PLATFORM We believe it to be desirable that a League among Nations should be organized for the following purposes: 1. A World Court, in general similar to the Court of Arbitral Justice already agreed upon at the Second Hague Conference, should be, as soon as possible, established as an International Court of Justice, representing the Nations of the World and, subject to the limitations of treaties, empowered to assume jurisdiction over international questions in dispute that are justiciable in character and that are not settled by negotiation. 2. All other international controversies not settled by negotiation should be referred to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, or submitted to an International Council of Conciliation, or Commissions of Inquiry, for hearing, consideration and recommendation. 3. Soon after peace is declared, there should be held either “a conference of all great Governments," as described in the United States Naval Appropriation Act of 1916, or a similar assembly, formally designated as the Third Hague Conference, and the sessions of such international conferences should become permanently periodic, at shorter intervals than formerly. Such conference or conferences should (a) formulate and adopt plans for the establishment of a World Court and an International Council of Conciliation, and (b) from time to time formulate and codify rules of international law to govern in the decisions of the World Court in all cases, except those involving any constituent State which has within the fixed period signified its dissent. 4. In connection with the establishment of automatically periodic sessions of an International Conference, the constituent Governments should establish a Permanent Continuation Committee of the conference, with such administrative powers as may be delegated to it by the conference. THE WORLD'S COURT LEAGUE, INC. Equitable Building, New York MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION I desire to become a member of The World's Court League and receive the WORLD COURT MAGAZINE for one year, for which I enclose One Dollar. OFFICERS President of the League JOHN HAYS HAMMOND President of the International Council President of the National Advisory Board NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER SIMEON E. BALDWIN JOHN BARRETT CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS Vice-Presidents ALBERT SHAW WOODBRIDGE N. FERRIS Treasurer HENRY CLEWS BOARD OF GOVERNORS MRS. THOMAS J. PRESTON Associate Members Executive Committee Frank L. Babbott Nehemiah Boynton George W. Kirchwey Walter L. McCorkle Gilbert A. Beaver John D. Brooks W. B. Millar Frederick Lynch Isaac N. Seligman Secretary of the Board of Governors SAMUEL T. DUTTON, General Secretary John Martin CHARLES H. BURR, Executive Secretary The officers of The World's Court League cordially invite you to join with them in preparing the way for more just and harmonious international relations after the war. Forty-four nations have already voted for the Court of Justice which will be the chief corner-stone of a new world structure. While a League of Nations presupposes a better adjustment of international questions, the greatest assurance of security and durable peace rests in a World Court. The platform of the League is in harmony with the great work accomplished by the two Hague Conferences and with the treaties which have been made by the United States with thirty nations, providing for delay and inquiry in case of any international difficulty. To advance and concentrate public opinion the League publishes THE WORLD COURT MAGAZINE which, with its new staff of editors, will chronicle the chief events in the international world and will reflect the opinions of leading men and women. A payment of one dollar makes you a member of The World's Court League and furnishes the magazine for one year. The League also desires contributions of from five to one thousand dollars for the support of this world-wide propaganda. All those who have contributed during the past year to aid the sufferers from the war may wisely consider it worth while to join in a movement which is intended to make another war with its horrors and distress unlikely if not impossible. Use the coupon on opposite page. ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER, SEPTEMBER 16, 1912, AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK THE EDITOR'S POINT OF VIEW NORMAN ANGELL'S highly highly suggestive article on "How to Study the Problems of the War" represents a type of service to readers of The World Court Magazine not duplicated in any American publication. Attention is here called to the special announcement and request printed on page 13. Such special features indicate one line of development for our "Magazine of International Progress." To record their official points of view regarding responsibility for the war one government after another issued a Blue Book or a Yellow Book or an Orange Book or a Red Book, or some other colored book. Since the issue of who shall become responsible for lasting peace has now come to the forefront of international discussion, we devote space this month to a "Black-and-White" Book of Peace Diplomacy. The collection of extraordinary docu ments brings together for one connected reading permanently important material that is otherwise lost, is merely skimmed in the daily paper, or is not readily available as a check on misinterpretation. Is a new variety of peace-making diplomacy being evolved? By way of perspective on current plans for securing world peace the succinct and illuminating review of "Historic Proposals for Leagues of World Peace," by Professor Sterling E. Edmunds, is furnished to this number of The World Court Magazine. Comments on "The Scheme for a League of Nations," by H. N. Brailsford, throw one British sidelight at the present time. Plebiscites and purchase instead of conquest bring New West Indian Americans to us. Mr. Myers' article on the subject points out the international setting and significance of such a transfer. By NORMAN ANGELL Author of "The Great Illusion," "America and the World State" and other well-known volumes. HE librarian of one of the TH Great American public libraries stated recently that he had received for classification more than 2,000 books and pamphlets dealing with the war or the questions out of which it had arisen. An examination showed that none of these books or pamphlets was negligible; all had some good claim to attention and no study of the war and its causes could pretend to be exhaustive which did not take them into account. And when one thinks of the subjects that the study of this war involves, 2,000 books does not seem a very large number. The immediate cause was an incident of Balkan politics, and Balkan politics with all its welter of language and nationality difficultiesthe relations of Serbs, Bulgars, Roumanians, Turks, Greeks, Albanians, of the Moslems, the Catholics, the Orthodox and Unified Greek Churches; the influence and struggle for prestige within the Peninsula of the Austrian, Russian, German, Italian and British foreign policies-has absorbed the life studies of many students. THE MAZE OF ISSUES But the incident leading to the outbreak of war was also a question of Austrian policy, of the everlasting struggle between Germans, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, Ruthenians, Italians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles; Of the issues of the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885, the tariff wars between Austria and Serbia, the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the formation of the Balkan League and the intrigues which provoked the Second Balkan War, which in turn takes us to the Turkish invasions, the emergence of the independent Balkan nations from Turkish supremacy; And this in turn touches Austrian and Russian policy and Russia's claim to be the leader and protector of the Slav peoples, her interference in Balkan politics and her designs on Constantinople; Which brings us to questions of the European Alliances, the Balance of Power; the conflict between Slav and Teuton; the development of German policy since unification; the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870; the position of Prussia in Germany; the attitude of the Social Democrats; the difference between the new Germany and the old; the influence of the newer German philosophies of Nietzsche, Haeckel, Treitschke, Feuerbach, Schopenhauer, as the reaction against those of Kant, Hegel and Fichte; The annexation of Alsace-Lorraine and its effect on Franco-German relations; the problems arising |