EDITORIALS
“The World Court” makes its début to-day. It supplants the magazine formerly published by the International Peace Forum, entitled The Peace Forum but as will be observed, it undertakes a much larger and far more vastly important work in its ambition to further the creation of a World Court. As a magazine, an effort has been made in this initial issue to give it all the veneer and finesse of the latter-day periodical. As the months proceed, every effort will be made by the men of letters associated with it and its contributors to further its value as a publication of world wide importance. The necessity for such a magazine was made patent at the recent World Court Congress. The delegates and many men of affairs who participated in that epochal Conference realized the enormous importance of an organ to voice the sentiment for this great project.
During the past few months, the work of the International Peace Forum has been specifically directed to the project of furthering the institution of a true International Court of Justice, which was adopted in principle by the forty-four nations composing the Second Hague Conference (1907), including Germany and Great Britain. The suggestion has also met the approval of many State Legislatures, leading Chambers of Commerce and other representative civic, industrial, educational and religious bodies. It received a mighty impulse and enthusiastic endorsement at the recent largely attended World Court Congress, at Cleveland, Ohio.
This project is thus no chimerical scheme or iridescent dream, but a well matured plan which if properly sustained will prove a powerful factor in insuring the future peace of the world. Such a tribunal as is contemplated would not only be able to adjudicate specific disputes but would gradually build up a body of International Law as potent in preserving the peaceful relations of nations as the body of domestic laws is in preserving peaceful relations among the citizens and states of the several nations.
In becoming more specifically the organ and representative of this world-wide movement, this magazine broadens its field and adopts a name more expressive of its larger mission.
The Peace Forum, during the four years of its existence, has steadily grown in circulation and usefulness and influence. It has become the medium through which many of the most distinguished writers and speakers have sought to reach the public. The World Court will continue to be the medium of expression of such contributors of national and international reputation. In coöperation with them it will continue to advocate peace in all relations of private and public and international life, with the specific object in view of extending the principle of judicial settlement which now lies at the foundation of the civil authority of nations, until it becomes the foundation of all international relations, when nations will no more think of submitting their differences to a duel between armies and navies than individuals in civilized and well ordered countries would think of resorting to the arbitrament of the private duel.
Not only will The World Court advance the idea of judicial settlement in relation to world disputes, but will strive to establish the principle as the basis of national peace and prosperity. This is a work which should appeal to all business and professional men, indeed, to all toilers whether with hand or head. Laborers in all fields are entitled to the fruits of their toil. The humble worker with his hands is not to be dispossessed by the confiscatory programme, any more than is the farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer or the educated specialist. It is a trite saying that the interests of capital and labor are identical,—a truism no one dares formally to dispute; but there is no doubt that in the enactment of legislation and the execution of laws, representatives of these respective interests have acted as if they were antagonistic, and one has sought to get the better of the other. Judicial settlement can alone hold the scales of justice evenly balanced and thereby guarantee fair play. The toiler working with hand or brain is employing a capital given him by nature, and with industry and frugality under the operation of the rule of equal opportunity, he may accumulate the capital of money, goods, machinery, or land, which in effect gives him additional earning power. Thus, one class is constantly merging into the other, and each is equally interested in the integrity, and independence of the courts. Both are equally interested in the preservation of the rights of personal property and in opposing legislative and executive invasion of their rights. Both are equally opposed to bureaucracy in the government and interference with private management. The laborer does not want to be compelled to labor for a wage arbitrarily fixed by a government bureau, nor should a railroad or other industry be compelled to submit to harrassing and paralyzing control. Experience has demonstrated that railroads, telephones, telegraphs and other utilities are more efficiently conducted under private than under public ownership, as are mills, shops, and stores. A multitude of government commissions help to give a multitude of jobs to a multitude of politicians, but they do not reduce the cost of living.
Efficiency is evolved by private effort and not by official meddlesomeness. Law is only beneficially operative when backed by public opinion strong enough to vitalize and enforce it.
The broad platform of “The World Court” is peace at home and abroad, peace in society, in the church, in business and industry; immunity of business and industry from the menace of such malicious inquisition under the protection of a Government Commission as Chairman Walsh attempted in a manner that aroused the protest even of the Commission of which he is the head. We invite all who believe in peace, in law and order and justice, in the reliance upon judicial rather than warlike processes for the defense of the individual and the state, to unite with us in the movement for judicial settlement. What we propose is to place National morality on a plane with the standard of individual morality, which has brought about the reign of law and order in the enlightened nations. This plane of morality would do away with public war as it has done away with private war. International Judicial Settlement will react beneficially upon National Judicial Settlement and lead to the adoption of higher standards, both in National and International life.