the advancement of peace," as they are officially called, are at present in force with 20 countries, while 10 more have been signed and five others accept the principle. Their effect has been to add to the practical machinery of pacific settlement a method for resolving all nonjusticiable disputes. The treaties already in force contain the following essential provisions:

ART. I. The high contracting parties agree that all disputes between them, of every nature whatsoever, which diplomacy shall fail to adjust shall be submitted for investigation and report to an International Commission, to be constituted in the manner prescribed in the next succeeding Article; and they agree not to declare war or begin hostilities during such investigation and report.

ART. II. The International Commission shall be composed of five members, to be appointed as follows: One member shall be chosen from each country, by the Government thereof; one member shall be chosen by each Government from some third country; the fifth member shall be chosen by common agreement between the two Governments. . . .

ART. III. In case the high contracting parties shall have failed to adjust a dispute by diplomatic methods, they shall at once refer it to the International Commission for investigation and report. The International Commission may, however, act upon its own initiative, and in such case it shall notify both Governments and request their co-operation in the investigation.

The report of the International Commission shall be completed within one year after the date on which it shall declare its investigation to have begun, unless the high contracting parties shall extend the time by mutual agreement. . .

...

The high contracting parties reserve the right to act independently on the subject-matter of the dispute after the report of the Commission shall have been submitted.

PRESIDENT ADVOCATES A COMMON FORCE.

International practice was in this phase of development when the European war broke out. Immediately, clear-sighted citizens sought to devise some workable plan of securing a just and lasting peace after the war itself had ended. A judicial court was the most obvious part of such a plan. The principle of a commission of investigation to conciliate differing parties was equally well recognized owing to the publicity given to the American peace plan. Diplomatic conferences

ADVOCATES A COMMON FORCE

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to codify international practice into international law were familiar, thanks to the Hague Conferences, and were unchallenged in principle. Beyond that, the way was not so clear; but it was the feeling of many competent observers that the time was ripe for a form of international organization in which these accepted principles were re-enforced by an international sanction. This conviction was successfully championed by President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University when the League to Enforce Peace was organized in Philadelphia. Thus the idea of an international police force indorsed by Congress in 1910, and the ideas advanced by President Taft in 1913,-that the powers of a court should be enforced by the agreement of all nations, and that there should be authority to compel a defendant nation "to answer to the complaint under the rules of law established for international purposes,”—became a commanding subject of public discussion in the United States. American interest in the proposition was powerfully reflected abroad. It received the careful attention of the Wilson administration, and the President openly aligned himself with the advocates of "some common" force behind international institutions by consenting to address the First Annual Assemblage of the League to Enforce Peace in Washington on May 27, 1916. On that occasion he spoke for the country, as follows:

I am sure that I speak the mind and wish of the people of America when I say that the United States is willing to become a partner in any feasible association of nations formed in order to realize these objects and make them secure against violation. . . .

I came only to avow a creed and give expression to the confidence I feel that the world is even now upon the eve of a great consummation, when some common force will be brought into existence which shall safeguard right as the first and most fundamental interest of all peoples and all governments, when coercion shall be summoned not to the service of political ambition or selfish hostility, but to the service of a common order, a common justice and a common peace."

1 Mr. Lowell was chairman and reporter of the committee on resolutions. The discussion and votes are in League to Enforce Peace, 9-10, 58-62.

Enforced Peace, 162–163.

CONGRESS DECLARES A POLICY, 1916.

While the President was speaking, there was pending in Congress a proposal destined to commit the United States to a policy entirely consistent with his words. As a result of a widespread public interest, the following provisions were included in the naval service appropriation act, approved by the President on August 29, 1916:

AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE NAVAL SERVICE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE THIRTIETH, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

Increase of the Navy.

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 to adjudication and peaceful settlement, and to consider the question of disarmament 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 co-operation 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.1

This portion of the act, like many other sections of limited legislation in our system of government, declares a permanent policy of the United States. It revives the idea of 1910 for a commission, but its incorporation in the naval appropriation act makes it clear that the policy of the United States as stated therein involves the use of force where necessary to realize the aspirations expressed in the declaration.

THE SEQUEL.

The subsequent steps came in rapid succession, and are an important and familiar part of the contemporary history both of this country and of Europe.

In a letter to the belligerent nations on December 18, 1916, the President gave his official indorsement to the project of a league of nations "to insure peace and justice throughout the world."

In an address to the Senate on January 22, 1917, he went still further and outlined the kind of a league which the United States would be willing to enter. And in his address to Congress on April 2, 1917, the President urged that Congress "formally accept the status of belligerent which has been thrust upon it," and declared that "a steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations."

The declaration of war by joint resolution of the two houses of Congress became effective April 6, 1917.

In a note cabled to Russia on May 26, 1917, in view of the approaching visit of the American delegation to Russia, the President presented to the new democracy of the Old World the ideals which he had so forcibly been championing in the New World:

And then the free peoples of the world must draw together in some common covenant, some genuine and practical co-operation that will in effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in the dealings of nations with one another. The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a structure of B. R. Tillman, Jr., Navy Yearbook, 483-484 (Sen. Doc. 555, 64th Cong., 2d Sess.).

force and reality. The nations must realize their common life and effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power.

For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure. For these are the things we have always professed to desire, and unless we pour out blood and treasure now and succeed, we may never be able to unite or show conquering force again in the great cause of human liberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. If the forces of autocracy can divide us they will overcome us; if we stand together, victory is certain and the liberty which victory will secure. We can afford, then, to be generous, but we cannot afford, then or now, to be weak or omit any single guarantee of justice and security.

Among the notable state papers from the pen of the President since that time is the reply to the peace proposal of the Pope, which bears the date of August 27, 1917, and is printed in full in the preceding pages.