Show Student Life 13 The Hague Conference Pre-emine- nt among the states- men and diplomats of the present day stands the Hon Joseph H His judicial mind and Choate clear sight into complicated political problems his perfect mastery of the law coupled with genuine patriotism and unusual power in argumentation have made it possible for Mr Choate to render a service to his country that could hardly have been accomplished by any other man Choate is too well known to need an extended introduction to students For more than thirty years he has been engaged as a constitutional lawyer in the most important issues that have come before the Supreme Court of New York and in many of the cases that have confronted the Supreme Court of the United States He was our ambassador to England from 1S99 to 1905 He was our chief representative at the Second Hague Conference which was in session last summer He recently reported his work in the interests of peace at a public meeting held in Boston Thinking that a brief review of the proceed ings of the meeting might be of interest to the readers of Student Life I offer the following summary: President Eliot of Harvard Uni- versity introduced the speaker as follows: “He has been a great lawver a Ocreat advocate all his 7 7 But he never pleaded in a better cause than he did at the Hague Conference and he never had a better client than Peace I introduce to you the Hon Joseph Choate a graduate of Harvard who has shed great luster upon the in- life stitution” A thousand sons of Harvard spontaneously arose and cheered their venerable alumnus who more than half a century ago came up for graduation honors — at Harvard An abridgment of his discussion follows: The general impression has been disseminated by the press that the second Hague Conference was a failure Many people expected the conference to result in the im- mediate disarmament of the nations Others who lealized that such a measure could not be carried through scoffed at the idea of the representative’s ability to do anything more than to engage in idle |