THEY WOULD KEEP THE PEACE-DOVE HOVERING.
Plans to Establish an International Parliament
for the Prevention of Conflicts
in the Future.
The year after a great war is naturally a period for talk of permanent peace. The dove still coos, the ravages of conflict are still apparent, the folly of an appeal to arms is evident in economic conditions. And so, this summer, there has been more than the usual attention to plans for the prevention of war in the future. Indeed, the time does seem ripe for the establishment of an international parliament.
Among the addresses at the recent session of the Lake Mohonk Conference was one by Judge W.L. Penfield, who said concerning the plan upon which peace advocates are now agreed:
The institution of a parliament competent to legislate in the international sphere, as the United States Congress is within the Federal sphere, would undoubtedly present some most difficult political problems, yet it would hardly be more difficult for a body of jurists and statesmen to define the bounds of authority of the international parliament than it was for the framers of the Federal constitution to define and distribute the powers of the Federal government.
Under existing political conditions the creation of an international parliament clothed with the power of direct legislation does not appear to be presently feasible. But it is the unexpected that happens, as, for example, who would have dared foretell five years ago the convocation of the Russian Duma?