Page:Jay William Hudson - A Practical International Program.pdf/24

 with the average individual. Just as the average man has no desire to defy the law and rarely, if ever, has any encounters with the force which backs it, so it will be very rare indeed for any nation, once the international mind expresses itself, to defy international law and call upon itself the overwhelming compulsion of an international police. Indeed, when the world has committed itself to such a system of law and order, even the world court will not have so many disputes brought to it as some people anticipate. The great majority of disputes will be settled by friendly means of a more intimate character: such as diplomacy and special commissions appointed to look into the facts in dispute and deliberate upon them in terms of fair play and common sense. There is rarely any question of a court of law and a resort to police on the part of friends. For one hundred years the United States has been at peace with Canada, despite the fact of a continuous boundary line of 3,840 miles, unprotected by armies or forts, except Fort Friendship, Fort Reason, Fort Co-operation, and Fort Justice,—the strongest forts in the world. Perhaps the most signal instance besides this of what international understanding may finally bring about is to be found symbolized in the monument erected upon a peak of the Andes by Chile and Argentina over ten years ago. Fifteen years ago these two countries were in imminent danger of going to war over a dispute with regard to the ownership of about eighty thousand square miles of territory. Through the efforts of broad-minded citizens of both countries the question was at last submitted to the arbitration of the King of England, who appointed an expert commission to examine the facts and to submit their decision. When the decision was rendered, both countries gladly accepted it and were so pleased