The Days of a Man 



HI 898 



Foster 

 calls on 

 me for a 

 speech 



Foster was at that time a leading advocate of 

 international arbitration. On the day following our 

 last session he convened a public meeting in the in- 

 terest of that cause. I sympathized fully with his 

 views, but I was nevertheless somewhat taken aback 

 when he called on me without previous warning, 

 and as the first speaker. However, I touched on 

 the matter that immediately came to my mind 

 the need of surrounding an arbitral tribunal with all 

 the safeguards found necessary in the highest courts 

 of a nation. Cases under adjudication, for example, 

 must be "agreed cases," that is, with the pertinent 

 facts already admitted by both contestants, or 

 else the fullest precautions against perjury should 

 be provided. Even at the Paris Tribunal perjured 

 affidavits were presented; and Lord Russell, the 

 British chief counsel, did not scruple to interrupt 

 his final plea by the introduction of new evidence 

 a procedure contrary to court practice. In con- 

 clusion I urged that the proposed International 

 Tribunal be made the court of highest appeal, 

 elevated above all suspicion of intrigue or favoritism. 



That informal talk was the first of the many ad- 

 dresses I have given in behalf of arbitration, a 

 society of nations, and the abolition of military 

 force as an argument in economics or politics. 



In the fall of this year the Government completed 

 its publication of the four large volumes of the re- 

 port by myself and associates on the Fur Seal, 

 its habits, history, and political relations, with 



