“THE WORLD COURT” makes its début to-day. It supplants the magazine
formerly published by the International Peace Forum, entitled _The Peace
Forum_ but as will be observed, it undertakes a much larger and far
more vastly important work in its ambition to further the creation of
a World Court. As a magazine, an effort has been made in this initial
issue to give it all the veneer and finesse of the latter-day periodical.
As the months proceed, every effort will be made by the men of letters
associated with it and its contributors to further its value as a
publication of world wide importance. The necessity for such a magazine
was made patent at the recent World Court Congress. The delegates and
many men of affairs who participated in that epochal Conference realized
the enormous importance of an organ to voice the sentiment for this great
project.
During the past few months, the work of the International Peace Forum has
been specifically directed to the project of furthering the institution
of a true International Court of Justice, which was adopted in principle
by the forty-four nations composing the Second Hague Conference (1907),
including Germany and Great Britain. The suggestion has also met the
approval of many State Legislatures, leading Chambers of Commerce and
other representative civic, industrial, educational and religious bodies.
It received a mighty impulse and enthusiastic endorsement at the recent
largely attended World Court Congress, at Cleveland, Ohio.
This project is thus no chimerical scheme or iridescent dream, but a
well matured plan which if properly sustained will prove a powerful
factor in insuring the future peace of the world. Such a tribunal as
is contemplated would not only be able to adjudicate specific disputes
but would gradually build up a body of International Law as potent in
preserving the peaceful relations of nations as the body of domestic laws
is in preserving peaceful relations among the citizens and states of the
several nations.
In becoming more specifically the organ and representative of this
world-wide movement, this magazine broadens its field and adopts a name
more expressive of its larger mission.
_The Peace Forum_, during the four years of its existence, has steadily
grown in circulation and usefulness and influence. It has become the
medium through which many of the most distinguished writers and speakers
have sought to reach the public. THE WORLD COURT will continue to be the
medium of expression of such contributors of national and international
reputation. In coöperation with them it will continue to advocate peace
in all relations of private and public and international life, with the
specific object in view of extending the principle of judicial settlement
which now lies at the foundation of the civil authority of nations,
until it becomes the foundation of all international relations, when
nations will no more think of submitting their differences to a duel
between armies and navies than individuals in civilized and well ordered
countries would think of resorting to the arbitrament of the private duel.
Not only will THE WORLD COURT advance the idea of judicial settlement in
relation to world disputes, but will strive to establish the principle as
the basis of national peace and prosperity. This is a work which should
appeal to all business and professional men, indeed, to all toilers
whether with hand or head. Laborers in all fields are entitled to the
fruits of their toil. The humble worker with his hands is not to be
dispossessed by the confiscatory programme, any more than is the farmer,
the merchant, the manufacturer or the educated specialist. It is a trite
saying that the interests of capital and labor are identical,—a truism
no one dares formally to dispute; but there is no doubt that in the
enactment of legislation and the execution of laws, representatives of
these respective interests have acted as if they were antagonistic, and
one has sought to get the better of the other. Judicial settlement can
alone hold the scales of justice evenly balanced and thereby guarantee
fair play. The toiler working with hand or brain is employing a capital
given him by nature, and with industry and frugality under the operation
of the rule of equal opportunity, he may accumulate the capital of
money, goods, machinery, or land, which in effect gives him additional
earning power. Thus, one class is constantly merging into the other, and
each is equally interested in the integrity, and independence of the
courts. Both are equally interested in the preservation of the rights of
personal property and in opposing legislative and executive invasion of
their rights. Both are equally opposed to bureaucracy in the government
and interference with private management. The laborer does not want
to be compelled to labor for a wage arbitrarily fixed by a government
bureau, nor should a railroad or other industry be compelled to submit
to harrassing and paralyzing control. Experience has demonstrated
that railroads, telephones, telegraphs and other utilities are more
efficiently conducted under private than under public ownership, as are
mills, shops, and stores. A multitude of government commissions help to
give a multitude of jobs to a multitude of politicians, but they do not
reduce the cost of living.
Efficiency is evolved by private effort and not by official
meddlesomeness. Law is only beneficially operative when backed by public
opinion strong enough to vitalize and enforce it.
The broad platform of “The World Court” is peace at home and abroad,
peace in society, in the church, in business and industry; immunity of
business and industry from the menace of such malicious inquisition under
the protection of a Government Commission as Chairman Walsh attempted
in a manner that aroused the protest even of the Commission of which he
is the head. We invite all who believe in peace, in law and order and
justice, in the reliance upon judicial rather than warlike processes
for the defense of the individual and the state, to unite with us in the
movement for judicial settlement. What we propose is to place National
morality on a plane with the standard of individual morality, which has
brought about the reign of law and order in the enlightened nations. This
plane of morality would do away with public war as it has done away with
private war. International Judicial Settlement will react beneficially
upon National Judicial Settlement and lead to the adoption of higher
standards, both in National and International life.