quote from the first paper and which seems to me to express the sentiment existing in the minds and hearts of all who compose this assembly.

* * *

Our honored host, Mr. Smiley, in that part of his paper touching this subject said: “No one wishes more than I that armies and navies might be largely done away with, and no one appreciates more keenly the economic distress which great armaments impose on the people. There is one ray of hope; it is this, for some strong nation to take the initiative and a decided step in the limitation or reduction of armaments. all the nations there is only one that could take the initiative and that is the United States."

Of

This exactly represents my views. I believe we have reached the time not when we should forget or abandon arbitration, because that time will never come, but we have reached the time when we should cease to pass resolutions upon the subject solely for the purpose of creating public sentiment. Public sentiment has long since adopted the principle of arbitration. It is well fixed in the minds of the people. We cannot again fall back of that position. Having already established it, we are ready, it seems to me, for a resolution by this Conference on the important subject of lessening the expenditure for armaments. For, as our speakers have said this morning, the logic of events points to the United States to lead in a world-effort to reduce armaments. We must recognize the fact that the Mohonk Conference is looked to for leadership and for the most advanced opinion in the United States on the subject of international peace. And so if the United States is to lead the world, each member of this Conference is made to feel a great responsibility in reference to the adoption of such a resolution. I am glad of the opportunity as one member of the Conference to express myself in favor of a resolution looking to the lessening of the armaments of the world, and I trust we will not adjourn without adopting in our platform such a resolution. (Applause.)

The Conference then ajourned until evening.

Second Session

Wednesday Evening, May 19, 1909

THE CHAIRMAN: It is a great pleasure to present as the first speaker of this evening a diplomat familiar to this Conference and in receipt of its esteem and regard not only for his personal accomplishments but for the official station he so admirably fillsthe Bolivian Minister, SENOR DON IGNACIO CALDERON.

THE SERVICES OF HON. ELIHU ROOT TO THE PEACE MOVEMENT

ADDRESS OF SENOR DON IGNACIO CALDERON

It is two years since I had first the honor of addressing you under the auspices of our beloved host, Mr. Smiley, and to-day I am much pleased to find myself again in the midst of so distinguished a company of ladies and gentlemen, who with an abiding faith in the final triumph of right over force, are pledged to extend the cause of international arbitration as a substitute for homicidal wars.

A world embracing sentiment in favor of the pacific solution of international difficulties becomes each day more pronounced. The spirit of justice, which with irresistible power spreads according as the peoples approach more and more each other, is destined finally to master the brutal instinct of war.

Sceptics, who doubt the efficacy of these peace conferences and who have faith alone in the power belched from the cannon's mouth, forget that it is not this but the eternal laws of right and justice which form the base and the columns of civilized nations.

The untilled fields abound for the most part in noxious weeds which the patient labor of the toiler roots out, sowing in the place thereof the useful seeds, that nature may with bountiful crops recompense his efforts. So in the world of ideas it is necessary to combat the untamed instincts of force and to cultivate sane principles of justice, rooting these in the mind and in the heart of man until they become his sole rule of conduct.

This noble work of propaganda is that which assemblies such as this Conference are called to fulfil. We must struggle in order to instill into the individual conscience, to form what is called public opinion, the sentiment that right and justice need neither force nor murder to maintain their dominion over the peoples. Vain will be every effort to extirpate armed conflicts.

until the conviction shall be made to permeate the civic mass that there is in the world nothing more wasteful and cruel than, in the name of right and political exigency, to bring down upon a whole people mourning and desolation.

The American Continent, where democracy is the organic base of the countries thereof, is without doubt the land most appropriate for the propagation and establishment of international arbitration as an invariable standard for the solution of every kind of difference.

In Europe the system of Continental equilibrium, traditional rivalries in supremacy, diversity in political constitutions and many other causes of divergence, make more difficult and complicated the adoption of arbitration! In matters affecting their natural self-love, their preponderancy and historical antagonisms, it is scarcely to be hoped that a solution will be sought outside the arbitrament of war.

The American nations fortunately were all born from the impulse of a common sentiment of independence and sought inspiration for their organization in the only sovereignty natural and legitimate, popular sovereignty. In this community of aspirations, whose essence is respect for the will of the people in framing its government, has been born a new and generous principle of international community based on an identity of ideals which may be condensed in the maxim, " The greatest good to the greatest number." Inspired by these sentiments, expression of the genuine spirit of modern democracies, there is no place for the political combinations of the Old World, where the so-called first-class powers live forever on guard, consuming in stupendous military preparations the millions wrung from burdensome

taxation.

Much have the Spanish American republics been criticized and blamed for the spirit of disorder supposed to dominate them, forgetting that the customs and the education received from the mother country were not the same as were inculcated in the English colonists to North America, for according to the very apt observation of that eminent statesman, Mr. Root, the capacity for self-government is not a natural gift to man but is an art to be learned. This laborious period of apprenticeship having passed, the greater number of the republics to-day press on with feet firm planted in the road of evolution and progress. This is attested by the increase of their foreign commerce, the development of their ways of communication, the impulse given to public instruction and the free and fair exercise of the right of suffrage, pledge of order and good government. This ever increasing movement of progress foretells a future full of greatness and well being.

There is nothing in the international relations of the American republics which should lead them to other than a peaceful settlement of their differences. The vexatious questions of boundaries, source of much heated feeling and in past years occasion of serious conflicts, have been already, or are now in process of being settled by arbitration. This recourse is for the small and feeble countries a shield of protection for their rights and a prized trophy at the shrine of justice.

On this occasion I owe it to the Conference to recall with profound and sincere admiration the beneficent influence which, in a spirit of peace and universal concord, has been brought by Mr. Root to bear upon the international relations of this republic, placing it in the forefront of modern nations as the standard bearer of right. The simple relation of his acts without detailed commentary, suffices to give an idea of the highmindedness and generosity of view with which so faithfully he has interpreted that spirit of justice characteristic of the thinking majority of the American people.

In his historic voyage to South America, the distinguished exSecretary of State, now Senator from New York, expressed with inspiring eloquence the true sentiments of a great nation, when in these memorable words he outlined a complete program of Pan-American international concord:

"We wish," said he, "for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except our own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. We deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest empire, and we deem the observance of that respect the chief guaranty of the weak against the oppresson of the strong. We neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges, or powers that we do not freely concede to every American Republic. We wish to increase our prosperity, to expand our trade, to grow in wealth, in wisdom, and in spirit; but our conception of the true way to accomplish this is not to pull down others and profit by their ruin, but to help all friends to a common prosperity and a common growth, that we may all become greater and stronger."

The absolute conviction with which these fine principles were proclaimed by Mr. Root sufficed to dissipate distrust, to destroy prejudice and to create an atmosphere of harmony and approach that time and later evidences of the same policy of respect for the right and the sovereignty of the other republics have, I hope, cemented into a lasting structure. The Spanish American republics received with fervor the words of friendship contained in these declarations, so full of noble and shining ideals whose reflex breathed an air full of justice and Pan-American fraternity.

To the efforts of Mr. Root is due in a great part that all the American republics were represented in the Second Hague Conference and took part in its deliberations with the same rank as

sovereign and independent entities as the other nations there assembled. At that Conference, following his instructions, the United States delegates introduced and obtained the adoption of the principle prohibiting the use of force, in compulsive settlement of governmental obligations in favor of the citizens of other nations.

This agreement has put an end to one of the most shameful practices and to a most unjust abuse of force. The truth is that scarcely without a single exception in all the cases of armed intervention, in which the great powers were both judge and interested party, coercion was enforced on behalf of absolutely fraudulent claims made by adventurers, who, taking advantage of a state of disorder in some of the republics, obtained unconscionable concessions in order to have a base for claims.

In the conclusion of twenty-four international arbitration treaties with a majority of the countries of Europe, America, and Asia, Mr. Root has placed the United States in the front rank of the peoples who seek justice through law, and so has given an edifying example to other nations for the banishment of force in settlement of every international difference.

South America owes to this great statesman another act of high and most important significance. In the arbitration treaty with England respecting the disputed question of the North Atlantic Coast fisheries, Mr. L. M. Drago of the Argentine Republic has been chosen as ore of the arbitrators. For the first time in the history of these international agreements entered into by the great powers and dealing with a matter of so delicate a nature, a citizen of Latin-America is called in as judge. This designation, so flattering to Mr. Drago, is at the same time an act of transcendental significance in that both the United States and England recognize in Latin-American statesmen the high standard of honor and the aptitude for deciding with sane and right judgment complicated questions affecting their interests, and in consequence that they are entitled to the confident belief that in their award all the demands of justice and equity will be impartially considered. It is a step forward through the open participation of the American nationalities in the common labor of confirming the reign of international justice.

It is unnecessary to tire you with a complete relation of Mr. Root's work in the re-establishment of amicable relations with Colombia and Venezuela, the pacification of the Central American republics, the agreements for smoothing out the custom-house bickerings with Germany and France, and the delineation of a policy of concord and mutual consideration with Japan and China. All these acts bear in themselves the seal of a perfect and admirable spirit of fealty and good faith, a statesman's most glorious crest. (Applause.)