advanced nations. Even here, moral force raised to the n'th power would be antecedent to any use of physical force.

The President does not refer to the institutions already established, looking to world organization, notably the Hague Conference. This may be regarded as weakness or an oversight. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The third Hague Conference was about to be called before the war broke upon us. In the order of logic and natural progression, this conference should not be long delayed after peace is declared. The men who will meet in that conference will be inhuman if they do not seek, in honesty and devotion, to establish a court of justice and such other institutions as will be inseparable from the high aims set forth by the President and from the concert of power which alone can make these aims effective.

The President's proposal of a league of all nations is far preferable to that of the League to Enforce Peace by whom it has been urged that a few nations, as for example the Entente led by the United States, could form a league.

His further proposal that the Monroe Doctrine should be internationalized, is not new. Professor William I. Hull, of Swarthmore College, who gives a masterly presentation of the subject of our international relations, in his book published last year entitled, "The Monroe Doctrine: National or International?" therein elaborates the reasons why the United States must

convey to the representatives of the family of nations, the rights and duties pertaining to the Monroe Doctrine. This may not be feasible but it is worth thinking about by men who find it worth while to think. At all events, if the United States holds to the Monroe Doctrine as a sort of exclusive instrument for use only upon this continent, it would be difficult for her to join the league on any plan yet proposed.

The President has spoken. We could have wished that he had held a little more clearly to known facts, but we may hope that his voice will not be like that of one crying in the wilderness and that the sun of peace with a healing in his beams will soon rise upon the nations and that under his illuminating rays a new world may be seen where order, security and cooperation may give happiness to men and women everywhere.

Highly significant is the fact that so many experienced Americans of statesmanlike rank rank find common ground in the President's announcement of American principles. Richard Olney, ex-Secretary of State, says that "the fundamental idea is nothing less than a stroke of genius" — prescience and sagacity to recognize and point out "the only road through which a a desirable peace can be secured." ExPresident Taft praises the speech as "epochal in the history of our foreign policy." It will stimulate discussion of our world responsibility and the burdens we must assume in meeting it. It emphasizes not exact terms of peace but responsibility for

framing terms to satisfy international justice. Mr. Root, ex-Secretary of State, declares his full sympathy with the noble idealism in the speech. He construes President Wilson's proposal for a league of nations for peace as meaning the formation of a convention under convention under which liberty of action would be left to every signatory power to determine its duty toward the maintenance of peace. That is to say the United States is not to be bound to go to war on the continent of Europe

IN

or of Asia or in any other part of the world without the people of the United States having an opportunity at the time to say whether they will go to war or not. In the light of such leading far above partisanship, the opportunity should be seized by groups and organizations to educate and rally public opinion to the support of the general principles so forcefully expressed by the President, spokesman for the forwardlooking American people.

Samuel T. Dutton.

N most of the current discussion of the policy of the United States

government, writers and speakers either forget or ignore the declarations contained in the Naval Appropriation Act of 1916. Congress committed us by statute to a policy of mediation and arbitration in international disputes, authorized the President to call a world conference to formulate plans for an international tribunal, and made provisions looking toward decrease of competitive armaments. Such important action, embodied in the largest appropriation for navy building which our country has known, deserves the widest public attention. The World's Court League platform appropriately makes a point of its relation to the building up of international institutions of law and order. We repeat here the three paragraphs of the Naval Act, known as "the Hensley clauses,"

with which every citizen should be familiar:

"It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to adjust and settle its international disputes through mediation or arbitration, to the end that war may be honorably avoided. It looks with apprehension and disfavor upon a general increase of armament throughout the world, but it realizes that no single nation can disarm, and that without a common agreement upon the subject every considerable power must maintain a relative standing in military strength.

"In view of the premises, the President is authorized and requested to invite, at an appropriate time, not later than the close of the war in Europe, all the great Governments of the world to send representatives to a conference which shall be charged with the duty of formulating a plan for a court of arbitration or other tribunal, to which

disputed questions between nations shall be referred for adjudication and peaceful settlement, and to consider the question of dis

armament and submit their recommendation to their respective Governments for approval. The President is hereby authorized to appoint nine citizens of the United States, who, in his judgment, shall be qualified for the mission by eminence in the law and by devotion to the cause of peace, to be representatives of the United States in such a conference. The President shall fix the compensation of said representatives, and such secretaries and other employees as

may be needed. Two hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated and set aside and placed at the disposal of the President to carry into effect the provisions of this paragraph.

"If at any time before the construction authorized by this Act shall have been contracted for, there shall have been established, with the cooperation of the United States of America, an international tribunal or tribunals competent to secure peaceful determinations of all international disputes, and which shall render unnecessary the maintenance of competitive armaments, then and in that case such naval expenditures as may be inconsistent with the engagements made in the establishment of such tribunal or tribunals, may be suspended, when so ordered by the President of the United States."

The practical suggestions of the

GUARANTEES FOR A

THE President does not specify the

character of the "force" that may be necessary to guarantee a League of Peace. He explains to Washington correspondents that it will be the duty of a conference of nations to determine that. Thus he does not dispose of the arguments for or against the use of force, but he does subordinate debate over sanctions to the main purpose of securing occasion for the exercise of a Will to Peace in international relations. It is easy to say that this begs the question, but second thought may commend the wisdom of such tactics to the debaters. It would be strange if this war teaches no lessons to men and nations regarding the comparative value of appeal to the sanction of armed force or to the sanction of organized public opinion.

Certain it is that many minds have been upset and obsessed by war-fever. Certain it is also that a revulsion

Massachusetts Branch of The Woman's Peace Party, which has issued a leaflet reproduction of the Hensley Paragraphs, are commended to World Court readers. You can help to give publicity to the Hensley Paragraphs. Paragraphs. How? "Read them to your family. Urge your clergyman to read them in church. Have them read in every club to which you belong. Urge individuals and associations to endorse them, and to write an endorsement to their congressman. Put them into the hands of the presidents and secretaries of every organization in your locality."

LEAGUE OF PEACE

against the futilities of force in this war will affect the temper of conferees at its close. Advocates of The World's Court League program have been stressing the intrinsic merit of such implements as a World Court and Courts of Conciliation for adoption by a World Conference of national representatives, meeting to consider sanely the possibility of extending the application of principles already in wide use among nations. May it not be assumed that such institutions ought to stand on their own merits? There is a sound human instinct which suggests that they should so justify themselves and which distrusts alleged justice-bringing instruments that must be forced upon nations by arms. A call for a Third Hague Conference without previous commitment to a particular kind of force or combinations of various kinds of force would not put the cart before the horse.

impression if not the substance of the diplomatic document. A few newspapers printed it December 15.

"The most terrible war which history has known has been ravaging a large part of the world for two years and a half. This calamity, which the bonds of thousands of years of a common civilization have not been able to prevent, is injuring humanity in its most precious heritages. It threatens to plunge into its ruins the moral and material progress which was the pride of Europe at the dawn of the twentieth century.

"In this struggle Germany and her allies -Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkeyhave given proof of their unconquerable strength by achieving important successes over adversaries superior in numbers and in war material. Their unshaken lines resist the continuous attacks of the armies of their adversaries. The last diversion in the Balkans has been speedily and victoriously thwarted. Recent events have demonstrated that the prolongation of the war would not be able to break their power of resistance. On the other hand, the general situation justifies them in hoping for further suc

cesses.

"It was to defend their existence and the

freedom of their national developments that the four allied Powers were forced to take up arms. The achievements of their armies have not altered this purpose. Not for a single instant have they departed from the conviction that respect for the right of other nations is in no way incompatible with legitimate interests. They do not seek to shatter or annihilate their adversaries.

"Conscious of their military and economic power, and ready, if necessary, to continue to the very end the struggle which has been forced upon them, but inspired at the same time with the desire to stop the flow of blood and to put an end to the horrors of war, the four allied Powers propose to enter forthwith into negotiations for peace. They are convinced that the proposals which they will submit, and which aim to insure the existence, the honor, and the development of their peoples, will be appropriate to serve as a basis for the reestablishment of a permanent peace.

"If, despite this offer of peace and reconciliation, the struggle should go on, the four allied Powers are determined to continue it to the end, disclaiming solemnly before humanity and history responsibility therefor." [The Imperial Government asks the good offices, etc.]

Note presented by Dr. von Muhlberg, German Minister to the Vatican, to Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State. Berlin date, December 12, 1916.

"According to instructions received I have the honor to send to your Eminence a copy of the declaration of the Imperial Government to-day, which by the good offices of the Powers intrusted with the protection of German interests in the countries with which the German Empire is in a state of War, transmits to these States, and in which the Imperial Government declares itself ready to enter into peace negotiations. The AustroHungarian, Turkish and Bulgarian Governments also have sent similar notes.

"The reasons which prompted Germany and her allies to take this step are manifest. For two years and a half a terrible war has been devastating the European Continent. Unlimited treasures of civilization have been destroyed. Extensive areas have been soaked with blood. Millions of brave soldiers have fallen in battle and millions have returned home as invalids. Grief and sorrow fill almost every house.

"Not only upon the belligerent nations but also upon neutrals the destructive consequences of the gigantic struggle weigh

heavily. Trade and commerce, carefully built up in years of peace, have been depressed. The best forces of the nation have been withdrawn from the production of useful objects. Europe, which formerly was devoted to the propagation of religion and civilization, which was trying to find solutions for social problems and was the home of science and art and all peaceful labor, now resembles an immense war camp, in which the achievements and works of many decades are doomed to annihilation.

"Germany is carrying on a war of defense against her enemies, which aim at her destruction. She fights to assure the integrity of her frontiers and the liberty of the German nation, for the right which she claims to develop freely her intellectual and economic energies in peaceful competition and on an equal footing with other nations. All the efforts of their enemies are unable to shatter the heroic armies of the (Teutonic) allies, which protect the frontiers of their countries, strengthened by the certainty that the enemy shall never pierce the iron wall.

"Those fighting on the front know that they are supported by the whole nation, which is inspired by love for its country and is ready for the greatest sacrifices and determined to defend to the last extremity the