Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/885

 NO TES AND ABSTRA CTS 8 5 I

While on a visit to America two years ago, speaking in Chicago at the cele- bration of Washington's birthday at the Union League Club, he spoke with much force on the duty of the republic of the United States and the French republic to unite their efforts to serve humanity. He recalled the united effort of Washington and Lafayette at the end of the eighteenth century, and said :

" It was their spirit which sent the American representation to The Hague Congress. They who judge things by appearance, the impatient, the anxious, who imagine that an oak can grow as quickly as a blade of grass, wonder that The Hague Conference has not yet produced results. Too short a time separates us from such a work to warrant our judging it. No one can hope to see war made impossible ; but a great change has come, and this change marks the beginning of a new era in the world. All the civilized powers have officially recognized the necessity of establishing an international tribunal. A court of arbitration has been created. Governments, it is true, are slow to call upon this court ; but public opinion, enlightened little by little as to its duties and its interests, will soon come to knock at the door and it will be Americans and Frenchmen who will hasten opinion in this direction."

The two years which have followed have shown what a just prophecy this was. French public opinion, as was revealed so impressively in connection with the International Peace Congress at Rouen last year, leads the world in this commanding cause ; and Baron d'Estournelles has himself said that it was the action of the United States government in referring the Pious Fund case, and especially the Venezuela case, to The Hague which has done more than anything else to hasten the use of the court and advance its prestige among the nations.

Finally, M. d'Estournelles instituted the Arbitration Group in the French Parliament, already so well known, and he presides over it as a master. A similar Arbitration Group has just been organized in our own Congress. These various Arbitration Groups constitute the Interparliamentary Union, which this year holds its meeting in St. Louis, where Baron d'Estournelles will be present. Last autumn he visited London to speak to the members of the House of Commons upon the efforts contemplated and desired by the French republicans for the exten- sion of universal peace by law by the federation of civilized peoples. Utopians treat Baron d'Estournelles pessimistically, because he constantly preaches prudence and circumspection to the ardent partisans of international progress. Those who admire violent race expansion think him visionary, because he believes in the methodical development of the idea of justice among nations. To most progressive men he seems very near to wisdom, for he builds patiently the foundations of what they are glad to believe the positive and judicial diplomacy of the twentieth century. Few men will come to the Peace Congress in October whom Americans will be more glad to see and hear. Circular of the American Committee of the International Peace Congress.

Notes from Japan. Students of sociology may be interested in the follow- ing clippings from the Japan Times, Tokyo, as showing the trend of social reforms at the present time :

"Viscount Kano, who lives at Omori [a suburb of Tokyo], is perhaps one of the most public-spirited peers in Japan. His lordship's residence in the village mentioned above dates from 1888; and, although he was at one time absent in Kagoshima as governor of that prefecture, he has, during the remainder of the period from his settlement at Omori up to the present day, labored in a very praiseworthy manner for the welfare of the villagers. In the first place, to speak of the more important results of the viscount's labor, he took the lead in organiz- ing, last year, a credit guild which had 163 members at the end of March last. In the second place, a scheme for encouraging thrifty habits among the villagers has been adopted at the instance of the viscount; and there is now practically no one in the village who can be reproached with being a spendthrift so, at least, says a press report. Lastly, a scheme for regularly holding competitive exhibitions of agricultural products has been adopted by the villagers with the object of encouraging agricultural improvements as well as of procuring a per-