should be paid by the governments of all the contracting states, and which should work under the supervision of the superior administration of the Swiss Confederation. Here is another international body with executive functions, created by the will of the nations represented.

By the Brussels convention of July 2, 1890, for the suppression of the slave trade in Africa, certain executive duties for all the signatory Powers were imposed upon the foreign office at Brussels, which thus had somewhat of the character of a world executive put upon it, rather than have a separate office for the service created. But the character of the work is none the less that of executive service for all of the signatory Powers, defined by the will of the world, as far as those nations represented civilization.`

Again, by the convention adopted at Rome on June 7, 1905, establishing the international institute of agriculture, it is provided that "the executive power of the institute is intrusted to the permanent committee, which, under the direction and control of the general assembly, shall carry out the decisions of the latter and prepare propositions to submit to it." Here, then, is another germ of the world executive department.

Finally, by the convention regarding wireless telegraphy adopted at Berlin, November 3, 1906, an international bureau was established with executive functions covering "all administrative work referred to it in the interest of international wireless telegraphy."

Here are nine different international bodies, established by the will of the world, as far as the several signatory Powers represented the world, having executive duties. They are none the less true world. executives because they are of comparatively humble rank. Wherever there has been a temporary commission, charged with doing certain administrative service, there has been also a true illustration of the executive department of the united world. It is not necessary to have a world president, or a world emperor, or a world despot, as the beginning of the world executive department. Rather, the humble beginning points to a culmination when the world chief executive will be a commissioner in general, the coördinating official who shall, in an administrative way, see that all departments are working together harmoniously, responsible to the people of the world, rather than an autocrat of any degree of irresponsible power.

CHAPTER XXII

PEACE AND GOOD WILL

Into the history of mankind the world court now enters. Court' implies justice and righteousness. Justice will carry with it, as one consequence, international peace. Only dishonorable nations will refuse to abide by the just decision of the world court, and resort to war rather than yield what seems possible of conquest by force. Against such nations it is possible that the entire military strength of the other nations might be exerted, if necessary to prevent acts hostile to the common welfare of mankind. Certainly such nations would forfeit the respect of mankind. But the good opinion of the world would be a treasure of higher value than gold or conquered territory or the forced submission of sullen and unwilling peoples, and no nation would be likely to sacrifice the greater for the less. National honor could not drive a people into war against the judgment of the world court, for national honor would involve a high place in the good opinion of the world; and it is inevitable that the world should have a higher opinion of the nation which, for the sake of peace, should accept a decision which it felt to be unjust, rather than violate the judgment of the world expressed in the decision of the world court, by refusing to accept that decision and going to war. National honor is possible, in the broad and valuable sense of being a recognition of worth by other people than one's own, only with the good opinion of the world. It is therefore a safe reliance when it is said that the decisions of the world court will be accepted without resort to arms to enforce them. It is true, in a sense, that national honor is not dependent upon the good opinion of the world, as a person's character does not depend upon what other persons think of him. But if any nation, seeking to realize the highest honor to itself, tries with the full national strength and national enthusiasm to do what its conscience commands, it may be safely trusted not to violate the peace of the world and commit serious injustice by war.

In its beginning the world judiciary has taken the form of an international prize court. This court will have for its function the determination of the lawfulness, by the laws of war, of the capture of vessels in time of war. That is, war is a necessary condition for the operation of the new world court. Yet it is the function of a court superior to nations to do justice between them, and thereby to remove occasions for war.

A great historic monument, therefore, has been erected by the world to its own barbaric stage of development in this twentieth century of time, as the world reckons time from the coming of the Prince of Peace. A world court, an institution for the peace of the world, for the establishment of justice between all nations, is created under such conditions that it shall be inoperative except in case of war. What a monstrous self-contradiction! What a powerful demonstration of the brute stage in which the most advanced nations are yet lingering! Yet, also, what an irrefutable proof that the brute has at last opened his eyes to the heinousness of his own brutality, and that he is groping upward into that light which he is sure to attain when brutality shall have become spirituality, and the strength of unarmed truth shall be mightier than all the armies and navies of the world!

Manifestly this primary form of the judicial department of the world must be very transient. That it shall never become operative must be the strong desire of every right-minded man in every nation. Yet the fact of the establishment of such a world court, with all that it implies of judgment with justice and world peace, immediately points the way to a higher level which must be reached at once if the world judiciary is to become a practical reality.

Higher than the function of a court to determine the rightfulness of captures of vessels in time of war is the function of determining whether a nation has committed injustice toward another and so has provoked a national resentment and inflamed the fighting temper so as to make war imminent. Immediately there is demonstrated, beyond doubt, the need of a body of world law for the fixing of the relations and duties of nations to each other under world conditions, and the need of a world court which shall have power to adjudicate, upon appeal to it by one or both parties, what world law demands, whether or not it has been infringed, if so, how, and what would be reasonable

reparation on the part of the offending nation. This present establishment of the world judiciary, therefore, is so transient a device that it must be followed, as soon as the nations can attend to the matter, by the further establishment of a world court to pass upon violations by nations of conditions of international peace.

This, in turn, implies for its ideal realization a formal codification of present international law and its enactment into genuine world law, or the formally ratified will of the nations of the earth. Evidently this immense and valuable service to mankind is to be realized by means of one or more international conferences which shall formulate for the nations the propositions which are to be ratified. When the ratification shall have been made by a sufficient number of the nations, then the body of world law for the guidance of the world court in the establishment of world peace will have been put into formal operation, and it will be reasonable for the world from that time forward to expect to settle international differences by the court and not by arms. From that time on, armies and navies will be ridiculously out of keeping with the spirit of the times, and the nation which maintains them will advertise both its folly and its barbarism.

When that development of the world court shall have been reached, mankind will have done its noblest work possible in way of the organization of the human race. One man may compile, more or less imperfectly, the First Book of World Law; but the subject matter of the compilation embodies the highest achievements of the greatest statesmen of the world up to that date, in establishing the formal relations of the nations to each other and in recognizing the fundamental unity of mankind. When the Second Book of World Law, however, shall come into being, if it proves to be in the main a codification of existing international law plus the insertion of new principles by which nations shall be guided in affairs of peace rather than of war, and by which higher progress in pioneer civilization shall be attained, then it will be the direct work of the best legal and political sense of all the nations combined. It will be, it is perhaps right to say, the greatest single achievement of the human race. It will be the expressed essence of the mind of man recognizing its own relation as an organic entity and adapting itself to the conditions of its most rapid and substantial progress. All development of world law from that time will be built on that foundation.

Such, then, is the mighty achievement, imperative for the progress of mankind, which confronts us in the near future. The faith and the ability which have brought the nations to this crisis will surely carry them through it; and then will come the unending era of universal peace and the unprecedented prosperity of mankind, materially, intellectually, and spiritually.

Doubters may say that the existence of the world court will not prevent the nations from flying at each other's throats. Perhaps they are right. It will take a long time to outgrow the brute in human nature. But within a few years the world has made wonderful progress. Most encouraging of all the signs is the fact that mankind is getting its eyes open to its own brutality. To the minds of a rapidly increasing number of influential men and women this brutality is not to be excused or tolerated, much less encouraged. Once let any particular policy be recognized by the conscience of the nations as an outcropping of the ancient brute, whether of the tiger, the hog, the fox, or the snake, and it is immediately left without a defender among all who appreciate the higher ideals of the race. The movements for world peace and for world organization unite in stimulating the tendency to bring the world court into action as soon as possible.

Given a world court whereby each nation will feel absolutely sure that it will secure so much of justice that it will prefer to accept the court's award rather than go to war for what it does not get; given a public opinion among the nations that their honor and their interests both lie in making use of the world court for securing justice, rather than in making use of armies and navies; and given also such a preponderance of world opinion that the backward nations will not fight counter to the combined judgment of the advanced nations, — and there will be a permanent status of peace which will tend mightily to eradicate the fighting disposition between the nations.

It is a reasonable prediction, in view of the wonderful progress of the world organization movement within the last few years, to say that the world legislature will, by means of the ratifications of the nations, establish a body of world law for the guidance and interpretation of the world court, whereby all the essential rights of the great and the small nations will be equally secured. Half of the difficulty is in getting the world to see the problem clearly and to have it take form in the consciousness of mankind. That is the process which is now going