SMOOTHING ONE MORE WRINKLE

A new link between the United States and other countries has been made by the establishment of a World Court for the arbitration of trade disputes. Hitherto the only way of setting these disputes has been by legal means fraught with all sorts of trouble, expense, and delay. By this new method all the difficulties rising from differences in language and laws, the great distances involved, and the limitations of communication will be done away with and the disputes settled quickly, economically, and justly.

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States has already shown the way in arbitrating disputes between American business men and those of South America, and on this working model is the new tribunal planned Representatives chosen from each country will compose the permanent Court of Arbitration at its headquarters in Paris. So far twenty-seven countries have selected representatives with M. Philip van Hemert of the group from Holland as the President of the Executive Committee. When a controversy rises each disputant sends a statement of his case to either his National Commission or the International Chamber. The Court will then appoint a qualified expert as arbitrator, or if more are needed, three arbitrators. Each party to the dispute puts himself under a bond of honor to accept the award.

Such a court is directly in line with the aims of the most ardent internationalists; yet it cannot offend the more conservative, because it involves no responsibility on the part of the United States. It is through compromises of this sort that friendly intercourse and better understanding among nations can most readily be encouraged.