AMERICA'S SPOKESMAN
Men and Policies. By Elihu Root. (Cambridge, U.S.A.: Harvard University Press ; Landon : Humplyoy Milford, Oxford University Press. $5.)
Tuts last large volume of collected essays and addresses by Mr. Elihu Root extends in period from the written instruc- tions that he gave as Secretary of State in 1907 to the delegates of the United States to the second Peace Conference at the Hague down to an address delivered in April, 1923, on the Permanent Court of International Justice. A few of the items are rather slight and there are repetitions of Mr. Root's views on particular subjects, an inevitable drawback in a collection of utterances by a speaker in so wide demand. The " Remarks " made by him as a member of the Committee of Jurists summoned by the League of Nations in 1920, to prepare plans for the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice, though full of interest, are irritating to a reader, since they are really one member's contributions to a five-weeks' debate, and naturally the speeches which he is often approving or controverting are not given here.
After those small criticisms let ussay that we hope the book will be widely read in Europe. For, first, it will be an admir- able inducement to the study of international law which is going to assume greater and greater importance. Its broad principles are the subject of a large part of the book. As befits a great jurist, the reign of Law is one of Mr. Root's chief ideals, and he earnestly desires to see the influence of international law growing in the foreign politics of his own and other countries. Until the Great War few of his nation and its politicians had for half-a-century given a thought to it, in spite- of the series of Arbitration Treaties initiated by Mr. Hay. If Mr. Root is justified in urging his countrymen to cure their greater ignorance, let us in turn justify his attribution to us of greater interest and knowledge. Secondly, those who do not know America at first hand will get here an excellent notion of the best opinion and general views of world-politics held there. Mr. Root has long been a pillar of the Republican Party and American party strife runs to extremes that we can scarcely conceive. Yet there is probably no one man through whom the United States would rather
be interpreted to us. Since the death of Mr. Choate he seems to be their recognised " Public Orator." (Englishmen who knew Mr. Choate will read with pleasure Mr. Root's tribute here printed to his friend, who almost deliberately gave his life in 1917 in order to add dignity and fervour to the reception of Lord Balfour's mission upon his country's taking her place at our side.) After the War Mr. Root allowed to appear in his speeches some traces of resentment against President Wilson's determination by which during the War " in the United States alone among the nations power and authority were retained by a strictly partisan government." But he may justly claim to have fulfilled then the patriotic part that he assigns to Republicans, " to stand outside the circle of authority, to give, and to serve under the direction of their political opponents." One realises from this book Mr. Root's position as an international jurist apart from party politics, and one wonders the more at Mr. Wilson's lack of wisdom in not bringing him to the Peace Conference as jurist and as Republican.
Besides the addresses on Foreign Affairs, International Law and Justice; there are here addresses praising famous men, Lincoln, Hamilton, Lowell and Roosevelt, of whom we do not tire of hearing. Mr. Root shows all the refreshing youthful idealism of America, and in him no cynic of the Old World can call it childish, for when necessary he tempers it with severely practical teaching. This is his advice to fellow-enthusiasts for International Law :-
" The way to make progress is to secure agreement just as far as possible, get it recorded, get it acted upon so far as it permits action, commit the whole world to it as irrevocably as possible, and then upon the next occasion start on the basis of that agree. milt and try for a further step."
And this for other impatient idealists :- "Not what ultimate object we can obtain in our short lives, but what tendencies toward higher standards of conduct in the world we can aid during our generation, is the test that determines our duty of service."
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