CONTRIBUTION OF COMMERCIAL BODIES

TO INTERNATIONAL UNITY

It would be easy to prove by commercial statistics and historical references the truth of the general statement made by John Ball Osborne in his essay on "the influence of commerce on the promotion of international peace," that:

"Commerce is vitally dependent upon peace."

Take as one piece of statistical evidence the records of American shipping. Before the Civil War the United States had a splendid merchant marine engaged in the foreign trade. In 1860, the year before the outbreak of that conflict, 65.5 per cent of our foreign commerce was carried in American vessels. In 1865, at the conclusion of the war, only 27.7 per cent of our exports and imports were transported in ships carrying the American flag. Our merchant marine has never recovered from the deadly blow administered to it by that war. It has steadily declined ever since, and, in 1910, the proportion of our commerce carried in our own ships was only 8.8. Doubtless other causes contributed to this decline, but war was the overwhelming catastrophe.

War is always disaster. It never creates wealth. It sometimes benefits one nation but always at the expense of another. It frequently produces money inflation, and nearly always results in political corruption; and this inflation and this corruption have the temporary effect of promoting speculation, high prices, and a fictitious prosperity, that soon collapses. There are people who argue that wars result in good. As a matter of fact, they are worse than earthquakes and fires, in their destruction of property. Nearly

every great panic was preceded by a great war-the panic of 1858 by the Crimean War; the panic of 1873 by the American Civil War and by the Franco-Prussian War; and the panic of 1907 by the Russo-Japanese War. The immense sums which are yearly diverted from commercial enterprise in order to defray the costs of military establishments are a heavy tax on business and serve to retard prosperity

Inasmuch, therefore, as commerce is vitally dependent on peace, the Chamber of Commerce is naturally an aggressive promoter of the cause of peace. Of course, it is something more than a peace society, and at times it becomes indeed a militant organization. It necessarily champions the competitive interests of the particular locality which it represents. To this extent it is provincial; but as modern trade expands to world-wide dimensions and as a new and better political economy recognizes the fact that commerce is not necessarily war, but reciprocal advantage, the work of the Chamber of Commerce serves to advance international unity. In another place I have defined a Chamber of Commerce as "an association of merchants for the purpose, through coöperation, of promoting the interests of commerce; and as commerce requires, for its advance, peace, prosperity, good government, sound currency, honest banking, quick, reliable and reasonable means of transportation, wide education, economy, both individual and governmental, and righteousness of life, the Chamber of Commerce is necessarily working all the time for peace, for progressive prosperity, for good government-federal, state and local-for the best banking and currency laws and methods, for the extension and cheapening of systems of transportation, for the encouragement of education and for every means for increasing intelligence and right living." All these things tend to promote world unity. President Roosevelt said:

"The New York Chamber of Commerce stands for the triumphs of peace at home and abroad."

The same may be said in greater or less degree of every commercial organization. It is notably true of the New York Chamber because of its great age and its great opportunity for effective service in the promotion of international coöperation; and in no other way could the contribution which the commercial organizations are making to the cause of peace be better illustrated than by citations from the records of its proceedings during the 143 years since its organization in 1768. Recognizing "the numberless inestimable benefits accruing to mankind from commerce, the charter granted to the New York Chamber by the government of George III, gave powers by which it could "encourage and promote by just and lawful ways and means such measures as will tend to promote and extend just and lawful commerce." At its second meeting, held May 3, 1768, it appointed a committee to adjust disputes between members, an early application of arbitration for the settlement of mercantile differences and the forerunner of arbitration for the peaceful settlement of international differences. From that day to this the New York Chamber has been a consistent and persistent advocate of arbitration as a substitute for litigation and war. Its record in this respect is larger, but not more consistent than that of other great commercial organizations in different parts of the world. Many of these both at home and abroad maintain systems for the adjustment of mercantile differences without litigation, and it is now sought so to extend their scope and influence that a decision by one of these commercial courts of arbitration will be accepted by merchants in other countries as well as in the country where it is rendered. The last annual report of the London Chamber of Commerce contains this minute:

"ENFORCEMENT OF COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION AWARDS ABROAD.—The Committee recommended the extension of an inquiry which had been undertaken, at its instance, by the Board of Trade as to enforcing English arbitration awards and awards generally in European countries and in the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Crown, which proposal was adopted by that Department. A number of reports respecting the legislation on this subject in force in various countries and Colonies have been received, and it is expected that, when the Board of Trade have received the whole of the reports on this subject for which they have applied, they will probably be embodied in a Blue Book.

"INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION. -In view of the increasing use of arbitration for the settlement of disputes arising out of commercial transactions in the United Kingdom and in the principal foreign countries, it was suggested during the year that it would be an advantage if a Joint Standing Committee representing the Trade Associations, the AngloForeign Chambers of Commerce in London, the London Chamber of Commerce and the Court were appointed to secure joint action in matters of common interest. The Arbitration Committee passed a resolution indicating certain points to which the attention of such a Committee (if appointed) might usefully be directed, and at the end of the year arrangements were in progress for a Conference of representatives of the trade associations and Chambers of Commerce to discuss the formation of the proposed Joint Standing Committee and, if the proposition be accepted in principle, to decide upon its constitution and to nominate members to serve thereon.”

Naturally commercial organizations which thus establish arbitration for the disputes of their own members and then seek to put these mercantile courts on an international basis, are advocates of arbitration for the settlement of disputes between nations. At the International Congress of Chambers of Commerce held in London, in June, 1910, the delegates from the United States introduced a resolution recommending to all nations the establishment of a "Permanent International Court of Arbitral Justice, of free and easy access, composed of judges representing the various juridical systems of the world and capable of insuring continuity of jurisprudence of arbitration." It is altogether probable that this resolution, or one substantially the same, will be adopted by the International Congress at its next meeting, which will be held in Boston in 1912.

The New York Chamber has, as President Roosevelt declared, ever stood for peace at home and abroad; and, that peace might be maintained, it has advocated international arbitration. In 1879 it sent a delegateSamuel B. Ruggles-to the International Conference in London of the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations; and on his report the Chamber ordered printed, for the benefit of its members, the address of Sir Robert Phillimore, President of the Conference, in which he advocated "a fundamental change in the Laws of Nations by substituting the rule of Christian Justice in place of the great armaments now maintained in continental Europe.' Thus this early proposal for disarmament was supported by the Chamber. In 1887 resolutions were

adopted by the Chamber that "it is time to bring about international arbitration between the two great English speaking nations that all disputes should be amicably settled.". In 1895 the Chamber's Committee on Foreign Commerce and the Revenue Laws submitted a report stating that from 1816 to 1895 there