A treaty providing for compulsory arbitration of all controversies existing or which may arise, provided the controversies do not, in the judgment of the interested nations, affect either their independence or honor, was proposed to the conference, but it received the support and signatures of only nine of the delegations, to wit:-Argentina, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. The adhesion of the United States to this treaty was withheld on the ground that it is impracticable owing to the absence of any motive power to bring about its use outside of the two countries interested, and there being no power to force a country to carry out a general treaty obligation to arbitrate a case, when it is believed its independence, its national life or interests would be jeopardized by such a recourse.

A proposal on the part of the United States delegates for the establishment of a permanent tribunal for the adjustment of indemnity claims arising between the American Republics, on lines analogous to The Hague tribunal, was carefully considered. It was recognized that such a plan would be a distinct step in advance but the difficulties found in creating it prevented its adoption by the conference.

The most important achievement of that conference and a real step in advance, was the unanimous adoption of a convention by which the governments agreed for a period of five years to submit to arbitration pecuniary claims presented by their respective citizens, not capable of adjustment through diplomatic channels, and of sufficient importance to warrant the expenses of arbitration. Such claims are a most frequent source of international controversies, often inflaming the minds of statesmen and embittering international relations.

The third conference at Rio Janeiro in 1906, by resolution ratified its adherence to the principles of arbitration and recom

mended that the nations represented instruct their delegates to the second peace conference to be held at The Hague,

"To endeavor to secure by said assembly of world-wide character the
celebration of a general arbitration convention so effective and definite
that, meriting the approval of the civilized world, it shall be accepted
and put in force by every nation."

It was further agreed to continue in force for another five years the treaty on pecuniary claims adopted at the second conference.

Thus in these great conferences, which have been a distinctive feature of American polity since the time of Bolívar, the American Republics are coming into better understanding of each other's aims and purposes and are establishing a real solidarity of interests. They are coming to realize, as Secretary Knox has aptly said, "That the development and prosperity of each is in harmony with the advancement of the rest."

"The happiest results," says Mr. Alvarez, "of the Pan American Conferences, are, that they harmonize into all of the States of America, and that they contribute powerfully in developing and forming upon its true basis the American Conscience, a conscience which is one of the characteristics of the contemporary political life of the States of the New World."

The recommendations and resolutions adopted by the Pan American Conferences, and the arbitration treaties negotiated by them, as well as those which at various times the individual governments have entered into, have often failed of approval by the ratifying branch of the several governments. And it is too true also, that the treaties adopted have not always been strictly observed. Nevertheless they demonstrate the existence of a permanent sentiment—an invariable opinion prevailing in the American nations which augurs well for the certain and possibly imminent coming of the era of universal peace.

The creation of the International Bureau of American Republics, now known as the Pan American Union, was one of the happy re

sults of the work of the First Pan American Conference. Originally designed to merely collect and distribute information among the Republics, its usefulness in other directions has been so thoroughly demonstrated that at the subsequent conferences its scope and functions have been greatly enlarged. So that now it has become a most potent institution for the establishment of a feeling of fraternity, of harmony, and of real unity among the American Republics. Its recently dedicated palatial home, which is largely the gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie-" that man," as President Taft has so truly said, "who is the most conspicuous man out of official life in the bringing about of universal peace," forms a common meeting place for the representatives of the Republics. Here they come to know each other, consult on matters of mutual interest, cultivate fraternal feelings, and thus foster mutual knowledge, co-operation, harmony and amity, which will cause differences to vanish and help to establish perpetual peace among the Republics.

PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF BOUNDARY
DISPUTES

Boundaries have ever been most prolific sources of international differences. On no subject are nations more sensitive. It is greatly to the credit of American nations that most all such differences between them have been settled by arbitration.

A noteworthy example of this was seen when, in 1896, the republics of Argentina and Chile, whose peoples had become so aroused and hostile that every preparation had been made for war, through the mediation of England, agreed to an arbitration of the questions of the proper boundary line between their countries.

The question was one extending back to 1843. In 1881 the situation had become extremely acute. But through the intervention of the United States Ministers at Buenos Aires and Santiago, an accord had been effected and a treaty entered into which it