1

ence on the development of public opinion on this important subject. If the proposed Court of Arbitral Justice at The Hague becomes an accomplished fact there will still remain the task of securing the adhesion of a number of Powers to the Court, and the very important task of so cultivating opinion in various countries as to incline Governments to resort to the Court when occasion calls for it. There is no other single way in which the cause of peace and disarmament can be so effectively promoted as by the firm establishment of a permanent international Court of Justice.”

Armed with this endorsement and supported further by the active sympathy of men like Elihu Root, the former Secretary of State, and Philander C. Knox, the then Secretary of State, a group of men formed the above-named Society in February, 1910. Mr. Taft accepted the honourary presidency of it and his active interest in the cause of a better world organization has grown

steadily ever since. The great arbitration treaties negotiated under him between Great Britain and the United States, and between France and the United States, but which, unhappily, failed of confirmation by the United States Senate, were the direct outcome of this movement.

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At a dinner of the Society at Washington on Dec. 17, 1910, Mr. Taft said: "If now we can negotiate and put through a positive agreement with some great nation to abide the adjudication of an international arbitral court in every issue which cannot be settled by negotiation, no matter what it involves, whether honour, territory, or money, we shall have made a long step forward by demonstrating that it is possible for two nations at least to establish as between them the same system of due process of law that exists between individuals under a government."

At his side happened to be the French Ambassador. When Mr. Taft sat down

M. Jusserand turned to him

"Do you mean what you say?'

ceeded:

and said, And on

receiving an affirmative reply he pro"I will take "I will take you at your word and we will negotiate such a treaty between your country and my own."

A campaign of education conducted throughout the country in the interest of these treaties awakened the minds of many people to the importance of putting an end to the intolerable lack of organization in international affairs. There was but little dissent in the country at large to the principles embodied in these treaties. It is safe to say that if a referendum had been instituted the treaties would have been overwhelmingly endorsed by the American people. Unfortunately, as repeated incidents in its history show, the United States Senate is not responsive to public sentiment. It was intended by the founders of our Government to be the conservative branch of the Legislature, designed to withstand the emotional will of the peo

ple and to register the informed will of the people. In course of time it has come to ignore both. Its actions have repeatedly illustrated the truth of this statement but never more plainly than in connection with the arbitration treaties in question. The vote of the Senate on these treaties shows only three Senators of the opposition party favouring them, while the vote of the Administration party was almost solidly in favour of them. As there is nothing whatever in the tenets of what was then the opposition party- the Democraticagainst which these treaties militated, the motive for the vote of the Senate cannot be interpreted as any other than partisan: a refusal, on the eve of an election, to confer upon the Administration the prestige that would have attached to the consummation of these great treaties.

But truth is a root with long fibres. Cut away the stalk and, unless hostile powers are constantly on the watch, new shoots are apt to appear. Turning the

attention of the country in this direction made possible the adoption of the useful Bryan Treaties for obligatory inquiry, of which more than thirty have been negotiated between the United States and foreign countries. It greatly increased the influence of the Judicial Settlement Society. It gave new stimulus to the endeavour to erect a World Court. It rendered numbers of men more informed and more ready for this new movement which sprang up spontaneously in the first months succeeding the outbreak of the Great War, namely, the movement for a league of nations to discourage future wars.

III

THE BACKWARD NATION

In 1912 the author was privileged to print a magazine article which pointed to the insecurity of life and property in backward countries as "an ever-present menace to the peace of the world" and