guilty, his sincerity in calling the Hague Conference ought not to be questioned.

In 1904, Congress invited the Interparliamentary Union to our shores, voting fifty thousand dollars for the entertainment of its members, and President Roosevelt welcomed a delegation of two hundred of these in Washington after their meeting at St. Louis. At their request, he at once took steps to convene a second Hague Conference. Owing to the fact that the Russo-Japanese War had not then ended and, later, to the occurrence of the Pan-American Conference in South America, the Conference finally called by the Czar of Russia with the President's consent did not meet until the summer of 1907.

This time, not twenty-six only, but forty-six nations were invited-practically the whole civilised world-and all nations but Costa Rica and Honduras were represented in the Hall of the Knights, a thirteenth-century banquet hall, called into requisition at The Hague for the two hundred and fifty-six delegates. As one looked down from the gallery upon this long hall hung with rich Oriental rugs, one saw half-way down its length the whiteheaded President Nelidoff of Russia, sitting on a green dais beneath a green canopy, and encircling him from right to left, in alphabetical order, the groups of delegates, varying from one to fifteen, yet each nation voting as a unit. Beginning with Allemagne, was the imposing figure of Baron Marshal von Bieberstein with his colleagues;

there were Hon. Joseph Choate and General Horace Porter and their associates from the United States; there were the silk robes of the Chinese delegates; heading the Brazilian group was blueeyed Ruy Barbosa, a man of eloquence, who had succeeded in putting into the constitution of his country the prohibition of any conquest of territory by war. Farther still were the keen-eyed, courteous, little men from Japan; and at the extreme left one spied the red fezes of the Turks and the representatives of Uruguay and Venezuela. There was little that was spectacular in this body of sober men, who had discarded uniforms and all decorations, but no one of insight could be blind to the thrilling fact that this assembly presented one of the most sublime spectacles the world had ever seen. Here for the first time in human history, practically the whole world had met together under one roof and for world business-to substitute the reign of law for war.

The complete actual results, recounted elsewhere, were not all that many had hoped. The partial accomplishments were far greater, but attracted slight attention. When practical unanimity is required to secure any agreement to conventions, progress must be slow. How many bills would pass Congress or any legislatures if approximate unanimity were required? But to have attained the consent of two-thirds to measures in 1907 means perhaps unanimous consent to them at the next Conference, in 1915. If nothing more

had been accomplished that cold, wet summer than four months' patient, courteous discussion of the delicate and difficult questions involved, by the weary men who daily met and did their work under great difficulties of language, it would have been richly worth the while. But great advance was made, not the least step in which was the provision for the Third Hague Conference. This doubtless means a fourth and a fourteenth and fortieth. That the world must organise, the most blatant chauvinist can now no longer question.

Baroness von Suttner and hundreds of friends of peace assembled at The Hague, giving addresses and in courteous, helpful ways adding moral support to the proceedings. William T. Stead, as alert as a young man of thirty, with his remarkable journalistic genius for scenting news and perceiving the significance of each step, rendered invaluable, untiring, almost sleepless service by publishing a daily illustrated paper devoted solely to the interests of the Conference, which served as a medium of information to the delegates as well as to the public. This time the plenary sessions were open to the representatives of the press and to others fortunate enough to secure tickets of admission; but the chief work was done in committees.

Since the summer of 1907, the world has seen almost unbroken peace between the nations and the prevention of at least four wars that threat