Safe for Democracy

Abstract

Adetectable undercurrent raced in the opposite direction in the early 1900s. Yet many observers identified the crystal tide in international politics as running to peaceful resolution of conflict. Emissaries from the major powers had convened two conferences at the Hague (1899, 1907), where conventions designed to mitigate the suffering caused by war were signed; provision was also made for a permanent court of arbitration. A third such conference was tentatively scheduled for the summer of 1915. These and subsequent meetings would assure, in the words of Secretary of State Elihu Root, the steady “progress toward making the practice of civilized nations conform to their peaceful professions.” The power of public opinion as a sanction for peace and the desirability of a world federation (“Parliament of Man”) were also assumed by Hague devotees, such as Professor William Hull of Swarthmore College: “Nations cannot be permanently checked in their advance towards visions which their eyes have once clearly seen and their minds have begun to appreciate.”1