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heart to set up a living organism, whose constitution ensured that it should breathe the spirit of progress. Such a living organism, a dynamic centre of power, would provide for the steady if gradual development of the system of international labour legislation.

The other point of view was held and expressed by most of the other delegations. They considered that the Peace Conference should solemnly set its seal on definitely formulated principles which would constitute a Labour Charter. Most vigorous expression was given to this view by M. Jouhaux, the General Secretary of the Confédération Générale du Travail. M. Jouhaux complained that if the Peace Conference confined itself to establishing the International Labour Organisation 'the position to-morrow would be that of to-day and of yesterday, with the mere addition of some machinery.'* He, therefore, warmly advocated the insertion in the text of the Treaty itself of definitely formulated principles assuring to all workers conditions of labour worthy of their efforts and corresponding to the importance of their function in society. This standpoint was strongly supported by Mr Gompers, who mentioned that it was not enough to have constructed a mechanism; in the Treaty itself must be inscribed fundamental declarations on points of primary importance. In the end, while the Commission agreed to the inscription in the Treaty of a certain number of general principles, its main emphasis was laid on the constitution of an International Labour Organisation.

The Organisation to be established was intended to be a living organism, established to provide for the steady if gradual development of the system of international labour legislation. The dictum so often repeated -that peace must be a continual creation-may certainly be applied to the International Labour Organisation. It was to be a constant new creation of social justice— not an affair of dead formulæ, but the living spirit of organic progress. If now we proceed to examine the principles on which the Organisation was based in accordance with the architectonic conception of synthesis, we shall find that the most important is the principle

Report and Minutes of the Commission on International Labour Legislation,' p. 340.

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of international co-operation in the industrial sphere, d between the State, Capital, and Labour. Internationalism, in the sense in which we shall use it, and in the sense in which it is exemplified in the constitution, and the working of the Organisation, is the synthesis of nationalism on the one hand and universalism or cosmopolitanism on the other.

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The principle of nationalism has manifested itself too consistently in human history for elaborate definition or explanation to be necessary. It tends to express itself not only in an exaggerated reverence for national institutions and even for national gods; but also in an unmeasured contempt for the lares et penates of all other nations. This spirit of corporate egotism naturally produces in the minds of all good citizens of the nation the conviction that the rights and privileges which it enjoys in the world are not commensurate with its power and its merits. Hence comes the demand for 'a place in the sun,' for 'legitimate expansion,' for opportunity to develop the national ethos. When we find a nation, already powerful, inspired by such a spirit of nationalism in its extreme and one-sided form, the result is inevitable.

And what is the principle of universalism or cosmopolitanism? No actual historical example exists of this principle in action. It is in the religious sphere that the nearest approaches to it may be found. Christianity is a universalist system. It claims that in the Kingdom of God there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither rich nor poor, neither bond nor free. All national differences, equally with all social differences, are done away. 'Ut unum omnes sint' is the ideal of Christianity. And in the political sphere there is perhaps no innate impossibility in the establishment of a World State in which all national boundaries would be swept away, and in which all national characteristics would disappear in one universal type.

Internationalism involves a synthesis of these two one-sided and partial conceptions. Internationalism strives to preserve what is good and true in each of the fragmentary views of the world. It is based on the belief that the differences between nations exemplified by the individual characteristics which exist within them have a real contribution to render to the life of

society as a whole, and that the complete negation of the principle of nationalism involved in universalism would be an inestimable loss of value to the world. On the other hand, it reposes on the conviction that in the last resort the bonds, economic, social, and humane, that unite nations are more potent than the disintegrating forces which drag them asunder; and that nations, however self-sufficient they may appear, can exist only by co-operating with other nations.

'Internationalism does not mean the emasculation of the national spirit, which represents the embodiment of the ideals, the traditions and the virtues built up during many generations of common national effort. On the contrary, it means the pooling of the spiritual resources of all nations, in order to make their intercourse more fruitful and to bring the society of which they are all members to a higher level of prosperity and civilisation.'*

In the specifically industrial sphere the development of internationalism is equally evident. Internationalism is, indeed, logically involved in the very nature of the industrial order. The international relations of modern industry are to be found on two different levels. On the one hand, great international trusts have been established for the production and marketing of such things as oil, meat, and tobacco. On the other hand, the simplest manufactured article is international in its composition. In the coat that I wear the wool probably came from Australia, the buttons from Czechoslovakia, the thread from Scotland, and the dyes from Germany. In these two respects, then, modern industry is essentially international.

Now the international character of modern industry involves intense competition. If oil can be produced more cheaply in California than in Roumania, the Roumanian wells may have to cease operation; if buttons can be produced more cheaply in Belgium than in Czechoslovakia, then the Czechoslovak manufacturers will ultimately have to close down. Owing to the intensity of this competition, manufacturers in one country cannot take any step which would result in

H. B. Butler, article, International Labour Organisation,' 'Encycl. Britt., Supplementary Volume,' p. 524.

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raising the cost of production unless they have some agreement with manufacturers in all other countries with which they compete that they will adopt similar measures. It is this intense internationalism of modern industry which has logically led to the conclusion that for the diseases of the modern industrial order, themselves international, international remedies must be sought.

It was on such a conception of internationalism that the International Labour Organisation was founded. All sovereign states of the world were to be members of it, with equal rights and equal duties. What were these rights and duties? The first right possessed by member states is to nominate four delegates together with advisers to the annual conference. These delegates have the right at the Conference to take part in all the work of the Conference on an equality with delegates of every other country. And what are the duties incumbent on states as the counterpart of these rights? (For every right or system of rights is a right in virtue of the fact that it involves a corresponding duty or system of duties.) Each state has its duty to bring the draft conventions or recommendations agreed upon by the Conference before the authority or authorities within whose competence the matter lies for the enactment of legislation or other action.

This, in its briefest possible form, is the system of rights and duties enjoyed by and imposed upon states members of the International Labour Organisation. How far is it an exemplification of the principle of internationalism? Do the various nations in participating in the international organisation retain intact their national sovereignty? And in what sense, if they do, can the work of the organisation be considered genuinely international? The question of the precise legal character of the International Labour Organisation has given rise to much discussion, and two main views have been maintained. These two opposing standpoints have been well stated by M. Guerreau:

'In the new organisation established by Part XIII of the Treaty of Peace, some profess to see a new legal creation which makes a clean sweep of national sovereignties and lays down once more in the history of the law of nations the

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conception of a super-state. Others, on the contrary, deny it this character, and while they recognise that it has certain somewhat novel features, persistently refuse to consider it as an international public authority, and insist on confining it within the ancient boundaries and the traditional conception of the law of nations.' *

In our opinion, the second of these views is nearer the truth than the former. At no point is there, or was there intended to be by those who framed Part XIII, any invasion of the prerogatives of national sovereignty.

The delegates of each State take part freely, without any derogation from their national sovereignty, in the proceedings of the Conference. The decisions of the Conference, once taken, do not bind the States to introduce them in their national legislation. Their only obligation is to submit the decisions to the free and sovereign judgment of the parliament or other 'competent authority.' Parliament, the free expression of the will of the people, is completely free to adopt or not to adopt these decisions. The Organisation itself has no power of constraint, of compulsion. A system of sanctions is indeed provided, but even this respects fully the sovereignty of each nation. This system is as follows: An industrial association of employers and work-people may make representations to the International Labour Office which the Governing Body may at its discretion communicate to the State complained of for its observations. If no satisfactory reply is received, the Governing Body may publish the correspondence, which in most cases will probably create sufficient pressure, by public opinion, to cause the complaint to be remedied.

The Governing Body also has the power, either on its own motion, or on receipt of a complaint from a Government, or from a delegate to the Conference, to apply to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations to nominate a Commission of Inquiry. For the purpose of such inquiries, each High Contracting Party undertakes to nominate one employer, one workman, and one person of independent standing, and each Commission shall consist of one person drawn from each of these

*Maurice Guerreau, 'Une nouvelle institution du droit de gens. L'organisation permanente du Travail,' p. 42.

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