intelligence office with a body of arbitrators
composed of not more than four men from each nation, from whom nations
that had chosen to arbitrate a dispute might choose arbitrators. The
conference adjourned with the understanding that another would be
called within a few years.

The Boxer trouble in China and the war between Japan and Russia delayed
the meeting. Through the initiation of Theodore Roosevelt, of the
United States, a second Hague Conference met in 1907. Largely through
the influence of Elihu Root a permanent court was established, with the
exception that a plan for electing delegates could not be agreed upon.
It was agreed to hold another conference in 1915 to finish the work.
Thus it is seen that the League of Nations advocated by President
Wilson was born of ideas already fructifying on American soil.
McKinley, Roosevelt, John Hay, Elihu Root, Joseph H. Choate, James
Brown Scott, and other statesmen had favored an International Tribunal.

The League of Nations provided in its constitution among other things
for a World Court of Nations. In the first draft of the constitution
of the League no mention was made of a World Court. But through a
cablegram of Elihu Root to Colonel E. M. House, the latter was able to
place articles 13 {490} and 14, which provided that the League should
take measures for forming a Court of International Justice.
Subsequently the court was formed by the League, but national
selfishness came to the front and crippled the court. Article 34
originally read: "Between states which are members of the League of
Nations, the court shall have jurisdiction, and this without any
convention giving it jurisdiction to hear and determine cases of legal
nature." It was changed to read; "The jurisdiction of the court
comprises all cases which the parties refer to it and all matters
specially provided for in treaties and conventions in force."

It is to be observed that in the original statement, either party to a
dispute could bring a case into court without the consent of the other,
thus making it a real court of justice, and in the modified law both
parties must agree to bring the case in court, thus making it a mere
tribunal of arbitration. The great powers--England, France, Italy, and
Japan--were opposed to the original draft, evidently being unwilling to
trust their disputes to a court, while the smaller nations favored the
court as provided in the original resolution. However, i