A PRACTICAL INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
ready inaugurated by the Hague Conference marks the auspicious beginning of a world court to which all the nations shall have free recourse in the settlement of their difficulties. It might be added that a world court administering an established international law is a much more practicable institution than the traditional court of arbitration. For a court of arbitration very often considers the merits of the case before it in terms of that rather unknown quantity involved in the exercise of common sense and untechnical equity. The result is that cases submitted to mere arbitration, without the backing of an adequate international law, have frequently resulted in decisions which meant nothing more nor less than a mere compromise, unsatisfactory to both parties and yet accepted in the name of peace rather than in the name of justice. The world court of the future will administer an international law created and acknowledged by all nations. Thus its decrees will be much more acceptable, and as a result, it will be much easier for nations to submit their differences to such a court, since they will be assured that the decision will not be a matter of mere compromise, but of justice.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has already proved its serviceableness in the cause of international understanding by settling thirteen cases between October 14, 1902, and May 6, 1913. We as Americans are proud to remember that the very first case considered by this court was one submitted by our own country and the United Mexican States. Since this dispute was settled, the United States has applied to this court twice: once in the North Atlantic Fisheries dispute with Great Britain, which was settled in 1910, and once again in the dispute over the claims of the "Orinoco" Company with Venezuela, settled amicably
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