A PRACTICAL INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
both the law and the decision of the court. What do we then do with John Smith if he persists in thus disregarding these institutions for the securing of social order? There is only one thing left to do: we resort to force; we have him arrested, whether he likes it or not,—we have him confined if necessary. In other words, the law and the courts rely upon the force of a police to execute and make operative their decrees. Without that force, neither the law nor the court would be of any real value. So it is with an international law and an international court. There must be some way of compelling defiant nations to observe the world order. Now, just what this means of compulsion shall be is a question of no little debate. Many have thought that all that the international law and the international court will need is the sanction of the public opinion of each nation added to the sanction of that ever growing and powerful unit, international public opinion. No doubt public opinion is a most important factor in securing obedience to law. No doubt any law would be utterly useless unless public opinion were behind it demanding its enforcement. But while public opinion is thus absolutely necessary for the enforcement of law, it is certainly far from sufficient. There are people in this world who care nothing about public opinion, or who care so little for it that they are willing to defy it for the sake of gaining personal ends. These people must be dealt with by some more drastic power than mere public sentiment. If this is true with regard to individuals, it is still truer with regard to nations. Just as in the case of an individual, a nation may care very little for international public opinion if it happens to go counter to its own cherished aims and ambitions; and this defiance of public opinion on the part of a nation is sometimes reared to the glory of a
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