OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 114, 8 February 1937, Page 9

OBITUARY

Mr. Elihu Root (Received February 7, 7.30 p.m.) New York, February 7. The death has occurred from pneumonia of Mr. Elihu Root. WORK FOR WORLD PEACE Interest in The Hague Court For long one of the outstanding figures in American public life, Mr. Elihu Root was born in the State of New York in 1845. It was as a corporation lawyer that he first attracted notice, and he became counsel in many famous cases. In politics a Republican, he was from August, 1899, to February, 1904, Secretary for War in the Cabinets of President Theodore Roosevelt and McKinley. He reorganised the ormay and in general administer hie department with great ability in a period which included the Boxer fighting, to which America sent a force, the Filipino insurrection, the withdrawal of American troops from Cuba and the establishment of a government for the Philippines under a commission for which he drew up what wae in reality a constitution, a judicial code and a system of laws. In 11)05 he re-entered Roosevelt’s Cabinet as Secretary of State, and in the following year, after his election as honorary president of the Pan-American Conference, contributed greatly toward promoting a better understanding between

the United States and the South American republics. He did much to further the caues of peace, concluding treaties with many nations, including Britain, Japan and France. After a period in which he undertook other important tae-ks he continued his work for peace as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, becoming a recog-' nised leader of the American peace movement and being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1912.

In the following year he took a leading part in the passage of the Bill providing for the Federal Reserve Bank in order to tsabiliee the finances of the country. On the entry of the United States into the World War in 1917 he supported the Government and was head of a mission to Russia to encourage Kerensky '« Government to carry on the war, the object of this mission being frustrated by the overthrow of Kerensky. At the conclusion of the war his opinions carried weight in the drafting of the League Covenant, although he did not agree with its final form. Later he was an advisory member of the committee of jurists which met at The Hague to devise a plan for the Permanent Court of International Justice. Hio influence on the nature of the plan, which was finally accepted with modifications, was considerable. Next Mr. Root was a delegate to the International Conference on Armament Limitation at Washington in 1921. There he secured the adoption of the convention subjecting submarines to the requirements for surface vessels and prohibiting the nee of poison gas in warfare. He devised the Pacific agreements which resulted in the cancellation of the AngloJapanese alliance and drafted the FourPower Pacific Treaty which took its place. Following this he took part in the revision of the original statutes of The Hague Court. He then bent his energies toward working out a formula upon which the United States might see its way clear to become a member of the court, but these were not destined to be successful, for as recently as 1935 the American Senate failed by seven votes to give the requisite two-thirds majority for joining America to the World Court.