TITLES AND ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 105 



TITLES AND ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS PRESEXTED AT THE AFTERXOON" SESSION" 



PRINCIPLES IX THE DETERMINATION OF BOUNDARIES 

 ALBERT PERRY BRIG HAM 



(Abstract) 



The paper discusses the evolution of boundaries, which are recognized as 

 features of maturing civilization and growing population. Two types of view 

 are noted, one school favoring defensive and separative lines and the other, 

 boundaries which shall be social and assimilative. Mountains, seas, deserts, and 

 rivers represent four classes of boundaries as afforded bj' physical features or 

 conditions. A survey of the several continents shows that such separative 

 features are not as common or efficient as is supposed by many, and a similar 

 conclusion follows on a historical study of well known features like the Pyre- 

 nees, the Alps, and the English Channel. 



We are therefore compelled in the future to use more than in the past human 

 factors in drawing boundaries. Among these race, language, and nationality 

 are considered, the last named being by far the most important. Factors of 

 social and economic bearing are also analyzed, such as the expansion of prolific 

 peoples and expansions due to economic greed and dynastic ambition. Other 

 correlated topics are the economic status of small nations, losses by emigration, 

 and boundaries for economic equilibrium. France, Poland, and the coastal 

 population veneers of the Near East are treated as samples of current Euro- 

 pean problems. The main conclusions are summarized as follows : 



The present arrangement of human groups is a heritage from long existing 

 biological conditions of dispersal, migration, and intermingling, complicated by 

 the vagaries of the human will, as seen in lust of conquest, love of war, dynastic 

 ambitions, and economic greed. 



The necessity of boimding lines has come with the filling of the world's 

 spaces, the pressure of population on resources, and the lifting and widening of 

 the material standards of living. 



Approximately 25 human groups in Europe show such unity of purpose and 

 ideal, such community of interest, of history and of hopes, and each in such 

 reasonable numbers, that they have embarked, or deserve to embark, on a 

 career of nationality. 



The world is now pretty well agreed'that ruling houses are obsolete, that the 

 interests of great powers are no more valid than those of small powers, and that 

 economic equilibrium, or self-sufficiency in natural resources, does not outweigh 

 the rights and desires of any truly national group. 



Europe has an exceptional number of physical units which in primitive days 

 could serve as the cradles of nations. In the advanced conditions and high 

 densities of today, however, the number of physical compartments falls far 

 short of the number of groups which properly wish independence. 



Modern appliances for war have impaired the security once gained through 

 physical barriers. Heights of land and waters of all kinds give important aid 

 in war, but they do not fend off war. We cannot "destroy the germs of frontier 

 dispute by drawing physical boundaries." 



We must draw boundaries on defensible or separating lines if possible, but 

 at all events to work substantial justice. 



Eead in abstract from manuscript. 



Discussed by Professors W. M. Davis and Bailey Willis. 



