Arbitration
If two people have a dispute and cannot come to any agreement, they may ask an impartial third person to settle the question, both promising to abide by his decision. This is what is meant by arbitration. And when we think of it, arbitration in some form is as old as civilization; for every civil suit that is decided in a court of law is decided by an arbitrator between the plaintiff and the defendant, called a judge or magistrate. In the old days, such disputes were often settled by private wars; but in all civilized states, such appeals to force by private citizens have long been abolished, and arbitration by law has taken their place.
If arbitration could take the place of private wars within a state, why cannot it take the place of public wars between states? Well, it has been tried and with some success. The first great case settled by international arbitration was when England and America referred their dispute about the privateer, the Alabama, to an international tribunal which met at Geneva in 1872; and both countries loyally accepted its decision. This was one of those disputes which might easily have led to war between the two nations; but war was averted by arbitration. Since then many arbitration treaties have been made between different countries, and many disputes settled peacefully in this way. But still wars have continued.
The Hague Conference in 1899 which was called at the suggestion of the Tsar of Russia, was an important step towards international arbitration. It appointed a permanent arbitration court called the Hague Tribunal, which, it was hoped, would make wars a thing of the past. But two defects in the arrangement prevented the I Hague Tribunal from accomplishing much; one/was the fact that the reference of disputes by nations to this court was to be voluntary, and the other was the Tribunal’s lack of any power to enforce its decisions. This is the inherent weakness of all such schemes. At the back of a magistrate is the police force; but what force is there to compel two great Powers to abide by the orders of a court of arbitration? Anyway, this scheme did not abolish war; for, fifteen years after it was established, the most awful war of history broke out.
The next step was the establishment of the League of Nations after the Great War, which has undoubtedly accomplished something. But it has the same weakness as stultified the Hague Tribunal lack of authority and force. Still it is an important step in the tight direction; though war will not cease until the public opinion of all nations is absolutely against it.
Arbitrating has also been frequently tried, and with a good deal of success, as a method of settling disputes in the industrial world between employers and their men. Yet strikes have not been abolished; in fact in recent years they have been more frequent and extensive than ever. Still there is hope that gradually arbitration will win its way, arid strikes and lockouts become things of the past.
