BROWN— INTERNATIONAL ADMINISTRATION. 319 



important organizations known as Public International Unions 

 which have to do with such matters as Communication, Economic 

 Interests, Sanitation, Police Powers, Scientific, and other purposes. 



These Unions may be characterized, perhaps, as non-political, 

 and non-lucrative, as opposed to alliances or commercial under- 

 takings. A mere enumeration of certain of these agencies is most 

 suggestive. The Telegraphic Union, The Universal Postal Union, 

 The International Union of Railway Freight Transportation, The 

 Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, Works of Litera- 

 ture and Art, The International Red Cross, all of which have their 

 home in Switzerland, have been accomplishing most beneficial results 

 in their special fields. There are also the Metric Union in Paris, 

 the Agricultural Institute in Rome, the International Maritime Office 

 at Zanzibar for the suppression of the slave trade, the Permanent 

 Ofifice of the Sugar Convention, the International Office of Customs 

 Tariffs, and the Interparliamentary Union at Brussels. Of a dis- 

 tinct character and importance is the Bureau of Arbitration at The 

 Hague. 



When one considers the wide range of subjects of so great im- 

 portance to the peoples of the different nations, the imagination is 

 stirred wnth the possibilities of such agencies for purposes of inter- 

 national administration. In just such normal, reasonable w^ays are 

 the peoples of the earth best able to advance their common interests 

 and facilitate that mutual understanding which must lie at the very 

 base of international law. In a similar way the unlimited array of 

 scientific, literary, religious, industrial, economic and other societies 

 organized between nations will also contribute incalculably to the 

 breaking down of prejudices and the " perfection of the relations 

 between states " which, according to Lorimer, is the true purpose of 

 international law. Diplomacy and law itself are spared consider- 

 able strain and friction by the creation of all these agncies. 



The most interesting and pregnant suggestion has been put forth 

 to the effect that a central international bureau might well be estab- 

 lished in some such Olympic precinct as Switzerland to serve as 

 the home of all the various public international unions, a kind of 

 supreme " clearing house " for these and many of the other socie- 

 ties and organizations having a non-political, non-lucrative purpose. 



