r's territory and its absolute sovereignty within
that territory, and the equally explicit agreement that (aside from
the very rare cases where the nation's honor is vitally concerned) all
other possible subjects of controversy will be submitted to
arbitration. Such a treaty would insure peace unless one party
deliberately violated it. Of course, as yet there is no adequate
safeguard against such deliberate violation, but the establishment of
a sufficient number of these treaties would go a long way towards
creating a world opinion which would finally find expression in the
provision of methods to forbid or punish any such violation.
Secondly, there is the further development of The Hague Tribunal, of
the work of the conferences and courts at The Hague. It has been well
said that the first Hague Conference framed a Magna Charta for the
nations; it set before us an ideal which has already to some extent
been realized, and towards the full realization of which we can all
steadily strive. The second Conference made further progress; the
third should do yet more. Meanwhile the American Government has more
than once tentatively suggested methods for completing the Court of
Arbitral Justice, constituted at the second Hague Conference, and for
rendering it effective. It is earnestly to be hoped that the various
Governments of Europe, working with those of America and of Asia,
shall set themselves seriously to the task of devising some method
which shall accomplish this result. If I may venture the suggestion,
it would be well for the statesmen of the world in planning for the
erection of this world court, to study what has been done in the
United States by the Supreme Court. I cannot help thinking that the
Constitution of the United States, notably in the establishment of the
Supreme Court and in the methods adopted for securing peace and good
relations among and between the different States, offers certain
valuable analogies to what should be striven for in order to secure,
through The Hague courts and conferences, a species of world
federation for international peace and justice. There are, of course,
fundamental differences between what the United States Constitution
does and what we should even attempt at this time to secure at The
Hague; but the methods adopted in the American Constitution to prevent
hostilities between the States, and to secure the supremacy of the
Federal Court in certain classes of cases, are well wor
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