ns
of the world were agreeing to these treaties among themselves, and
it would have been a rather remarkable condition if the United
States, of all the great Nations, should have remained aloof. I
do not believe that Mr. Root had any difficulty in obtaining the
consent of the signatory powers to the treaties, with the stipulation
that the special agreement should come to the Senate for ratification;
but for some reason or other, at the time when the first treaties
were under consideration, President Roosevelt, as indicated in the
letter which I have quoted, and probably more particularly Secretary
Hay, were both very much incensed at the action of the Senate, and
permitted the first treaties to expire.

This general movement in the direction of arbitration was one of
the most important events of the beginning of the twentieth century.
The importance of the adoption of this principle by the Nations of
the world cannot be overestimated. It has been well said that
international arbitration is the application of law and of judicial
methods to the determination of disputes between Nations, and that
this juristic idea in the settlement of international disputes is
largely an outgrowth of the international relations, the new and
advanced civilization of the nineteenth century.

I do not believe the time will ever come when wars will cease,--
the United States obtained its independence by means of a revolution
and war; but peace and arbitration have been advocated by the great
majority of the enlightened statesmen of the world. There were
many great wars during the nineteenth century, including our own
Civil War, the greatest, the bloodiest, recorded in all history;
but during this century arbitration has made wonderful strides.
In the same period there were four hundred and seventy-one instances
of international settlements involving the application of the
principle of international arbitration. Many of these arbitrations
were of the greatest importance; and I remark here that in the
number of arbitrations and the importance of the questions involved,
the United States and Great Britain have unquestionably led the
way. In fact, since the War of 1812, every subject of dispute
between the two Nations, which it was found impossible to settle
by diplomacy, has been submitted to arbitration. Only within a
few years the Alaskan boundary was settled by arbitration, and
within the past year a fisheries dispute, a cause of emb