670 Presidential Addresses 



lation and offers a happy augury for the peace of 

 the world. 



There seems good ground for the belief that there 

 has been a real growth among the civilized nations 

 of a sentiment which will permit a gradual substitu- 

 tion of other methods than the method of war in 

 the settlement of disputes. It is not pretended that 

 as yet we are near a position in which it will be pos- 

 sible wholly to prevent war, or that a just regard 

 for national interest and honor will in all cases per- 

 mit of the settlement of international disputes by 

 arbitration ; but by a mixture of prudence and firm- 

 ness with wisdom we think it is possible to do away 

 with much of the provocation and excuse for war, 

 and at least in many cases to substitute some other 

 and more rational method for the settlement of dis- 

 putes. The Hague Court offers so good an example 

 of what can be done in the direction of such settle- 

 ment that it should be encouraged in every way. 



Further steps should be taken. In President Mc- 

 Kinley's annual Message of December 5, 1898, he 

 made the following recommendation : 



"The experiences of the last year bring forcibly 

 home to us a sense of the burdens and the waste of 

 war. We desire, in common with most civilized 

 nations, to reduce to the lowest possible point the 

 damage sustained in time of war by peaceable trade 

 and commerce. It is true we may suffer in such 

 cases less than other communities, but all nations 

 are damaged more or less by the state of uneasiness 

 and apprehension into which an outbreak of hostili- 



