The Daily News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF PEACE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 144, 27 September 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF PEACE.

One hundred years of peace liave been nearly completed between Great Britain and the United States, and a proposal ia being made (that it shall 'be celebrated in some striking manner. A committee, entitled "The National Committee for ,the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of Peace Among English-speaking' Peoples" has been formed to give effect to the suggestion. Mr. Carnegie is chairman and Mr. T&ft is to be invited to become honorary president, but a brilliant young Canadian—Mr. Mackenzie King, the Minister of Labor—has the honor of making the suggestion. If the idea of celebrating the'hundred l years of peace , is taken'up with sufficient insight and earnestness under both flags a remarkable opportunity may lead to very memorable results. This era of peace sums from the signing of the Treaty of Ghent 'in 1814 between the two countries. It was on a Christmas Eve, after long and sometimes acrimonious discussion, with > much risk of the negotiation® proving , fuitile that the Treaty of Ghent was sign- | ed, pd that John Quincy Adams could ' write nest day, as he sow the end of . his labors, "the day of all others in the ! year moat congenial to preaching peace "land goodwill to me." It will be a hundred years in 1914 since at the banquet ' | given by thei municipality to the diploI miatist® he ■was able to provide the toast 'of the City-of Ghent as "the City of Peace," and to express the hope that it; would be the last occasion on which it wouJd toe necessary to conclude a treaty of peace between the two nations. One cannot say that the settlement was hailed with enthusiasm or even much satisfaction in feither .country. Few foresaw, 'its 'beneficent consequences. Since that ■ Treaty there has been peace between ' two 1 , gireeut divisions .of English-speaking I people, with every prospect of its perjmanency. The Jay Treaty of 1794 first, revealed the aptitude of the two countries, angry feelings notwithstanding, to I settle differences in a business-like fash- | ion l . The Ghent Treaty was a fresh proof of the instinct, common to both for I terminating disputes by legal methods. J The process Of settling all thie questions in dispute between England and the TJnit- ' ed 1 States has been attended by some ' circumstances which redound) to the credit of both countries. They have shown the world for the first time on a, large scale how difficulties as to frontiers and the like, dependent on physical facts, and legal considerations', can be deter-, mined' amicably and, on the whole, satis- , factorily. If arbitration is now almost universally resorted to for r the settlement of suxah questions; if, war about purely geographical problems, the actual position of a water-shed, the true continuation? of a particular Qhain of mountains, the head waters of a river, seems nowadays absurd and wicked; if, in fact, there be a clear and reasonable hope behind that movement of the human conscience which, as 1 Count Taube said in his speech of welcome, has brought about the meeting of another 'Peace Congress at Stockholm—"this is due ip a large degree to the example set by Great Britain and the United States, first by the Jay ■ Treaty und afterwards by the Vftny ar- " biitrationa which followed' the Treaty of Ghent. There can be no doubt that the question of international peace is one of Tfche most important problems of the day. Behind it synods the happiness of the world, its economic, intellectual aid sp!> ritual development. The Chancellors of all the great nations are bewildiered by fhe claims for ihioney to 'be spent on armaments, Social reformers are in despair for Want of funds. The problem is whether it Is not possible for sane men to find a way out. Two great intermtianal assemblies met recently. The International Law Association inert ia London and the International Peace Congress in Stockholm. Both of these . jaKscusised this great problem. Of the International Law Association the London Times says that it "has sought to promote peace and all that is therein implied. To-day the nations are armed and aiming on a scale and with a degree of energy which would , have seemed incredible to the generation of 1879, when it . was formed, though it had just seen the close of a great European war. The Association has from time to time discussed! for ameliorating the iborrors of war, and it meets again with - the knowledge that science is putting at the disposal of combatants weapons so destructive, so impersonal and mechanical in their operation as, it might seem, to make courage unavailing,, the individual count for nothing as compared with the machine, in the ware of the future." The Times admits the failures of the post, but says: "Yet there has been almost everywhere an advance; an immience advance at some points, with the earning of a new spirit, which promises success where so far there has been none." Lord Justice Kennedy was the president of the Association meetings in London. He said that "we must try by rational methods and practical proof of their beneficence to persuade mankind of the solidarity of its true interests. But," he added, "beyond and behind all the moral and! material gains which ■would flow from the unification of law lay the greater gain which the Association, through the practical schemes and suggestions which it' formulated or forwarded, was ever seeking patiently to assure—the peace of the civilised world. They could' not attain to a great idea Jexoept through hard, humble, patient , world an a practical plane. But neither could they stir men to do such work without ■ the inspiring and giuiding influence of a gr eat idea. And iit' was this great idea-4he idea of the world's peace --that for thirty-eereE jmnr had uti

mated the Association, and animated: it to-day." In the United States there i 9 a very remarkable movement of opinion in favor of international arbitration, which has secured the active assistance of some of its best brains and lifted the movement on to a higher plane.