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.
CRIMINAL WAR TALK
Among the most insidious and reckless foes to peace are those who are constantly predicting wars between the United States and other nations. At the present time there is absolutely no reason why the United States should go to war with any nation on earth. The favorite pastime of some alarmists for several years past has been to predict war between this country and Japan. Nobody can show any reason why we should attack Japan, and all the evidence and all the signs of the times go to show that Japan has not the least intention of attacking us.
A Minneapolis journalist who recently returned from a six months’ stay in the Orient, and who was present with the Japanese at the siege of Tsing-tao, gives some cogent reasons why Japan will not seek war with the United States, despite some disputes over the immigration question and possibly in regard to the open door in China.
Japan at the present time is in financial difficulties. The existing war has kept tourists from her shores and curtailed her trade, while putting her to large expenses in war preparation. Not one penny of the war debt incurred in the war with Russia has yet been paid. What is holding Japan together to-day is her export of tea and silks to the United States. Millions of her citizens are dependent upon these trades for their livelihood. Japan doesn’t want the Philippines because she has now ample territory more geographically and climatically favorable to her needs, and she is not greatly exercised over the emigration question, because she needs immigrants herself. The government would much rather keep the people at home—besides her naval and military experts are wise enough to know that they would stand little chance in attempting to fight the United States across eight thousand miles of ocean.
The talk of war with Germany or England, whichever may be the winner in the European conflict, after that awful contest is finished, is equally pernicious and damnable. There is no reason why we should go to war with either. The United States intends to observe all the obligations of neutrality and so to conduct herself as to win the respect and good will of all the combatants. It would require a supreme act of folly on our part to drive us into war with any European country. So long as we observe our moral obligations we are in no danger of attack.