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settlement of New Amsterdam. the control of the river to Albany, the subsequent acquisition of New Jersey and Delaware, gave the United Republics a firm foothold on the continent, but the overthrow of the Stuarts, the establishment of the Protectorate, the aggressive policy of Cromwell and his defeat of the Dutch, prepared the downfall of Dutch colenization in America. The English expedition organized by the Duke of York, the conquest of the Dutch colonies due to his initiative and their incorporation into English possessions, not only dispelled the dream of the Dutch but gave geographical unity to British possessions; and, as previously indicated, the possession of New York and the highway from Lake Champlain to Albany not only checked the advance of the French from Canada, but led to the conquest of New France. The celebration, therefore, of the discovery of the Hudson was the celebration of an international event of great importance if judged by its consequences, and it was eminently fitting that it should be international in character as it was international in fact.

The fact that the achievement of Fulton shared equally in the celebration, as evidenced by its name, shows unmistakably that we understand its importance in the progress of the world, and that peaceful private enterprise disconnected with war and the rumors of war is rightly regarded as a factor and not the least influential in the history and development of nations. The settlement of Quebec, the discovery of Lake Champlain, the voyage of Hudson were national acts emanating from sovereignty and conferring sovereignty. The invention of Fulton was the act of an individual and by bringing nations closer together, by exchanging the products of the world and administering to the needs of men, he has enrolled himself among the benefactors of mankind and is rightly entitled to international recognition and celebration.

SECRETARY KNOX AND INTERNATIONAL UNITY

In an address delivered at the annual banquet of the Pennsylvania Society of New York, December 11, 1909, Secretary Knox confessed his faith in international unity and briefly but adequately indicated the steps already taken and those certainly to be taken for international unity while preserving national organization as the basis or unit of international law.

Mr. Knox opened his address with the following apt paragraphs:

"We now know that freedom is a thing incompatible with corporate iife an1 a blessing probably peculiar to the solitary robber; we know besides that every advance in richness of existence, whether moral or material, is paid for by a loss of liberty; that liberty is man's coin in which he pays his way; that luxury and knowledge and virtue, and love and the family affections are all so many fresh fetters on the naked and solitary freeman."

This was said by a distinguished writer referring to the individual units who have constructed the political systems under which society is organized. It applies with equal truth to the governments they have created. Every material and moral advance in the sodality of nations, for universal, as distinguished from local or domestic purposes, is achieved by concessions restraining to a greater or less degree the liberty of action of individual states for the benefit of the community of nations and in obedience to the demands of an international public opinion.

These concessions to international unity have been brought about through international conferences, congresses, associations, and meetings, covering such a wide range of the material needs and moral aspirations of nations as to make it quite impossible even to specify them and their purpose with any particularity. Broadly speaking, however, they have been designed to establish common policies in large political and economic affairs, to secure cooperation in the promotion of international harmony, to assuage human hardships, to elevate the morals of the world, and to secure the blessings of uniform and enlightened justice.

Mr. Knox then analyzed the tendency of modern times toward international unity, and thus enumerates the reasons which are drawing nations closer together:

The tendency of modern times then is manifestly toward international unity, at the same time preserving national organization. International independence and its corollary, international equality, have been recognized from the Congress of Westphalia, in 1648, putting an end to the Thirty Years' war and recognizing the independence and equal right of States irrespective of their origin and religion. Intercommunication has brought nations within easy reach of each other. The development of commerce and industry and the necessary exchange of commodities have caused nations to see that their interests are similar and interdependent, and that a like policy is often necessary as well for the expansion as for the protection of their interests. Independence exists, but the interdependence of States is as clearly recognized as their political independence. Indeed, the tendency is very marked to substitute interdependence for independence, and each nation is likely to see itself forced to yield something of its initiative, not to any one nation, but to the community of nations in payment for its share in the "advance in richness of existence."

As evidence of the tendency toward unification, he specifies the conventions dealing with the following subjects: Telegraph Union, Postal Union, Navigation, Railway Freight Transportation.

While appreciating the value of political conferences as such, Mr. Knox lays stress upon conferences of a non-political character, and thus estimates their importance in international unity:

Many private conferences have been held during the past century and a half and much has been done in that way to bring nations together by showing the identity of interest and the oneness of the world. Political conferences are much more striking, especially if they represent many States and are diplomatic in character, but it is doubtful if these conferences are so genuinely helpful and produce such beneficial results as the less formal and more individual conferences due to private or semi-public initiative which meet with constant and surprising regularity. If we bear in mind that these conferences are usually attended by people of achievement in their various lines and professions, we can readily see what influence they are quietly exerting. No conventions are drawn up, no treaties are negotiated, but the results enter into the life and thought of the nations.

Of political conferences he says the following:

As distinct from the conferences called for economic, commercial or moral purposes, political conferences have been very frequent in the past two centuries. At first they met at the end of war to conclude peace. More recently conferences have been called in time of peace to regulate future warfare. More recently still, indeed within the last generation, conferences have met in time of peace to devise means for preserving peace instead of devising rules for future warfare. These conferences have had one point in common, namely, that the termination of war by the conclusion of peace, the regulation of eventual war and the settlement of difficulties without a resort to war are matters of international concern. However important the acts of these conferences, the fact of their meeting was even more important, for it is evidence that the common interest of nations is being recognized as superior to their special interests and that unity of action in international matters may yet control the unrestrained, unregulated, or isolated action of independent States.

Secretary Knox then refers to the International Prize Court, which has been considered by many competent authorities as the most important result of the Second Hague Conference, and proposes to enlarge its usefulness by investing it with the functions of a court of arbitral justice.

In 1907 The Hague Peace Conference adopted the joint project of the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany for the establishment of an international prize court, whose jurisdiction, as its name implies, extends to cases of prize which can only arise during a state of war.

Very recently the State Department has proposed, in a circular note to the powers, that the prize court should also be invested with the jurisdiction and functions of a court of arbitral justice.1

The United States as the originator of this project is confidently, yet anxiously, looking forward to its acceptance by the powers, which will give to the world an international judicial body to adjudge cases arising in peace as well as controversies incident to war.

Secretary Knox thus concludes his address, which is certain to be both widely circulated and favorably received:

One is naturally led to speculate upon the fundamental reasons for the remarkable progress and great effectiveness of international cooperation within the last few decades as compared with earlier times. We conjecture whether it is because of broader and more enlightened views common to the nations of the world, or whether it is for some different basic reason. Does it not rest upon the practically simultaneous operation of the common mind and the conscience of the world upon common knowledge? One can readily understand the force and effect of a concurrent expression of international opinion made while the subject upon which it operates is a fresh and burning one as compared with the disconnected and ineffective expression of the same opinion when made at different times after the facts upon which it rests.

Instantaneous world communication is very modern.

Ribs of steel and nerves of wire have not only bound nations together in a single body for many purposes and communicated thought; but have enabled them, sharing a common knowledge, animated by a common conscience, to take common and contemporaneous action while the need is yet fresh.

This view is well stated by Judge Baldwin in an able and interesting article on International Congresses, published some time ago.

Speaking of the impulse towards social coordination, he said:

"This impulse will be felt as a cosmic force in precise proportion to the psychological contact of nation with nation. Until the days of steam transportation there were few in any country, even among its leaders, who ever went far from their own land. The seventeenth century had indeed established the practice of maintaining permanent legations for diplomatic intercourse; but it was an intercourse limited to official circles. Modern facilities for travel, modern uses of electricity, and the modern press have put the world, and even the embassy, on a different footing. There is no place left that is safe enough to hide State secrets. The telegraph and telephone have conquered time and space. The newspaper gives daily to every one for two cents what a hundred years ago all the governments in the world could not have commanded in a year.

1 For the full text of Secretary Knox's proposal concerning the prize court and the enlargement of its jurisdiction by investing it with the jurisdiction and functions of a court of arbitral justice, see Supplement to this number of the JOURNAL, page 102, and for editorial comment upon the proposition, see this number, page 163.

"Nations have been brought together by material forces, starting into action greater immaterial forces. Electricity is finishing what steam began. Men come close together who breath a common intellectual atmosphere; who are fed daily by the same currents of thought; who hear simultaneously of the same events; who are eager to disclose to each other whatever new thing, coming to the knowledge of any, is worthy the notice of all."

The disposition, then, to take concerted international action grows with the opportunity thus afforded by the marvelous modern development in the means of communication. Each nation instantaneously feels the compulsion of the public opinion of all nations. Compare, for example, modern exchanges of views between governments, swiftly reaching a common basis of action and resulting increasingly in ends beneficent to the whole world, with former ignorance and mutual suspicions largely due to ignorance, resulting in no common action and permitting aggressions and abuses by single nations or small groups which to-day the concert of all nations protests against more and more loudly and less and less tolerates.

Then, just as individuals and separate nations advance in the fruits of civilization and display in their conduct higher regard for honesty and justice and peace and less tolerance for wrong and oppression and cruelty, so these ideals of private and national conduct are manifestly inspiring all nations in their relations with each other. As nations understand each other better and the world draws closer together in the recognition of a common humanity and conscience, of common needs and purposes, there is carried into the international field the insistent demand for greater unity in enforcing everywhere the principles of a high morality and, by restraints mutually applied and observed, all the human ameliorations without which both national and international life would soon fall into anarchy and decadence.

This clear statement of the tendency toward international unity by a statesman holding responsible office will bring hope and encouragement to those who have long labored in private without recognition, and the announcement by Mr. Knox, as Secretary of State, that our Government not only approves the International Court of Prize, but seeks to invest it with the jurisdiction and functions of a court of arbitral justice in order that civilization may have a court in peace as well as in war, is evidence not merely of progress, but of the fact that international justice and the means by which it is to be promoted are the concern not merely of one nation but of the international community as a whole.

Many propositions have been made for the establishment of a perma nent court of arbitration, but this is, as far as is known, the first instance of a statesman in office seriously proposing the establishment of such a tribunal and by so doing making its establishment a question of politics. and a question of time.

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