any three of us quarrel. We must stop this, and Mr. Carnegie and I will not be satisfied until all nineteen of us can intervene by proper mesures to suppress a quarrel between any other two."

I hope the Trustees will begin by pressing forward upon this line, testing it thoroly and douting not.

The judge who presides over a cause in which he is interested dies in infamy if discovered. The citizen who constitutes himself a judge in his own cause as against his fellow-citizen, and presumes to attack him, is a law-breaker and as such disgraced. So should a nation be held as disgraced which insists upon sitting in judgment in its own cause in case of an international dispute.

I call your attention to the following resolution introduced by the Committee of Foreign Relations in the first Session, Fiftieth Congress, June 14, 1888:

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President be, and is hereby requested to invite, from time to time, as fit occasions may arise, negotiations with any government with which the United States has or may have diplomatic relations, to the end that any differences or disputes arising between the two governments which can not be adjusted by diplomatic agency may be referred to arbitration and be peaceably adjusted by such means [resolution not reached on calendar during session, but reintroduced and passed: Senate, February 14, 1890; House, April 3, 1890].

This resolution was presented to the British Parliament, which adopted a resolution, approving the action of the Congress of the United States and expressing the hope that Her Majesty's Government would lend their ready cooperation to the Government of the United States for the accomplishment of the object in view [Resolution of the House of Commons, July 16, 1893, Foreign Relations, 1893, 346, 352).

Here we find an expression of the spirit which resulted in the first international Hague Conference of 1899; the second Hague Conference of 1907; and eighty treaties of obligatory arbitration between the great nations of the world, our own country being a party to twenty-three of them.

It was my privilege to introduce to President Cleveland in 1887 a Committee of Members of the Parliament of Britain, heded by Sir William Randal Cremer, in response to the action of Congress, proposing a treaty agreeing to settle all disputes

that mite arise between America and Great Britain by arbitration. Such a treaty was concluded between Lord Pauncefote and Secretary Olney in 1897. It failed of approval by the necessary two-thirds majority of the Senate by only three votes.

There is reason to believe that the British Government has been desirous of having that treaty ratified by our Government or ready to agree to another of similar character, so that President Taft's policy seems within easy reach of success. If the English-speaking race adopts such a treaty we shall not have to wait long for other nations to join, and it will be noticed that the resolution of Congress in 1890 embraces "any government with which the United States has or may have diplomatic relations".

If the independence and rights of nations to their respective internal policies were first formally recognized in such treaties, no dispute concerning these elements of sovereignty could arise.

In order to give effect to this gift, it will be suitable that the Trustees herein named shall form a corporation with lawful powers appropriate to the accomplishment of the purposes herein exprest and I authorize the conveyance of the fund to such a corporation.

The Trustees have power to sell, invest, or re-invest all funds, either in the United States or in other countries, subject as respects investments in the United States to no more restriction than is imposed upon savings banks or insurance companies in the State of New York.

No personal liability will attach to Trustees for their action or nonaction as Trustees. They may act as a Board. They have power to fill vacancies or to add to their number and to employ all officials and to fix their compensation, whether members of the Board or not. Trustees shall be reimburst all expenses incured in connection with their duties as Trustees, including traveling expenses attending meetings, including expenses of wife or dauter to each annual meeting. A majority of the Trustees may act for the whole. The President shall be granted such honoraria as the Trustees think proper and as he can be prevaild upon to accept.

Lines of future action can not be wisely laid down. Many may hav to be tried, and having full confidence in my Trustees I leav to them the widest discretion as to the mesures and policy they shall from time to time adopt, only premising that the one end they shall keep unceasingly in view until it is attained, is the

speedy abolition of international war between so-cald civilized nations.

When civilized nations enter into such treaties as named, and war is discarded as disgraceful to civilized men, as personal war (duelling) and man selling and buying (slavery) hav been discarded within the wide boundaries of our English-speaking race, the Trustees will pleas then consider what is the next most degrading remaining evil or evils whose banishment-or what new elevating element or elements if introduced, or fostered, or both combined-would most advance the progress, elevation and happiness of man, and so on from century to century without end, my Trustees of each age shall determine how they can best aid man in his upward march to higher and higher stages of development unceasingly; for now we know that man was created, not with an instinct for his own degradation, but imbued with the desire and the power for improvement to which, perchance, there may be no limit short of perfection even here in this life upon erth.

Let my Trustees therefore ask themselvs from time to time, from age to age, how they can best help man in his glorious ascent onward and upward and to this end devote this fund.

Thanking you for your cordial acceptance of this trust and your harty approval of its object, I am

Witness:

Very gratefully yours,

ANDREW CARNEGIE

LOUISE WHITFIELD CARNEGIE

MARGARET CARNEGIE

ACCEPTANCE OF THE GIFT

On the date of Mr. Carnegie's letter, the Board of Trustees designated by him, met in Washington, and Mr. Choate addressed Mr. Carnegie and the members of the Board as follows:

Mr. President, I suppose the first business in order would be the formal acceptance of this remarkable gift from Mr. Carnegie. It is impossible for me, or I think for anyone, to find adequate words to express our appreciation and gratitude for this wonderful gift. Mr. Carnegie has been known for many years now as a great benefactor to his race and the whole civilized world is covered with proofs of his beneficence. Great trusts that he has established for the benefit of mankind have already demonstrated the wisdom of his designs and his gifts; but in this enterprise for peace which he has undertaken, he has in my judgment attempted the most difficult, as well as the most far reaching and beneficent, of all his works.

Twenty years ago such a proposition as he has made in the remarkable paper that he has read would have been received with wonder and incredulity, and would have been regarded as hopeless and impossible; but enormous progress has been made in those twenty years, and very largely by his personal influence. Twelve years ago, when the Emperor of Russia first proposed that the nations of the earth should assemble by their accredited representatives to consider the question of peace and disarmament or mitigation and regulation of armament, the proposition was received almost with contempt in many countries of the world; but when that body assembled—there is nobody who can tell us better than Dr. White about that-it made immense progress in the direction of peace and harmony among nations. Eight years afterwards, when under your direction, Mr. Chairman, we went again to The Hague for the same purpose, still further progress was made, and by the result of those two assemblages, as the result also of the cultivation of public opinion in favor of peace, among all civilized nations, this proposed gift of Mr. Carnegie is not only made possible but the promise of it is to my mind absolutely certain. At the same time I think it may be regarded as the most

difficult work that he has yet entrusted to any board of trustees or has himself undertaken. That it is sure to come in the end, no reasonable man can doubt; but anyone who has attempted any work in this direction knows the enormous difficulties that lie in the way, in the prejudices, the interests and the determination of the various great nations of the world. I will not attempt to enlarge upon the subject. I am sure that we shall devote our best endeavors to carry out the object that Mr. Carnegie has expressed in his letter of gift, and that among our first objects will certainly be to promote what he has evidently so much at heart, and what he is so absolutely assured will be hailed with cordial welcome on the other side of the borderthe ratification of the treaty that he has referred to between England and the United States-for I am satisfied that if those two nations are bound together in terms of lasting friendship and peace it would go far to secure the peace of the whole world. I therefore offer this resolution of acceptance:

Resolved, That the Trust Fund, for the promotion of peace, specified in the instrument subscribed to and delivered this day by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, be and it is hereby accepted for the purposes prescribed by the donor.

Resolved, That in undertaking to hold and use, in trust, this munificent gift for the benefit of mankind, the Trustees are moved by a deep sense of the sincere and noble spirit of humanity which inspires the donor of the Fund. They feel that all thoughtful men and women should be grateful to him, and should be glad to aid, so far as lies within their power, towards the accomplishment of the much-to-be-desired end upon which he has fixed his hopes, and to which he desires to contribute. They are not unmindful of the delicacy and difficulty involved in dealing with so great a sum, for such a purpose, wisely and not mischievously, and in ways which shall be practical and effective. They accept the Trust in the belief that, although, doubtless, many mistakes may be made, great and permanent good can be accomplished.

The Chairman directed the Secretary to call the name of each Trustee, in order that the Trust might be accepted personally by each Trustee present, and the resolution was unanimously adopted. The Chairman then declared that by these acceptances the persons present were constituted Trustees under the instrument of gift, with the powers and obligations specified therein.