The first meeting of the Hague Conference was called—in Jesus’ name, of course—by the most infamous blood-stained butcher of feeble old men and women and thoughtful, aspiring young men and women, in all the world,—that is, by the Tsar of Russia. The sincerity of this crowned murderer may in some measure be realized by a brief study of his gross inconsistency in the year 1903 and in the years immediately preceding. (See Chapter Six, and Sixth Illustration.) The second meeting of the Society was held in 1907, and another is scheduled for the year 1915. The serene confidence the world’s rulers have in the Society is easily seen in their frantic efforts to increase their armies and navies. They are bleeding their people white with taxes to make the enormously expensive preparations for what is likely to be the most vast and terrible butchering of the working class by the working class that has ever horrified mankind. Secretly the crowned and uncrowned ruling butchers of the world have nothing but contempt for the Conference at The Hague. Very naturally, however, they are all shrewd enough to make a large and beautiful profession of faith and desire for peace through the Conference, while at the same time they all “want for soldiers young men who are not only willing, but anxious to fight.” The man who inaugurated the Conference promptly scorned the Conference when he believed his interests would be served by a war with Japan. The famous French anti-militarist G. Hervé shrewdly pointed out the hopelessly weak place in the “authority” of the capitalist Hague Peace Court:[237] “Governments so far are unanimous in _withdrawing from The Hague Tribunal all questions affecting ‘the honor and vital interests of the country,’_ a convenient formula permitting them to _refuse_ arbitration when they please.” And here is a frank admission: “The Hague Tribunal has nothing compulsory about it; all its members are left in perfect freedom as to whether they submit questions to it or not.... In all treaties hitherto the Great Powers have retained power to withhold submission of questions affecting ‘their honor or vital interest.’”[238] “Honor and vital interests,”—convenient phrase—a matter of business—cash and commerce, “plain dollars and cents,”—under capitalism. It is of interest to note that another peace society, The Peace Society, founded in London in 1816, has been busy for almost a hundred years trying to mop up the blood, so to speak, never daring, or not knowing how, to uncover the fundamental cause of war. In at least some respects a “Conference” of The Hague Peace Society is, itself, hopelessly ridiculous and, in appearance, wickedly insincere. For example, at the “Conference” of 1907 the delegates learnedly and laughably discussed the “Humanizing of War,”[239] and, after much brain-fagging effort, the delegates to the fakirs’ feast duly and heavily concluded as follows: