respect the laws of nations and the rights of weaker peoples.

THE CALL FOR A WORLD PEACE CONFERENCE.--In spite of the rapid growth
of armaments in Europe after 1870 there was growing up among many of the
leading thinkers of the nations a movement looking toward permanent
peace in the world. The movement soon gained great strength among all
classes. Peace societies were formed, meetings were held, and pamphlets
were prepared and distributed. Toward the close of the century public
opinion in most countries was leaning more and more toward the idea of
universal peace. Governments, however, were slower to take up the
problem. Strangely enough the first government to take action in the
matter was that of Russia, at the time the most autocratic of all the
nations of Europe.

Two years before the close of the century Czar Nicholas II sent out an
official invitation calling upon the nations to send representatives to
an international conference to discuss the problem of the prevention of
wars. The Czar pointed out the dangers which must surely result if the
military rivalry of the nations were not checked. He referred to the
fact that European militarism was using up the strength and the wealth
of the nations and was bringing about a condition of military
preparedness which must inevitably lead in the end to a war more
disastrous and terrible than any war in the history of mankind. The Czar
did not go so far as to suggest complete and immediate disarmament.
Every one knew that Europe was not ready to consider so violent a change
of policy. The Russian invitation merely proposed that the conference
should try to agree upon some means for putting a limit upon the
increase of armaments. It suggested that the nations should agree not to
increase their military or naval forces for a certain limited period,
not to add to their annual expenditure of money for military purposes,