Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/153

Rh So we see that the newly created department of justice has had very little to do—but the fact that it has had any disputes at all to decide is a very hopeful sign. The tendency will undoubtedly be to have more cases submitted. The example of Norway and Sweden may be followed by other states. A more valuable precedent would be a similar arrangement by two first-class powers.

2. The Interparliamentary Union, or the attempt to establish a world congress or legislature. At present there is in existence an organization called the Interparliamentary Union; it is composed of members of the various legislative bodies of Europe and America; its object is to have conferences periodically to discuss the means of bringing about an international legislative body—a world congress or parliament. This union was founded in 1888 in Paris as a result of the work of William Randall Cremer, M.P., an English carpenter and labor unionist. In 1889 the first regular conference was held in Paris, and since then meetings have been held at most European capitals and in some other important European cities and in St. Louis. It now has more than two thousand members, all of whom fill seats in some national parliament. There are two hundred from the United States. Membership is voluntary and lasts as long as the members retain seats in their respective parliaments or legislatures. In discussing this union we shall note its accomplishments to 1901, the work of the meeting at St. Louis in that year and its most recent efforts to create a world parliament.

The achievements to 1901 are rather difficult to state. The movement has grown gradually; it has had practical statesmen as organizers, leaders and members; their influence has been great in creating and stimulating a sentiment in favor of universal peace and the means of attaining that peace. From the beginning the conferences have attempted to bring about international arbitration, and it is interesting to note that at the Hague meeting in 1891 the conference declared in favor of a permanent court of arbitration, and a commission of six men was appointed to draw up plans for such. Thus it should be remarked that this conference anticipated the Hague Peace Conference by five years, and that the main work of the Hague Peace Conference was due in no small degree to the work of the Interparliamentary Peace Conference.

One of the most prominent leaders, at least the most prominent American leader, at present is Richard Bartholdt, congressman from St. Louis. It was due to his influence at the 1903 meeting at Vienna that the union held its conference at St. Louis in 1901. At St. Louis the famous St. Louis resolution was drawn up by Bartholdt and adopted unanimously by the conference. It declared in favor of the following things: (]) There should be a conference of nations to