THE CONFERENCE FROM DAY TO DAY: ADDresses, COMMUNICATIONS, AND DELEGATIONS FROM The struggle for power at the opening of the new century. Negation of conception of war as a positive good The federation of the world for justice A higher development on traditional lines The governments in advance of public opinion CHAPTER I THE CALLING OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE 1898. WITHOUT attempting to forestall the judgment of history, it may perhaps be taken for granted that the year 1898 will be chiefly remembered on account of three notable events, the Spanish-Three notable American War, the death of Prince Bismarck, and events in the circular letter of Count Mouravieff, by direction of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, calling the International Peace Conference. While these three events had no causal connection whatever, it seems indisputable that the timeliness of the third was strikingly dependent upon the other two. American The Spanish-American War, both in its inception The Spanishand its results, revealed to the world what had long war. been known to a comparatively small number of thoughtful observers; namely, the existence of a great and mighty power in the New World, with unlimited reserve force, which needed only to become interested in questions of foreign policy to make it at once a factor of the very first importance. The wise warning of Washington against entangling alliances with foreign nations had been followed by the United States to a degree hardly foreseen or intended by its author; and standing apart in the world in more or less selfish isolation, |