American Peace Society, and, by publishing the works of these three great men, he touches, as it were, reverently and from a distance the hem of their garments. He asks approval by the Trustees of the publication of selected addresses and papers of Elihu Burritt, with an introduction showing the place which that great and good man occupies in the movement for international peace. FRENCH EDITIONS OF PUBLICATIONS Pursuant to the recommendation of the Secretary that provision should be made for issuing the Endowment's publications in languages other than English, the Executive Committee has authorized the translation and publication in French of the following works of the Division of International Law: An Essay on a Congress of Nations for the Adjustment of International Disputes without Resort to Arms. By William Ladd. The Freedom of the Seas. A dissertation by Hugo Grotius. An International Court of Justice and the Status of the International Court of Justice, to be published as one volume. Instructions to the American Delegates to the Hague Peace Conferences and their Official Reports. Recommendations on International Law and Official Commentary Thereon Resolutions of the Institute of International Law Dealing with the Law of The Hague Conventions and Declarations of 1899 and 1907. The Hague Court Reports. Reports to the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907. The abnormal conditions existing throughout the world and the difficulty of maintaining means of transportation seem to make it advisable to defer the publication of the French edition of these volumes until it is again possible to distribute them in countries where the French language is spoken. The work of translating and typesetting will therefore be carried on when the other work of the Division of International Law in the Endowment's printing offices will permit. The Director will have in mind, however, the desirability of having these publications appear as soon as possible after the close of the war. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES The Director of the Division considers three documents as fundamental in our history and destined to be, if not already so, fundamental in the world's history. He refers, of course, to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. And, strange as it may seem, he has found it difficult to find them together within the compass of a small volume unincumbered with other and extraneous matters. He therefore proposes that they be brought together and printed in a convenient volume form, without notes or annotations, although there may be prefixed a few words by way of introduction to be kept, however, separate and distinct from the text of these immortal documents. It is not necessary to point out the importance of these documents to Americans, but it is advisable to show why they should be issued by the Endowment, interested as it is in international rather than in national organization. In the first place, he believes that international peace is impossible unless the conception of the state as possessing unlimited power be rejected in favor of the conception of the state as the agent of the people creating it and as subjected to law, a doctrine which has never been stated in clearer, more precise and revolutionary form than in the Declaration of Independence of the United States. It is upon this kind of a state that we must build; and the society of nations must, in the Director's opinion, be composed of nations of this kind, that is to say, of states subjected to law, if justice is to control their actions. In the next place, the Articles of Confederation of the United States furnish an example of a league of independent states, united for limited purposes. The union formed by the Articles was a diplomatic not a constitutional union, and is of interest and of value to those who would form a league of states of a diplomatic character. The articles are of importance because their ninth article provided a method of settling disputes between states by means of temporary commissions not unlike that ultimately adopted by the Hague Peace Conference. In the next place, the Constitution of the United States supplies the example of sovereign, free and independent states creating an agency, which they call the United States, investing it with certain sovereign powers, while reserving to themselves the other sovereign powers not directly or indirectly granted to the Union and not renounced by themselves. Like the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution is memorable for its method of settling disputes of a justiciable character arising between the states. The Articles of Confederation proposed settlement by temporary commissions, the Constitution settlement by a permanent court of justice according to principles of law and equity. Believing, as he does, that these documents are susceptible of the larger use, that they point the way to international organization if they do not actually define its terms and conditions, the Director recommends that they should be gathered into a volume, separate and distinct from other matters, and without notes and annotations encumbering their texts, so that they can be considered, analyzed and compared with the greatest of ease and under the most favorable conditions. He therefore asks the approval of the Trustees for this proposition to publish in volume form the Declaration of Independence of the United States, the Articles of Confederation of the United States, the Constitution of the United States. Circulation of Other Publications DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE WAR The Endowment purchased and distributed last year six thousand copies of the special supplement to the American Journal of International Law for July, 1915, containing the diplomatic correspondence between the United States and belligerent governments relating to neutral rights and commerce. A second volume in this series was issued as a special supplement to the Journal for October, 1916, and, pursuant to the authorization of the Executive Committee, a similar number of copies of the second volume has been purchased and distributed this year. The second volume contains the correspondence relating to the following subjects: Part I-Declaration of London, Part III-Restraints on Commerce, Part III-A-Case of the American Steamship Joseph W. Fordney in British Prize Court, Part IV-Submarine Warfare, Part V-Destruction of American Merchantman William P. Frye by the German Ship Prinz Eitel Friedrich. Part VI-Exportation of Arms and Munitions of War, Part VII-Recall of Dr. Constantine Theodor Dumba, Austro-Hungarian Part VIII-Recall of Captain von Papen, Military Attaché and Captain Part 1X-Status of Armed Merchant Vessels, Part X-Hovering of British Warships near the Territorial Waters of the United States, Part XI-Case of the British Steamship Appam, captured by German Naval Forces and Brought by Prize Crew into an American Port, Part XII-Interferences by Belligerents with Mails, Part XIII-Removal of Enemy Subjects from American Vessels, Part XIV-Escape of Officers and Men from German Ships Interned in Part XV-Status of American Consular Officers in Belligerent Territory Part XVI-Dual Nationality-Military Service Case of Frank Ghiloni. The volume, in addition to an analytical table of contents, contains a cumulative index of all the correspondence so far issued in the series, namely, that contained in the July, 1915, supplement, and the October, 1916, supplement. The 1 Year Book for 1916, p. 170. publication of the American correspondence in this form has proved to be of inestimable service to statesmen, diplomats, legislators, teachers, the press, and persons interested in present day questions of international law. It is believed that it is one of the most valuable books whose publications has been aided by the Endowment. DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF NATIONS The American Institute of International Law, in connection with and under the auspices of the Pan American Congress, adopted at its first session on January 6, 1916, a Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations and a somewhat elaborate commentary containing the adjudged cases of the Supreme Court of the United States, upon which the articles of the Declaration are based, and the views of Latin-American publicists showing that the articles were not merely law in the United States in so far as the Supreme Court can, by declaring, make law, but also the law of each one of the twenty Latin-American Republics. The text of the preamble of the articles and an abridged commentary are printed in the Annual Report of the Director for 1916,1 and it is therefore unnecessary to reproduce them in this place. The Director, however, takes this occasion of stating that the Declaration and the Commentary have been printed in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and that copies of them in all these languages are being circulated. He also informs the Trustees that Mr. Root, as President of the American Society of International Law, devoted his annual address of 1916 to the Institute's Declaration of Rights and Duties, and that this address has likewise been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and French and has been printed and circulated in these languages, as well as in English. The Director might, would it not unduly enlarge the present report, print some of the comments of representative publicists of different countries, and a selection of notices in various journals and magazines of which the Declaration has been the subject. He contents himself, however, with the statement that the Declaration has been received with marked approval by foreign publicists and writers. In the United States it is difficult for a person interested in international law to refuse to accept the articles without at one and the same time putting himself in the position of rejecting the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, as each one of the articles is, as previously stated, based upon the decision of the Supreme Court and is indeed little more than a series of headnotes of the court's judgments on the subjects with which the Declaration deals. 1Year Book, 1916, pp. 128-129. FINAL ACT OF THE SECOND PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS The Second Pan American Scientific Congress met at Washington on December 27, 1915, and remained in session until January 8, 1916, "for the purpose," as stated in the preamble of the Final Act of its labors, "of bringing into close and intimate contact the leaders of scientific thought and of public opinion in the American Republics, to the end that by an exchange of views results might be reached of service to the peoples of the American Continent and that by personal intercourse foundations would be laid for friendly and harmonious cooperation in the future." And in a later section of the Final Act, the purpose of the Congress is stated to be: "to increase the knowledge of things American, to disseminate and to make the culture of each American country the heritage of all American Republics, to further the advancement of science by disinterested cooperation, to promote industry, inter-American trade and commerce, and to devise the ways and means of mutual helpfulness in these and in other respects, considered the following general program of subjects, divided into appropriate sections and subsections." It is not the Director's intention to give in this place a summary of the acts of the Congress or to state the relation of the Endowment to it, but a few words are necessary as an introduction to the Final Act and Interpretative Commentary Thereon, for which he is responsible and of which the Endowment has purchased, with a view of circulating, a number of copies. The Congress was divided into nine sections under the following general heads: Anthropology; Astronomy, Meteorology and Seismology; Conservation of Natural Resources, Agriculture, Irrigation and Forestry; Education; Engineering; International Law, Public Law and Jurisprudence; Mining, Metallurgy, Economic Geology and Applied Chemistry; Public Health and Medical Science; Transportation, Commerce, Finance, and Taxation. In many instances the sections were divided into smaller groups. As a result of the labors of its members, the Congress adopted a series of resolutions and recommendations dealing with the subject-matter of each section, and upon the recommendation of the Director, who happened to be a delegate on behalf of the United States and Reporter General of the Congress, these resolutions and recommendations were given the form of a Final Act, as is frequently done in the case of international conferences. It is perhaps proper to remark in this connection that the Director was chairman of the Committee on the Final Act. Following the procedure of international assemblies, the Director recommended that a report in the nature of an interpretative commentary should be prepared in order to explain the sense in which the resolutions and recommendations of the Congress were understood and adopted and in order to supply other information to the governments and persons interested in the Congress and its |