Moore Out

John Bassett Moore has been the sole U. S. judge to sit on the august bench of the World Court since it was established in 1921. Last week he resigned, although his nine-year term would not have expired until Dec. 13, 1930.

Surprise was not the reaction of well-posted observers. They know that the other judges of the World Court are not filled with gladness when they espy the ruddy, oval face and trim white beard of John Bassett Moore.

His sin against the Court is that he is believed to have drafted the reservations which the U. S. Senate has made indispensable to U. S. adherence to the World Court (TIME, Feb. 8, 1926). Those reservations have proved unacceptable to the World Court Powers. The U. S. remains non-adherent; and Judge Moore is widely believed to be well pleased.

Last week he announced as his reason for resigning that he needs time to complete his great history of arbitration, a work in 75 volumes upon the preparation of which he has already labored for 42 years. Insofar as possible, Judge Moore proposes to include the text of every award, decision and opinion rendered since early Grecian times by those empowered to render an international judgment. Each text will be reproduced in the original language, with an English translation added, where necessary.

Judge Moore is at present 67, but still robust, brisk and apparently untouched by care. A native of Delaware, he studied law, then entered the State Department Service at 25. So evidently potent were his talents that at 31 he was called to the Chair of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia University. Since then he has been recalled to Washington several times to serve as Assistant Secretary of State. In 1913 he was chosen a member of the old Hague Court (The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague) ; and in 1921 he became a judge of the World Court (The Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague).

A successor to serve out the two remaining years of Judge Moore's term will shortly be chosen by the Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations, both voting separately.