laughter and suffering that followed. The principle of justice to the
weak as well as to the strong is prevailing to an extent heretofore
unknown to history. Rules of conduct which govern men in their
relations to one another are being applied in an ever-increasing degree
to nations. The battle-field as a place of settlement of disputes is
gradually yielding to arbitral courts of justice. The interests of the
great masses are not being sacrificed, as in former times, to the
selfishness, ambitions, and aggrandizement of sovereigns, or to the
intrigues of statesmen unwilling to surrender their scepter of power.
Religious wars happily are specters of a medieval or ancient past, and
the Christian Church is laboring valiantly to fulfil its destiny of
"Peace on earth."

If the United States has a mission, besides developing the principles
of the brotherhood of man into a living, palpable force, it seems to me
that it is to blaze the way to universal arbitration among the nations,
and bring them into more complete amity than ever before existed. It is
known to the world that we do not covet the territory of our neighbors,
or seek the acquisition of lands on other continents. We are free of
such foreign entanglements as frequently conduce to embarrassing
complications, and the efforts we make in behalf of international peace
can not be regarded with a suspicion of ulterior motives. The spirit of
justice governs our relations with other countries, and therefore we
are specially qualified to set a pace for the rest of the world.

The principle and scope of international arbitration, as exemplified in
the treaties recently negotiated by the United States with Great
Britain and France, should commend itself to the American people. These
treaties go a step beyond any similar instruments which have received
the sanction of the United States, or the two foreign Powers specified.
They enlarge the field of arbitrable subjects embraced in the treaties
ratified by the three governments in 1908. They lift into the realm of
discussion and hearing, before some kind of a tribunal, many of the
causes of war which have made history such a sickening chronicle of
ravage and cruelty, bloodshed and desolation.

After years of patient endeavor by men of various nations, and despite
many obstacles and discouragements, there has been established at The
Hague a Permanent Court of Arbitration, to which contending governments
may submit certain classes