The "Laws of Land Warfare," issued by the United States Govern ment in 1863 for the government of its armies in the field represented an immense advance upon previous rules and have been copied by all other military powers and followed by all except Germany.
Secretary Hay's policy of the "Open Door" for China has been generally accepted, though not always followed, as establishing the attitude of the world toward the troublesome "Far Eastern Ques tion." As has been already explained, the United States has always occu pied advanced ground on the "Free dom of the Seas." The developments of the World War have modified the conditions of warfare in many directions and introduced many new factors, some of them of great sig nificance. Both submarine and aerial warfare have taken on a character never before anticipated, or anticipated only as possible developments of the indefinite future. Contact submarine mines, here tofore limited in their application to shoal waters bordering a coast line, have been planted by thousands in the open sea, in depths up to hundreds of feet. The dropping of bombs from airships on crowded and undefended cities, contrary to all existing laws of warfare, has been common. The use of asphyxiating gases
not only in shells projected from guns but in great waves sent down upon an enemy's trenches and battle lines before a favoring breeze, has been, perhaps, the most appalling feature of all. But the tendency of all has been in the same direction,—away from every feature that in past wars has tended to soften in some degree the inevitable horrors of warfare and to preserve a semblance of humanity and even of chivalry. The world has now before it the great prob lem of assimilating into its scheme of Law such of these features as it may elect to retain, with suitable rules for their employment; and rejecting, once for all, those which it may see fit to eliminate. This is the task for a third Hague Conference, and the sooner such a Conference is assembled, the better it will be for humanity. It is true, of course, that the dictates of a new con ference may be defied by some future Germany, but there is much reason to hope that the lessons of the recent war and its results will never be entirely for gotten.