demand acts of governmental interference which it would scarcely tolerate if demanded from the point of view of national policy. The manner in which private initiative often loses the proper perspective is illustrated by the second congress against white slavery, which recommended that the postal administrations should not deliver poste restante mail to young girls without the consent of their parents. The difficulties of administration which such an arrangement would make necessary were certainly not given due consideration.

The great unions dealing with the communication interests were all the result primarily of public initiative. Treaties between two powers or a group of powers grew up and increased in numbers until, as pointed out above, the unification on an international basis presented itself as the only rational and practical solution of the difficulties. The definite suggestion of some of these unions, such as the Railway Freight Union, came indeed from private individuals, who worked out preliminary projects of action; but in all these cases the definite steps leading to the establishment of the unions were taken by public authorities. The great sanitary conventions of the last two decades were also the result of public initiative, although in these cases a long series of expert technical conferences preceded diplomatic action. In a similar way the unions dealing with the metric system, the suppression of the slave trade, the sugar bounties, and the publication of customs tariffs were created by public agencies, as was also the scientific union for the study of geodesy. The international unions dealing with the police of the high seas, as well as the organs dealing with specific local affairs, such as the Danube Commission and the Egyptian Caisse de la Dette, present themselves under the aspect of an extension of national organs of administration for the protection of interests beyond the boundaries of the state, and were therefore naturally the result of direct public initiative.

Private initiative leading toward the creation of international organizations has been most active and effective in connection with general economic interests in which the individual state administrations were not so necessarily and directly involved as they are in the control of communication, sanitation, and the police. In the three important fields of literary and industrial property, labor

legislation, and agriculture, the public unions which now exist are the result primarily of a determined and persistent private initiative. Two societies, the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and the International Literary and Artistic Association, agitated for the adequate protection of intellectual property and worked out definite projects for international conventions. Urged on by this initiative, individual states thereupon took the necessary steps to bring about the convocation of diplomatic conferences through which the subject-matter was given its authoritative form and through which the international organs dealing with these matters were created.

Among all the subjects concerning which international action has been taken, none perhaps illustrates more strikingly than labor legislation the necessity of such action its naturalness, in fact - but at the same time the great difficulties which oppose themselves to the realization of any general plan of operation. Early in the development of the international movement, it was realized that national labor legislation would ultimately have to be supported by international understandings. It would evidently be impossible for an isolated nation to institute a system of perfect protection for its labor forces, while those nations who were its principal competitors in the industrial field continued in the use of a system under which labor forces were exhaustively exploited. Another reason for international arrangements in this matter was found in the fact that the labor supply is becoming more and more an international commodity. No longer based exclusively upon the native element in any one state, it is determined rather by importation and exportation of labor forces, whose temporary cooperation with the national laborers of itself necessitates some kind of international understanding on labor legislation. Various international associations of a private nature were formed, composed either of the direct representatives of labor striving for a more complete recognition of its needs, or of persons who interested themselves in the situation of the laborer from a scientific or humanitarian point of view. The labor interest, both in its economic and scientific aspect, therefore received an international organization which corresponded to the economic facts involved. A

strong sentiment for the founding of an international union of states dealing with labor problems was thus created. A number of governments sent delegates to the general assemblies of the International Association for the Legal Protection of Labor, giving this organization a quasi-public character. Finally, a diplomatic conference was convened in which certain proposals that had been worked out by the association were discussed and where certain general legislative principles were adopted. The first suggestion leading towards the establishment of the International Institute of Agriculture was made by a private person who brought his ideas to the attention of various governments. The suggestion was finally taken up by the King of Italy, and public initiative thus took the place of private suggestion. The ideas of the originator of this movement had also been discussed and endorsed by the International Association for Agriculture, a private organization. In this case, the action taken by the public authorities fell far short of what had been expected by the original sponsors of the movement. Instead of creating an organ empowered to take direct action for the protection of the various interests of agriculture, the diplomatic conference which acted as a constituent assembly in this matter did not go beyond creating an international intelligence bureau, the administrative functions of which are very limited.

Private initiative has also brought about the creation of international unions with respect to penitentiary science, seismology, the repression of the white-slave trade, and the great humanitarian enterprise of the International Red Cross Association.

After a union has once been created, admission to it is, as a rule, granted freely. Any state may therefore ordinarily acquire membership by merely declaring its adherence to the conventions concluded, and by assuming the burdens imposed by the international union. Such adherence is ordinarily notified to the "directing state" the government in whose territory the international bureau is established and by it communicated to the other member states. This method prevails in nearly all the international unions. An exceptional method is followed in those unions in which very special burdens are imposed upon the treaty states. Thus, in

the European Railway Freight Union the request of any state to be admitted to membership must be addressed to the directing state; it will be referred to, and reported on, by the bureau, submitted to the member states, and acted upon by them. Unanimous action of the latter is necessary in order that a new member may be admitted. In the Sugar Union, the request for admission must be acted on by the commission of the union, to whom it is transmitted through the Belgian Government, which is, in this case, the directing state. Admission to the Union for the Suppression of the Slave Trade may be made subject to certain conditions, which are applied upon motion of the treaty states. The common law of international unions may therefore be stated to be that the unions are open to all nations who are ready to assume the burdens imposed, and that the membership of all civilized nations will be encouraged. The purposes of these unions can, of course, be fulfilled best with a complete membership, including all the states of the world. Some of the unions, such as the Postal Union and the Agricultural Institute, closely approach this condition.

In certain unions membership is limited by natural causes or by the specific nature of the purpose for which the union has been created. The Union of American Republics is limited by a geographical fact. The European Railway Freight Union, the North Sea Fisheries Union, the Danube Convention, are other examples of limited purposes, which imply a limited membership.

Organization

The method of organization in the international unions tends towards uniformity. There is a general system which may be considered as the normal scheme of organization, although all its individual parts will not be found in every one of the unions. The tendency toward imitation has manifested itself in this field as in other fields of social enterprises. Methods of organization which, though established against great opposition, have subsequently proved their usefulness and thus justified their existence will naturally be imitated in the creation of new organizations.

The constituent assembly and general legislative organ of the

international union is the conference or congress. The use of the former term is becoming more general, although the meetings of the Postal Union are still called congresses, while in the case of the Agricultural Institute the term "general assembly" has been employed. The attempt to distinguish sharply between the term "congress" and "conference" seems to be futile. As used in general diplomatic language, the term congress may be said to refer to an important assembly of plenipotentiaries for the discussion and settlement of a definite political situation demanding immediate action by the powers. In this manner, the term is employed in connection with the Congress of Vienna, the Congress of Paris, the Congress of Berlin, etc. Congresses of this kind have in the past been called when, as the result of a great war, the political equilibrium had been destroyed and when vast interests were in the balance, requiring authoritative and immediate settlement. The term conference is used more generally where the subject of discussion is some specific interest or group of interests. A conference does not ordinarily work in the presence of a political situation which imposes upon it certain imperative demands of action. It rather deals with matters in which action seems advisable, in which mutual counsel should be had, but in which the present necessity of action is less urgent. The term is therefore applied even to the general Hague Conference, in which the most important interests of nations are discussed by plenipotentiaries. If the phraseology were determined by the importance of the interests involved and by the diplomatic character of the delegates, the term congress certainly should be applied to the meetings at The Hague. The only element which distinguishes these meetings from such as those to which the term congress has been applied in the past is the absence of an urgent political situation. calling for immediate international action of a fundamental and pervading nature, such as that taken in 1815, or 1856, or 1878. It may, however, be that the term congress is destined to entire disuse in connection with the meetings of public representatives. At present the meetings of the Postal Union are still called congresses. The technical reason assigned for this usage is that the postal congress has the right and function of making changes in the original