TIONAL GROUPS. If they are not really active and living forces, the best and wisest resolutions of the Conferences will have no sanction. The Union is at present composed of twenty-two Groups and some 3,600 individual parliamentarians figure on its lists. This appears quite an imposing number, but it should be borne in mind-first, that the entire total of all parliamentarians in these countries amounts to 9,718, so that the Union at present only registers about 37% of active parliamentarians in these states; secondly, that there are some twenty constitutional states as yet completely outside the Union, as, for instance, all of the Latin-American States; thirdly, that the existing Groups differ widely in number and in activity. While some are splendidly organized and have established a real influence on their Parliaments, others are borne up only by the devoted interest of some few individual members. Even if the Group is numerous, this is of small use if it has no corporate life of its own. WORK BEFORE THE UNION The great object before the Union is to prepare through parliamentary action the passing into international law of the reforms it has at heart, above everything else the substitution, in international disputes, of pacific methods for naked force. We have seen how, since the institution of the Peace Conferences at The Hague, the Interparliamentary Conferences have centered their activity round the preparation of the work to be done there, and it is quite natural that at present, when the day of the third 1 Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Switzerland and the United States of America. Hague Conference is drawing near, the minds of the Interparliamentarians are more and more bent on the programme of that meeting. Several Commissions have been instituted in order to study a whole series of problems to be brought before the Conference, and eventually to prepare draft conventions. No international legislature is in existence. International law is enacted through treaties or conventions and no power is party to a treaty without its having been ratified by the competent authorities of the country. This gives a twofold duty to the Interparliamentary Union. Not only must it try to prepare a programme and proposals for the diplomatic Conferences entrusted with the drafting of international Conventions, but when this part of the work is done it must try to bring it about through the action of its groups that these conventions obtain the ratification of the different states. Thus, at the last Interparliamentary Conference, which met at Geneva on September 18, 19 and 20, 1912, there were discussed problems of international law and policy, such as arbitration and mediation, limitation of armaments and aërial warfare, organization of the Peace Conferences at The Hague and the right of nationalities, and for several of these questions Commissions of study were instituted which will have to report to a later Conference. The Conference also voted, however, a series of resolutions asking the Groups to address their Governments with a view to obtain from them the ratification of several important international conventions which have not yet passed into the statute book of the Society of Nations, above all the Hague Convention as to a Prize Court and the Declaration of London on Naval Law. ) LIST OF PUBLICATIONS Nos. 1-54, inclusive (April, 1907, to May, 1912). Including papers by Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, George Trumbull Ladd, Elihu Root, Barrett Wendell, Charles E. Jefferson, Seth Low, William James, Andrew Carnegie, Philander C. Knox, Pope Pius X, Heinrich Lammasch, Norman Angell, and others. A list of titles and authors will be sent on application. Special Bulletin: War Practically Preventable, and Arguments for Universal Peace, by Rev. Michael Clune, June, 1912. 55. The International Mind. Opening Address at the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, by Nicholas Murray Butler, June, 1912. 56. The Irrationality of War. On Science as an Element in the Developing of International Good Will and Understanding, by Sir Oliver Lodge, July, 1912. 57. The Interest of the Wage-earner in the Present Status of the Peace Movement; Address Delivered at the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, by Charles Patrick Neill, August, 1912. 58. The Relation of Social Theory to Public Policy, by Franklin H. Giddings, September, 1912. 59. The Double Standard in Regard to Fighting, by George M. Stratton, October, 1912. 60. As to Two Battleships. Contributions to the Debate upon the Naval Appropriation Bill in the House of Representatives, November, 1912. 61. The Cosmopolitan Club Movement, by Louis P. Lochner, December, 1912. 62. The Spirit of Self-Government; Address Delivered at the 144th Anniversary Banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, by Elihu Root, January, 1913. 63. The Time to Test Our Faith in Arbitration, by William Howard Taft, and Should the Panama Canal Tolls Controversy be Arbitrated? by Amos S. Hershey, February, 1913. Special Bulletin: Who Makes War? From the London Times, February, 1913. 64. Internationalism; A Selected List of Books, Pamphlets and Periodicals, by Frederick C. Hicks, March, 1913. 65. The Interparliamentary Union, by Christian L. Lange, April, 1913. Up to the limit of the editions printed, any one of the above will be sent postpaid upon receipt of a request addressed to the Secretary of the American Association for International Conciliation, Postoffice Sub-station 84, New York, N. Y. A small edition of a monthly bibliography of articles having to do with international matters is also published and distributed to libraries, magazines, and newspapers. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER RICHARD BARTHOLDT LYMAN ABBOTT JAMES SPEYER STEPHEN HENRY OLIN ROBERT A. FRANKS ROBERT BACON COUNCIL OF DIRECTION OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL CONCILIATION LYMAN ABBOTT, NEW YORK. EDWIN A. ALDERMAN, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. CLIFTON R. BRECKENRIDGE, FORT SMITH, WILLIAM J. BRYAN, LINCOLN, Neb. JOSEPH H. CHOATE, NEW YORK. JAMES M. GREENWOOD, KANSAS CITY, MO. DAVID STARR JORDAN, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CAL. J. H. KIRKLAND, NASHVILLE, TENN. ADOLPH LEWISOHN, NEW YORK. SETH LOW, NEW YORK. EXECUTIVE NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER RICHARD BARTHOLDT LYMAN ABBOTT JAMES SPEYER CLARENCE H. MACKAY, NEW YORK. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, PRINCETON, N. J. MRS. MARY WOOD SWIFT, BERKELEY, CAL. O. H. TITTMAN, WASHINGTON, D. C. CHARLEMAGNE TOWER, PHILADELPHIA, PA. GEORGE E. VINCENT, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. WILLIAM D. WHEELWRIGHT, PORTLAND, ORE. COMMITTEE STEPHEN HENRY OLIN SETH LOW ROBERT A. FRANKS GEORGE BLUMENTHAL ROBERT BACON Secretary FREDERICK P. KEPPEL Assistant Secretary for the Southern States CONCILIATION INTERNATIONALE 78 BIS AVENUE Henri MartIN, PARIS XVI®, FRANCE Honorary Presidents: BERTHELOT and LEON BOURGEOIS, Senators Treasurer: Albert Kahn VERBAND FÜR INTERNATIONALE VERSTÄNDIGUNG Presidents GEHEIMER RAT PROFESSOR DR. EMANUEL RITTER VON ULLMANN, Munich PROFESSOR DR. WALTHER SCHÜCKING, Marburg a.L. Oberursel am Taunus Vice-Presidents PROFESSOR DR. ROBERT PILOTY, Würzburg. BANKDIREKTOR HERMANN MAIER, Schatzmeister, Frankfurt a.M. 27 น Pol. sc INTERNATIONAL CONCILIATION Published monthly by the American Association for International Conciliation.RAPY Entered as second class matter at Now York, N. Y., Postoffice, February 23, 1909, under act of July 16, 1894F SE NIVERSITY OF ILLINO.S THE OPPORTUNITY AND DUTY OF THE PRESS IN RELATION TO American Association for International Conciliation |