Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

Page 13 text:

THE LOYOLA ANNUAL 5 trolled only by a power higher than the individual nations. How, as a matter of fact, can nations establish treaties and courts of arbitration which will be effective in abolishing war without first organizing a federation among the various coun- tries? How can they hope for an unconditional compliance with the stipulations of such courts and treaties unless the constituent nations of that federation invest in one head the authority to enforce it? The lav s of justice and equity im- planted in our nature are contrary to our pugnacious inclina- tions and often little likely to be heeded without the fear of some power sufficient to secure this observance. Therefore, I say, that unless there be erected an authority higher than the individual nations any scheme to control them must be aban- doned. There is one v ay in which to secure such an author- ity. The individual nations must invest all their power in one assembly and must be willing to acknowledge the decrees of that assembly for peace as coming directly from themselves. In other words, a multiplicity of wills and voices must be reduced to unity and thus an order established, with- out which there can be no peace. The United States of Amer- ica is an admirable example of such a federation. Every State, though retaining its own sovereignty, is joined to the rest by a voluntary alliance and all agree to confer their strength upon a common executive, legislative and judicial head. In cases of dispute the judicial head, holding its authority immediately from the States, summons before it the sovereign powers af- fected in order to render an award. The State of New York vs. the State of Ohio was announced by the clerk of the court in De Tocqueville’s hearing, and so great was his im- pression on realizing how these two States, consisting of mil- lions of citizens, placed their interests before a court of judges that he many times expressed his admiration of our Federal

Page 12 text:

4 THE LOYOLA ANNUAL every war that has ever been waged can be attributed to one of these three causes. It may be that the nations at variance are driven by commercial greed to secure industrial opportu- nity, industrial prominence or industrial outlet. Again, they may be led by mutual distrust to defend them. As the Kaiser says: “They all want their place in the sun.” They distrust one another, they will not be put into the shade. As a result there is a constant warfare ever in progress, if not outwardly, at least silently, in the treasury expenditures for military and naval equipment. Finahy the affected countries may be led to war because of an extravagant national pride which takes of- fense at some trifling affront, an affront which, if calm, cool and deliberative reason prevailed, could be settled by arbitra- tion or, in many cases, passed over in silence. Remove these causes of war and peace will be the inevitable outcome. For many years, or, I should say, for many centuries, since tke} date back to pagan times, treaties have been looked upon as the great means of eradicating these causes of war. Cer- tain it is, not only in the speculative but in the practical order, as we have experienced, that they are most effectively stayed by treaties. The sense of duty, of honor, the fear of those judgments of disapprobation heralded throughout the world by the press, with their consequent detriment to rank upon the nations are indeed powerful sanctions accruing to a broken treaty. Is it not to such sanctions that we are to attribute the amicable settlements under treaties recorded in the history of peace? And, to come down to our own United States, we may cite cases by the score which have been disposed of between us and Great Britain from the conclusion of the Jay treaty of 1874 down to the present time. But, however highly we estimate the ability of treaties in staying our fighting instincts, we must admit that their effi- cacy stops here and that these warlike passions can be con-

Page 14 text:

6 THE LOYOLA ANNUAL judicial system. Yet this enormous authority is immediately based upon the federation of individual States. If the nations of the world would come together in such a federation surely we would have a universal peace, but, let us be frank, such a union of the v orld is a long way off. The spirit of mutual trust must be infused into the powers before we can ever hope for such a blessing. Where can we find two na- tions today that are willing to lay down arms and unite on terms of mutual confidence? Far to the contrary, they are all competing in a silent warfare of treasury expenditures, the war of taxation against taxation, the war for supremacy in mili- tary and naval equipment, which claims its thousands of vic- tims as truly as does the upturned sod of the battlefield . Yes, the spirit of the world today is one of gain, one of individual glory, and as a consequence a spirit of deep-rooted suspicion. They are willing, indeed, to proceed from treaties of ar- bitration to federation, and thus to the attainment of peace, but the mode of progression, as I before implied, is quite the re- verse. They must proceed from federation to arbitration. Un- til this is realized the federation of the world dreamt of by Tennyson must remain but the dream of the poet, for no step toward peace is possible until the root of all discord has been removed. The citizens of the United States are at present deeply inter- ested in the treaties pending in the United States Senate be- tween our country and Germany and France. The people of the whole world are urging the universal establishment of such treaties, but without a common power to enforce their observ- ance they are doomed to failure. Here, if anywhere, let the truth be told. When the great strain comes treaties and de- cisions of arbitration courts will be swept aside. There is, it is trqe, no case on record in which the nations have refused to submit to the awards of such courts, but this is only because