territorial representation. There are nine justices and the United States are divided into nine circuits, to each of which a justice is assigned. As a result, it has become the practice to appoint one justice from each circuit. This not only deprives the country of the choice in ability from the entire nation, but, when a vacancy occurs, the nomination being more or less a local affair, the opportunity is greater for the use of all kinds of pressure to advance the causes of popular favorites.

The opportunity to strengthen the hand of the president and the party in power at the time, by fortifying their political tenets, is seldom overlooked: for instance, the nominee must be a strong federalist, protectionist, or, at the present time, perhaps, a champion of human rights, rather than of property rights. Analogous difficulties would arise in the selection of a permanent member for an International Court.

It has no power to enforce a judgment against a State. When a persuasive member has started the Court on a wrong course, it may continue upon it for years, before it is finally righted; as has been the case in regard to the application of the anti-monopoly (Sherman) law to all combinations in restraint of trade even though not "unreasonable."

Almost invariably when questions of a political nature, or even of sectional interest, have arisen, the lack of unanimity in the Court has shown that their training as jurists has little or nothing to do with the conclusions at which they arrive, if it is to be assumed that there is but one legal way that is right, which the advocates of a Judicial Court apparently do.

FURTHER CONVENTIONS

The Land

There are a number of world problems that confront the nations, the settlement of which might be effected at the close of the war in such a manner as to allay future strifes that appear otherwise to be inevitable.

The best way to consider them is doubtless to approach them at the present time as general abstract principles.

Mankind originated in spots and does not increase in like ratios, so that every now and then places have been over-populated and a spreading out from those centers has necessarily followed. This took place in the way of migrations before means of conveyance were developed and one after another from the centers of origin can be traced. These waves were often overwhelming; seldom went beyond the limits of earlier settlers; and, consequently, subsided upon the latter and crushed them mercilessly if they could not amalgamate or push them further into the wilderness.

Now that the most favorable parts of the earth have been appropriated, and we have reached a higher state of intelligence, other devices should be provided. To attempt to restrain a population when it has become very dense, to a limited territory, and especially when its people have reached a high degree of efficiency, is as unscientific as to ignite explosives in chambers that allow of no expansion and expect the latter not to burst.

In the abstract, the following principles are recognized: (1) one man has as much right to live as another; (2) as a given territory is only capable of maintaining a given number of beings, as long as there is vacant land that is

needed for the sustenance of man, he cannot be arbitrarily deprived of it; and (3) when groups of men, large enough to be treated as a nation, are sufficiently advanced in civilization to establish order and govern themselves, they should be allowed their independence.

Such is doubtless the sentiment today in America regarding the Philippines and Alaska. Could general disarmament be introduced and their rights as independent nations be assured it would be doubly strong.

These principles might be sufficiently established for the present by the following provisions in a convention:

Nations

The following countries shall be recognized by the adherents to the Disarmament and Arbitration Convention to be independent states entitled to equal recognition in the Society of Nations (naming them) and such other self-governing states as shall hereafter be formed, provided they shall have a population of, at least, inhabitants and a territorial

extent, of, at least,
kilometers.

Colonial Territory

square

All detached territory governed by a mother country shall be considered colonial territory. Colonial territory shall be open to immigration from any country, unlimited as to numbers, but restricted as to health and morals, and the immigrants shall be allowed to become citizens under easy conditions. No such body of people, having a population and territory sufficient to become an independent state,

after it has advanced sufficiently to govern itself, shall unwillingly be ruled by another state. A plebiscite to test the wish of the people to achieve independence shall be afforded them by the mother country every twenty-five years, open to citizens who shall have been domiciled there for at least the space of twenty-five years. Such colonists shall be permitted to review any grievance against the mother country concerning the conduct of such plebiscite by the procedure prescribed in the Arbitration Convention.

Unorganized Territory

Any territory that contains an area with radii from a center of kilometers which does not include a fixed town with a population of, at least, domiciled inhabitants, a post office, telegraph office and schools for secondary instruction, shall be open to any nation for occupation and organization as colonial territory; provided, that the nation claiming it does not cause such requirements to be fulfilled within two years after the receipt of notice from another nation that it would like to settle it.

Provision should be made to assure to inland countries outlets to the sea, under reasonable conditions, such as those now existing in regard to the use of the Rhine, the Danube and the St. Lawrence Rivers, by water; and the railroad systems of America, by land.

The convention might, for instance, provide as follows:

All natural water ways, and improvements employed in connection therewith, shall be open for the use of peoples living inland, on reasonable conditions;

and the latter shall accord reciprocal privileges to the passage and trade of the peoples of the lowland.

Transportation over artificial routes shall be accorded under reasonable requirements and through shipments permitted without the exaction of customs duties.

It might further be well to fix, by convention some principals not yet thoroughly established, such as:

The territorial integrity of all nations shall be maintained, save that nations may consolidate, or dismember, by arrangement. Questions of unrecognized boundaries, nevertheless, may form a proper subject for arbitration.

The stranger, with a clean record, shall have the right to circulate under sanitary regulations; and, under added conditions, which shall be no more onerous than those imposed on citizens, or subjects, he shall have the right to sojourn; save, however, that a state may restrict the immigration of people of a lower class of civilization, if it is menaced with an inflow such as would perceptibly lower its own standard.

Duties, taxes and regulations affecting foreign commerce and foreigners, passing or sojourning, shall be reasonable and alike for all.

At the termination of the war, it is probable that the statu quo ante rule, restoring territory about to the situation before the war, will be followed; but Germany might well make the following concession to France:

Allow France to designate a section of Alsace and Lorraine, following promontories and ridges, to be ceded to her in case a majority of the voters who inhabited the section August 1, 1914, shall vote in favor