A Permanent Tribunal of International Arbitration: Its Necessity and Value

Abstract

The average individual of these modern days views war with apprehension and alarm. To him it means loss, or risk, of life or limb, either for himself or for those dear to him, or loss of business opportunities and heavy taxes. The growth of socialistic and democratic doctrines has widely spread the historic truth that in the conflicts of the past, largely brought on by the selfish greed of the oligarchic few, the plain many, “the common herd,” Napoleon’s “food for powder,” have had their sufferings for their pains. And the heads of the aggregations of men we call “sovereign states”—the oligarchic few— softened by the spread of the civilizing influence of an industrial age, themselves begin to look on war askance, and to plan ways of avoiding it.