A PRACTICAL INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
matter; indeed, it will be a matter of perpetual growth and improvement: but the supreme thing to attain just now is the unswerving and persistent purpose of all the nations to create such a law and to be loyal to it in terms of an international patriotism which shall never allow itself to be misled or betrayed by the narrower interests, often powerful and well-nigh irresistible, of the particular nations.
VI
But the creation of such an international law as has been described involves the creation of a world court, or courts, where cases of dispute between the nations shall be brought for settlement and where international law shall be adequately administered by expert and impartial judges. That such a court is not at all impracticable is proved by the fact that during the last one hundred and twenty-two years over six hundred international disputes have been settled by courts of arbitration. Some will reply to this that the cases settled by such courts have been trivial. But this is by no means true. Many of the cases peaceably settled by such courts have been cases that were once regarded as disputes involving "national honor" and "vital interests," which statesmen once thought to be impossible of settlement by any international tribunal. The fact is that thinking people have come to see that the "vital interests" of a nation cannot be separated from the vital interests of the world, and that there is no higher "national honor" than the assuming of that supremely honorable courtesy toward other nations which demands and concedes fair play and reasonable deliberation on all questions involving the larger human welfare. Furthermore, the Permanent Court of Arbitration al-
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