. Not only would it appeal to and stimulate the best there is in the human race, but by its effect upon individuals and upon nations it would tend to develop the qualities it demanded, and it THE WORLD JUDICIARY 61 would be a mighty influence for raising the intellectual and moral (qualities of men and of nations. Certainty of the coming of the political unity of mankind is in itself a prophecy of better days, and the optimism of the enthusiast is warranted by the development of the past, when we see how the ideals of Christian civiliza- tion have themselves produced, as they have demanded, higher types of men and of nations. Diflficulties will doubtless occur in the formation of the world court and in the determination of its func- tions, but they will not all occur at once. All the hills in a hilly journey are not in one place, and three liills of thirty degrees each are not equal to a perpendicular wall of ninety degrees. The perfected court is to be obtained by evolution, one stage at a time, as a rule. A way was found to create the board of arbitrators for the Hague Court of Arbitration, yet national jealousies and suspicions had ample field for exercise before that notable agreement was reached. The original states of the American Union before they came into the Union faced the probability that the United States Supreme Court would be constituted without a member, ever or always, to represent them severally; yet the fact was not a bar to the establishment of the Union with a Supreme Court whose impartiality toward all states is equally admitted by all and whose competency to fulfill its office is generally conceded. In the years coming when the nations understand each other as well as our states now do it is reasonable to believe that they will agree upon a practical world court, though only a few nations can at the same time be represented upon the G2 WORLD ORGANIZATION bench. Given the need and the practicability of such a court, and it is a safe prediction that the nations will solve tlie problems in the way of its establishment. - In all these details of world organization there is need first of familiarizing the nations with the practicability of the reforms proposed, in order that active effort may Be stimulated. As the ideas gain ground, the urgency of the reform will become more evident, and then with the need and the purpose both in active existence the way to secure the reforms will be found, to the un- speakal)le benefit of all nations, as they emerge from the anarchy of war and the mire of militarism to the solid ground of the reign of world law supported by a world court and administered by the united power of the world. I CPIAPTER VI THE WORLD EXECUTIVE Political development is as truly an unfolding as is the development of vegetable life. In the fullness of time there is now in sight world business sufficient in amount and miscellaneous enough in character to justify the establishment of a regular international congress, or world legislature. But tliis stage has been reached slowly. It could not have come before the world had been brought together by steam and electricity or before the newspapers had made the people of one nation more or less familiar with the people and events of all the other nations. It could not have come before statesmen had become accustomed to thinking in world terms. It has been preceded by centuries of slow growth during which the unfolding could scarcely be detected and in which the ideal seemed to be visionary beyond possible realization. But treaty relations between two nations were followed by arrangements involving more than two. International understandings were succeeded by formal conferences or congresses. Specific subjects of common interest were considered by representatives of an increasing number of nations until in the estab- lishment of the Universal Postal Union by all the nations of the globe worthy of the name true world legislation including the largest number of human 63 64 AVORLD ORGANIZATION beings was enacted by agreement of all nations repre- sented and a strong precedent was set for regular world legislation. In a similar way there has been an unfolding until the present stage of the world judiciary has been reached. Ij^is true that this stage is as yet very little developed. It is true that a large broadening must occur before the full proportions of a world court are attained. But it is none the less true that in the Hague Court of Arbitra- tion there has been laid^he solid and permanent founda- tion of a world judiciary. The growth began far in the past. It can be seen in the efforts of nations to settle their differences by other means than war. It developed into formal, repeated, and successful instances of arbi- tration until the wisdom of this method over war con- vinced the world and the Hague Court was established. Neither world legislation nor world arbitration has been secured suddenly by the creation of a machine having no antecedents in kind, but the unfolding has continued according to a process similar to the unfold- ing of plant life. In the case of the world executive, therefore, it is reasonable to expect that a paTallel course will be fol- lowed. Events tend so strongly to the political organi- zation of the world into one body that it is evident that the consummation will surely occur under the influence of existing forces. But political organization requires three kinds of organs, and only three, — the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. The first two being already in the process of unfolding, it is timely to look for the third. THE WORLD EXECUTIVE 65 An esficutive— is~one who carries out the will of a ^sutj erior. In_the_caaea£ world -wilLthe .best illustration: is_thg_£iitablishment of the Universal Postal Union. In the main, the execution of the details of the system is necessarily left to the separate nations. But the perti- nent point here is the fact that the Universal Fo&tal Union, which is a -world body, has a permanent _secre- tary, whose office is in Berne, Switzerland. Here is an executive _officer of all the nations of the world, ( stalj- li^hed^by the will of the world. The nations cii' the world, all represented in the Universal Postal Union, have expressed their will that here shall be a servant of all to execute the will of all. Therefoj;e^iii liiis ol'lice we _hiULe_-th©-g^erln of a true world executive. It seems to be a small office; but its nature, not the number or im- portance of its functions, is the criterion by which it is to be classified. The world executive has begun to grow. A second instance of a genuine world executive, as far as the nations concerned represent the world, is that of ^tlie^International Committee of Weights and Meas- ui'es. This committee is an executive board always in existence, whose agent is the director of the Interna- tional Bureau of Weights and Measures. On May 20, 1875, seventeen of the nineteen countries which were represented at the diplomatic metrical conference at Paris signed a convention which /'provided— for the establishment and maintenance, at the joint cost of the contracting parties, of a permanfintjnternational bui'eaii of weights and measures, td be situated at or near Paris and to be declared neutral. Its operations were to be uader the exclusij^, direction of an international 66 WORLD ORGAXIZATION / committee of fourteen persons, all belonging to the countries represented. The conference meets every six years. These seventeen nations, representing a large part of the progressive force of the world, have thus established by their joint action this executive depart- ment, which may correctly be put into the class of a world executive. The international bureau in connection with the Hague Court in accordance with the will of the ^orld, as far as the contracting parties represent the world, has executive duties to perform i -^but as the bureau is specifically given the status of a clerk's office for the court, it might seem like straining a point to class it with the world-executive offices already-es^tablishedj But the body superior to this bureau, the " Permanent Administration Council," is a true world executivebody,^ as far as the signatory Powers to the Hague convention represent the world, though its administrative duties are for the time limited to matters connected with the Hague Court. This council is "charged with the estab- hshment and organization of the international bureau, which shall remain under its direction and control. . . . It__shall decide all administrative questions which may arise relating to the working of the court. . . . The council shall report without delay to the signatory Pow- ers the rules adopted by it. It shall report to them each "^ year upon the work of the court, the way in which the administrative service has been performed, and the expenses." This is tnie-ex-ecutiye_work, and the executiveHoody is directly responsible to the law-making body, or to the / THE WORLD EXECUTIVE 67 tatknis wllicli established this executive Thus we have this third illustration of the development of a true world-executive function for the benefit of the world. In the very nature of the case, other illustrations may be expected, and there are existing instances in which work of an executive nature for different nations is being done by scientific bodies in separate countries. This is genuine and visible prog- ress, pointing to the evolution, in time, of some higher ofiicial to co()rdinate the work of these separate offices and to subordinate all disjointed work to the orderly good of the whole. True executives are servants. The hand is not as high as the brain. It is for the world will, rej^resented by the law-making power of the world, to say what shall be done. It is for the executive organs which it creates to do it. In the^ nature of the unfolding, world execu- tives of large powers will not be seen early. A world president will be the culmination of the system. Before he appears upon the scene there must be many minor forms of world executive. We may get an illustration from state and national practices. For the accomplish- ment of certain service to the political body certain men are set aside to oversee — perhaps merely to investi- gate and to report upon, perhaps to administer — certain fields in which the public welfare is specially concerned. , Board s, bureaus, or commissions are thus set up for. specialjunctiojis. They are established by the national will (speaking here of those nations in which the will of the people is represented in the government) and are responsible, in the last resort, to it. Very likely these 68 WORLD ORGANIZATION organs of service are independent of each other and unrelated to each other, save that they have a common origin. In the unfokling of the world executive, therefore, it is to be expected that the process will be by develop- ment of such organs. In the first place^it is ,to— be^ expected that they will be created for _some__particiLlar service, just as w^orld legislation began in special con- gresses or conferences and as special instances of arbi- tration preceded the estai)iishment of the Hague Court. Perhaps there might be selected a body_ of medical experts to decide what world regulations there should be to prevent the spread of sometlifeatenirtg plague Or to investigate the status of consumption or cancer all over the world. Such a body might lead to the establishment of a permanent bureau to have oversight of conditions of world health. So, from field to field, from special service to perma- nent, the unfolding would proceed, until the stage was reached at which some coordination of the executive offices would be for the advantage of the world. Then the time would be ripe for a chief executive of the _vvorld. But he would be a commissioner in chief, or minister in chief, really a servant in chief, to- execute the will of the world for the harmonious administration of the different departments, tq_study_the-_srarkiiigs of - the organs created for separate functions, to correct their defects by pointing out where they were organic- ally defective or by improving the administration by personal supervision and effort when the defect was one of administration alone. The fffue world execative will THE WORLD EXECUriVE 69 never be the ruler of the world uuleiis the people of tlie world surrender their rights and beeonie slaves, which is^unlhinkable. World empire could be possible only with world slavery for the mass of the human race; and the people of the world are too far advanced for that to be tolerable. The world president will not be responsi- ble for tlie human race ; he will be a very subordi- nate official though at the head of an immensely extended and complicated system of offices, and it will be his duty to see that the offices perform their func- tions and that the officers are diligent, efficient, and honest. Supreme over all will be the world will; and it will be for the intelligence of the world to watch over its executives, chief and subordinate, and make sure of honest and competent administration. It may be that the world executive will be reached by a short cut without waiting for this unfolding in detail. If there should be a rapid development of the world sense of world unity, and if the nations should be ready early to surrender formally their claim to absolute sovereignty, they might agree early to put the enforce- ment of such world legislation as shall have been en- acted into the hands of a single world executive, giving him power and responsibility, and so they might reach consummation sooner. Eventually, however, it must be believed, both lines of development, or the discharge of both classes of functions, will merge into one. So much, in brief, forecasting the future from our experience, we can say concerning the world executive. The ideal no more presupposes perfection in the admin- istration than the ideal of state or national executive 70 WORLD ORGANIZATION presupposes state or national executives beyond criti- cism. The main point to notice is that the world is surely advancing toward political organization as "a single body, that such an organism necessitates the three kinds of organs, and that the unfolding of the executive seems certain to be from insignificant begin- ninsrs to the full office of executive in chief for the world. Those who are fearful regarding the development of mankind into a single political body because of possibil- ities of extreme centralization of power, and the danger of despotism by the central authority over any of the parts, have no ground for their fears, if this forecast of the line of development is reasonable, — and that it is reasonable is the object of the attempted demonstration. Central authority will not be despotic as long as the parts insist upon their rights as well as their duties, because the parts together constitute and control the whole. Doubtless it will tend to become despotic just as far as the parts are lax in insisting upon their rights, and as far as great nations conspire to oppress small ones. Years and centuries will not change the truth or the pertinence of the saying that " eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"; and this vigilance, whatever lapses it may suffer, will surely accomplish its great practical result, for the days of humble watchmen for the public weal are not ended, and brave men are still willing to die for justice. CHAPTER VII AVORLD LEGISLATION ALREADY ACCOMrLTSHED As we learn by building what we did not know upon what we knew already, and so seem always to be acting conservatively, so we advance politically by fitting new ideas upon existing practices. Thus progress is made with assurance of safety, and a reform is half won when precedent can be found for the pending proposition or it can be shown to involve no marked new departure. So the plan for a world legislature gets much help from recent history. Probably few persons realize the amount of world legislation which has been done already. It may be said that there is no world legislature and therefore world legislation is impossible. But consider a moment. Just look at the great array of facts and let them shape your opinion. The legislation of a state or nation is the expression of the will of the state or nation by duly authorized representatives. If representatives of the nations of the world express the will of the world (as far as the nations taking part represent the whole world), then that expression of world will is world legislation. Take the best illustration first. This is the case of the Universal Postal Union ; for all the nations of the world, a round hundred at least, have joined this Union and are an organic part of it. They have held their 71 72 WOULD ORGANIZATION international congresses, expressed their will in them, and have carried that will into effect. There is genuine world legislation by a genuine world congress upon a matter of importance to all the world. That legislation is operative in a large degree all over the world, every day of the year, and is of wide benefit to every person who has to do with the transport of mails from one country to another. The first International Postal Con- gress, which organized the Universal Postal Union, was held in Berne, Switzerland, in 1874, The last session was held in Washington in 1897 and was attended by representatives of every nation on the face of the earth. That gathering was a world legislature, in a sense, though it did not have the power to bind the nations as the states and citizens of the states are bound by the acts of the Congress of the United States. It is not asserted that this world legislation has yet reached the stage of a mandate accepted without dispute by the nations repre- sented. That stage is yet to come ; but the expression of the will of the nations by representatives of the nations has already been accomplished, and, what is much to the point, that will is executed practically as if it were binding upon the participants. Legislation of this sort, it will be observed, is different from treaty agreements and stands upon a higher plane. It may be supported by all of the nations in the world, as the Universal Postal Union is, or ]»y a smaller num- ber. Enough of the large nations may l)e participants to give their action the practical standing of world legislation, though many small nations have nothing to say about the subject-matter of their action. WORLD LEGISLATION ACCOMPLISHED 73 These international congresses and conferences, which have a higher rank than the meeting of nations for treaty- making purposes, began in Europe, where the necessities of the case led to their development earlier than else- where. Naturally they were not as inclusive as the later ones, but they belong in the same class. They were not held nearly as frequently as such international gatherings have been held in recent years. In the nature of the case, too, each was for a special sul)ject, and the powers of the delegates were limited far more than they would be in such a body as is contemplated by the peti- tions for a world legislature or a regular international congress. Accompanying the petition of the American Peace Society for a regular international congress, presented to the Massachusetts legislature in 1903, was a list of twenty-seven such international gatherings illustrating the gradual getting together of the nations for their common interest and for agreement upon some common course of action. Others, perhaps, might be included in the list, but it shows how fast the nations, in recent years, have been coming to agreements for their mu- tual benefit and expressing their wills for their separate giiidance. In 1815 occurred the Congress of Vienna by the great European Powers, which fixed a status for Europe after the downfall of Napoleon and gave peace to Europe. This congress guaranteed the neutralization of Switzerland. In 1825 came the Conference of St. Petersburg, by which the nations practically interfered with the Turkish 74 WORLD OliGANIZATION government and opened the way for the independence of Greece. In 1831 was the Conference of London, by whicji Holland and Belgium were guaranteed to be inde- pendent nations. In 185G occurred the Congress of Paris, and an international status for Europe was reached regarding the consequences of the Crimean war. In 18G4 came the meeting of the representatives of the nations in the Congress at Geneva which organized the International Red Cross Society. In 1867 was the Conference of London which neutral- ized the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. In 1868 the Congress of St. Petersburg, composed of representatives of nations which felt that the barbarities of war must be ameliorated^ put restrictions upon the use of bullets which were especially savage in their work. In 1871 the Conference of London made modifica- tions in the Paris arrangements of 1856. In 1874, at the Congress of Brussels, was made a further improvement in the laws of war and a restate- ment of such laws. In 1874, also, at Berne, was the first International Postal Congress, already mentioned above. 1 In 1875 there met in Paris the Metrical Diplomatic Congress which prepared the metric convention. It was provided that a general conference on weights and measures should meet at Paris at least once in six years. Thus for this particular subject there was estab- lished a regular time of meeting for an indefinite future, setting a precedent for what is proposed in the resolution for a regular international congress. „. WOUIJ) LKCISLAllOX ACCOM riJSlIKD 75 In 1875 there was an International Telegraphic Con- ference at St. Petersburg. In 1877 there was held the Conference of European nations at Constantinople for the defense of the rights of the Christian subjects of Turkey. In 1878 following the treaty of San Stefano, which was made at the end of the Russo-Turkish war, the representatives of the great European Powers met at Berlin, and made radical modifications in that treaty. They rearranged the map of eastern Europe. In 1878 came the fiist International Monetary Con- ference at Paris, u})on the invitation of the United States. In 1881 there met at Paris the second International Monetary Conference, upon the invitation of the United States and France. In 1884 the Congo Free State was created by the International Conference which met at Berlin to con- sider the West African situation. In 1885 in the interest of science and commerce there met at Washington, by invitation of the United States, representatives of twenty-six nations to agree upon a prime meridian. In 1889 occurred the Marine Conference at Washing- ton to establish usages of the sea for the common observance of the nations. In 1889 came the first pan-American Conference at Washington to consider interests of the nations of the two Americas. In 1890 occurred at Brussels the Antislavery Con- ference to bring the united pressure of civilized nations against the horrors of the African slave trade whose exposure shocked the world. 76 WORLD ORGANIZATION In 1892 occurred the International Sanitary Con- ference at Venice, and the protocol drawn there was signed by the representatives of fifteen nations. In 1893 came the second International Sanitary Con- ference, at Dresden, at which nineteen nations were represented, T^n 1896 occurred at Washington the Universal Postal Congress which was mentioned above. In 1899 came at The Hague the famous Peace Con- ference, which establislied the International Court of Arl)itration which is sure to have such an immense effect for the peace of the world. In 1901 was the Congress of leading European Powers at Brussels which provided for the abolition of national bounties in sugar. In 1901, also, occurred at the City of Mexico the second pan-American Conference, shared by representa- tives of nearly every nation of North and South America, for the advancement of the interests of all by common arrangements, especially relating to business matters. Here is a long start toward the practical getting together of all the nations of the world for an expres- sion of their common judgment and common will for their common good. All these gatherings have been severely practical. Sentiment, as distinguished from business, was a small factor. The same business sense, seeing how the good of the nations will be promoted by their common action, will insist upon further agree- ments ; and thus will grow that body of international will which is really world law. CHAPTER VIII WORLD BUSINESS NOW PENDING President Roosevelt's promise to the committee of the Interparliamentary Union that he would call a second session of the Hague Peace Conference, attracted the attention of the civilized nations. It has already become a matter of world importance. In the resolution under which the committee acted in giving the President the request of the Union were three specifications. The first was that the coming peace conference should attend to several important matters upon which the Conference of 1898 desired that action should be taken. Tlie second specification mentioned the negotiation of arbitration treaties. The third suggested considering the advisa- bility of calling a regular international congress to meet periodically, to discuss matters of common interest to the nations. With all due regard for the gravity of the subjects proposed for discussion, especially the reduction of national armaments, which is one of the items included in the first specification, it may safely be said that the tliird proposition is the most important of them all. In its present definite form it is tlie outgrowth of a resolution adopted unanimously by the Massachusetts legislature in 1903, asking our Congress to authorize the President to call a conference to establish such a 77 78 WORLD ORGANIZATION congress as is proposed. The committee of the Inter- parliamentary Union by a short cut brought the matter directly before the President, and he promptly gave his promise to call the conference. This movement is the first definite step toward the organization of all the world into a single body politic ; and one of its propositions is that, however distant may be the realization of the idea, whatever obstacles may be in the way, and however immature the world may be for the consummation, the time is ripe for regular ses- sions of representatives of the nations for friendly discus- sion of common concerns, with the function of making recommendations for action, which shall be referred to the home governments for ratification. The fundamental proposition is that mankind is one. Following that comes the first consequence : that, there- fore, there is no such thing as absolute national sov- ereignty, — even though every nation disputes the proposition, — but that there is a sovereignty of man- kind which will ultimately be recognized, in practice, as supreme. To maintain the proposition that the times are ripe for the regular meeting of an international congress which will develop into a true world legislature, it is to be noticed, in the first place, that there is no defi- nitely established and generally recognized body of international law. However definite certain proposi- tions may be, there is much haze over the body of international law as a whole. A few words are pertinent regarding the sources of international law. The late Freeman Snow of Harvard WORLD BUSINESS NOW I'ENDING 79 University, in lectures before the Naval War College, published in 1898, gives this definition of international law: International law, as commonly understood, is that body of rules which governs generally the actions oi' modern civilized states in their intercourse with one another. These rules are the outgrowth of the customs arising from the intercourse of nations, of various international agreements, and of the acts of states, which have in tlie lapse of time been accepted as of bind- ing force by the various civilized states of the world. They may be considered as based upon the moral and intelligent convictions of enlightened mankind. Professor Snow recognizes seven sources of this law : 1. Works of great publicists — the text writers of authority. These give both pi'inciples and usages. 2. Decisions and conclusions of prize courts, of official inter- national conferences, and of arbitral tribunals. 3. Ti-eaties. 4. State papers of jurists and opinions of attorneys-general, con- fidentially and otherwise given to their respective governments. 5. Instructions, regulations, and ordinances issued by the states for the guidance of their own citizens or subjects, and officers and tribunals. 6. History of wars, negotiations, and current events. 7. The proposed codes and formulated views of voluntary international associations of jurists. Hannis Taylor, formerly United States minister to Spain, in his voluminous Treatise 07i International Lau\ says : International law may be defined to be the aggregate of rules regulating the intercourse of states, which have been gradually evolved out of the moral and intellectual convictions of the civilized world as the necessity of their existence lias been demonstrated by experience. 80 WORLD ORGANIZATION He recognized five sources of international law, as follows : 1. Decisions of prize courts, awards of courts of arbitratioTi, and acts of international congresses and conferences. 2. The works of great publicists, who perform the double function of verifying the existence of old rules and of creating new ones. 3. Treaties of alliance, peace, commerce, and others, defining, declaring, or modifying preexisting international law. 4. Instructions given by states for the guidance of their own courts and officers. 5. The history of diplomatic intercourse. Thus far, then, and no farther have the nations advanced in the construction of the laws of the world. Out of the nebulous conditions which have prevailed during the chaos of the past, there have arisen certain nuclei of truth which prove that the evolution of moral princif)les is in progress and permit the prediction — which may claim the title of "scientific," just as a pre- diction of a solar system from a present nebula in the heavens may claim to be scientific — that these prin- ciples will, in time, become sharply defined, even as the matter of the nebula gathers about centers and bas plainly defined limits in planets and satellites. But to-day world law is in the nebulous stage ; nobody pro- mulgates it with authority ; no gathering of men is authorized to add a word to it. Every nation has the technical right to construe it according to its pleasure or to deny its binding force. New precedents may be established at any time by sources which have no more authority than the sources which have existed in the past. Yet out of this nebulosity such aggregations of WOlM.l) BUSINESS NOW PENDING 81 truth and such anirmations of liuman rights have shaped themselves that the entire world says : "• Something is true ; some rights exist ; some restraints must be put upon wrongdoing ; some course of conduct must he observed." That is the world's tribute to the truth which is supreme over all the nations. It illustrates vividly the immediate need of better definition of world law for modern conditions. 'Iliis definition can be greatly promoted by the purposeful and intelligent action of men. Therefore there is need that a world legislature should assemble in order to formulate a body of world law, or international law, for the observance of the nations. It is time that more authority inhered in international law. There is too much plausibility in the comment of the St. Petersburg JVovosti, speaking of the proposition that President Roosevelt call a second session of the Hague Conference, that "international law is a polite myth, under cover of which the strong- est nation takes what it wants without regard for its opponent's rights and feelings ; . . . there is not a tenet in the so-called code which has not been broken whenever it suited the convenience of some nation to defy it." In logical order of procedure there would be neces- sary, first of all, in submitting to a body of interna- tional law, a formal recognition of the sovereignty of the nations as a whole over the fragments into which mankind is separated by distinctions of race, territory, and class. IJut it is not to be expected with the pres- ent mutual jealousy among nations that this could be secured. The nations aie not yet ready to recognize 82 WOULD ORGANIZATION the truth, and they are very far from having the enthu- siasm for truth which will, ui time, control all their relations. But it is reasonable to expect that the representatives of the nations would agree to take up the work of codifying the international law of the world and putting it into such a form that there should not arise such serious differences over its intei-preta- tion as arose at the outbreak of the wiiv between Russia and Japan. For one sufiicient subject, therefore, there is plenty of work neediiig to be dune at once by the proposed international congress. Organization of the world into one political body is the puipose of the movement for a regular international congress. It has seemed to many men to be premature ; but it is only a seeming, when measured by the fact that world organization has already actually begun. In the case of tlie Universal Postal Union, the entire world has actually entered into organic relation and has taken organic action. It has, as the organized world, — organ- ized to the extent of having a special means of express- ing its will on this particular subject, — said that it would serve itself by establishing cheap postage, or means of communication. Now the proposition is that so much other world business is pending that regular sessions of world representatives should be held. In addition to the pressing need of a code of world law, which shall have the force of law by the formal acceptance of all the nations, there is a large number of subjects needing immediate /attention because of their importance to the nations collectively. At the pan- American Congress in Mexico a long list of these was VVUUIJJ liUSlNKSS NOW TENDING 83 formulated, and they relate to the world as a whole, not to the two Americas only. They are comini^ up again, and they should be considered in their world bearing. The need of uniform custom-house regulations has been summarized as follows: Uniformity in the entrance, discliargc, and clearance of shiiis ; uniformity and ainipliiication in customs rules regarding ships' manifests, bills of lading, consular invoices, and declarations ; simplification and uniformity in custom-house rulings for the inspection of merchandise and baggage ; adequate measures for establishing a common nomenclature uf products and merchan- dise; ... a uniform system of declaration of goods, for shipping merchandise through any of the countries in bond . . . and for the simplification and facilitation of mercantile trafiic. The world needs a system to supersede what is called "the arbitrary rulings of incompetent or dishonest offi- cials " and to secure equal treatment everywhere. The sessions of the International Customs Congress in New York city in January, 1903, illustrate the practical need of world customs regulations and how business men are already moving to secure them. International copyright, giving to authors in all parts of the world equal protection under world law, is wait- ing for the action of the world legislature. International or world patents, trade-marks, and the like, come under the same head. The introduction in many fields of new ideas, to quicken the progress and enhance the profits of the world, would be promoted by world legis- lation of this bort. It is not long since the assassination of President McKinley, following repeated attempts, successful and 84 ^\UUL1) OllGAJS'lZATlON unsuccessful, against the lives of European rulers, led to a loud demand fur a common agreement for the sup- pression of this class of crime. The subject is suited to world legislation. One of the propositions before the pan-American Congress was that the professional standing of educated pei'sons, certified to by diplomas of educational institu- tions, should be mutually recognized by the nations coming into the agreement. But the proposition fits the entire world more obviously than it fits the Americas alone. World citizenship in a professional way could be accorded under world law, and the world would be better for it presuming that a suitable standard would be maintained. Two international sanitary conferences have been held already. The first was attended by representatives of fifteen nations, tlie second by representatives of nine- teen. World sanitation has already a practical bearing upon the health of all mankind for the prevention of plagues and epidemics of any sort of contagious disease. Quarantine regulations, inspection of vehicles of trans- portation, whether by land or water, supervision of the persons of immigrants, the healthfulness of ports, etc., would come fitly under the power of the world legislature. Another proposal before the congress in Mexico which was broad enough for the world in scope was that there should be some way whereby the claims of a citizen of one country for pecuniary damages due to the fault of an- other country, resulting from his residence in the foreign country, might have some regular avenue of settlement. Such claims are liable to arise at any time. The United WOULD BUSINESS NOW TKNDINO 85 States has given ground repeatedly, or individual states have, for the preferment of claims on this basis by citi- zens of foreign countries. World coinage is another sul)ject which seems ready to be brought before the representatives of the world ; and it looks as if the meeting would not be ready nearly as soon as the business will be. About two years ago the Manchester (England) Statistical Society published and circulated a pamphlet on an international gold coin- age written by Charles H. Swan of Boston, Mass., so important did these business men of world-wide vision consider it. The author argues that the time has come for the coinage of a gold piece which shall serve as an international unit of value for the trade of the world. Whether his particular system will be adopted or not, it is evident that a world coinage is coming, demanded by the business men who do business all over the world. Weights and measures are likely to follow, even if their coming be long delayed by the conservatism of local usage. But there is a larger and more pressing subject of world business, which promises to become urgent be- fore any world legislature can be gathered to attend to it ; this is the regulation of the monopolies which already have crossed national boundaries and surround the globe. Not long ago a press dispatch from St. Peters- burg announced that the Standard Oil Company had acquired control of the Russian oil combination. Bank- ing corporations have been proposed whose charters gave them practical world range. The trust problem has not yet been solved on a national basis ; and yet it is here 86 WOULD UUGANIZATION already challenging the regulation of the entire world, if the world is to escape. A recent report of the Inter- state Commerce Commission says : That the leading traffic officials of many of the principal rail- way lines, men occupying high positions and charged with the most important duties, should deliberately violate the statute law of the land, and in some cases agree with each other to do so ; that it should be thought by them necessary to destroy vouchers and to so manipulate bookkeeping as to obliterate evidence of the transactions ; that hundreds of thousands of dollars should be paid in unlawful rebates to a few great packing houses . . . must be surprising and offensive to all right-minded persons. Over two years ago a press dispatch from London said: " Details of an important move by Russia . . . have transpired in London. This move is no less than a pro- posal by the Imperial government for an international conference to deal with trusts." What became of that " important move " the world does not know, — and Russia has had other business to attend to. The indica- tions in this country do not point to any cessation of the struggle against trusts, but rather to a determination that they shall be regulated and made subordinate to public welfare. The problem is already world-wide and it promises to demand attention long before any body of representatives of the nations will be ready to deal with it. New questions of importance to the nations are aris- ing frequently. Those above mentioned, some of which already demand attention, cannot be considered at all adequately to the welfare of the world because there is no body of representatives to consider them. When, WORLD BUSINESS NOW TENDING 87 ♦ therefore, the committee of the Interparliamentary Union asked President Roosevelt to call a second session of the Hague Conference for the consideration, in part, of the establishment of a regular international congress, they spoke for the entire world ; and the entire world is con- cerned that such a body shall be established and clothed with all necessary power as speedily as possible. In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the President (authorized by Congress, if the step be necessary) will make a definite offer to the nations, in calling the con- ference, to waive on behalf of the United States in favor of the sovereignty of the world such sovereignty as we have hitherto claimed over subjects which would properly be witliin the jurisdiction of world legislation. Such an offer would be warranted by the precedent of the states of our Union in surrendering to the United States certain specific matters, reserving all unspecified matters for state sovereignty. Such an offer would go far to promote friendly action on the part of other nations. It would be distinctly in line with the develop- ment of the unity of the world as one political body. It would have to come, in any event, if anything were to be accomplished practically; and it would be especially fitting that the great American republic, the proposer of the plan and the leader of the world in world organization, should take a generous and fraternal step, as well as show far-sighted statesmanship, and invite the nations to follow it in friendly and open-minded effort to secure incomparable world prosperity through world organization and world peace. CHAPTER IX NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONS Government, stable, just, efficient, is the greatest pos- sible production of the human race, far surpassing in use- fulness any achievement in material things, in literature, in science, or in art. Constitution-making is one of the highest achievements of races, as it is among the loftiest aspirations of individuals. But whatever earth's sub- gods may have made in the way of wonderful contrivances with checks and balances, we must always live and act under the constitution made by the Creator of mankind. We must take fundamental facts as they are proved to be, and shape our organic and our individual action according to them, regardless of the beauty and entice- ment of our theories aside from the facts. Admitting the fundamental unity of mankind, it does not follow that, if the nations come into organic rela- tions, they must all have identical, or even similar, national constitutions. Each will be part of the organ- ized whole. Each may have a function toward the whole different from that of any other. But even if all tend toward identity of constitution and methods of political activity, the organization of the world need not wait till perfeation of national constitutions is realized. 88 NATIONAL CONSTTTT TTONS 89 Nations are in such different stages of development that it is not to be expected that they will have, for cen- turies at least, identical or similar national constitutions. Yet this need not prevent the United States, Mexico, the South American republics, England, France, and the other nations, as far and as fast as they develop organic government, from coming into equal relations with the other nations in a world legislature, from sharing in or being eligible by representatives to tlie world judiciary, or from having a share in the development of the world executive. It is no reason for delay in the organization of the world, that the nations are not all upon the same plane, or have not identical forms of national constitution. Regarding any constitution (and it may be permitted to have in mind particularly the constitution of the United States, since that is the nearest to us), it can never, as a human product, be sacred or be so exalted as to be above the need of amendment ; nor should it be held in such reverence as to make it rigid against the demands for change which are made by the progress of events. Thus the constitution is not to be idolized or set up on so high a pinnacle that the welfare of the nation suffers. On the other hand, just as far as any constitution recognizes and rests upon the real, God- made constitution in its affirmation of the equality of all men, in its defense of the rights of the individual on one side and the rights of the organic whole on the other, it is sacred and is entitled to full reverence and devoted defense by its friends. Such a constitution is always progressive, and it is impossible for the nation or the race to advance beyond it. 90 WORLD ORGANIZATION National constitutions, so far as the future can be fore- seen, must practically be left for nations to settle for themselves, and not be thrust upon them by world power. If any race can by heredity or training produce a class or family fitted for ruling the nation permanently better than it can be ruled by the people themselves, then the people will do well to submit to their wise rulers. lUit if any people is sure that it is wiser than any class or family in the management of national affairs, then it is for that people to asseil its riglits ; and the history of nations proves that the martyr spirit will not be lacking so long as despots sit upon thrones. But the internal affairs of nations need not conflict with their status in the organized whole unless internal dissension is so severe as to disturb the entire world body politic and demand action by the whole for the welfare of the whole. In the very nature of the evolution of the world organism out of tlie disjointed fragments which have hitherto existed, there must be a steady development of centralization. It has been rightly and necessarily so in the history of the United States ; and it is not a cause of alarm, but rather a phase of natural and inevitable growth, that the national government of the United States is developing certain centralizing tendencies. The central organ of thought and action must take cognizance of what is for the national well-being. The real consti- tution, — the order of things established by the Creator, — must be the standard of action, not the written ideas of men, however able, who lived when the full scope of national life could not possibly have been NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONS 91 anticipated correctly. Wonderful as are the generaliza- tions of principles by the constitution makers, yet wher- ever their ideas fail to correspond to the truth as it has since been developed it is only loyalty to their spirit and to their purpose to depart froni their forms. But the centralizing- force which causes suffering- or lack of proper development in any part thereby proclaims its own error, and the right of local self-government is the right to exemption from ills caused by ignorant or des- potic central authority. The right of revolution is the right of rectification, not the right of destruction ; and in the progress of events, by the establishment of national courts, by the world court of arbitration, and by the substitution of reason for force, the settlement of local and national difficulties without revolutions becomes increasingly probable. Taking the United States as an illustration of the way in which the nations may come into a world organism, there is to be expected a development of increasing central authority, — a growth of central administra- tion into a central legislature, executive, and court, — but all for the satisfaction of human needs and for the attainment of justice to the nations, to localities, and to persons. Local jealousy is more likely to retard the organization of the world than is haste for world benefits to promote the movement too rapidly. National con- stitutions, national institutions, and national rights may all be guarded and perpetuated, and yet the nations may come without delay into their fitting relations as one body politic of all mankind. CHAPTER X THE SUPREMACY OF RACES The proposition to organize the world provokes the challenge whether the time is ripe for it. The answer is that events are already moving toward organization faster than is admitted by many men. Certain forces which affect the result are not under human control, others are. Nations and races rise and fall. In part their fate is connected with their political system or lack of system. Their form of government is such that permanent race-power is impossible. War, disease, and decay due to political conditions carry off races, when it seems as if the physical force in their stocks would have carried them through their perils, had their gov- ernment been fitted to protect the rights of the people. In other instances it seems as if there were a running- out of the race stock just as there is a running-out of stocks in animal and vegetable life. Ancient stocks of people have disappeared. Not only have the great empires of antiquity gone down with all their imperfec- tions, but entire race stocks have been lost, as is proved from the remains of early tribes and the recent decay in races in tlie islands of the sea. Modern history, in the cases of prominent races, seems to demonstrate that there is a period of race expansion, — of great vigor of stock, rapid enlargement in numbers, 92 THE SUPREMACY OF RACES 93 and strong mental activity, — followed by culmination of power, and then by subsidence of the virility of the race. Then some other race, in its turn, comes for- ward as a new factor in world affairs. A frequent illus- tration is Spain, comparing her strength tlu'ee hundred years ago with her weakness to-day. We see France luider Napoleon compared with the relative position of France to-day among the nations. We see the rapid expansion of the Slav race and we hear many expressions of apprehension for the future of Europe and of Asia when the Slav shall have come to his full power. Some optimists of their race predict Anglo-Saxon domination of the earth, seeing that that race is supreme in England, in the United States, in Canada, and in Australia. But the AnHo-Saxon stock is sufferinsf a serious decline in the eastern part of the United States already, and politically and commercially it is fast losing its relative supremacy in some places. England has recently been deeply disturbed over the possibility that the British race has reached its physical culmina- tion and entered upon its irreversi])le decline. Debates in the House of Lords over the inferior physique of the men who offer themselves for enlistment show the alarm which is felt. England's birth rate is declining steadily. If the rate between 1881 and 1891 had been continued to 1901, it is estimated that there would have been in 1901 the enormous number of 2,092,000 more children under fifteen years than there actuall}' were. Statistics are given from Australia to show that in 1891 the birth rate in that country was 276 for 10,000 persons and that in 1901 it had fallen to 239. In New 94 WORLD ORGANIZATIOiSr South Wales in 1881 it was 336.3, and in 1901 it was only 235.3. If the birth rate had continued as high in Australia as it was in 1891, there would be 20,000 more births in a year than now. Very recent figures from South Africa, where the white man finds it easy to support himself, show that the relative increase of the black race has been enor- mous and that the disproportion of the races is rapidly increasing. Evidently it is quite possible that black supremacy will forever^jrevent the southern part of the continent, as well as the central, from becoming a white man's country. It is becoming recognized that no race can thrive in all parts of the earth. Large portions of the tropics seem to be closed forever to the white races as a per- manent habitat where they can take root and thrive. English experience in India, where white families of children cannot be reared, illustrates a truth which holds not only for tliat country, but for the entire southern part of Asia, and also the Philippines and all the expanse of islands to the west, north, and northeast of Australia. The whole of central Africa seems to be forbidden to the white races as a field for race expan- sion, and the tropical regions of America give no proof yet that they will fall under the dominance of purely white peoples. What will occur in South America from unions of races remains to be seen, for there are excep- tions to the general proposition that half-breeds combine the vices and lack the virtues of the races of their parents. The Chileans are mentioned as an exceptional instance of improvement upon the Spanish and Indian stocks. THE SUPREMACY OF RACES 95 Race types are obliterated in some instances. Dr. Maurice Fishberg, medical examiner of the United Hebrew Charities in New York, is quoted to the effect, basing his conclusions upon personal examinations of over 3000 Jews, that only 6 per cent of them have hooked noses. The straight noses number 68 per cent, the broad noses 12 per cent, and the retrousse 14 per cent. The distinct iew type is disappearing. Census returns in Massachusetts prove what is doubt- less a general truth for every state in our Union, — that there is a slow but increasing tendency of races here to intermarry. In the main, the great currents of i-ace blood flow along side by side ; but there is a constant increase of the mingling at the edges, so that the per- centage of mixture of 6.17 per cent by the census of 1885 had increased to 8.13 per cent by the census of 1895. So it is a fair conclusion from the facts recorded in history and from observations of our own times that race types have their rise and fall and that they are being constantly modified by intermariiages and by changes of residence. Race-mixing is in progress on a large scale all over the world and change of habitat is becoming increasingly frequent. Profit, pleasure, neces- sity, larger liberty, or fancy have already caused a material migration of individuals of many races to other homes than the home of the race. They are liv- ing in foreign lands by the hundred thousand, — in our own country by the ten million. Census statistics do not yet answer the question how many persons born in a certain country are living abroad ; but they do 96 WORLD ORGANIZATION undertake to answer the question, for the several coun- tries, how many of the residents are foreigners. In Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics for 1899 are given the following numbers of foreigners living in the countries named for eveiy 1000 of population: United Kingdom, 4 ; France, 29; Germany, 6; Austria, 16 ; Hungary, 15 ; Italy, 2 ; Spain, 3 ; Sweden, 4 ; Nor- Avay, 20; Denmark, 32; Holland, 17; Belgium, 26; Switzerland, 74; Servia, 21; Greece, 19; the United States, 133. In the Statesman s Year Book for 1905 the returns are sufficiently definite to afford an idea of the extent to which the mixing of the races is in progress. The following table shows the most important countries : Country Date of census Total population Foreigners Argentina . 1003 5,160,986 (est.) 886,395 (1895) Austria . 1900 26,150,708 496,221 Hungary 1900 19,254,559 245,544 Belgium 1900 6,693,548 206,061 Chile . . . 1895 2,712,145 72,812 China . . . " Latest " 426,337,300 20,404 ( in open ports in 1903) France . . 1901 38,961,945 1,037,778 Germany . 1900 56,367,178 778,698 ■ Italy . . . 1901 32,475,253 61,606 Japan ^ . . 1900 44,805,937 13,709 (1903) Mexico . . 1900 13,605,919 57,507 Netherlands 1902 5,430,981 52,625 (1899) Portugal 1900 5,423,132 41,728 ' 315,195 Russia . . 1903 141,000,000 J (going in) ' 263,670 . (coming out) Servia . . 1900 2,492,882 24,280 1 December 31, 1903, Japanese inforeigncountriesnumberedl53,785. THE SUrREMACY OF RACES 97 Country Date of census Total population Foreigners Spain . . Sweden . . Norway . Switzerland United States 1900 18,618,080 42,395 (1887) 1900 5,136,441 24,548 (1890) 1900 2,240,032 59,315 1900 3,325,024 229,050 (1888) 1900 76,303,387 10,356,644 (13.6 per cent) Here is a vast number of people in the aggregate, though not a hirge percentage of tlie people of the nations named. Here are enough to prove that a great mix-up is in progress in spite of the many obstacles to travel and of the many ties which hold people to their homes. It is reasonable to suppose that this process will increase as the enterprise and restlessness of men compel them to seek new fields. Another point of large importance bearing upon the assimilation of the races is that nations have been forced to change their views regarding the permanence of allegiance of citizens or subjects to their governments or rulers. " Once an Englishman, always an English- man," was formerly the doctrine of our mother country ; and the issue between that doctrine and that of the United States, — that citizenship could be changed from one country to another, — came to a sharp and bloody decision in the war of 1812. That a man cannot take himself out of the citizenship of his native land and become a citizen of another nation is a decaying doc- trine, and the progress of years is rapidly making it obsolete. Beeides our own country Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Nor- way, Sweden, and Switzerland recognize the right of 98 WORLD ORGANIZATION expatriation. Russia still denies it and in the case of Tur- key the special consent of the government is necessary. Thus far in human history brute force has been supreme. International law to-day rests ultimately upon might. Nations conquer other nations and the civilized powers recognize results regardless of the right or wi'ong whereby the result was attained. " Accom- plished facts " have wonderful potency with the states- men who settle the status of nations in the family of nations of the world. In view of the present tendency toward peace and arbitration it is a fair question whether the national dinosaurs and megatheriums, the great fighting crea- tures of the past, are to be perpetuated as the best kind of flocks and herds to raise, or whether it is time to develop and protect the more peaceful races and to restrain those which have lived hithei'to by plunder and bloodshed. Shall the supremacy of races depend, as heretofore, solely upon their military ability, reenforced by such intellectual powers as can be made to increase the fighting strength of the nation? We turn to the resolutions of the Massachusetts legislature and see what they involve. World organization, incidentally securing world peace, is the reasonable outcome of the establishment of a per- manent legislative body for the world. But with the establishment of a world legislature will go the pro- motion of, or the securing of, the establishment of per- manent boundaries of tlie nations. The tendency, as is already illustrated by the jealousies of the European nations, will be to insist that great nations restrain THE SUPREMACY OF RACKS 99 tliem«elves within their houiulaiies, while these same jealousies will be the protection of the boundaries of the small nations. But, regarding the supremacy of races in the clash and confusion of the world, the pertinent question here is whether the progress of the world can be secured with fixed boundaries for the several nations, or whether there is a mighty force inherent in an advancing and expanding race, which will, like a Hood, swee[) away all barriers erected artificially by men and will assert again and again the brute force of the past and make it supreme over all agreements for peace, even if those agreements are supported by the positive expression of the will of the majority of the nations on the face of the earth. Is the world after all tied down forever to the supremacy of brute force, overthrowing all considerations of right, justice, peace, and humanity, so that by some secret but hiexorable law progress must always be accom- panied by the blood and tears of the weak, falling under the sword and the despotism of the strong? We are forced to accept the doctrine that there is a rise and decline of the virility of races ; this condition will continue superior to all agreements of nations. The problem, therefore, is whether full opportunity can be made for the expansion of races with the preservation of the peace of the world, with the preservation of the rights of the individuals who belong to the decaying races, and without the loss to the world of thg full bene- fit of the elasticity, vigor, and superabundant life which inhere in races which are advaucmg to the zenith of their strength. 100 WORLD ORGANIZATION Nations spread and carry their institutions with them. The conquests of Russia have been marked by the Russianization of the nations which have been con- quered or absorbed without the preliminary of subjuga- tion by arms. The hapless fate of Finland, whose institutions are being smothered by the heartless might of^ Russia in order that Russian ways may be forced upon the unwilling, recalcitrant, but helpless people, is the latest and most pertinent illustration of the exten- sion of race institutions by the might of the strong. History is full of these instances, and the progress of the Teuton in England and in America furnishes its ample share of proof of the practice hitherto in the history of the world. But races migrate and nations send out swarms of their surplus population without forcing their institu- tions, their language, and their customs upon the people to whom they go. Though Boston is an Irish city and for a score of years has been governed by the Irish people, the Irish language is not the ofhcial speech, the Roman Catholic is not the state religion, nor has the English foundation for court procedure been overthrown. Pil- grim and Puritan are held in increasing honor, as the years go by, among the people of diverse races who comprise the population of the city. Germany has sent to the United States during the last generation swarms from her overflowing population, yet they are not here conquering a corner of the country for Germany, nor are they plotting to overthrow our government and, like Greeks in the midst of Troy, to deliver us into the hands of their fatherland. The leading South American THE SUPREMACY OF RACES 101 nations receive large numbers of European immigrants, yet their national stability increases without any effort on the part of those settlers to effect the military con- quest of their adopted countries. The table given above illustrates how nations or races send out from the home hive hundreds of thousands of the pure stock, with the training of the mother countr}' in institutions, lan- guage, and religion, and yet tliere is no thought and no need of the political conquest of the peoples to whose land they migrate in order that they may find larger room upon the face of the earth. But may not the race spirit under stress of national enthusiasm prove resistless, breaking down all barriers in the shape of a foreign language, religion, customs, and form of government? It has been so in the past ; but it is well to lemember once more that we are in a new age of the world. Two mighty forces impel to the movements of races, and it is needless here to decide which is the more powerful. One is the desire of gain, the other is religious enthusiasm. In modern times the latter burns less fiercely than in the days of Mohammed or of the Crusades, and it is not probable that a corrupt faith will again stir the spirit of conquest for the sake of religious propagandism. The other motive, the desire of gain, still stands as the mainspring of commercial activity, softened, we surely hope, in many cases into nothing worse than a desire for legitimate profit. Now both of these motives, under modern conditions, can be satisfied and are being satisfied without involving the conquest of one nation by another for their full opera- tion. Freedom to hold whatever religious belief one 102 WORLD ORGANIZATION pleases is already a privilege or right in most of the nations, and so powerful is the tendency of the times that it does not seem possible for the current to set in the other direction. Religious toleration is complete in the United States and in some European countries. In England, it is true, there is still a certain kind of religious persecution at present under the Established Church ; but there is no possible doubt that the nation will go on to a larger degree of liberty. State churches and established religions are still the rule in most of the nations; but the advance of mankind is steadily toward greater liberty, and no race is to-day under the necessity of conquering another in oider that its mem- bers may have liberty to hold in the other whatever form of religion they choose, provided they live a decent life and observe a tolerable form t)f morality. The religious element as a cause of wars of conquest and expansion can to-day be completely eliminated from the internal impulses which force nations to overrun their neighbors. With freedom of conscience secured, wherever there is within one nation a gioup of people from another nation that group can worship as it pleases, whether it be Christian, Jew, Mohammedan, Buddhist, or idolater, provided the life and property of the resident popula- tion is regarded and a tolerable standard of morality is observed. Groups of individuals being thus located, there is freedom to trade, under the privileges now generally accorded by one nation to the immigrants of another. It is true that in certain states of the United States in which deep prejudice exists against certain types of THE SUPREMACY OF RACES 103 foreigners there are laws discriminating against foreign labor, and we have a national exclusion law, but, in the main, it is true of the nations that foreigners can work and trade with more or less freedom, can make a toler- able living, can enjoy their religion, and can at least have opportunity to decide whether they can live more comfortably than in their home country under the more or less onerous conditions which exist there. Unfortu- nate exceptions can, it is true, be cited to this general statement; but the progress of the nations is steadily toward larger liberty. For the sake of trade, therefore, it is not necessary, in modern times, that one nation shall conquer another. The nearest demonstration of the contrary, plausible to some minds, is the case of Cliina in her relation to other nations ; but the united influence of the Powers which she regards as barbarian seems certain to induce her to concede the open door, and the issue is raised in connection with no other nation. Japan opened her door many years ago and her example is conclusive proof of the l)enefit of admitting such foreign influence as finds it profitable to enter, provided the integrity of the terri- tory and the autonomy of the people are maintained. Conquest for the establishment of political principles is possible but not prol)able. Money or religion may lie at the foundation of an empire. Men may flee to a wilderness to set up under political jirotection new religious privileges, powers, and opportunities. Thus did the Pilgrim Fathers amid the snows of Plymouth. But conquest for the sake of imposing political forms upon weaker races as a matter of pure pliilanthropy is 104 WORLD ORGANIZATION in such contrast with the occurrences of the times that it can no longer be regarded as a possible cause for the necessary expansion of a race. The despotisms of the world are so jealous of each other that any disturbance of the peace of the world by one of them for the sake of enlarging the scope of its political institutions would be resisted by a combination of the others. Besides, in these despotisms there is a sharp cleavage between the powers and the subjects. The subjects, acting under the impulse of race expan- sion or of the desire to escape from tyranny, in leaving the home hive naturally make their new home in a land of greater freedom ; and a true democracy, founded upon liberty, cannot be a nation desiring or practicing the conquest of other nations for the spread of its political institutions. As soon as it assumes this character it denies its fundamental principle, becomes a despotism, and surely sows tlie seeds of its own decay. If this is to be the end of democracies, then world legislation and world organization and world progress of any permanent sort are out of the question, and humanity is in a cease- less round of changes without permanent progress. But democracies foster the spirit of liberty which braves martyrdom for the perpetuation of human rights ; and therefore upon this chief reliance those democracies rest which pro{)Ose and which promote the organization of the world and tlie security of world peace. Limitation of national boundaries, then, as a con- comitant of world organization is not likely to be over- thrown by any resistless force in the inherent nature of the races, sweeping away all barriers erected by the f THE SUPREMACY OF RACES 105 organization of the world as one political body, but those boundaries will become fixed. Stability and security will be assured to great and small alike. Race expansion will have ample room and the declining and the adolescent races can have equal justice and equal opportunity to contribute to the solution of the prob- lems which will surely continue to beset men and races as long as men's imperfections inflict evil upon the world. It may be true that a widely expanded race in its declining stage may still have sufficient power to con- quer by military force the budding career of a compar- atively feeble people. Under the brute regime such weak race would be crushed in its infancy, and the world would lose what might otherwise develop to be of large worth. Doubtless many instances have occurred in which beneficent peoples have been crushed by grossly corrupt despotisms and the progress of the world has been delayed. Mankind is poorer, our advance is less than it would have been had the early purity of race force been protected and brought to its full powers. Under the peace which world organization will secure everywhere all the small nations and all the weak races whether advancing or declining will have the protection due to their existence as members of the human family, and each will follow the law of nature inherent in its members. Declining race vigor will continue to work its doom, but peacefully, if it be not arrested by inter- mixture with other stocks, while each advancing race will bring to the world the full and rich benefit of its young strength. 106 WORLD ORGANIZATION If the expanding race be one of the greatest now upon the face of the earth, still there would he no excuse for military conquest or for annexation of adja- cent territories to the overloading of the country's capacity for efficient internal administration, because of the complexity and gravity of the burdens of the whole. Internal local soundness is an indispensable condition for the health of the entire body. With world organi- zation full opportunity would exist for the ventures of the active l)usiness ijien in any and every country whatever. Conunercial enterprise would have full vent. Rewards could be earned in whatever country nature had been most liberal with the gifts most suited to the personal temperament of the adventurer and the capi- talist, whether cotton or gold or wheat or lumber or manufactures or anything whatsoever. With race vigor everywhere finding ample opportunity there would fol- low in all parts of the world a vast improvement of cosmopolitan conditions. Tlie nations which offered the largest opportunity for the full operation of business enterprises would share to the largest amount the pros- perity brought to them by the members of the most vioorous races. ComDctition between nations would set in to secure the largest possible immigration of the thrifty and industrious young race, just as in the United States cities and towns compete for the establishment of large plants for new kinds of business. Narrow and secluded nations, backward and slow, Avould be forced by the instinct of self-preservation to take a new depar- ture, and the world spirit would surely sweep them along with the others, even tliough in less degree. Chinese THE SUPREMACY OF RACES 107 policy and Chinese walls belong already to the ages away from which the world has resolutely set its face. The effect, therefore, of world organization, with con- sequent world peace, would be to promote larger liberty for the individual and for trade and commerce in coun- tries where now there are great restrictions. Inevitably there would follow greater liberty of personal action, greater encouragement of enterprise, greater rewards for labor and capital, and far more rapid advance in the wealth of the world. Business competition would drive the conservative and narrow and distrustful nations into this policy. The world would see a quickening such as it has never yet dreamed of and the most progressive people would find full opportunity for all their genius. Would it then be conceivable that they should turn about and say that they must kill off hundreds of thou- sands of other people, at enormous material loss, in order to have free scope for race spirit or race institutions? Any race which should attempt so to do would surely be repressed by the other races and it would earn and deserve the enmity of the world. The absurdity of the proposition would be evident as soon as any foolish provincial should state it. With the security of peace guaranteeing the promo- tion of industry and of commerce, the assimilation of the peoples of the world would proceed faster than is possible with insecurity and jealousy between races, to say nothing of war. Race types would tend to amal- gamation in the great cities, as people of every race made their abodes there, and these elements would bring to the common stock the peculiar race aptitude for any 108 WORLD ORGANIZATION kind of excellence. Genius for trade, for invention, for agriculture, for manufactures, for architecture, for paint- ing, for scul^Jture, for music, for literature, for educa- tion, for law, for the drama, for philosophy, for theology, — genius for any and every kind of thought and action which makes for the progress of mankind, for the con- trol of the physical world, and for advance into the field of mind and of spirit would all have full opportunity for exercise and would contribute to the general progress. Race supremacy would not be measured by the unit of brute force, but different races would have supremacy in different fields. Not one standard but many would be operative, the world recognizing the truth that men have complex natures and that there is in them other ability than that of killing their brethren. Each race would surpass in its specialties and each would con- tribute the excellence it had attained in its specialties to the common good of the whole, until the possessions and achievements of all races combined would far sur- pass anything which the world has yet attained. Such would be the sure outcome of peace and of race assimilation, unless internal dissensions- or personal vice — the eternal evil in tlie world — found some new way in which to brinsf to nausfht the aims and the efforts of men. Our constant progress in spite of that evil is guarantee that we should continue to overcome its maledictions. On the basis of just and permanent polit- ical conditions the world would then be in far better position to deal effectively with the social problems and with the moral dangers which would still remain as obstacles to further advance. CHAPTER XI THE MIND OF THE WORLD When we talk about the world getting together in order to promote the peace of the nations or for tlie regulation of transportation or for better sanitation of ports and ships, it all seems businesslike and practical. But joint action by the nations of the world would not be possible unless there were an identity in the world corresponding to the identity of any one people but greater. National individuality and responsibility are the basis of treaties and are the foundation of interna- tional law. National self-consciousness has been attained, but world self-consciousness has not. Will it ever be attained? We sometimes hear the expression "the mind of the meeting," or "the sense of the meeting," meaning the sum of the wisdom there collected. We have the frequent use of the words " common sense," meaning the sum of the judgment of all the people about us. More than that, we are in this country a democracy, governed by the wisdom and the will of the majority. Have we not, therefore, a plausible case for speaking of " the mind of the world " ? The movement for a legislative body for the world, which already has made large progress, looks to tlie organization of the world as a single political body ; and it proves that the mind of the world is beginning to 109 110 WORLD OR(JANIZATION assert itself, for it is based upon world action at various times until the need of organic action by mankind as a political unit is affirmed by those who are active in working for that end. The establishment of the Uni- versal Postal Union is, as has already been remarked, the best illustration of this united world action, for every nation in the civilized world is a party to it. Doubtless this action is a step in the regular evolu- tion of the world according to law. Therefore it must demand the careful consideration of all who believe in the doctrine of evolution and who hold that the future has a strength and grandeur of development for the human race far beyond what it has yet achieved. It does not seem difficult to demonstrate to the skep- tic that this advance toward a world legislative body is a natural and inevitable one in the orderly progress of evolution. It is also directly in line with the marked tendency of our age toward the consolidation of small enterprises and organizations into large ones. Evolu- tion has shown the progress of business through the control of single merchants, partnerships, corporations, and trusts, each involving a larger combination of indi- viduals, a change of methods, and a more efficient means of distributing goods and of serving the public. Inde- pendent tribes and clans have been consolidated into nations. Our thirteen colonies reached an organization highly ideal and at the same time highly practical as one nation. It is only one more step to bring the entire world together, and the prospect of reaching that result seems more certain in view of the past than the union of the colonies seemed. r TIIK MIND OF rilK WORLD 111 " The mind of the united worhl " is therefore as legitimate an expression as " the mind of the United States"; and we do have in this nation a practically united mind upon a great many determinations regard- ing our internal laws and upon our foreign policy. We are determined that polygamy sliall not flourish in the United States ; we are determined, as a nation, that the Panama canal shall be built, — and differences of opinion regarding details do not alter the fact that the mind of the people of the United States affirms that the world will be better if we construct the canal. In over thirty instances already the mind of the world has taken action. The world intellect has delib- erated over tlie (question presented, and then the world will has been expressed. Most important of these expressions, doubtless, is the Hague Court of Arbitra- tion. But there are to be added the creation of the Universal Postal Union, the establishment of the Inter- national Red Cross Society, the regulations of practices in war to prevent undue barbarity, the establishment of the prime meridian, etc., as represented by the acts of these thirty odd world conferences. Out of this world action by representatives of the great nations acting in harmony until they have reached and promulgated a definite conclusion surely there will arise a world self-consciousness, just as we have reached a national self-consciousness in the United States. It required many years for the colonies to reach that stage of development. So strong was the local self-conscious- ness of the colonies that it required over two years for the federal constitution to be recognized by all the 112 WORLD ORGANIZATION states after it had been submitted to them. Yet the peo- ple had been acting together by their joint movements in the Indian wars ; especially had the different settle- ments been brought shoulder to shoulder in the Revo- lutionary war ; their statesmen had sat side by side and felt the inspirations of the national mind as it struggled upward for expression in the Continental Congress and increased in strength in the Constitutional Convention. But time and space were against the national spirit in those days. Unity of all i,lie parts of our nation has not been a principle everywhere conceded mitil within forty years. Secession has been held as a local right for the units of the nation for more than half of our history. But we now have an undisputed national self-conscious- ness. Time and space are not nearly as much against the organic unity of the world now as they were against the organic unity of the United States a hundred years ago. The rush of events drives the nations together, and with repeated action of the mind of the world represented by men of the nations deliberating together there will surely be developed the self-consciousness of the world, and the thrill and enthusiasm of world unity will sweep along by its immense current the hopes and the plans for greater things, — just as the grandeur of our national progress has been far more insi^iring than the limited advance of the states by themselves. World movements, world enterprises, world plans, world outlooks, and world achievements will be rapidly due to appear upon the stage of action ; and the broader and more sublime impulse will give a stimulus to world progress which has hitherto been impossible with men's « THE MIND OF THE WORLD 113 plans, outlooks, and sympathies limited by national boun- daries, and with their sympathies not only chilled by bonds of race and limited acquaintance but deprived of a world friendliness hitherto unknown but hereafter to be the possession of every well-read person. When the world shall have come up into the light, the expanse, and the stimulus of self-consciousness the mind of the world will be an extremely busy organ. We get sufficient proof of this already in what it is try- ing to do in its feeble and benighted manifestation in the few national congresses and conferences in which it has struggled for the attainment of an opinion and the expression of its will. It has already, by its establish- ment of the Hague Court, condemned war. It is devoted to peace and it will insist upon peace as far and as fast as it can assert itself over the nations and races which compose the total unity of mankind. It has declared for humanity by its condemnation of bar- barities. It has declared for preservation of the world health by its action in the various sanitary conferences between the nations of the world. It has declared for the promotion of science, as is seen by its agreement upon the meridian of Greenwich. It is deeply inter- ested in business and linance, as is proved by the repeated international monetary conferences. It has declared for the liberty of man, as is shown by the atti- tude of nations toward the slave trade in Africa. It is already bestirring itself wherever the opportunity offers in behalf of the betterment of the world as an immense and organic whole. Yet it is cramped, limited, unac- customed to action, walking in the dark, without 114 WORLD ORGANIZATION precedents, lighted only by the torches of liberty, trutli, and conscience. Experience it has in almost no degree. It is advancing along a new road. Mistakes are to be expected. What it will do for the benefit of the world when it is expert, conscious of its strength, true to its principles in every case, fearless in action, quick in its execution, and pure in its motives we cannot yet con- ceive, for we are not yet educated to thinking in such terms, nor have we risen yet to such a height that we can comprehend the sumi;otal of these prodigious world forces. We can only affirm that the world action must be tremendous and that it will sweep humanity onward with a movement as much stronger and higher than any present progress as the world is greater than any nation, and as much more efficient as united action by the whole nnist be greater than the clashing, the friction, and the mutual hindrances of jealous and distrustful parts. If we can judge world spirit by national spirit, this rosy outlook is not unreasonably enthusiastic, but is sober sense, justified by what we know of human nature and by what we see of the immensity of world forces. Not only will the world mind come into the full light of self-consciousness, but it wilt be vastly better devel- oped than now ; it will have a stronger grasp of the prin- ciples upon which it must act and it will have a broader field of action. This will be so, in part, because such an interchange of world wisdom is already in progress, promoted by the inventions and quick communication of modern times. The different peoples of the world are just beginning to find each other. Whatever is best in any part is now being brought out into the light for THE MIND OF THE WORLD 115 the good of the whole. Whatever national geniuses have discovered is now heing made the common pos- session of all nations. Lands hitherto nearly closed to the entrance of external thought, such as Turkey and China, are just beginning to feel the quickening impulse of larger truth as it penetrates their darkness ; and the truth has never yet failed to proclaim itself or to find martyrs to its divine cause. The world mind is sure to be a better mind than it can possibly be to-day, and just as far as it is larger, stronger, keener, and more active than it has been in its infantile beginnings, just so much the more will it hasten the possession of truth, liberty, and equality for the atoms of which the world of humanity is composed. Americans go to Germany to finish their education ; Filipinos take up their abode in London and I^aris and graduate with honor from Euro- pean universities ; music, painting, and philosophy com- pel the attendance of their devotees from the ends of the earth. Great educational centers, like central suns, shine all over the earth. Multiply present conditions a hundred fold and then compute, if possible, what the world mind will be when it has come to its own inherit- ance. Yet it is more certain to-day that such a consum- mation will be attained than it was in 1890 tliat the Hague Court of Arbitration would be established. With the world mind trained by acquirement of the world's best, by familiarity with ideas from all parts of the world, and by the experience of all the world, what an equipment it will have for the management of the business of the world! Though we are warranted in believing that the world will have a far greater ideality 116 WOULD UllGA^'IZATIOX than it has to-day on its industrial and commercial plane, it is equally certain that it will have greater practical genius also. With the world mind at the head of world management what perfection of detail in the develop- ment of trade and transportation ! Whether or not there is realized the formal control of agencies by the government of the world, there will be brought to the solution of the problems the experience of the world and the unity of the world as one organic political body in which there will not exist friction of part against part. World-embracing plans, to which local move- ments will be subordinate and to whose success they will also be contributory, will shape the movements in trade and transportation until the service to each part with the products of every other part will be as ample as the demands of each part require. Such conditions, too, will make incalculably for the increase of the wealth of every part, for the dispersion of luxuries, for the gratification of delicate tastes, and for the relief of poverty and the uplift of the feeble far beyond any- thing which has yet been accomplished under present methods of distributing the products of the world. Elsewhere there have been treated the problems of the sovereignty of nations and of the supremacy of races as they are related to this movement for the organic unity of the world. But there is a relation of the world mind to the government of the world which concerns it distinctly as mind. If there is one truth which the world has learned by bitter experience and which every generation and every nation learns over for itself, it is that this is a world of law, — inevitable, inexorable THE MIND OF I'lIE WORLD 117 law, merciless, swift, and sure for every violator, but beneficent, discriminating, and sweet for every one who keeps it. Law, not made by man, not to be swerved by man, not to be outlived by man, will always be supreme over man ; that is the permanent, universal condition under whicli man lives. The world mind is under it and must eternally obey it if it is to esca^je its terrible penalties. Nations must be upright and pure if they are to survive. Out of the wrecks and errors of the past this inexorable truth will stand clear, as one of the possessions and guiding lights of the world mind. History seems to be read to little purpose by many so- called statesmen to-day ; otherwise the world would act differently from the way in which it now acts. The common sense of tlie world, as the light of history illumines the channels of time, will say that certain rocks must be avoided. Certain courses will be recog- nized as so dangerous that by common consent they will be removed from the arena of discussion ; and the mind of the world, applying its knowledge to the problems in hand, will promote stable and pure government to a degree far greater than has yet been attained. It is a fair presumption that there will prevail a quicker public spirit than is known to-day, — that the masses of voters will be more ready to perform their political duties, that the problems of the several local governments and of the world government will receive large attention from a well-educated constituency in every land, and that in purity and efficiency a high standard will be maintained. But the mind of the world will develop in other directions when this movement for the organization of 118 AVORLD ORGANIZATION the world comes to its fruition ; and it is not to the point here to object that it is not coming soon. Given the improved intercouise which is surely coming with increased trade and transportation along the lines of present development, and there will follow — there is fallowing already — greater familiarity of the minds of one part with the minds of other parts. The world is coming' to understand itself better. This works in the way of removing causes of misunderstanding and there- fore of quarrels, perha^ps of wars. Each side, with the interchange of information unofficially and in the prog- ress of events, knows more of the influences which con- trol the action of the other side. Allowances are made, time for the operation of forces is given, private and personal influences are brought to bear, friendly offices are invoked, and the factors which make for peace have an immense advantage over what they had in former days when " stranger " and " enemy " meant much the same. In fact, as the people of the world cease to be strangers they cease to become enemies, and the com- mon sense of the world, as far as it is expressed by the uses of the word hostis, bears out the argument. Under the changed conditions of world organization the mind of the world will be more disposed for peace than now, and this will in itself and unavoidably make prodi- giously for the peace of all parts of the world. How soon the great nations will disarm is a question which is not to the point here, but it is a reasonable predic- tion that a world police for the outlying fragments of humanity which resist the laws of the whole and for the hopelessly incorrigible will be the sum of the armed tup: MINI) OF THE WORLD 119 force of the world. Tlie Hague Court of Arbitration points straight to that conclusion, while the probability of the ultimate organization of the world adds much strength to the proposition. Of course all problems for the world mind will in the very nature of the case be such as relate to internal administration. This is different indeed from any present national condition, where the external policy is as absorb- ing as the internal. But an external policy is not essential to the existence and activity of an organized body of men or women. There are many small associations whose policy is wholly occupied with internal affairs. It is not a source of weakness that there are not external rela- tions to divert attention from internal improvements. The world mind, as far as it shall be occupied by prob- lems internal to the world organization, will find ample to engage its attention. No one can study the internal problems of any one of our states, still less of our nation, without realizing that there is full opportunity for all possible activity in remedying internal ills and in shap- ing sound future policies. Largest and most enduring of all these problems, if we can argue from present traits of human nature, will be that of securing absolute justice for every part and for every individual in every part. The balance of local, national, and world government will have to be dis- covered and maintained. Rights of localities are not rights to act as they please, regardless of tlie govern- ment of the whole, but the riglits to engage in activities for the local good in harmony with the good of the whole. The inability of human nature by reason of its 120 WORLD ORGANIZATION finiteness to administer local and individnal rights from a central office is sufficient reason for permitting local- ities to administer local issues for themselves. But there is no abstract right in the locality to do as it will against the well-being of the whole, and in like manner national rights cannot involve rights against the good ©^f the world as a whole. Imperfection and friction in the political machine of the whole is, of course, as inevi- table as evils in the political machines of nations, states, and cities, but it is as fair to predicate improvement in the larger instance as m the smaller. Another aspect of the development of the mind of the world it is pertinent to consider, for it has a material bearing on the peace, prosperity, and progress of the world. Without admitting the claims of Christian science or mind-healing or any similar radicalisms which disturb and repel most of us, it has long been admitted by all students of psychology that there is a close relation between mind and body. Now with a strong mental tonic in the community — a public spirit which affects all the people — there is more bodily and mental health than where that spirit is lacking. Waves of popular enthusiasm illustrate the truth. Look at the unit}^ of the Japanese people in their struggle against Russia. With the world spirit of progress affecting the larger places and sweeping down into the smaller as it spreads, there would be a stimulus which would make over the lowest portions of humanity and raise them up to something higher and better. The word " heathen " signifies the dwellers on the heath. Pagans are " vil- lagers." The world mind would make its inspiring way I THE MIND OF THE WORLD 121 into the secluded hamlets. The separate tribes would be caught by its spirit, and the great impulses which would first stir the large centers would not be spent until they had reached the shores of the ocean of humanity. There would be serious times for the narrow, the bigoted, the crabbed, the hermits, and the crooked sticks of the world. Their personal peculiarities, which were fostered and perpetuated by their seclusion, would yield before the healthy vigor of the mind of the world, and the unhuman, not to say inhuman, types would disappear or retire to further solitudes. Perhaps in the religions of the world there would be the greatest changes of all and doubtless the slowest. But with the coming together of the ends of the earth every form of religion will be challenged for its life. It cannot be otherwise, in the very nature of tiuth. Gen- erations may pass before radical forms of error diligently inculcated by devoted disciples will disappear, but the human mind is so constituted that it demands the truth and it challenges every assertion which claims itself to be truth. The intensity of the discussions over the most commonly accepted doctrines of religion to-day are sufficient proof of this. But the mind of the workl will ceaselessly demand truth and it will have truth as far as it has increasing power to attain it. History will be reversed unless there continues a weeding out of error and a progressive establishment of that whicli the mind cannot overthrow because it satisfies its demand for eternal verity. In the nature of tlie case, too, it must be supposed that the perception of the truth in larger measure will have its direct effect upon the peace, 122 WORLD ORGAXIZATION progress, and happiness of the world. But different races and different minds of the same race would emphasize different phases of truth, and by the divers- ity in unity among all men the activity and progress of the world would be assured with the highest degree of mental efficiency. - Consequent upon this evolution of the mind of the world as a whole will come the reflex influence upon the minds of individuals, the stimulus of more truth less mixed with error, and the larger sense of personal worth. Correctives will be found for the present tend- ency of the employment of large numbers of men by few employers to crush out the independence of will and strength of personality which were promoted by indus- trial conditions in which each man was his own master. The equal standing of all men will be more and more approximated in fact as well as in theory, and this vital reality in the consciousness of the race will modify radically present institutions based on despotism, mon- archy, aristocracy, or heredity, and will put on the throne of power and justice the true democracy of mankind. CHAPTER XII FORCES ACTIVE FOR WORLD UNITY Strongest of all the bonds which hold mankind together in a body whose atoms can never fly apart is humanity itself as created in men and inherent in their very nature. That bond having received due attention we come now to others, not created but developed. They are many in number and great in power. Their number and their power are increasing rapidly. They lay hold of man as spirit and as intellect; they grasp him on his material side; they weave about him such a net that he could not break it if he would, and they are of such unspeakable benefit that he would not if he could. World organizations of vast energy already exist, even if the world is not yet organized politically. First of all is to be placed the ancient historic branch of the Christian church, — the Roman Catholic church. In the true sense of the word this is an organization. The body has head and organs. Secure in the seven- hilled city rests the head of the church. Italy is the place and the pope is Italian ; but Italian is swallowed up in Christian, and Christian touches all the world. Author- ity is there, strict and watchful. All organs and mem- bers of the body nnist obey the will in tlie head. That will knows no bounds of empire or republic; it discerns 123 124 WORLD ORGANIZATION no difference of language or complexion or race. Mis- sionaries are sent to all climes. Authority and the bonds of the church are upon all who are in the membership. All divergences which separate men, which divide them into classes, which promote jealousy, distrust, contempt, and hostility are inferior to the unifying power of this world religion. The Protestant denominations also are developing world organizations. Though there is not in them the strength of central authority which inheres in the Roman Catholic church, yet the Episcopal, Methodist, Presby- terian, and other churches having centers of authority are spreading their proportions, while the extreme of Protestantism which is reached in the independence of the individual church still feels the greatness of its cause, acknowledges that there is a unity which is above all diversity, and has its international council. Equal superiority to divisive forces must be accorded to the other great religions. The Mohammedan wel- comes the Moor and the Saracen equally, provided he is loyal to his prophet. The Buddhist counts his hun- dreds of millions of brown and yellow brethren, but he does not exclude from his brotherhood the white man who accepts his creed. So of the other great religions. They override space, time, color, language, and class. As a rule they recognize the brotherhood of spirit above all these divisive forces. These religious forces are more personal than the political unity, and their strength and constant activity prove how the true brotherhood of man rises supreme over all obstacles and actually Ijriugs the world into FORCES ACTIVE FOR WORLD UNITY 125 such oneness that the centrifugal forces of distance, ignorance, race, language, class, jealousy, and hate, though still as destructive as volcanoes, are yet subordi- nate to the stronger gravitation of " the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." Again, science is one with religion in this triumph over all divisive forces among races, nations, classes, and individuals. The fraternity whose password is truth and whose qualification is devoted service admits at the giving of the password and continues the membership as long as the qualification endures. Scientific societies have their standards, but they are not of color or birthplace or religious creed or language. Moreover, the bonds between men of similar scientific pursuits, in whatever land they dwell, are multiplying and strengthening as the improved means of communication enable them to learn more of each other and to feel more constantly and powerfully the binding force of their common aims and sympathy. Astronomers and geog- raphers, chemists and botanists, mathematicians and physicists, linguists and ethnologists are more than ever interested in each other and more than ever dis- regai-dful of the separation of race and language. They are brothers in the search for truth, — that is their one supreme bond of union ; and they are indifferent regard- ing the nonessentials in their relations with each other. Furthermore, the bond of art is as supreme in its com- pelling power as is the bond of science. From all parts of the world those whose souls are aflame with the zeal of their great ideals go to the art centers for study and for opportunity to approach nearer to perfection. Art 126 WORLD ORGANIZATION academies with their students from both hemispheres and from all races are themselves a complete demonstra- tion that the human soul is not limited by the color of the body in which it abides nor by the accent of the tongue by which it speaks nor by the form of the creed through which it accepts its Creator, but that it mounts on^wings high above these petty earthly separations and in the open heaven recognizes the brotherhood of soul with soul, scorning to ask the name of the race or the nation or the class where the soul had its origin and to which it has earthly attachments. And as the realm of art is expanding in that worthy expansion which is not based on national or personal selfishness, and which requires no slaughter of men in order that it may seize what the dead held when alive, its growing power for world unity is felt, and it is an added assurance that the future has beatitudes which the past never sus- pected save in the unreality of dreams. Religion, science, and art, then, the exponents of the good, the true, and the beautiful, all affirm the unity of mankind. They demonstrate it by their constant supremacy over all the forces which tend to separation ; and when we see that what calls itself " society " is the chief element among men which insists upon the valid- ity and the respectability of the divisive forces, we rec- ognize the essentially infernal spirit of such " society " and feel sure of the fulfillment of the prediction that " society " will be revolutionized, if men are to be either religious or scientific or inspired by art. Below the spheres of soul and of intellect, the material forces which hold mankind together are numerous and FORCES ACTIVE FOR WOULD UNITY 127 potent. They are multiplying and gaining power. They break over all obstacles ; they cross the oceans ; they build railroads ; they stretch telegraph and telephone wires from all centers into remote regions ; they make new inventions ; they harness science to their service ; they learn the languages of many nations ; they brave the cold and the darkness of the arctics ; they defy the heat and the pestilence of the tropics ; tliey delve into the depths of the earth ; they sound the abysses of the oceans ; they annihilate space and time, — and they do all these things in order to satisfy the material wants and whims of men. Mankind without them would be cold and hungry, ignorant and weak, sick and diseased. Man- kind demands the products of all climes for the satisfac- tion of its needs, for the gratification of its tastes, for the increase of its virtues, and for the indulgence of its vices. For good and for ill it must and will go to the ends of the earth, and the means whereby it accom- plishes its purpose are all of them bonds holding the ends of the earth in the common unity of the whole. Spirit, intellect, and matter, therefore, each with resistless force already and with increasing energy, all combine to make mankind a unity which is indis- soluble. That unity is rapidly becoming organized ; and an organized, intelligent, and purposeful combina- tion of men is as superior to a disorganized mass as the highest individual man is superior to a babe ; and the peace and prosperity of mankind consequent upon organ- ization will be as superior to what has been hitherto enjoyed as wisdom is superior to folly. CHAPTER XIII WORLD ORGANIZATION SECURES WORLD PEACE World peace is the object of the universal peace congresses, which have come to perform such a great and growing educational function. World organization, beginning with a world legislature, or a " stated inter- national congress," is the object of an effort which already has strong standing. The proposition here advanced is that world organization includes world peace and vastly more. Therefore — to employ a mili- tary term in speaking of the effort for peace — the peace of the world may be secured most quickly and perma- nently by a flank movement, not attacking the diffi- culties directly in front, but approaching them by way of the organization of the world. When the greater object shall have been secured, the less will be found one of the rewards of the effort, and such broad and deep foundations will have been laid for the future that the superstructure cannot be overthrown. By putting mankind mto its true position as an organic whole permanent conditions of peace will be established. It may occur that some outburst of human passion will flare up, making a commotion for a time. But that will not change the general truth nor over- throw the fact that the best possible conditions for per- manent peace have been established. The crust of the 128 WORLD ORGANIZATION SECURES PEACE 129 earth is a fairly stable place upon which to live, in spite of earthquakes and volcanoes. Earth's forces break out at times ; men's passions might overcome restraint occasionally ; but the fitting of the nations into the unity of mankind would be the best possible preventive of such outbreaks, the most likely to compel them to be of short duration, and the most powerful energy to force the insubordinate elements into their due subordination. World organization must grow out of the essential unity of mankind. It cannot be a federation, or any agreement which has in itself the seeds of nullificatioii or secession or any implication that the conditions were created by men and may be destroyed by men at will. The fundamental reality in the existence of mankind was not created by men and cannot be destroyed by men. Recognition of this fundamental truth, the unity of mankind, is the preliminaiy of world organization. Effort for world peace should therefore act along the line of omnipotent truths, and not endeavor to advance along a line of options created by men. World organization will be found much easier than it now seems to most people, if they will only practice what the}^ know, or believe, to be true. One of the inconsistencies which every observing man must notice is not only (as the world generally complains) that Christians do not act as if they believed what they say they believe, but that this is just as true of people gen- erally ; they seem to distrust the universality and unde- viating force of eternal principles. With many people it is as if the multiplication table ran after this fashion : 130 WORLD ORGANIZATION " 5 times 5 are 25 ; 6 times 5 are about 30 ; 7 times 5 are between 34 and 36 ; 8 times 5 are uncertain, authorities differ, the public is in doubt, and it is a question which may well be left to a referendum." Building on the eternal foundation of the unity of man- kind (and those who dispute it are a negligible quan- tity for this discussion), the steps which are in order for the organization of the world into one political body are coming to be seen more and more distinctly in the near future. ^ We take the world as it is to-day, more or less occu- pied by nations more or less near together, every pro- ducer trying to enlarge his market and to bring the world closer to himself, — except where statesmen are using the tremendous powers of government to put obstructions in the way of trade and to make each country an isolated economic factor. Though nations have many relations to one another and more to-day tlian ever before, yet they want many more than they have now. People in incalculable numbers in every quarter of the earth wish to do business with other people in every other part of the earth; and all sorts of persons, in all sorts of places, have a desire which would be uncontrollable, if they had the money to sat- isfy it, to see all the other sorts of persons and places upon the earth. World unity is a fact to-day. But unity of the world under a government of men is not a fact. Narrowness of view, conservative ideas of prog- ress, timidity regarding the future, selfish jealousy lest others get more than we if we throw down all barriers which shut us out from our place in the organic total WOltlJ) OlK^ANIZATION SJ-XUKES PEACE 131 of mankind, — these factors stand in the way of the accomplishment of formal political unity and in every nation hold back those who are already fit and other- wise ready for political union. At our present rate of progress, considering the enterprise, push, and optimism of men, this unstable condition cannot exist much longer. World forces are rapidly bringing mankind to its birthright as a united whole working together in harmony, and the wonder will be how men could have been so foolish as to have opposed or ridiculed such a consummation. Organization for a political person means that it nmst have organs whereby it can know its environ- ment, what its body is, what its surroundings are, what its nature demands, what its circumstances permit, as far as the functions of a knowing organ are concerned. It must have the means of expressing its will after it has learned what its conditions demand, it must have an organ for carrying the will into action, it must have an organ to determine how far the expressed will applies to particular cases. In other words, it must have a legislative department, an executive department, and a judicial department. Nations have these organs now. To that partial extent mankind is organized already. But mankind as a whole has not yet any such organs established and recognized by the nations. The nations deny that there is any sovereignty over them. It is true that developments have already occurred, remarkable in number and wonderfully significant in idea, proving the unity of mankind, and that the nations are coming to 132 WORLD ORGANIZATION recognize it. But hitherto not only has each nation rightly denied that any other is more sovereign than itself, but each has refused to admit the sovereignty of the whole over itself. That is, mankind as a whole is not yet organized. Fragmentary organization — equip- ment with organs by sections known as nations — is the highest point of development thus far. Now, in the relations of nations to one another, as is proved by their treaties and code of international law, certain truths are recognized which involve the very nature of mankind as a created whole. That is, there is, as has been shown in previous pages, a world con- stitution, unwritten, not called by that name, but exist- ing as truly as the animal creation existed before it was named by man and as independent of his recognition and his naming as the animal creation was independent of human recognition. Though that world constitution has remained obscure and unrecognized, yet world progress toward its formal expression has been wonder- fully rapid in recent years. In the first place, that constitution is bringing about the formal existence of an organ for the use and for the expression of the intelligence and tlie will of the world. Nations repeatedly, in separate congresses and upon special subjects, have expressed their intelligence and their will and have intrusted to the nations severally the duty of carrying out that will, as is most perfectly illus- trated in the case of the Universal Postal Union. That is, the nations are creating a world legislative department. In the next place, the establishment of the Hague Court of Arbitration is doubtless the beginning of the WORLD UKCJANIZATION SECURES PEACE 133 establishiiient of u judicial department which will include other duties than the settlement of causes dangerous to the peace of nations. Lastly, the formal establishment of some world executive will not long lag Ijehind the creation of the legislative and the judi- cial departments. The world is moving rapidly toward political organization as one body; and the situation must soon reveal itself to present doubters. United States history throws a powerful light upon the wider truth of the relations of the nations to one another. After the beginning of the Revolutioji came the federation. Subject colonies having thrown off the government of England were independent states, or sov- ereign powers, in their relations to one another and to the world. So they said. But the Nature of Things, asserting itself through a disorganized currency, indus- trial distress, political antagonisms, and the decrepitude of tlie central government, said to these self-styled sov- ereigns : " You are fools. You must recognize me. You are one. You must recognize your unity in me. Throw away your theories. Admit the truth which existed before you, which shaped your being, and which holds you m its inexorable grasp." The wisdom of the framers was shown in their recognition of the folly of the federation and in their willingness to become subordinate to the Nature of Things. Yet the sovereignty of each state was recognized — such were the exigencies of the times — to the extent that it could c^me under the Constitution or not, at its will. Years passed before the slowest and dullest and most selfish of them recognized the fundamental 134 WORLD ORGANIZATION fact that they were in the grip of circumstances and in relations over which they had no sovereignty, and then they formally adopted the Constitution. What the Nature of Things will yet do with the United States remains to be seen. As far as our Con- stitution is in accord with the supreme, unwritten con- stitution, it is in an impregnable stronghold and no might of man can destroy it. But wherever it is not in accord, or is so interpreted as not to be in working- accord, then the Nature of Things will have no more regard for the written Constitution than a tornado has for the straws in its path. Fundamental rights of man and the true obligations and responsibilities of nations lie in the world constitution, back of all written agree- ments or treaties or human understandings whatever, and they will triumph at last, provided men are unself- ish enough and brave enough to die for their rights, — and martyrs have never yet been lacking when the cause was clear. So we can turn to the history of the United States and get a bright illumination upon present conditions and duties. States of the United States do not have wars with one another. It is true that the great civil strife occurred ; but the Nature of Things proved that the bond over the warring parts was stronger than the repellent forces whose presence together was due to the introduction of a falsehood contradicting the truth of human free- dom, one of the fundamental and eternal principles upon which the nation was established. But civil war between different individual states is impossible, though there are diversities of interests and of local sentiment between AVOIILD ORGANIZATION SECURES PEACE 135 some of the states greater than the diversity between the northern tier of states and the interests and senti- ment of the people of Canada. States of the United States have no tariff wall between them. Though the nation covers such immense territory that the good of one section is gained under our tariff by direct and admitted loss to another, — as in the case of the duty on hides and leather, — yet the states which suffer for the benefit of the others continue in their friendly rela- tions and there is no possibility of war. The original colonies have submitted to tlie Nature of Tilings. They have abandoned forever their claim of absolute sover- eignty and they enjoy permanent peace and friendship with one another. They are in organic relations with one another. Politically they are one. One flag is over them. One legislative body composed of representatives of all sections makes laws for the whole and promotes the development of the weakest parts. One judiciary department has jurisdiction over cases which arise be- tween the different states, or between the states and the general government, or between citizens of different states ; settlement of all differences is assured according to forms of justice which are the same in all parts of the country. One executive, in the choice of whom all the parts have a voice, enforces the will of the repre- sentatives and carries out the decisions of the courts. The political machinery is built for the just settlement of causes of differences and for the harmonious growth of all parts of the living whole. Law is respected. An army is needed internally for police purposes for the savage and lawless communities only. 136 WORLD ORGANIZATION Yet these amicable and prosperous relations for the individual states have not been secured by any direct agreements between them individually since the adop- tion of the Constitution. Maine has no treaty relations with California nor even with New Hampshire. Formal relations have been rendered Jieedless forever because the Nature of Things has been recognized. That deter- mines the relations of the states to one another. When they have once come into the relations which are in accord with the higher^ powers, further arrangements have been superfluous. The greater has included the less, and a vault full of treaties and agreements and codicils and explanations and ratifications could accom- plish no more than is secured forever in the whole and in detail by the simple act of recognizing the funda- mental unity of the states in the superior nation. Thus the United States is an illustration to the entire world of the peace and prosperity which follow the accomplishment in political life of the unity of man- kind, as far as our Union embodies and expresses that unity. When Connecticut expanded into the great West it was not necessary that she should conquer larger areas. The exact contrary actually occurred, and the survival of the name of the Connecticut West- ern Reserve will proclaim to the world, as long as those hear who have ears to hear, that political supremacy is needless for the spread of a colonizing people. New York capitalists did not declare war upon Montana when they wished to invest their capital in the deposits which dazzled the imagination of the covetous by the fabulous richness of their ores ; yet the local laws of WORLD ORGANIZATION Sl-XURES PEACE 137 Montana were materially different from those of New York. Ohio has not made war upon Louisiana because the latter has control of the mouth of the Mississippi and prevents access to the ocean. Massachusetts has not carried fire and sword into South Carolina in order to invest her capital there in cotton manufacture ; nor did New Hampshire desolate the plains of Kansas with the carnage of innocent women and children and becloud the horizon with the smoke of burning homes in order to make sure of her investments in Western farm mort- gages. Pennsylvania has not establislied concentration camps of the helpless noncombatants of her sister states in order to open a market for her iron and coal ; nor has Minnesota transported the people of Rhode Island to some remote confinement in order to open up the little state to her superabundant wheat. Expansion has been the practice in our country from the begin- ning, free and constant expansion without the accom- paniment of political conquest, even where the people and the laws to which the expansionists went were totally different from those that they left behind them. Tlie Southwestern states with their Mexican antece- dents and population illustrate the power of supreme political conditions to preserve the peace and to open all possible sources of profitable investment without resort to force, to say nothing of resort to outrage, oppression, and slaughter. No one has ever been heard to say in these times that this systewi of political relations is less beneficial than would be a system whereby each state miglit be an independent sovereignty, each having a high tariff 138 WORLD ORGAXIZATION wall against its neighbor, each staggering under a stand- ing army to repel invasions from its stronger neighbors and to plunder its weaker ones, where each workman toiled with a soldier strapped to his back in order to maintain an unstable equilibrium, and where the pas- sions and jealousies of each state were in constant exercise against each and every one of its neighbors. Yet such would be the condition of the states of our country to-day if they had not recognized the Nature of Things and surrendered a seeming sovereignty, which they never had in fact, in order to rise to a higher plane of existence as subordinate parts of one organic whole, one self-governing nation. This is no mere human order which is supreme in our country to-day. It is no result of cunning wits planning out a political machine and fitting the parts together like a marvelous mechanism so fi-amed that it never breaks down and never develops excessive friction. Our present system is strong because it recognizes the foundation truths which lie in the relations of free and independent human beings to one another. Our states- men have recognized and applied the eternal truths in the Nature of Things. The inevitable consequences have followed that recognition. Similar consequences will follow similar recognition in the relations of the nations to one another. But there are other forces which work for the unity of our country. Sons of New England become loyal sons of the western states in which they have their present homes, yet they are none the less loyal to the homes of their fathers. Old Home Week is conclusive WORLD OUdANIZATION SECURES PEACE 139 proof of the strength of the bond which liokls the dwellers on the prairies to the hills and valleys of the ancestral states. Sons and Daughters of the Revolu- tion are equally loyal whether they live on the Atlan- tic, Pacific, Gulf, or Lake coast. It has been proclaimed as one of the blessings of the war with Spain (not admit- ting or denying here the assumption that war has bless- ings) that it brought together once more Southerner and Northerner under the Stars and Stripes. Fraternal orders have their members in every part of the country. Great expositions demonstrate that there is a brother- hood among all our people whether they come from the East or West. Freedom of intercourse, frequency of personal contact, intimate association in trade and pleas- ure, familiarity with one another's peculiarities, appre- ciation of the humanity which is deeper and stronger than peculiarities and circumstances, — all these influ- ences weld our people into one great family between whose members conflict is becoming more and more impossible, not only because our political system pre- vents it, but also because our political system promotes something higher than political relations and because the brotherly affection between our people will find some way other than war by which to settle any differ- ences which may arise out of their common weaknesses and passions. Now apply the illustration of the United States to the nations of the world. Suppose that the first object of world statesmen is to secure perpetual peace. We have shown the world how. Our states have formally surrendered their claim to absolute sovereignty. They 140 WORLD OllGANTZATTON have voluntarily taken their place as subordinate parts in a larger whole, and the crushing might of the stronger states coercing the weaker ones by fire and sword, by slaughter and rapine, was not a necessary preliminary of the new relation. The states reserved for local self-government the details in which local administration can secure more accurate justice and larger liberty for each person than the broad and less discriminating power of the central government. Let each nation now, in the pursuit of world peace, recog- nize in like manner the Nature of Things. It was supreme over our original states. It is equally supreme over all the nations combined ; and it will continue to load them down with the enormous burden of their ignorance and their blunder until they open their eyes and admit the prime fact in their existence. Our states established a political organization to fit iheir needs ; that is, they set up, with all the wisdom they could gather from their experience enlarged by their rare genius for political constructiveness, a legisla- tive department for their central government, an execu- tive department, and a judicial department. Every necessary organ was provided.- Organs are indispensa- ble to bodies which expect to do anything and it would be as foolish to suppose that the world as a political body can act without world organs as to suppose that we could have a central government for the United States without organs whose field for exercise covered the entire country. The world has not yet got its head. It lias no organ of intelligence. It is far from having any means whereby it can formulate or express its will. WOP.LD ORGANIZATION SECURES PEACE 141 and further still from a means of enforcing it. A world legislature, then, a world executive, and a world judiciary nnist come in due time, before mankind will be fitly organized for any simple act as a world organism. If we face the situation squarely, we see that it does not require either impossibilities or absurdities. It offers promise of reward beyond our imagination to compre- hend, yet within the al)ility of the nations to secure with- out loss to any and with immense credit and benefit to all. Furthermore, the signs of the times point to the certain realization of the predictions of political world unity. Already the world has made material progress toward the consummation of this great ideal, though the skep- tics are many in spite of a profusion of facts. World peace may be much nearer than the hopeless and the doubters suppose. Humanity is even now becoming organized into one whole. The idea of world unity is stronger to-day than it ever was before. Expectation of the realization of tlie inspiring ideal is spreading among those who watcli the signs of the times. Famil- iarity with the facts only strengthens this confidence. The example of the United States is in itself a proof which will do much to convince the political leaders of our country and to persuade the statesmen of Europe, Asia, South America, and other lands that the truth is applicable to all mankind and that in the realization of this ideal will come permanent peace and prosperity with practical enjoyment of the brotherhood of man. Absolute sovereignty having been waived by the agreement of the nations to enter into a regular inter- national congress, there would follow participation 142 WORLD ORGANIZATION in regulations tending to establisli similar conditions around the world among all nations represented in the congress. In the United States over thirty states and territories have joined the effort for larger unity in state procedure by the appointment of commissioners on the uniformity of legislation. Effort in a similar direction would be one of the earliest necessities felt by a world legislature. Indeed, there is in sight already in this and other fields abundance of material for world legislation for several sessions. One of the conditions which promotes j^eace between the states of the 'United States is that wherever any citizen may be he is fiee to enjoy whatever form of religion he prefers. He may be a Christian, Moham- medan, or pagan, as he pleases, if only he preserves the peace and lives a decent life. World peace will be unspeakably promoted if there prevails such a system of world law that when a man goes into any part of the world he will be free to worship God after any form he prefers. Other liberties not now known in all countries may be expected in the growing toleration and homogeneity of the world. But world law which secures personal rights and liberty having been established there will arise a far greater freedom of movement among the peoples of the world. Mutual concessions will be made for the sake of securing to each the advantages given to the citizens of the most favored nation. Thus trade and profit would become increasingly possible. National belief that it was necessary to expand by conquest in order to find security for religion, for tiade, or for property rights WOULD OltGANIZATIOxV SECURES PEACE 143 would dissipate in the presence of universal toleration and universal opportunity. Japan could expand into Korea without feeling that she must dominate it politi- cally. Kussia would find her ice-free seaport witliout becoming a menace to Japan. England could trade in India without holding hundreds of millions of people her political subjects. The United States could sell cotton cloth and machinery in China without inciden- tally holding a nation of 8,000,000 Filipinos. The Boers could govern themselves, meeting the outlander issue under local conditions, without being forced into the British Empire. So much, and much more like it, would be accomplished under a system of world law. But tlie world court would carry the probability of peace to a certainty. As our national courts have juris- diction over issues involving parties other than the residents of one state, so the world court would be a tribunal before which national differences could be tried and settled by the highest judicial ability the human race could produce. Nations would be in their organic relation to one another as parts of the common whole. Occasion for differences would be reduced to such minor matters that not only would the honor of each contestant be satisfied by the court procedure, but the material interests of each would be promoted far more than by any possible resort to force. For it must be remembered in connection with the truth that only minor matters as judged by present issues would come before tiiat court, that in the relations of tlie nations there could arise no question of the destruction of one nation by another. By the free opportunities for 144 WORLD ORGANIZATION race expansion into territories of other races offered to all who desired to trade or travel or live elsewhere, world law would remove all pretext for resort to force. IVIore than that, as has actually occurred under the con- cert of Powers in Europe, there would be such jealousy to maintain the status quo territorially that the public opinion of the entire world would be against any one Power which should undertake to destroy the existence of any other, however small. And the concert itself illustrates the growings and tremendous strength of world opinion, especially when backed by the moral law. Other questions than existence or integrity of terri- tory would be settled by the world court, and the pub- lic opinion of the world would be powerful to influence the losing side to accept the verdict without resort to force. In any event acceptance would not involve dis- honor in the eyes of others, because it would be a ver- dict by the world court and acceptance would certainly entail less loss of prestige or property — to say nothing of life — than a resort to arms. The details of the development of the world executive are not essential to the taking of the first steps for world organization for the sake of world peace. Present arrangements, such as exist in the case of the special world congresses which have acted upon particular sub- jects, suffice for present needs. The main elements needed first are the legislative and the judicial depart- ments, and these are already so near realization that recognition of the situation by the nations will promote the disposition of the people everywhere to hasten what is so surely approaching. VVUUI.U UiaiANlZATlON SECUllES TEACE 145 With world urgauiziiiion secure there would disap- pear some of the present problems which desti'oy tlie liiiaiicial health of Europe and put a burden upon the United States. With the danger removed that national existence might be destroyed, with the preservation of territorial integrity assured, with substantial justice (even witli the risk of occasional errois) [)roniised by a world court, the problem of disarmament would be solved. This of itself would be of incalculable worth. The revival of industry, the decline of militarism, the decay of national jealousies, the promotion of interna- tional intercourse, the exchange of national products on better terms, and other widespread consequences would follow the recognition by the nations of the Nature of Tilings. To the consummation of political unity there is no doubt — so believe those who are active in this move- ment — that the world will ultimately come. They are not prophesying whether that consummation is near or remote. Tiiat it is coming and that it will be of incal- cuhible benefit when it does come are suflicient premises upon which to build the most diligent work possible for its speedy coming. While there must be a ripening of events for this end, and while time must elapse for the operation of forces beyond our control, yet it is no less true that much depends upon direct human agency. The law of opportunity improved holds as fully in this field as in others, — as in the establishment of the Hague Arbitration Court, for instance. The curse of opportu- nity neglected hangs over those who counsel neglect as truly as over any others who fail to rise to the full 146 WORLD ORGANIZATION height of their opportunity and responsibility. Subjects are waiting in abundance for the action of the regular congress of nations, or world legislature. Obstacles are no more insurmountable than they were for the Hague Court. Indeed, the success of that effort guarantees and prophesies success in this. The cause itself is momen- toiis enough, magnificent enough, and inspiring enough to call out patient, untiring, and self-sacrificing effort. For the encouragement of the faint-hearted may be added the recent record of facts accomplished. This twentieth century, yet very young, lias seen a marked advance in the principal avenues which lead to world organization and world peace. Progressive men in the Old World and the New are actively supporting the direct movement for the political unity of the world, which had not begun when the century opened. Arbi- tration treaties have been multiplied. The mind of the world has so far turned toward peace that the problem is to-day one of method rather than of the dispositions of the nations. The pioneer work has been done. It is only necessary to maintain the present impetus and to guide it rightly, and the signs of the future reveal clearly a large increase in the impetus and a finer skill in directing its course. CHAPTER XIV WORLD PEACE Peace as an end in itself is a sufficient motive for all that has been said and sung and done for it. But world peace, great as it is in itself, is only a means to a greater end wlien the possible future of the unity of the nations is foreseen. World peace would be merely the leveling of the roadbed and the laying of the track for the progress of the prosperity and development of the nations which would surely follow. Most of us are not accustomed to think in larger terms than those of our nation. Our plans for the progress of the world are generally limited by our national boundaries, and patriotism is our highest political virtue. But the vir- tue of "• worldism " (if we may coin the word) is no more contradictory to the spirit of patriotism than patriotism is contrary to state pride or to loyalty to the interests of one's own city or town. It is necessary to rise higher in our mental viewpoint if we are to get a practical out^ look for the future. We must overtop our national boundaries and include the whole world. This is not sentiment, it is practical business, — for nothing is more certain than that the future must include the whole world in its outlook and that the thinker who limits his view by the boundaries of his nation will miss so much of the field of business and progress that his 147 148 WORLD ORGANIZATION opinions will count for nothing, while his patriotism will be rated as a very narrow sentiment not worthy of an intelligent being of modern times. Supremely practical, above all reforms aside from the Christian religion which ever appealed to the sober judgment and to the enthusiasm of mankind, the sub- lime cause of world organization has now in the fullness of time come before the world and by the truth which inheres in it demands the world's attention. It promises specific, positive, practiced, and inconceivably beneficent results as the consequences of its adoption. First and greatest, there would be realized the polit- ical self-consciousness of mankind, hitherto never achieved. The world, unified and intelligent, would for the first time in human history come to the grandeur of its existence as one, and would feel the thrill of intelligent unity as it first said '■'• I " of itself. National self-consciousness has already been attained, world self- consciousness has not. When it shall have been attained the united race, knowing its linlimited powers, looking over the earth and recognizing its directorship amid all the forces of nature and man, feeling its strength and realizing its boundless opportunity, will say " I will." Thus and then would be accomplished the grandest revolution in human history. The world would have found itself, would have come into self-consciousness, realized its true supremacy, and discerned its opportu- nity. It would be thenceforth and forever a new being. All the preceding centuries, it is hardly exaggeration to say, would count for almost nothing in the existence of mankind as an organic whole. They would be merely WOULD I'EACE 1-19 the preliminary stages ; they would be as the clays of separation and dispersion, or as the chaos of the fire mist before the solid sun and planets of the solar system came into being. Following the dawn of self-consciousness for mankind would come during the centuries, — but speedily, it must be presumed, considering the rapid succession of events in our own times, — the notable development of the intellectual and moial character of the world as a whole. World enthusiasm would arise, — something as much greater than enthusiasm for the nation as mankind is greater than the nation. Worldism would tower above patriotism as the world towers above fatherland, and the directorship of the forces of the earth would bring the products of all parts of the earth to the service of men in every part. Purity, strength, and growth would be ideals constantly in realization as the world saw its true position in creation and discerned the higher truths above it shaping its development and satisfying its aspirations. World organization having secured world peace there would follow a positive improvement of the moral, intel- lectual, and physical nature of the individuals of the race. Laws of heredity would bring their beneficent fruits and many evils of hatred and war would disap- pear. Records of public ofiicials show that persons born during our civil war have a noticeably different disposi- tion from those born during times of peace. How far the generalization should rightly be carried is a question, but the facts recorded show that the mental and moral traits of the persons born during those years who came 150 WORLD ORGANIZATION afterward under the discipline and care of a public institution were more turbulent and willful than those of persons born at other times. This is not strange when the laws of heredity are considered. Now broaden the operation of those laws to include the world. Remove from mankind the extremity of passion which rages during war and stamps its impress not only upon the participants in bloody and brutal scenes, but also upon the people of other nations who are influenced by the wqx spirit and whose moral ideas are infected by the war standard. One great source of turbulence, anarchy, crime, passion, melancholia, and insanity would be removed. The effect of the mind upon the body would be relieved from the depressing and disorganizing tendencies of violence and hate. Men would be stronger, women would be more beautiful — taking the great mass of humanity as a whole — under the reign of peace tlian under the distorting influences of war. Increased strength and vigor of body, a more serene and sustained frame of mind, a keener and more enduring intellectual power, a sunnier view of life, and a more persistent and rational method of overcoming its evils, — all these consequences ^vould certainly follow the achievement of self-consciousness by the world. All this will be accomplished in spite of the destruc- tive efforts of the empire builders who have made their way to temporary consolidations of races over the slaugh- tered defenders of home, family, and independence. Greece under Alexander, Rome under Csesar, France under Napoleon, and many other imperial peoples un- der ambitious and reckless rulers have aspired to the WORLD PEACE 151 unification of the world by the death of all opponents. But the cement of blood was not living growth and the fragments inevitably fell apart. On the other hand, the growth of organic unity, under which every nation, small and great, has its rights preserved and under which every person enjoys full liberty to make the most and the best of himself, binds together in genuine unity. This unity will be permanent. Under it the world will continue to advance until its purified moral sense will make hosts of men bygone appear upon a horribly low plane of immorality. The revulsion at the traits of the past will be even stronger than our horror at the orgies of the Saturnalia or the human sacrifices of the ancient heathen empires. Peace, with improved heredity and the constant advance of the race, which we may reasonably expect, will biing this era of purity, liberty, and power. But there will be further great progress in the higher fields. Peace, not force, is for the advantage of reason, and with world peace will come the real grip of the religious forces of the world with each other in a contest for supremacy. Fire and sword may have availed to spread Mohammedanism, torture may have supported the propaganda by the Inquisition, and paganism may have repressed Christianity for a time by wholesale cru- cifixions and burnings ; but in these times the supremacy of religion must be relieved by other means than fear of physical death. There must be a conflict in the spirit- ual field and tiie victory will be to the strongest spiritual power ; true and false religion will struggle, to the death of the false, but the struggle will be without physical 152 WORLD ORGANIZATION violence. Hence world peace will be the quickest and surest means whereby the end of religious error, super- stition, idolatry, and their accompanying vices can be compassed. In the same way the surest and quickest end of all errors and false tlieories in science and all mistaken prac- tices in large matters of government whereby the progress of peoples is hindered will be reached by the establish- ment of world peace. Opportunity will be afforded for the rapid spread of the^ truth. Error will find itself helpless in the presence of truth. Passion and preju- dice will be robbed of their present power. Hatred of foreigners will no longer be used to bolster up wrong ideas in science, education, and government, and a rapid advance in the right direction will become possible. In the industrial realm the effect of world peace will be felt no less universally. That peace will have been accomplished by the union of moral and intellectual forces making for justice to the weak, for the recogni- tion of the prerogatives of the truly strong, for the econ- omy of wealth, and for the joint progress of all under conditions consistent Avith the prosperity of all. These same forces will operate in the industrial world for the settlement of industrial wars by other means than force. That exceedingly difficult and complicated problems demanding solution before justice can be secured con- front employers and employees cannot be denied; such are the measures of time, strength, brains, and charac- ter as productive factors in terms of money. But the influence of the resort to justice instead of to arms for the settlement of international difficulties will prevail in WORLD PEACE 153 the industrial world, and, whatever the difficulties, it is safe to predict that force, the worst remedy of all, will not be employed. Prevention of waste and destruction, corresponding to the prevention of the waste and destruc- tion of war, will ensue, and thus the material welfare of the world will be largely promoted. Take a step to a plane lower but still one of impor- tance, in which world peace will assert itself. Nations and local communities establish to-day centers whereon are lavished millions for the adornment and pleasure of the people — in palaces, parks, boulevards, art museums, and whatever in tlie material field may appeal to the enjoyment and uplift of the entire body of people con- tributing or taxed therefor. Enlarge this possibility to include the entire world. What organized states have done organized mankind will do, and the present beauties and pleasures of palace, park, river, statuary, arcliitec- ture, and music for the people will be only beginnings of what will be enjoyed by the generations to come, whose wealth will not be si)ent to destroy each other, whose talent will not be devoted to inventions to out- class other infernal devices, whose ambition will not be to rule amid blood of brethren or over unwilling races ; but all of whose powers and wealth will be for mutual service. Still further, as the power of organized nations is felt not only at the centers of population to beautify and give mental and moral uj)lift, but is felt also at the out- skirts, destroying the worst adverse conditions, letting the light from the center shine into the darkest places, and raising up the most degraded and unfortunate of 154 WORLD ORGANIZATION the people, so the power of organized mankind acting under the beneficence of world peace will shine into the darkest corners of the earth, bringing the most remote and secluded into the companionship of the race, reduc- ing natural obstacles, extending means of communica- tion which may not be financially profitable, and raising to a higher level the lowest places and peoples on the face of the earth. Whatever nations, with their power of central administration and of taxation, are doing in the light of national self-consciousness for the improve- ment of the nation in morals, intellect, and material wealth, all of that and more may rightly l)e expected of the world in the light of its self-consciousness, with a central world administration, with the power to collect means from all parts of the world, and with ability to command the best brains of the world for the service of the world. Take one further step. Barriers to travel to all centers and to the remote corners of the earth being removed, the resistless instinct of all men to learn more of the world they live in will be indulged far more than is possible now. Men work in order that they may have leisure. They make money in order to spend it. It would be impossible to hold them down at home unless they were strapped down. Travel is now and always will be as long as h'lman nature remains what it is a great and genuine pleasure for the large majority of the race. Under conditions of world peace, with rail and steamer lines running to all parts of the earth (leav- ing the forecast for flying machines to await the com- pletion of the invention), there will be a rush of travel WORLD PEACE 155 far exceeding what is known to-day. Rates will be much lower by reason of the magnitude of (he service. Hotels will thrive and accommodate beyond present dreams. Markets of goods will follow far in excess of present experience. Trade and transportation every- where will have such a quickening as armed conquests, subsidies, and bounties can never accomplish. Added to this will be the positive result of the far better acquaintance of the peoples with each other from all parts of the world. This will mean the removal of misunderstandings, the formation of friendsliips, and doubtless the promotion of maniages between different peoples, the growth of mutual toleration, the welding of the nations together into a social as well as a political unity. If any prediction is moderate and certain of ful- fillment, it is such a prediction as this, based upon the course of the world tlms far and the elements of human nature. It is not predicting the millennium, but simply pointing out to those whose interest it is to work for woiid peace what some of their rewards will be. All this forecasting of the consequences of world peace by no means implies that there will not be plenty of evil in the world. At present in spite of national laws crime abounds and criminals nuilti[)ly. So unhap- pily it will doubtless continue to be under world unity in one political body — although certain classes of evils should gradually disappear. At every point the devil will put in his work. Mischief, ignorance, malice, and hate will still mar human life and must still be battled with, albeit on some higher fields. But the organic form of the world will be complete and under that form the 156 WORLD ORGANIZATION world will advance in prosperity and in civilization far faster than would otherwise be possible, just as the United States has advanced incalculably faster than if every state had been politically independent of every other and if there had been no organic head to direct the development of the whole. Unity for the race, with evil, is as superior for the good of the world as unity for the nation, with evil, has been superior to disorgani- zation. Union of states into the nation has proved prac- tical. World unity is no more a dream than national unity and will as surely come ; and no mind can fully imagine the benefits which will follow. In the unmeasured centuries of the past there has not been an era which organically equals in importance for the world the era in which we live ; and in the incalculable future there will not be one of equal moment for mankind. This I believe to be the sober, unexaggerated statement which the plain truth justifies. Regarding the past the history of the world shows that organic unity has never existed. Separation of nations and races, jealousy, enmity, hostility, and war, — these have been the principal facts through all of human his- tory. Nations have asserted absolute sovereignty. They have regarded their neighbors as legitimate objects of destructive attacks. They have formed alliances for the sake of selfish ends, never with any idea of a larger whole, of which the nations were subordinate parts. Mankind has existed in fragments, as far as its unity is concerned, from the days of tlie cave dwellers to the WORLD PEACE 157 present era. Organic union is now for the first time definitely in sight. Existence is the most important fact for any being, and it is fair to say that the era in which this organic existence is consummated is more important tlian any which has gone before. But it is also reasonable to affirm that no era in the future will ever be more critical for mankind than that in which we live, — and it is to be remembered that, in comparison with the ages of which we are now speak- ing, a hundred years may rightly be regarded as a sliort time. In the present era there will be consummated some sort of organic union of mankind. It will not be as well fitted a union as will be attained in the future ; but this era of formation is the time when some degree of organic relation will be established. Improvements will be made in the future, but they will be reforms upon the past ; no new departure will be involved which will compare in importance with the first session of a world legislature meeting with the deliberate intention of being a precedent in legislation for all the world by representatives of all the world. Sucli an event will be more vital in the organic development of the human race than any organic event which has yet occurred or, so far as we can see, ever will occur after it. When it has been organized the world will do things which will accomplish more for mankind than this first meeting, for mankind by organization will just have found its head, and a being with a head and organs for action will do more than a being without a head and impotent through lack of organs. But the getting of the head and the making it possible for brains and organs to act 158 AVORLD ORGANIZATION is of itself more important for that being than anything which the head may devise or originate for the hands to do. We stand at a focus in human history, to which all previous forces converge and from which in changed form they diverge and broaden out into new expansive- ness, full of new power for the benefit of mankind as a whole. This is an era to which the world prophets have looked with bright anticipation. It is the era to which the world will hereafter look back with intense interest as the ])eriod in which the diverse forces in the human race were brought into organized form, when the dif- ferent fragments found their rightful places in the organic whole, when collisions ceased in the perception that there was a higher good for each in the unity and peace of the whole, when the nobler love of man for man asserted itself superior to all form of glory gained by military conquest and slaughter, when the gains of trade were found to be inferior to the gains of friendli- ness, and when the thrill of organic unity superseded forever the gratification of national domination and the cruel exultation of the triumph of man over man. These years, therefore, in which we live are wonder- ful years. No people before us and no people after us have seen or will see such events. Though doubtless inferior in beneficence to future events, when we con- sider the unimaginable advantages yet to be enjoyed, which inhere in world peace and world prosperity, they surpass in critical importance all world events before and after. This is the clear and impressive truth with which we press forward to accomplish the estal)lishment of the permanent world state. APPENDIXES APPENDIX A THE PETITION OF 1902 To the General Court of Massachusetts: The undersigned, citizens of Massachusetts, respectfully petition you to adopt resolutions asking the Congress of the United States to empower and request the President of the United States to invite the nations of the world to send each a representative to a meeting for the purpose of establishing and setting in motion, as far as practicable, a world legislature. "We present this petition for the following I'easons : We hold that mankind is, in reality, one organic body; that all the parts of that body are actually in vital relations to each other by force of laws not enacted by men but inherent in the nature of the organism; that the operation of these beneficent laws will be facilitated by recognizing and obeying them as far as is in human power; that thus far in the history of mankind the operation of these laws has been imperfect and tliat to-day it is impeded by the separation of mankind into many political bodies, each of which claims absolute sovereignty over its internal aifairs and its external relations. Thus far the relations of nations with each other have been regulated by treaties. We believe that the time is ripe for a farther advance. Since mankind is organically one, it is reason- able that it should have a means whereby it can express its judg- ment and its will; in other words, that there should be a legis- lative body to serve all mankind as the several nations are now served by the legislative branches of their governments where such branches exist. 159 IGO WORLD ORGANIZATION We look forward to the development of the organic political unity of mankind until each nation shall be represented in the world legislature, when the concerns of all mankind will be acted upon by the representatives of all mankind for the peace and welfare of all. We regard the union of the sovereign states of the United States of America as a fitting illustration of the possible union of the sovereign nations into the recognized body politic of mankind. As the several sovereign states voluntarily relinquished certain of their claims of sovereignty and thus realized a higher political unity, so a grander union of mankind than is possible by inter- national treaties will be realized when the nations, surrendering their claims of sovereignty in such respects as shall be found nec- essary and practicable, come formally into the unity in which they already exist by the very laws of their being. We believe that the establishment of this proposed world legis- lature will promote in a high degree peace on earth and good will toward men, and that the formal recognition of the unity of the race by means of a suitable organ for its activity will greatly hasten the advance of the race in securing all the good things of earth. This petition was prepared by the author of the present work, and supported by himself and Mr. Edwin D. Mead in addresses at the hearing by the Committee on Federal Relations of the Massachusetts Legislature. A petition identical with the above, wdth the necessary change of words at the beginning, addressed to the Congress of the United States, was forwarded to Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts and its receipt acknowledged by hun at Washington in a letter dated March 26, 1902. The legis- lature of Massachusetts in 1902 referred the above petition to the legislature of 1903, and in the latter year it was supported by the names of over 750 petitioners, largely secured by the personal effort and expense of an enthusi- astic woman, working tirelessly for the cause. APPENDIX B 161 APPENDIX B PETITION OF THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY FOR A STATED INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS, PRESENTED TO THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE IN 1903 At the next session of the legislature the directors of the American Peace Society presented the following petition for a regular international congress : The Board of Directors of the American Peace Society, with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, respectfully petition your honorable body to adopt a resolution requesting the Congress of the United States to authoi'ize the President of the United States to invite the governments of the world to join in establishing, in whatever way they may judge expedient, a regular international congress to meet at stated periods — say every seven years — to deliberate upon the various questions of common interest to the nations and to make recommendations thereon to the governments. The following reasons lead us to believe that the time is ripe for such action : 1. The nations are to-day united, as never before, in commer- cial, economic, scientific, social, and philanthropic relations, and their mutual interests are constantly and rapidly increasing. 2. The questions constantly arising which concern them all so intimately rec^uire their united action for proper solution, as the governments themselves have long practically recognized. 3. Within the past century about thirty important international congresses and conferences have been held for the discussion and adjustment of matters of immediate and pressing importance — an average of one about every three and a half years. These congresses, a list of the more important of which is given below, have been in large measure successful and besides accomplishing the ends for which they were called have done much to remove 162 WORLD ORGANIZATION friction and prejudice and to promote harmony between the nations and thereby the general interests of all. 4. These congresses have not only increased in frequency in recent years and in the number of nations represented in them, but they have also tended to become more and more legislative or quasi legislative, as in the case of the recent pan- American Confer- ence, tlie Brussels Sugar Congress, and the Hague Peace Conference. 5. The organization of an international congress of the kind here suggested, to meet at stated periods, v^^ould therefore not be an altogether new experiment, but would continue in a regular, permanent, and more complete form, with the increased efficiency and usefulness which permanence and regularity bring, what has already been successfully tried on numerous occasions. 6. The idea of a world congress, on which your honorable pred- ecessors in the General Court of Massachusetts passed strong resolutions in 1837 and 1838, has made great progress in recent years. At the Hague Peace Conference and the pan-American Conference at Mexico City there was a strong feeling often expressed on the part of many of the leading delegates that such conferences ought to be continued at regular intervals. Not a few publicists of the day feel that the time is near when in the larger interests of humanity as a whole a world congress with real legis- lative powers will have to be created. 7. There is reason to believe that the proposition to organize a regular congress for deliberation and recommendation on matters of general international concern would not meet with serious ob- jection in any quarter among the nations. The creation of such a congress, whose recommendations would require ratification by the nations before becoming public law, would not impose upon the governments the sacrifice of any of their sovereignty and self- direction. The work of such an international body would in a few decades enable the nations to determine clearly whether it would be expedient for them to go further and to develop the organization into a world congress with legislative powers. 8. The permanent international court for the settlement of controversies between nations has been set up by the leading Powers of the world and is now in successful operation. The APPENDIX C 163 counterpart and complement of this court, to which tlie reference of disputes is voluntary, would be a congress witli deliberative and advisory powers which would perform an ('(jiially important service in the development and iormulation of intcriiational law as the court will do in its interpretation and application. 9. The meeting of regular international congresses for the consideration of the various common interests of the nations would exert a great and growing influence in favor of amity and mutual good will, would lessen the dang(;rs of war, and assure the permanence of peace and the continuance of prosperous com- mercial relations. [Here follows a list of international congresses and conferences, the same as given in earlier pages of this work. ] By order of the Board of Directors, Robert Treat Paine, President. Benjamin F. Trueblood, Secretary. APPENDIX C THE MASSACHUSETTS RESOLUTIONS Based on the preceding petitions, the following resolu- tions were passed unanimously by both branches of the Massachusetts legislature in 1903 : Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be requested to authorize the President of the United States to invite the governments of the world to join in establishing, in whatever way they may judge expedient, a regular international congress to meet at stated periods to deliberate upon the various questions of common interest to the nations and to make recommendations thereon to the jjovernments. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the senior senator and the senior representative of Massachusetts in Congress to be presented in their respective branches. 164 "WORLD OHGANIZATION APPENDIX D A MEMORIAL TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES RELATIVE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS This memorial was signed by the attorney-general and all the justices of the supreme court of Pennsylvania and by other men prominent in the state's religious, legal, and business life. It was prepared by the Association of Friends of Philadelphia to further the movement inaugu- rated by the American Peace Society, which was also endorsed by Governor Pennypacker. Your petitioners respectfully ask that Congress authorize the President of the United States to invite the governments of the world to join in establishing, in whatever way they may judge expedient, an international congress to meet at stated periods and deliberate upon questions of common interest to the nation and make recommendations thereon to the governments. Your petitioners are moved to join in this request by the fol- lowing considerations : 1. AVhile the j^ermanent international court for the settlement of controversies between nations is set up by the leading powers of the world and is in successful operation at The Hague, yet there is no recognized and authoritative code of international law, and for the enacting of such a code the proposed congress is almost an essential supplement, l)eing ultimately, as we hope, clothed with deliberative power to develop and formulate a system of international law. 2. The civilized nations of the earth recognize as never before the possibility of settling by judicial means many of the differences between nations formerly referred to the arbitrament of force when diplomacy and arbitration failed. APPENDIX D 165 3. Already between one, liuiidied ami two hundred cases of disputes between nations have been settled by arbitration. 4. Within the past century about thirty important international congresses and conferences have been held for the discussion and adjustment of matters of pressing importance and have been in a large measure successful, but these congresses were of an unauthoritative and ephemeral character and could not enact a code. 5. For want of sucli a code clearly defining many international customs ujion commercial and maritime questions constantly aris- ing between firms and individuals, much irritation and friction result which are not unfrequently the ultimate cause of wars. For these reasons your memorialists believe that great advantage would arise from the existence of a parliament for the discus- sion of such questions as may concern nations in their interna- tional relations. Most peoples, those who claim to be Christian peoples at least, appear now to recognize war as an institution disastrous to mankind and undesirable and to be avoided and prevented as much as possible ; and seeing the wretchedness and sorrow which so largely accompany it, we believe it is our duty, as a nation foremost in the arts of peace and claiming to ujihold righteousness, to take whatever steps we can which may tend to reduce the number of wars to the smallest limit possible. To this end your memorialists believe a world's congress or parliament convening periodically will be a chief factor and they urge its establishment upon you at this time as a long step toward that " federation of the world " which is already foreshadowed by the close ties now existing in the commercial, economic, scientific, social, and philanthropic life of the nations. 166 WORLD ORGANIZATION APPENDIX E REQUEST OF THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY UNION The following request for the calling of a second peace conference was adopted unanimously by the Interparlia- mentary Union at its session in St. Louis, September 13, 1904, having been introduced by Hon. Theodore E. Burton of Ohio, and supported by Count Apponyi of Hungary, L»r. Albert Gobat of Switzerland, Dr. G. B. Clark of Great Britain, the Marquis San Giuliano of Italy, and Hon. Philip Stanhope of Great Britain : Wlwreas, enlightened public opinion and the spirit of modern civilization demand tliat differences between nations be settled in the same manner as controversies between individuals, — that is, through courts of justice and in conformity with well-recognized principles of law, — therefore The Conference asks that the different Powers of the entire world delegate representatives to an international conference which sliall meet at a time and place to be designated by them to deliberate upon the following questions : (a) The subjects postponed by the Hague Conference ; (b) The negotiation of arbitration treaties between the nations which shall be represented in this conference ; (c) The establishment of an international congress which shall meet at stated periods to discuss international questions ; And decides to request respectfully and urgently the President of tlie United States to invite all the nations to send representa- tives to such a conference. The proposition for the establishment of an international congress, by far the most important of the three proposi- tions, was unanimously embodied in the request upon the suggestion of Dr. Benjamin F. Trueblood, Secretary of the American Peace Society. APPENDIX F 167 This proposition has received the chief emphasis in vari- ous subsequent articles and addresses by Hon. Richard P.artholdt, founder of the Arbitration Group in the Con- gress of the United States and president of the St. Louis meeting of the Interparliamentary Union. Mr. liartholdt, in an article in The Indepeyident, May 11, 1905, submitted an outline of organization for the proposed international congress ; and he worked zealously to secure most care- ful consideration of the idea of such a congress by the Interparliamentary Union at its meeting in Brussels in August, 1905. APPENDIX F PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S PROMISE In the reply of President Roosevelt to the speech of Dr. Gobat at the formal ceremony at which the request of the Interparliamentary Union was presented officially were embodied the following sentences : In response to your resolutions, I sliall at an early date ask the other nations to join in a second congress at The Hague. I feel, as I am sure you do, that our efforts should take the shai)e of pushing forward toward completion the work already begun at The Hague and that whatever is now done should appear not as something divergent therefrom, but as a continuance thereof. The following from President Roosevelt's message to Con- gress, December 5, 1904, is his statement of action taken : Furthermore, at the request of the Interparliamentary Union, an eminent body composed of practical statesmen from all countries, I have asked the Powers to join with this government in a second Hague conference, at whicli it is hoped that the work already so ha])pily l)egun at Tlie Hague may be carried some steps further toward completion. 168 WORLD ORGANIZATION APPENDIX G THE LETTER OF SECRETARY HAY In accord with the President's promise, Secretary John Hay, under date of October 21, 1904, sent a circular note ''^o the Representatives of the United States accredited to the Governments Signatories to the Acts of the Hague Conference, 1899," in which, after necessary historical statement and citation ^f the vote of the Interparlia- mentary Union, occurs the following sentence : The President directs that you will bring the foregoing con- siderations to the attention of the minister for foreign aifairs of the government to which you are accredited and in discreet con- ference with him ascertain to what extent that government is disposed to act in the matter. By this action, therefore, since the President's promise was based upon the request of the Interparliamentary Union, and since the request was embodied verbatim in Secretary Hay's letter, the movement to organize the world i7ito a single polit- ical body was assured official standing in the second peace conference of the nations. APPENDIX H THE POWERS FAVOR A SECOND PEACE CONFERENCE Following the replies of the foreign governments to the circular regarding a second peace conference Secretary Hay sent the subjoined circular note to our representatives abroad, showing tlie favorable reception of President Roosevelt's invitation and leaving further action to the international bureau under the control of the permanent APPENDIX II 169 administrative council at The Hague, — a course full of encouragement to the friends of the movement : Washington, D.C, December 10, 1004. To the Representatives of the United States accredited to tlie Governments Signatories to the Acts of the Hague Conference, 1899: Sir: By the circular instructions dated October 21, 1904, the representatives of the United States accredited to the several governments which took part in the Peace Conference held at The Hague in 1899 and which joined in signing the acts thereof were instructed to bring to the notice of those governments certain resolutions adopted by the Interparliamentary Union at its annual conference held at St. Louis in September last, advocating the assembling of a second peace conference to continue the work of the first, and were directed to ascertain to what extent those governments were disposed to act in the matter. The replies so far received indicate that the proposition has been received with general favor. No dissent has found expres- sion. The governments of Austria-Hungary, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxemburg, Mexico, the Nether- lands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway, and Switzerland exhibit sympathy with the purposes of the proposal and generally accept it in principle, with a reservation in most cases of future consideration of the date of the conference and the program of subjects for discussion. The replies of Japan and Russia conveyed in like terms a friendly recognition of the spirit and purposes of the invitation, but on tlie part of Russia tlie reply was accom- panied by the statement that, in the existing condition of things in the far East, it would not be practicable for tlie imperial gov- ernment at this moment to take part in such a conference. While this reply, tending as it does to cause some postponement of the proposed second conference, is depj)ly regretted, the weight of the motive whicOi induces it is recognized by this government and probal)ly by others. Jiipan made the reservation only that no action should be taken by the conference relative to the present war. 170 WORLD ORPxANIZATION Although the prospect of an early convocation of an august assembly of representatives of the nations in the interests of peace and harmony among them is deferred for the time being, it may be regarded as assured so soon as the interested powers are in a position to agree upon a date and place of meeting and to join in the fornmlation of a general plan for discussion. The President is much gratified at the cordial reception of his over- tures. He feels that in eliciting the common sentiment of the various governments in favor of the principle involved and of the objects sought to be attained a notable step has been taken toward eventual success. Pending a definite agreement for meeting when circumstances shall permit, it seems desirable that a comparison of views should be had among the participants as to the scope and matter of the subjects to be brought before the second conference. The invita- tion put forth by the government of the United States did not attempt to do more than indicate the general topics which the final act of the first conference of The Hague relegated, as unfin- ished matters, to consideration by a future conference, adverting in connection with the important subject of the inviolability of private property in naval warfare to the like views expressed by the Congress of the United States in its resolutions adopted April 28, 1904, with the added suggestion that it may be desir- able to consider and adopt a procedure by which states non- signatory to the original acts of the Hague Conference may become adhering parties. In the present state of the project this government is still iuflisposed to formulate a program. Tn view of the virtual cer- tainty that the President's suggestion of The Hague as the place of meeting of a second peace conference will be accepted by all the interested powers and in view also of the fact that an organ- ized representation of the signatories of the acts of 1899 now exists at that capital, this government feels that it should not assume tlie initiative in drawing up a program nor preside over the deliberations of the signatories in that I'egard. It seems to the President that the high task he undertook in seeking to bring about an agreement of the powers to meet in a second peace APPENDIX r 171 conference is virtually accomplished so far as it is appropriate for him to act, and that with the general acceptance of his invitation in principle the future conduct of the affair may fitly follow its normal channels. To this end it is suggested that the further and necessary interchange of views between the signatories of the acts of 1809 be effected through the international bureau under the control of the permanent administrative council of The Hague. It is believed that in this way, by utilizing the central representative agency establislied and maintained by the powers themselves, an orderly treatment of the i^reliminary consultations may be insured and the way left clear for the eventual action of the government of the Netherlands in calling a renewed conference to assemble at The Hague, should that course be adopted. You will bring this communication to the knowledge of the minister for foreign affairs and invite consideration of the suggestions herein made. I am, sir, your obedient servant, John Hay. APPENDIX I RESOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL CONCxREGATIONAL COUNCIL At the regular triennial meeting of the National Con- gregational Council at Des Moines, Iowa, October 12-20, 1904, the following resolution was adopted unanimously : Resolved, that the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, desiring to promote the peace of the world, hereby gives its support to the resolution unanimously passed by the Massachusetts legislature in 1903 in favor of a regular international congress to deliberate upon the various questions of connuon interest to the nations and to make recom- mendations thereon to the governments, and respectfully petitions the Congress of the United States to take favorable action 1 hereon. 172 WORLD ORGANIZATION Resolved, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Con- gress by the moderator and secretary of this council. Resolutions of similar purport were adopted by the Massa- chusetts state convention of Christian Endeavor societies and by other religious bodies. Christian Endeavor societies have sent to each branch of the United States Congress 1G^2 memorials, representing at least 100,000 members of those societies, supporting the Massachusetts resolutions. Every state and territory was represented. This large work was done by the Christian Endeavor World, through its managing editor, Amos R. Wells. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. ^ ^ mo WAY 7 1953 t^^ n*' l\\'[i ^ ir ^if";^' Form L9-2w-6,'49(B4568)444 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CAUPORmia JC Brid,n::n3.n - 361 'A'orld organiza- B7 6w ti on , UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY II' |! Ill III Mil 'Til I"!" I'I'I! I' III II III ill I I il im I I III III I li III 11 AA 000 539 172 7 <^^ ] ,9 nu>. i9k^ JC 361 B76vT SUPPLIED BY THE SEVEN BOOKHUNTERS STATION 0. BOX 22, NEW YORK 1 1, N.Y. 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