PART IV. PROVISIONS FOR THE PRESERVATION PEACE. ARTICLE 528. Limit of permanent military force. 529. Equipments, and military reserves. 530. "Time of peace" defined. 531. When militia may be called out. 532. Notice of dissatisfaction, and claim of redress. 534. Joint High Commission. 535. High Tribunal of Arbitration. 536. Each nation bound by Tribunal of Arbitration Limit of permanent military force. OF 528. In time of peace, the number of persons employed at any time in the military service of a nation, whether intended for land or sea, shall not exceed one for every thousand inhabitants. The military establishment of Europe, during peace, has in round numbers, 3,000,000 of men, and when placed on a war footing, it swells to 5,000,000. These men are all withdrawn from industrial pursuits, where they could contribute to the comfort and wealth of mankind. Their support requires the labors of as many more; so that it may be set down, that the standing armies of that continent impose upon the nations burdens equal to the labors of from 6,000,000 to 10,000,000 of able-bodied men. The whole population of that quarter of the world is 240,000,000, of which it is computed that one in five is able to do the full day's work of a man: that is, 48,000,000 in all. Therefore, one eighth at least of the flower of Europe is set aside in peace to make ready for war. This is an unnecessary waste of force. No nation is benefited by it; all are burdened. The burden can be taken off, by common consent. The only point to be considered is the minimum to which the force can be reduced. A large standing army is not only the enormous burden that it has been described, but it is a provocative to war. The arming of a nation should be looked upon very much as the arming of individuals. A man may keep arms in his house, to be used on occasions, but if he walks abroad, always armed to the teeth, he speedily gets into a quarrel. So with a nation. The peace of society would certainly be endangered by the general practice of wearing arms. It was once so. And since social manners have been benefited by a general disarmament of individuals, it should seem that, for a similar reason, national manners would be benefited by a like process. Examples of partial national disarmament are not wanting. The treaty between the United States and Great Britain, made at the close of the last war between them, stipulated that neither should keep ships of war upon the great lakes that divide them. The treaty of Paris, which closed the Crimean war, provided for the disarmament of Russia, in the Black sea. The object of a military establishment is security, internal and external. The standing army of the United States is 30,000, giving one soldier to every thirteen hundred inhabitants. Yet these 30,000 men are scattered over a territory larger than that of any European State, and they have to keep watch of numerous Indian tribes, and to garrison many fortresses; a greater number probably in proportion to the population than those of any other nation in the world. It is true, that this country has no dangerous neighbors; but if a general disarmament should be adopted, the most powerful European State would hardly be a dangerous neighbor to the weakest. For the purpose of internal security, one armed guardian of the peace to every thousund persons should seem to be sufficient, acting in conjunction with the militia, which should chiefly be relied on for security against internal commotion. The building and arming of fortresses could scarcely be regarded with apprehension, inasmuch as they are defensive. Ships do not, it is true, fall within the same category, for they may be regarded as movable fortresses, but they are limited in their operations. To bind a nation not to build them and lay them up, should not be considered essential to the security of states. Militia should be regarded as the strong arm of nations, both for internal peace and external defense. For the support of the civil powers, in the execution of the laws, no other force is so natural and proper. It is cheap, ready and efficient. For national defense against external attack, it may, upon emergency, be converted into formidable armies. The last war between France and Prussia has shown how powerful a force a citizen soldiery may be made. In France, the national guard has on many occasions been the defender of order. In the United States, the militia has not only supported the civil power in executing the laws, but it has formed the nucleus of an army of volunteers of the most effective kind. Equipments and military reserves. 529. The last article shall not prevent a nation from building and arming, in its discretion, fortresses and ships of war, or from organizing, arming, and, for not more than one month in each year, drilling all or any portion of its able-bodied men between twenty and forty years of age, as a force of militia, to be called into active service, according to article 531. "Time of peace" defined. 530. By the "time of peace," mentioned in article 528, is to be understood that period during which Austria, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and the United States are at peace with each other. When militia may be called out. 531. Any nation may call its militia into active service to enforce its laws, suppress insurrections against its authority, repel invasions of its territory or execute article 537 of this Code. See Constitution of the United States, Art. I., Sec. 8, Subd. 14. Notice of dissatisfaction, and claim of redress. 532. If any disagreement, or cause of complaint, arise between nations, the one aggrieved must give formal notice thereof to the other, specifying in detail the cause of complaint, and the redress which it seeks. Answer to be given. 533. Every nation, which receives from another, notice of any dissatisfaction, or cause of complaint, whether arising out of a supposed breach of this Code, or otherwise, must, within three months thereafter, give a full and explicit answer thereto. Joint High Commission. 534. Whenever a nation complaining of another and the nation complained of do not otherwise agree between themselves, they shall each appoint five mem bers of a Joint High Commission, who shall meet together, discuss the differences, and endeavor to reconcile them, and within six months after their appointment, shall report the result to the nations appointing them respectively. High Tribunal of Arbitration. 535. Whenever a Joint High Commission, appointed by nations to reconcile their differences, shall fail to agree, or the nations appointing them shall fail to ratify their acts, those nations shall within twelve months after the appointment of the Joint High Commission, give notice of such failure to the other parties to this Code, and there shall then be formed a High Tribunal of Arbitration, in manner following: Each nation receiving the notice shall, within three months thereafter, transmit to the nations in controversy the names of four persons, and from the list of such persons the nations in controversy shall alternately, in the alphabetical order of their own names, as indicated in article 16, reject one after another, until the number is reduced to seven, which seven shall constitute the tribunal. The tribunal thus constituted shall by writing signed by the members, or a majority of them, appoint a time and place of meeting, and give notice thereof to the parties in controversy; and at such time and place, or at other times and places to which an adjournment may be had, it shall hear the parties, and decide between them, and the decision shall be final and conclusive. If any nation receiving the notice fail to transmit the names of four persons within the time prescribed, the parties in controversy shall name each two in their places; and if either of the parties fail to signify its rejection of a name from the list, within one month after a request from the other to do so, the other may reject for it; and if any of the persons selected to constitute the tribunal shall die, or fail for any cause to serve, the vacancy shall be filled by the nation which originally named the person whose place is to be filled. Each nation bound by Tribunal of Arbitration. 536. Every nation, party to this Code, binds itself to unite in forming a Joint High Commission, and a High Tribunal of Arbitration, in the cases herein before specified as proper for its action, and to submit to the decision of a High Tribunal of Arbitration, constituted and proceeding in conformity to article 535. Nations violating provisions to be resisted by all. 537. If any party hereto shall begin a war in violation of the provisions of this Code for the preservation of peace, the other parties bind themselves to resist the offending nation by force. Annual conference of representatives of nations. 538. A conference of representatives of the nations, parties hereto, shall be held every year, beginning on the first of January, at the capital of each in rotation, and in the order mentioned in article 16, for the purpose of discussing the provisions of this Code, and their amendment, averting war, facilitating intercourse, and preserving peace. War, in all its aspects, has little to recommend it, and almost everything to condemn it. Even the brilliant qualities of courage and selfsacrifice, which it often calls forth, are more than counterbalanced by the cruelty, license and corruption, which are its inseparable concomitants. The history of every nation, after a great war, is a history of demoralization. The moral sense appears to be weakened by the spectacle of brute force contending with brute force; the sensibilities are blunted by indifference to suffering, and familiarity with death; the morals of camps are proverbially loose; the custom of destruction is apt to beget the love of it; and that regard for the rights and feelings of others, which is the chief glory of civilization, is lessened, if not lost, in the struggle for life and mastery in fight. There may indeed be in nations, as in individuals, a stagnation and corruption worse than death; and war, like pestilence and famine, may be used by the Almighty as a scourge to drive them away, but that proves, not that war is a good thing in itself, but that there may be things that are worse. Contention does undoubtedly sharpen the intellect, but there may be other kinds of contention than that of mere force. Indeed, that contention which aims to overcome obstacles in nature, to outstrip in manly arts, to look deepest into the mysteries of the world, material and spiritual; contention in letters and arts, in poetry, philosophy and history, in agriculture and navigation, in the refinements of life, the cultivation of taste, and the elevation of morals; that is the contention which really purifies and exalts. We see that the waste and destruction of war are by no means the greatest of its evils, great as they are. We have before our eyes, at this moment, the devastation of one war, which lasted but a few months, but |