HAGUE CONFERENCES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO INTERNATIONAL LAW BY WILLIAM I. HULL, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN SWARTHMOre college, MEMBER OF PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF PEACE GINN & COMPANY, BOSTON COPYRIGHT, 1908 BY WILLIAM I. HULL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Athenæum Press GINN & COMPANY.PRO. ΤΟ AMERICA'S FIRST DELEGATE TO THE SECOND PEACE CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE THE HONORABLE JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE JURIST, DIPLOMATIST, ORATOR, STATESMAN WHOSE LONG CAREER OF SPLENDID SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY HAS BEEN CROWNED BY A NOBLE AND SUCCESSFUL STRUGGLE IN. BEHALF OF PEACE AND ARBITRATION BETWEEN THE NATIONS PREFACE THE National Educational Association, at its forty-fifth annual session in Los Angeles last summer, adopted a report presented by its Committee on Resolutions which contained the following section: "The teachers of the United States of America, assembled in the National Educational Association at Los Angeles, California, view with pleasure and satisfaction the conditions which have brought about the second Hague Conference. We believe that the forces of the world should be organized and operated in the interests of peace and not of war; we believe that the material, commercial, and social interests of the people of the United States and of the whole world demand that the energies of the governments and of the people be relieved of the burdens of providing at enormous expense the armaments suggested by the competitive desire for supremacy in war; we further believe that the fear of war and the possibility of war would alike decline if the governments were to rely more upon the sentiment of the people and less upon the strength of their armies and navies. "We urge upon our representatives at the second Hague Conference to use their influence to widen the scope and increase the power of the Hague tribunal. While disclaiming any desire to suggest a programme or to urge specific action, we do urge our representatives to secure the most favorable action possible upon international arbitration, the limitation of armaments, the protection of private property at sea, and the investigation of international disputes by an impartial commission before the declaration of hostilities. "We recommend to the teachers that the work of the Hague Conferences and of the peace associations be studied carefully, and the results given proper consideration in the work of instruction." This message from the ten thousand teachers present at Los Angeles to their more than half million colleagues |