World Affairs Institute

Is the Third Hague Conference to Fail?Source: The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920), Vol. 76, No. 2 (FEBRUARY, 1914), pp. 25-26Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20666875 .

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VOL. LXXVI. WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY, 1914. No. 2

THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY, FOUNDED IN MAY, 1828,

PUBLISHERS.

COLORADO BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C.

CABLE ADDRESS?"A A , WASHINGTON."

MONTHLY, EXCEPT SEPTEMBER. ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.

Entered as Second-Class Matter June 1, 1911, at the Post Office at

Washington, D. C, under the Act of July 16, 1894.

Make all checks payable to the American Peace Society. To per sonal checks on Western and Southern banks add ten cts. for collecting

CONTENTS Page

Editorials. 25-28 Is the Third Hague Conference to Fail??Edwin Ginn and

His Peace Foundation?The Militia Pay Bill. Editorial Notes... 28-30

No Rifles for School-boys?Avoiding Intervention in Mex ico?Berne Bureau Press Department?International Cen sus Bureau?Anglo-German Church Fellowship?Fiscal Sanity?Dr. Shosuke Sato.

Among the Peace Organizations. 30-32 Brief Peace Notes. 32-33 Field Department Notes. 33-34

South Atlantic States Department?Central West Depart ment?New England Department.

General Articles : Public Opinion in Regard to Peace. Prof. John K. Lord. 35-38 The Rhodes Scholarships and International Peace. W.

W. Thayer. 38-40 The Peace Movement and the Press. Alfred H. Fried.. 40-41 The American School Peace League. Fannie Fern An

drews . 41-43 The Buffalo Peace and Arbitration Society. Frank F.

Williams. . 43-44 Peace and War Measures Before Congress. 44-45 Book Reviews. 45 Officers of the American Peace Society. 46 Branches of the American Peace Society. 47 Publications of the American Peace Society. 48

Is the Third Hague Conference to Fail ? The failure of the Third Hague Peace Conference

to occur at the time anticipated will be one of the most calamitous events in modern civilization. Even the talk of failure is distressing.

The Second Hague Conference completed its program seven years ago this autumn, and. according to expectation?indeed, according to solemn prom ise?;the Third Conference should already have been announced and its program well under way for the

coming year. Contrariwise, nothing has been done, and there are a number of indications that the con ference will be prevented from meeting, if possible. When the conference of 1907, after four months

of earnest, conscientious effort, signed the Thirteen

Conventions, the representatives of the nations, in solemn assembly, voted that another conference of the powers should be convened after a period about

equal to that which elapsed between the meetings of the first two conferences. The powers represented in

1907, forty-four in number, ratified this action of the Second Conference. The Third Hague Conference has therefore been formally agreed upon, and the committee on program ought before now to have been completed and at work. On the contrary, only a few preliminary national committees have been

named, and the general international committee on

program has not been constituted, or even seriously talked of.

Is it to be supposed that the united nations of the world can, after their solemn agreement at The

Hague, fail in such colossal fashion to keep their

pledged word, and thus repudiate their obligations? It is unthinkable.

What are the causes which seem to be operating to prevent action by the leading powers? They are

studiously careful not to let their real reasons appear. The Russian government pretends not to be ready to convene the conference. The United States, Eng land, Germany, and the rest appear to have no par ticular interest in the subject. Is it that the Czar's

government has gone so far that they are afraid, because of their great military power, to make any further advances? Is Germany still unalterably in

the grip of militarism and determined to take no

steps toward alleviating the situation? Is England wholly intent upon outstripping all the other powers with her gigantic naval armaments? Is the United States determined, at whatever cost, to gain com

mercial supremacy by means of the Panama Canal? Are the naval and military promoters, alarmed over

what has been accomplished by the first two Hague Conferences and the rapid spread of the peace move

ment, redoubling their energies to prevent anything being done by the Third Hague Conference?

It is difficult to say how many of these causes or

partial causes are operating toward the delay or pos sible prevention of a Third Peace Conference, but it is clear that the nations are paralyzed by fear of each other and urged on through the efforts of the war

promoters to ever greater sacrifices to keep ahead of their supposed national enemies. What can be done? The President of the United States, on the

request of the Interparliamentary Union, called the conference of 1907. It was a great success. Much more might President Wilson, in consideration of the action of the Second Hague Conference, proceed to call a third meeting at The Hague. There is no

propriety in waiting for the Czar to take the initia tive at this time, inasmuch as the conference of 1907 declared that such another meeting should be held at about this time. Indeed, unless some other step is taken, it is incumbent upon the President of the

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26 THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. February,

United States to move in this momentous matter. The governments of all the other powers will almost

certainly be eager to foltow his lead. Let the Presi dent act quickly.

Edwin Ginn and His Peace Foundation.

Edwin Ginn, the founder of the World Peace Foun

dation, died at his home at Winchester, Massachusetts, on January 21, at the age of seventy-six.

Mr. G inn's early life in Maine was one of struggle, first for health, then for an education. Threatened with blindness after he had made his way as far as col

lege, he at last by perseverance succeeded in graduating with his class from Tufts College in 1862. Soon he set out as a commission book agent, and before long was

venturing as a publisher on his own account. Thus

steadily he worked his way up, until he became one of the most successful publishers of school and college text-books in America, and thus laid the foundation of his fortune, which was used by him in later years for social betterment and the promotion of world peace.

One of Mr. Ginn's special interests was the better

housing of the poor, and. some ten years ago he erected a large model tenement on the Charlesbank in Boston. He also endeavored to promote satisfactory conditions between labor and capital, and as an employer was one of the first to begin a profit-sharing system by which his workers reaped from the profits without sharing in the losses of the firm. He early manifested an interest in the humane treatment of animals, and was unwilling to kill them for sport, and in later years became convinced that it was wrong to kill them for food.

His growing opposition to war, with all its attendant cruelties and horrors, was the outcome of a naturally humane disposition. For many years Mr. Ginn was a

supporter of the work of the American Peace Society, being at one time a member of its board of directors, and

up to the time of his death one of the vice-presidents of the society. To reach and influence public opinion through books was a natural method for him to adopt. Through his publishing house he conceived the idea of

issuing what he called "The International Library," containing such volumes as Sumner's "Addresses on

War," Channing's "Discourses," and the like, published in attractive form and at moderate prices so as to make them available to all. From about the year 1900 he

began to be very active in the cause of peace, writing and speaking at Lake Mohonk and other conferences

concerning the possibility of organizing a school where work for peace could be continuously carried on. In a letter quoted in the Advocate of Peace in November, 1909, Mr. Ginn said:

"To such a school I am myself planning to give $50,000 a year, and endow it after my death ; and it is

EDWIN GINN.

my hope that other men will be ready to increase the fund to an efficient amount. . . . The success of this organization will depend upon the amount of en thusiasm we put into the work, and it must be the en thusiasm of a reformer?the kind of white heat that burns when it touches a community."

Soon after this was written the International School of Peace was founded, with a board of trustees and

directors, among whom were such men as Edwin D.

Mead, David Starr Jordan, Hamilton Holt, President

Lowell, of Harvard ; Hon. Samuel W. McCall, John R.

Mott, Prof. Samuel T. Dutton,. and others. This or

ganization was in 1911 incorporated under the name of the World Peace Foundation. Shortly before Mr. Ginn's death a home was purchased for it at 40 Mount Vernon street, Boston, where its various activities are

carried on. Fifty thousand dollars a year was given during the lifetime of Mr. Ginn to maintain the organ ization, and at his death a fund of one million dollars comes into its possession.

The World Peace Foundation, the work of Edwin

Ginn, is one of the most important of the institutions which are doing so much to develop among the nations the spirit of friendship, solidarity, and peace, such as

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