A PRACTICAL INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
multiplied a thousand-fold. It is not absolutely essential that this conference be held at The Hague; but two world conferences have already been held there, and these two conferences have already accomplished so much toward world co-operation that it would seem to be highly advisable that the next meeting of the nations shall take the form of a Third Hague Conference. People at large scarcely realize the wonderful progress toward international understanding achieved at the first two Hague Conferences. The First Conference, which met in 1899, was in the nature of an experiment, which a number of doubting statesmen predicted would fail. Yet at this conference twenty-six of the world's fifty-nine independent powers were represented, these powers standing for three-quarters of the world's population and resources. In some respects this conference symbolized the greatest international event in the history of the race. The Second Conference, held in 1907, lifted the possibility of international co-operation beyond the stage of mere experiment and justified the hope that a world federation for the conserving of international interests and the welfare of humanity at large was no longer a merely impractical dream. At this Second Conference were represented forty-four of the world's powers and practically all its population and resources. Of course, the actual achievements of such conferences must be slow, but they are none the less sure and worth while. As the Hon. Elihu Root says:
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