THE ARBITRATION TREATY WITH AMERICA.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—The editorial upon arbitration with the -United States in your issue of January 14th expresses clouts of treaties being honorably adhered to even if made between the two branches of the English-speaking race. I quote-
" If nations are determind to fight, an arbitration treaty will not stop them in the last resort. We must guard our- selves against disappointment, and we shall do this best if we remember that even if forty arbitration treaties were signed between ourselves and the United States there would remain 'a deal of human nature in man.' " Tho bolding such opinions, it is gratifying to read your words—" War between us (Britain and the United States) is to our mind inconceivable." That the rulers of either my native or adopted lands would fail to regard as sacred their duty to adhere strictly to the provisions of any treaty made between them and resolutely perform it, is to my mind inconceivable. For nearly a century they hay settled all their disputes peacefully and honorably by arbitration. There is no ground to dout their doing so in the future.
You conclude by saying that "you cannot think that the time has arrived when matters of conscience, for one thing, can safely be submitted to arbitration, questions possibly involving the treatment of subject-race, peonage, or slavery disguised in some other form." As neither "subject-race, peonage nor slavery" exists in Britain or America, one is at a loss to imagine ho.v any serious difference affecting these could possibly arise between them. None ever has. "The man who persists in sitting in judgment in his own cause," says Junius, "denies the first principle of natural justice." The judge who does so is infamous. So shall the nation be deemd who drives its adversary to the rude tribunal of war, which invariably decides in favor of not who is right, but who is strong. It knows nothing of righteous judgment. The beneficial effects of such a treaty as President Taft favors would not be confined to our two countries. The whole civilized world would inevitably be impre,st by it. Nations would follow our example in due time and in this way we should finally be in position to abolish war, just as our race has abolisht duelling, which is private war, and which is stedily fading away in other lands. Only twelve duels per year occur now in the forces of the German Empire, mated of twelv hundred when the present Emperor ascended the throne. Moreover, disputants are first required to submit to a Court of Ffonor the question whether a duel is necessary. In France duelling has become something of a farce. So shall the other nations follow our example in abolishing war. I beseech the Spectator to reconsider this proposed English-speaking race treaty carefully. The end sought would justify some risk of failure, but judging from our experience since the treaty' of Ghent—ninety-seven long years—there is none.—I am, Sir, &a, ANDREW CARNEGIE. 2, East 91st Street, New York.
[We have always been strongly in favour of a strict Arbitras tion Treaty with our kin across the Atlantic, and supported with all our power the first treaty which the Senate refused to ratify.—En. Spectator.1
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