J 13 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Carl Becker The League of Nations; a document prepare 3 1924 007 408 101 « Cornell University M Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924007408101 Edited By Henry E. Jackson This book, in spirit and content, treats its subject as if the (Government were submitting the proposed Covenant to the citizens of every local community in the nation for free, non- partisan discussion. It is constructed on this principle in order to stimulate the organization of public meetings and it contains material for their use. Secretary Franklin K. Lane says: "I think your book on the League well worth publication and wide distribution. It carries precisely the right suggestion." Additional copies of this book may be obtained from PRENTICE-HALL, Inc. 70 Fifth Avenue New York Paper-covered copies $ .50 Cloth-bound copies 1.00 Special discounts on quantity orders for societies, schools, churches, commercial organ- izations, and business houses. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS A DOCUMENT PREPARED TO STIMULATE COMMUNITY DISCUSSION AND PROMOTE ORGANIZED PUBLIC OPINION Edited By HENRY E. JACKSON Special Agent in Community Organization, United States Bureau of Education "ITiis must be a people's peace, because this was a people's war. The people won this war, not the Governments, a»d the people must reap the benefits of the war." — Woodrow Wilson. PRENTICE-HALL, Inc. 70 Fifth Ave., New York Copyright, 1919, Bv HENRY E. JACKSON A /J Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS I INTRODUCTORY Preface Government by Discussion An Open Door A Community Porum Difference of Opinion Freedom of Speech Dynamic Words Consulting the People Starting a Precedent Henry E. Jackson Putting First Things First Practical Idealism Mental Hospitality Sportsmanship Subjects for Speeches Looking Before and After Free Trade in Friendship PAGE 7 IS II SUBJECT FOR DEBATE Proposed Covenant for a League OF Nations ....'. By Fourteen Nations An Outline of the Covenant . William H. Short 39 57 The Aim The Covenant The Agencies Gu ding Principles What It Is — Questions and Answers Piuposes Membership Organizations Armaments Disputes Arbitration Action of the Council Reference to the Assembly Limitations Membership Location Amendments Position of the United States Threatening Situations Invasion of Territory Right of Revolution Secret Treaties Monroe Doctrine Mandatories Voting Strength 67 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS What It Is — Questions and Answers Domestic Questions Amendments Enforcement of Findings III EXPLANATIONS The Purpose of the League of Nations (Paris) President Wilson 91 Presentation of the Covenant (Paris) .... . . President WUson 97 Unanimous Report Labor Given New Status League of Simple Structure Treaties Must Be Published Variety of Representation Sympathy in it Vehicle of Life, not Straitjacket Report to America (Boston) . . President WUson 106 Greeting not Personal The Reflex of Time Voices of the Crowd Change in Fighting Men Slowness in Paris The Europe of Today Must Hear all Sides America Hope of the World Seek the United States Liberty True and Ideal Report to Friendly Nation World Force to Guarantee Peace Pride in the U. S. Soldier Glad to Speak U. S. The Sentiment of America (New York) . . President Wilson 11b Not a Party Issue World Looking to the U. S. Conviction Felt by All Puzzle in Some Criticism Right of Every Member Nation Washington's Words Interpreted Demanded by the People Confidence in the Future No Stemming the Tide An Incident in Italy Statement of Changes Made (Paris). . . President Wilson 120 Alterations Made Domestic Jurisdiction Provision or Neutrals Provision for Amendment Unanimity of Voting Secretary-General Proposed TABLE OF CONTENTS IV A NEW ORDER OF THINGS PAGB The Charter of International Freedom President Wilson 137 The Practice of the Charter's Principles President Wilson 140 The Claims of Italy Forts will be Razed A Satisfactory Solution Arms to be Limited Austria-Hungary Gone Italian Unity Restored Peace Principles Accepted America Italy's Friend Small States Need Fiume Fought for by America V FOUR POINTS OF VIEW Accept the Best You Can Get . George Washington 147 How to Treat a Constitution . Benjamin Franklin 148 The League of Nations .... Thomas Paine 150 America in the World John Dewey 153 VI SEEING IT FACE TO FACE A Dialogue Edwin Bjorkman 159 VII LEST WE FORGET The Debate on our Constitution William E. Barton i6g VIII THE NEW PATRIOTISM International Sympathy Mazzini 179 Removing the Causes of War .... Carlyle 181 The Need of Intelligence Ruskin 182 The Present Crisis Lowell 184 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." Abraham Lincoln. PREFACE This book was prepared to stimulate the intelligent practice of citizenship in regard to a question of paramount national importance. Apart from the formation of the Federal Union in 1789 and the preservation of the Union in i860, the most important question ever submitted to the American people is the pro- posed Covenant for a League of Nations. Just as once to Americans of the eighteenth century was given the pioneer privilege of forming their own government, so now to Amer- icans of the twentieth century is given the enlarged pioneer privilege of sharing in the construction of a new world order. The performance of such a task is the kind of opportunity which knocks but once at a nation's door. This opportunity is big with consequences for human wel- fare. Whether the proposed covenant is accepted or rejected, the influence of America's action will be profound and far- reaching. It becomes every citizen's bounden duty to ac- quaint himself with the issues involved. He should work with unstinted zest and unremitting toil to assist his fellow citizens to understand them. He should help his community through public discussion to organize and make effective its public opinion. This can best be accomplished through com- munity meetings for free, orderly discussion. This book is written both to stimulate the organization of public meetings for full and free discussion and to serve as an illustration of the kind of document, which the Govern- ment might fittingly issue directly to local communities — not only to inform the people but also to ascertain their opinion on proposed policies of national importance. The great debate now in progress on The League of Na- 8 PREFACE tions affords a rarely good opportunity to suggest that such a precedent be started, because it is a vital nonpartisan ques- tion of world politics, in which all have a deep personal inter- est. The Government is a corporation; the citizens are its members and stockholders. It is the right of citizens to expect that their officials will report to them not only what has been done, but consult them with reference to what is proposed to be done about matters of vital importance. The unfortunate and inexcusable injection of professional politics into this question would make it unsafe for the Government at present to issue any bulletin on it. For three centuries the question of A League of Nations has been debated, but as soon as the question became The League of Nations, wide difference of opinion arose. There has been and is now general agreement as to the desired goal, but the proposal of a concrete road to it at once produces disagree- ment. The Government alone has the facilities for reaching all the people of the nation with accurate information on public questions. Until public machinery becomes more available for the people's use, it is necessary to use private agencies to assist citizens to inform themselves in regard to their most vital concerns. It will no doubt be a continued neces- sity to use volunteer agencies to do pioneer and creative work, but we should parallel this use with a constant effort to raise the low and slowly rising common denominator of public action. To assist in raising this common denominator, this book is constructed on the distinctive idea that the Govern- ment might be issuing it; and it treats the proposed Cove- nant just as if the Government were submitting it to local community meetings for consideration. All the material in the book is consistent with this formative idea. It contains the President's addresses explaining the Cotc- PREFACE 9 nant, and three other addresses representing constructive points of view in approaching the debate. An analytical out- line of the Covenant is included, in order to emphasize the im- portance of reading the document itself and understanding its provisions before discussing its merits or demerits, so tliat arguments may be based on facts rather than on hearsay. This outliHe first states the purpose of the League and second the instrument for realizing it. The psychological value of this approach is very great. It avoids confusion over the machinery. It is always wise to get the goal clear before one considers the road to it. Unless we determine where we want to go, it is useless to take steps for getting there. For the sake of clearness this outline is followed by a statement, constructed on a different principle, which aims to make the facts clear by questions and answers. The clear statement of a case often makes further argument unnecessary. In order that the people may not be unduly disturbed or discouraged by the discussion, if it should be prolonged, an article has been included to remind them of the experience our cotmtry passed through when our Federal Constitution was debated and adopted. There are several brief quotations setting forth the nature of the New Patriotism, for which the League of Nations stands, in order to indicate that it can no longer be limited and selfish but must be cosmopolitan in its sympathies. For the same reason a dialogue has been included to set forth the inner meaning of the Covenant and to indicate that it is a human document. These also furnish a perspective to illuminate the discussion, and to emphasize the fact that the question is in no sense partisan, but relates to international politics, having no logical connection vrith local partisan disputes in any one nation. The transition from one epoch to another has usually been «o gradual that those passing through the change were only aimly conscious of it. But now the new epoch is clearly lo PREFACE defined from its predecessor as if cut off from it by a stroke of lightning. Almost all are vividly conscious that a new epoch has begun and that they are living in a new world and that the new epoch calls for a new spirit and for new measures. It is a new kind of patriotism. If the precedent here suggested for a simple referendum to the people is ever to become an established custom of the Government, the one thing needful is to eliminate partisan spirit from the discussion of public questions and the fear of it from governmental departments. Partisanship is the arch enemy of the common welfare. Local communities should guard against this enemy in the conduct of their discussion meetings, for there is no limit to the strange things partisan- ship will do. The absurdity to which partisanship may lead its victims, is illustrated by an editorial written on Lincoln's Gettysburg speech by one of our newspapers, November 24, 1863. It said : "The President succeeded on this occasion because he acted without sense and without constraint in a panorama that was gotten up more for the benefit of his party than for the glory of the Nation and the honor of the dead. We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation, we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of." The place of honor which these "silly re- marks" now occupy in the thought of the world makes this partisan comment both humorous and tragic. Human nature seems endowed with an inveterate inability to escape from slavery to partisan spirit. The publication of any helpful document on a vital question is certain to run counter to it. The question is. To what extent should govern- mental departments be dominated by fear of this ancient enemy ? That they are now so dominated to the point of dis- tress is obvious to all. Unless the Government increasingly acquires the courage to disregard this enemy, it will never be PREFACE II able to publish any document on vital questions, because there is no treatment of a question of this sort which may not be objected to, if seen through partisan eyes. It is only too probable that if the Government should at- tempt to issue a document like this one, there are some who would regard it as partisan propaganda. It is a highly signifi- cant fact that it is impossible to state the nature, purpose, and spirit of the League of Nations' covenant without the state- ment seeming as if it were an argument in its favor. The same would be true of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. The Covenant, like them, is a human document. It likewise contains axiomatic moral ideals. To state them without seeming to praise them is difficult. What happens is that they speak for themselves. Special pleading is unneces- sary. They need only clear statement. When the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship equips more of us with the capacity to differ in opinion without differing in feeling it will be possible to debate even so vital a question as the League of Nations' covenant with openmindedness and to raise the common denominator of public activity. To be effective, any form of community organization among nations requires three things: — a belief in its possi- bility, an instrument to operate it, and a spirit to support it. Inasmuch as the proposed covenant is not a dead mechanical tool but a living process, it will be what the people make it Therefore, it is hoped that this book will be of service not only during the great debate preceding its ratification but that it will also assist in the creation of an intelligent public opinion and the kind of spirit necessary to maintain it in effective operation after its ratification. Henry E. Jackson. Washington, D. C, June 23rd, 1919. "It would be useful, and indeed, it is almost necessary, that certain Congresses of Christian Powers should be held, in which the controversies which arise among some of them may be decided by others who are not interested; and in which measures may be taken to compel the parties to accept peace oi) equitable terms. There are two ways of ending a dis- pute, — discussion and force ; the latter manner is simply that of brute beasts, the former is proper to beings gifted with reason; it is permitted then to recur to violence only when reason is powerless." Grotius. "All free governments, ■whatever their name, are in reality governments by pub- lic opinion; and it is on the quality of this public opinion that their prosperity de- pends." — Lowell GOVERNMENT BY DISCUSSION? BY HENRY E. JACKSON THE FORUM * Make wide the doorway of the school Around whose sill the millions wait, The cradle of the common rule, The forum of a stronger state. Make broad the bar, and bid appear The questions clamorous to be tried, And let the final judges hear, Themselves, the causes they decide. Write bold the text for age to read The lesson not discerned bv vouth; And raise the altar of a creed Whose only article is Truth. Though fair and dear the ancient mold Wherein the burning thought was cast, Pour not the New World's glowing gold Into the patterns of the past. Whatever channels lead apart The currents of the lives of men, The blood that left the Common Heart Shall leap with common pulse again. Wendell Phillips Stafford * Note — Introducing the sections will be found an occasional poem, appro- priate to the Eubject of the section. It was a wise remark of Aristotle that "Poetry is more serious and more philosophical than History." History is the ordered record of facts. Poetry is the statement of their inner meaning in con- crete form. Unless the inner meaning of the proposed Covenant is perceived, it cannot be said to be understood at all, and since poets are the most practical and accurate interpreters of it, their point of view should be given special weight in its consideration. They are the "unrecognized legislators of the world." GOVERNMENT BY DISCUSSION AN OPEN DOOR The victory for the freedom of the world was won by a temporary league of twenty-one nations. It was an in- spiring exhibition of international cooperation. The achieve- ment of freedom was no small task, but it is a far more com- plex task to know what to do with it ; to know how to put it into operation. This is the present problem confronting the world. For our avowed aim was not only to win the war, but to win the war for justice and democracy. Our goal was not only a military victory, but a political triumph. It is still possible, therefore, to lose the war. "The morrow of victory," Mazzini said, "is more perilous than its eve." Un- less it issue in a political triumph, much of our effort will be labor lost. The expenditure of untold treasures of ma- terial and man-power will find compensation only in the progressive triumph of the cause for which the expenditure was made. It is therefore more than a problem which the world now faces ; it is an opportunity. To consider the problem in terms of opportunity is the key to its wise solution. To realize that this is a day of golden opportunity for the cause of democ- racy is statesmanlike. It is a fact of singular significance that now, for the first time in history, all the people of the world are thinking of the same thing at the same time. It is the psychological crisis for utilizing the organized opinion of mankind in behalf of the common welfare of all nations. It is an open door of opportunity. The time to go through an open door is while the door is open. 16 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Likewise this is the first time in history when the people have been invited to take part in the discussion of a peace treaty. "A decent respect for the opinions of mankind," is no longer an expressed hope, but a practiced policy. The day of open diplomacy is here. Governments do not now expect to survive except by winning the people's approba- tion. Will the people enter this open door ? In order to stimulate them to do so, every local community in the nation should hold a series of nonpartisan meetings for the free and orderly discussion of the proposed League of Nations. Such com- munity discussion meetings will stimulate the intelligent prac- tice of citizenship, make public opinion more enlightened and effective, and make every community cosmopolitan. The people have the chance to render a conspicuous service to themselves by playing their rightful part in world politics. The issue now submitted to America is the people's business. The opportunity is theirs. Responsibility for failure to measure up to it is also theirs. Lincoln once stated this fact in a picturesque and impres- sive figure of speech. "I cannot," he said, "run the political machine ; I have enough on my hands without that. It is the people's business — the election is in their hands. If they turn their backs to the fire and get scorched in the rear, they'll find they have to sit on the blister." It is true that development through self-activity involves the right to learn by making mistakes. But the issue now before the nation is so big with consequences for itself and the world that the people cannot afford to make a mistake. The teaching value of such a mistake would be great but the price paid would be too high. The effective safeguard against mistaken decisions is free public discussion, in which citizens go to school to each other and test their mental proc- esses by serious, honest debate. The value of a public dis- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 17 cussion meeting in every community during the present crisis cannot be overestimated. A COMMUNITY FORUM If a visitor had gone to Athens in the days of Socrates when its unique civic spirit was most creative, the center of interest for him would have been a small ellipse called the Agora. It was the Market Place. It was also the parlor of Athens or place of conversation. Notwithstanding the not- able works of art and celebrated buildings bordering on the Agora, the visitor's particular interest centered in its western end, where stood a hill called Pnyx, the Place of Assemblies. Cut out of the solid rock was a theater open to the sky, large enough to seat six thousand citizens. The speaker's stand or Bema was a portion of the native rock and so placed that to ascend it a speaker must step forth from the body of citi- zens as from among his equals. While speaking he wore a laurel wreath on his brow, to indicate that for the time being he was the teacher of his fellows. He spoke as long as the audience permitted, a good rule for regulating the length of speeches. When he resumed his seat another citizen took the stand and accepted the laurel wreath. Thus the citizens went to school to each other. This was an ideal Community Forum, the soul of the Athenian Republic, and is the reason why Athens was able to put every succeeding century in her debt. The name of the place where the assembly was held, Pnyx, means a fist, be- cause a fist is formed by the assembling of the fingers. The Forum likewise enabled the citizens to operate with the im- pact of concerted action. It should be carefully noted that the primary purpose of the discussion was not entertain- ment, although it was highly entertaining ; nor was it merely for information, although knowledge was an essential factor ; but its chief purpose was action. It was responsible discus- 18 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS sion, that is, it was discussion by citizens on whom rested the responsibility of voting on the questions discussed. It is the estabUshment of this type of model forum in every district of the United States which the Bureau of Education seeks to promote as the chief activity of community centers. The proposed League of Nations furnishes an unprecedented opportunity to stimulate their establishment, because the whole nation is thinking about it and because it vitally con- cerns the personal interest of every citizen. That its discus- sion should be promoted by the community center movement is organically fitting. The heart of the task of the Peace Commissioners at Paris is to devise a plan by which the larger communities called nations may work together as allies rather than contend with each other as rivals. This is identical with the aim of a community center in every local community. It is to induce the various groups and classes to minimize their differences and accentuate their resemblances, to learn to cooperate on the basis of their common interests. The forum furnishes the means for mutual understanding. It aims to create public-mindedness. Inasmuch as the right to vote on public policies is now in the hands of the average man and some average women, it is of paramount importance that they should be given the opportunity to make themselves fit to perform this function intelligently. The forum is a school for freemen's citizenship. If public discussion of the League of Nations is to issue in good results with reference to this question, and help to establish community forums permanently for the discussion of similar important questions in the future, it is essential that communities understand clearly the principles which should guide such discussions in a democratic country. DIFFERENCE OF OPINION The first principle to note is that a forum is organized on the basis not of agreement but of diflference. We meet for THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 19 discussion not because we agree but because we differ. It would be a stupid and monotonous world if we all thought alike, just as it would be if our faces, forms and pursuits were all strictly uniform. The aim of the forum is not to secure uniformity but unity. When citizens meet for discus- sion they do not promise to agree with each other but to make an honest attempt to understand each other. It is a parlia- ment of the people for mutual understanding. "It is neces- sary," said President Wilson, "that simple means should be found, by which by an interchange of points of view we may get together. For the whole process of modern life, the whole process of modem politics is a process by which we must exclude misunderstandings, bring all men into com- mon council and so discover what is the common interest." The aim of the forum is to discover, organize and thereby make effective the common opinion. "There are only two ways to govern a community," said Lord Macaulay: "One is by the sword; the other is by public opinion." Public opinion is made effective for control by discussion. We need have no particular desire that other men agree with anything we say, but we ought most earnestly to desire that they should begin to think. Honest thinking is the straight road to the truth. If mutual understanding is ever to be secured among the citizens of any community there is one habit they must resolutely learn to acquire. They must learn to differ in opinion without differing in feeling. The inveterate inability of some men to learn how to differ in opinion without differ- ing in feeling undoubtedly constitutes a serious difficulty, but there is no possible way to acquire the habit except through practice. FREEDOM OF SPEECH If public opinion is to be discovered and made effective for the common welfare, the prime requirement is not only 20 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS freedom of thought but also freedom in its expression. Free- dom of thought we all have of course. No one can interfere with it. Any man can think what he pleases. But freedom of thought has very little social value unless there is also freedom in expression. This means that in a community forum there should be no censorship on anything that is said. There is no freedom of speech unless it is complete. The right to express right ideas involves the right to express wrong ones. They are like the two sides of a shield. It is not possible to have a shield with only one side. There can be no relief for human suf- fering except veracity of thought and optimism honest enough to face things as they are. The men who are afraid of open discussion and attempt to suppress opinions contrary to their own, reveal thereby an utter lack of faith in the worth of their own opinions. They are lacking both in courage and patriotism. Th^ are out of harmony with American ideals. This policy manifestly involves a danger. If there is no censorship on anything that shall be said, there are some who will express ideas harmful to the common welfare. It is dangerous to permit them expression, but it is more danger- ous not to. All that mental, as well as physical, diseases need for their cure is exposure to the fresh air and sunlight. It is safer that such ideas be expressed in the open where there is a chance to expose their error. Thomas Jefferson once stated the antidote to this danger so adequately that it can hardly be improved. He said, "Error of opinion may be tolerated if reason is free to combat it." Moreover, the majority of citizens by extending the courtesy to members of the minority to say whatever is on their minds, have by this means an opportunity, not otherwise possible, to win them to their cause. If a minority is able to win over the majority it deserves to have the chance. If there be any one still unconvinced of the wisdom of THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 81 free and uncensored discussion, he should read Walter Bagehot's remarkable book, "Physics and Politics,"— the chapter called "Government by Discussion," in which he shows how such discussion puts a premium on intelligence, liberates a community from useless customs, puts a check on hasty action, secures united approval for measures proposed, creates a spirit of tolerance, promotes cooperatioti, and best and hardest of all, equips citizens with the ability to differ in opinion without differing in feeling. DYNAMIC WORDS If community meetings are to be inaugurated with any degree of enthusiasm for the discussion of the League of Nations as well as other questions, the third principle which should be kept clear is that while the forum is only a talk meeting, yet talk is one of the most creative and dynamic factors in public affairs. A speech may be as great as a battle, and greater. Speech is a distinguishing characteristic of man, and the greatest things that get done in the world are done by words. All great movements begin in talk. It is a common and careless habit to emphasize the im- portance of a deed by disparaging the importance of talk, forgetting that deeds and words constitute one piece of goods. "The great impediment to action in our opinion," said Pericles, "is not discussion but the want of that knowl- edge which is gained by discussion preparatory to action." The men who have most profoundly affected the course of history, men like Confucius, Jesus, and Lincoln, were all great talkers. Their weapon was an idea. The instrument they used to convey it was a living and dynamic word. In Lincoln's memorable speech at Gettysburg his modesty led him to make one profound mistake. He said that the words he uttered there would not be long remembered, whereas the fact is that the words he uttered then seem 28 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS destined to outlive the memory of the battle. His great words are being cast in bronze, and hung in innumerable public buildings. Indeed, it is not improbable that the time may come when it will be necessary to subjoin a footnote to this speech, in order to inform the people concerning the name of the battlefield on which it was uttered. If, therefore, com- munities are to respond to the urgent plea here made that they organize meetings for the discussion of the League of Nations, as well as permanently for the discussion of other questions, they should realize that talk is a profoundly im- portant process in a democratic nation. Local communities will discover, what the whole world is now discovering, that public opinion created by public dis- cussion is the most effective of all weapons for good. Wil- liam Ladd, a great American pioneer for international organi- zation, assigned to public opinion a unique place when he said, "I consider the Congress as the legislature, and the Court as the judiciary in the government of nations, leaving the func- tion of the executive with public opinion, 'the queen of the world.' " President Wilson, with true insight and statesman- ship, perceives that the most potent new provision in the Covenant of the League will no doubt prove to be the oppor- tunity it affords this "queen of the world" to operate. He sees clearly that an international forum is the hope of per- manent peace. He says: "It is one of the agreements of this Covenant that it is the friendly right of every nation a member of the League to call attention to anything that it thinks will disturb the peace of the world, no matter where that thing is occurring. There is no subject that may touch the peace of the world which is exempt from inquiry and discussion. One of the things that the League of Nations is intended to watch is the course of intrigue. Intrigue can not stand publicity, and if the League of Nations were nothing but a great debating so- ciety it would kill intrifiiie." THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 28 Thomas "Paine, our first Secretary of State, elected in 1 777 as the Secretary of the "Committee of Foreign Affairs," and a pioneer worker for international peace, indicated how well he, too, understood that armed force is no match for an idea, when he said: "An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers can not; it will succeed where diplomatic manage- ment would fail; it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the Ocean that can arrest its progress ; it will march on the horizon of the world, and it will conquer." CONSULTING THE PEOPLE If local communities throughout the nation should hold public meetings to discuss the proposed Covenant, two dis- tinct and closely related purposes would be accomplished: First, it would enable the United States Government to ascer- tain the opinion of the people on a policy of paramount na- tional importance ; second, it would stimulate local communi- ties to form the habit of public discussion on questions of common interest, concerning which they must take some action. It is essential that a clear distinction be made between this kind of a question and an ordinary question for debate. With this distinction in mind it becomes obvious why the Government, if it should submit such a question to the people, should not submit arguments against the proposal it was submitting for approval. It is quite true that in preparing questions for debate, the natural and proper thing is to suggest arguments and refer- ence material on both sides. But the question here submitted does not belong to this class; it is quite different. It is not only a debate but a report concerning which some action must be taken. The issue at stake is not the merits of the debaters, but the merit of the question; not who won the 24 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS debate, but ought we to accept or reject die' League of Nations. It is like this : A society appoints a committee to prepare and recommend a plan of procedure to meet a concrete need. Wbai the committee i^eports, it not only submits its plan but also states the arguments in favor of it and the reasons why it is recommended for adoption. The members of the society to whom the report is made, have a perfect right to criticize it, and point out its defects, but it is the committee's business to state only the reasons for their recommendations. If it cannot do this it ought to retire and do its work over again. It would he nothing short of ridicuk>us if a committee recom- mended a plan in which it did not believe, or pointed out defects which cancelled its own recommendations. The United States delegates to the Paris Peace Conference c;are in the position of such a committee. They are submitting -,i'to the American people a Covenant for a League of Nations -which they helped to draft and which they recommend for adoption. Their speeches in explanation and support of •, their own wcfrk constitute therefore a part of their report. It is ffor the people to pass judgment, both on the Covenant i.and'on their arguments in its favor. iln submitting the question, therefore, the approach to it Tias been wholly from the constructive standpoint. All the documents — the one containing the proposed plan and thoje stating its meaning and purpose — should be regarded as one piece of goods, and together as constituting the question for debate. In the discussion of any question the affirmative side ought to have the right of way and be heard Erst. STARTIIfG A PRECEDENT Our nation is like a corporation — all citizens are meaibers of it. The officials are the people's servants to execute their will. It is the people's national right to reauire their aiScials THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 36 to report to them concerning their business activities and con- suh with them concerning important new policies. The Got- emment now relies on departmental bulletins and the public press. But information thus conveyed usually never reaches the people, or only a small portion of them, and frequently it is inaccurate and inadequate. The more effective method is the one employed in France during the war. A weekly communication was sent from the government in Paris to every schoolhouse in that country. The people of each local community met to hear it read and to discuss its contents. This is one of the chief reasons why the morale of the French people was maintained on such a high level. It would help to create and maintain the national morale, if the Federal Government were to send from Washmgton directly to every local community an occasional communica- tion on questions of national importance. It is hoped that the suggestion here made may help to start a precedent, which will establish a point of contact between Washington and the people. There is at present a general distrust of representative government, a growing conviction that it has ceased to be representative. The plan here proposed would at least assist representative government to function better and help to restore the people's confidence in it. The thing needed is a direct line of communication and points of contact between Washington and every local com- munity. One half of the line is already established. It is hoped the people will use it. Every local community which holds a meeting or a series of meetings on the League of Nations is urged to ascertain the sentiment of the people by an informal vote, and to convey this information to both of the Senators from their State. To operate the line of communication in the opposite direction will serve to inform the people, secure their cooperation and ascertain their wishes OS Dublic Questions. It will assist to put democracy 26 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS into operation. If Washington is to be wisely guided, the town meeting must be made to function. For "In the town meeting," said Emerson, "the great secret of poHtical science was uncovered and the problem solved how to give every individual his fair weight in the government." PUTTING FIRST THINGS FIRST If this process is to have constructive value there are cer- tain fundamental principles which should guide community meetings for the discussion of the League of Nations, as well as other similar questions. The first of these principles is that the question should be approached from the positive, not the negative, side, to consider first the reasons for it, not the reasons against it. Every big question has two sides, and it is easy enough to prepare a brief in support of either side. The story is told of a noted paintfer that once he exhibited in the public square of his village one of his paintings, and put on it a sign with the request that if any one saw a defect in it he stick a pin in the picture where he thought the defect was. When the next day he came to examine the picture he found it was full of pins. He was brokenhearted. A friend told him he had blundered in stating his request, and suggested that he exhibit the picture again with the request that, if any one saw a merit, he stick a pin where he thought the merit was. When the next day he came the picture was just as full of pins as it had been before. People not only see what they are looking for, but most things are so complex and imperfect that the two sets of facts are there to be seen. While freely admitting that all big questions have two sides, it is obviously wise to consider the positive side first. No man earns the right to criticise negatively any proposed plan unless he has something better to substitute for the thing he condemns. To be merely an anti is to be worse than futile. A citizen who desires to help THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 27 his country ought always to be for something and not against something, whenever it is possible. The man who is for something has two chances, (i) to get what he wants, (2) to get nothing. The man who is against something has two chances, (i) to get what he does not want, (2) to get noth- ing. The most that he hopes for is the worst that can hap- pen to the other fellow. While this principle applies to the consideration of all pub- lic questions, its application to the League of Nations is par- ticularly pertinent. For the situation offers no opportunity now to correct defects in the Covenant, or to have sug- gested improvements embodied. If such opportunity were given to one nation it would have to be given to all the na- tions considering it. If given to all of them the process would be endless and would guarantee the defeat of the plan. Therefore the question can only be considered as a whole. The Covenant must be either accepted or rejected as it stands. The issue to be decided is whether or not it has suf- ficient .merit to justify the United States in ratifying it. PRACTICAL IDEALISM The next principle, therefore, to bear in mind is this: if we can't get the best let us get the best we can. In the work of social engineering, where community problems are always complex, it is necessary to proceed on the law of accommodation. Some think the Covenant goes too far; others that it does not go far enough. The same condition existed among the men who framed it. In view of this fact it is obvious that compromise was necessary. In debating the League of Nations, therefore, it is essen- tial to remember that if we want to get anywhere we must start from where we are ; we must consider what is humanly possible. We must know not only the goal but also the road to it. We must be practical idealists. This is the law of all 2« THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS improvement. It is important to distinguish between the beauty of growth and the beauty of perfection. Granted that the Covenant is not perfection, does it present the chance to grow towards it? Is it like our Federal Constitution in this respect? Gladstone pronounced our Federal Consti- tution the most perfect document ever struck off from the mind of man ; and yet within four years of its adoption there were ten amendments of a fundamental nature. Is the Covenant of the League of Nations likewise a step in ad- vance? Friends of the League maintain that if it is only "half a league," still it is "half a league onward." As an illustration of the principle of practical idealism, the League of Free Nations Association, a friendly but frank critic of the proposed Covenant, makes in its working plat- form these two statements: (i) "that the Covenant drafted at I^ris is not perfect, failing in particular to go far enough toward securing the popular control of the proposed League so often emphasized by President Wilson in his references to that body, but that it represents a beginning of such prom- ise that its rejection cannot be held warranted under any cir- cumstances"; (2) "that amendments to the draft providing for democratic representation, for increase of membership of Executive Council without amendment of the Covenant, for admission of Germany and Russia on establishment of stable democratic governments, for making all proceedings public, and for rendering amendments easier, are to be pressed while hope of their acceptance remains, but that such action must not be allowed to endanger the Covenant as a whole." This is the principle Lincoln applied in the policy of recon- struction he had begun. Although he was bitterly criticised for it, he defended it in the last speech he ever made. "Con- cede," he said, "that the new government (Louisiana) is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl ; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it." THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 29 Lincoln understood that the development of public-minded- ness is a slow and difficult task ; that democracy, like liberty, is not an accomplishment but a growth, not an act but a process. MENTAL HOSPITALITY The next principle, therefore, is that there is no possibility of growth without mental hospitality to new ideas. The League of Nations is a new idea, or rather the definite pro- posal to put it into operation is new. Five or six similar projects have been before the world for the past three cen- turies. But the tragic necessities of the war have compelled nations to take some action on the proposal out of self- protection. But the proposal does involve a change in America's traditional national policy. It ushers her into world politics. More accurately it is a proposal to confirm what has already happened, for America is now taking part in world politics. Her citizen-soldiers are now in Europe. No proposal should be condemned because it is new, nor accepted because it is old, but considered on its inerits. Be- cause, however, human nature seems to be handicapped with a persistent tendency to resist new ideas just because they are new, a conscious effort is universally needed to acquire and retain the habit of open-mindedness. This is why every great leader of the world's thought and action has insisted on its indispensable importance. Confucius expressed it in the golden phrase "mental hospitality." Socrates used a phrase out of which was coined the word "philosopher." He said, "I am not a wise man ; I am a lover of wisdom, a seeker after new ideas." Jesus called it "the spirit of truth," and went so far as to say that the lack of an open mind is the unpardonable sin. The reason why these masterful leaders of men so prized open-mindedness is because without it they believed no progress is possible. The question of importance raised by the League of Na- 80 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS tions, therefore, is not whether the proposed policy is new but whether America's lack of self-sufficiency makes it neces- sary to adopt the new policy; whether the interdependence of nations produced by modern means of communication and other causes is such as to make some kind of working agreement necessary; not whether America ought to enter into such an arrangement, but whether she can stay out of it ; whether world events have not in fact terminated her Robin- son Crusoe type of existence. For an honest and fruitful debate on this question a mind open to new ideas is an essen- tial equipment. SPORTSMANSHIP To approach the question with an open mind will open the way for the application of the next principle which is indis- pensable to profitable public debate. It is the spirit of sports- manship. This means a free field and no favors; it means the capacity for concerted action; the willingness to play fair ; the refusal to use tricks in order to win ; it means that one will not get mad and will not get scared ; it means cour- tesy to opponents. Oliver Wendell Holmes' definition of sportsmanship is, "To brag little, to show up well, to crow gently when in luck, to own up, to pay up, to .shut up when beaten." The spirit of sportsmanship is characteristic of Ameri- cans. We learned it in the process of forming a league among thirteen separate colonies and welding them into one nation. We acquired it as a confirmed national habit through our national game. The spiritual value of baseball to Amer- ica's experiment in democracy cannot be overestimated. Without the spirit of sportsmanship it is impossible to oper- ate a democratic form of government successfully. It is this American spirit which makes the free and un- censored debate of our public policies not only safe but essential to our national health. The spirit will atrophy and THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 8\ die through disuse. Qosely allied with sportsmanship is the sense of humor. Humor is necessary not only to make a debate enjoyable but to give it moral sanity. Humor gives one a sense of proportion, a sense of relative values, the ability to distinguish between the big and the little. Local communities need little suggestion as to the details of arranging for community discussion meetings. But they need to be reminded that the spirit of sportsmanship requires that in a community forum an opportunity should always be given for questions and the expression of opinion. Every citizen should be made to feel that he is at liberty to express what is on his mind, and be assured of a respectful hearing. For this reason too great care cannot be used in the selection of a chairman. He can make or break a meeting by the kind of atmosphere he creates for it. Assuming that he has an intelligent interest in the subject, the two chief characteristics of a good chairman are fairmindedness and a sense of humor. SUBJECTS FOR SPEECHES In arranging a meeting it is wise to secure one or two speakers who will present some phase of the subject, and then give the time to general questions and open discussion. It may be well to import some outside speakers, but in most communities there are men and women amply qualified to discuss the subject illuminatingly. Fortunately, the Covenant of the proposed League was written in simple and untechnical language. It was composed with the intention that it be understood by the average peo- ple of all nations. The subject is more than big enough for a series of six meetings. In this case each meeting should be limited to the consideration of a single phase of it for the sake of clearness. In Montclair, N. J., a series of five meetings were held during one week. Each night the Covenant was consid- ered from a special angle. "The Economist's Point of .12 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS View"; "The Business Man's Point of View"; "Woman's Point of View"; "Labor's Point of View"; "Statesman's Point of View." A still better way, it is believed, is to treat it not from the standpoint of special and class interests, but from the standpoint of the merits of the proposed League itself and its bearing on the honor and welfare of America, in which all classes have a mutual interest. The subject could be treated in this manner by considering the following topics, each in the form of a question and each approaching the sub- ject from the positive side : 1. Does America's lack of self-sufficiency necessitate some kind of working agreement like that proposed by this Covenant ? 2. Does the League of Nations provide the tool by which peace can be progressively administered, especially while disorganized nations are being established? 3. Does the Covenant remove a sufficient number of the causes of war to warrant the hope that war will be less probable in the future? 4. Does the Covenant create a good working balance between the two proposed aims : (a) How to secure a strong concert of action among the nations; (b) How to preserve freedom of action on the part of individual nations ? 5. Does the Covenant provide for the extension and ap- plication of the Monroe Doctrine, in its original mean- ing, to the nations of the world? 6. Does not this Covenant, by requiring enforced public discussion of the causes of international dispute, estab- lish a new custom of such capital importance as to fur- nish in, itself a sufficient reason for its ratification? 7. Does the Covenant offer America the opportunity to stand on her duties as a member of the family of THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 33 nations rather than on her rights as an individual na- tion? A still further advantage in this treatment is that it will assist citizens to make progress in reaching a conclusion. If they think the answer to these questions should be "yes," then they will work for the ratification of the Covenant. Other- wise they will work against it. It is the kind of a question on which it is necessary to take sides. America has to do something about it. For a series of four meetings, a very good list of similar questions would be four main divisions of the Covenant for the League itself — (i) its aims, (2) its organization, (3) its instrumentalities, (4) its covenant. Whatever arrangement is made for the discussion, it is hoped that every community will realize that next to tile adoption of our own constitution, this is the most vitally important question America has had to debate and decide, and that every community will do itself honor in taking part in the debate, discussing the question with fair play and good will, and making its influence felt in the decision. LOOKING BEFORE AND AFTER From whatever various aspects the question may be de- bated, there is one point of view which ought to have a dominant influence over the entire discussion of every big public question, if the question is to be fairly and adequately treated and a sound conclusion reached. It ought to be con- sidered with a long look into the future, treated in the light of its ultimate effect, viewed as the men of a generation hence would view it. To turn such a perspective on the League of Nations is not to indulge in idle prophecy — it is merely to apply to it the scientific law of cause and effect. It is obvious that in every to-day walks a to-morrow, and therefore no pro- posed action of to-day is wisely considered except in the 34 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS light of its bearing on to-morrow. This process liberates one from the limitation and tyranny of the present and the malady of self-interest. Such a perspective can be secured in a variety of ways. What effect would the adoption or rejection of a League of Nations have on our present and unborn children ? Would the world be better or worse for them to live in ? When all legislation is considered from the standpoint of its effect on the welfare of children it is sure to be wiser legislation. A child is the ground floor of life. Consideration of public measures from this angle eliminates from it the blight, which comes from adult prejudice and selfishness. For example, what effect will the adoption or rejection of the League of Nations have on America's mission to the world ? Would it help or hinder the purpose to which Amer- ica was dedicated at her birth? Would it help or hinder the ideals that have guided the country from its discovery until now? The discovery of America opened a new road to freedom. Is it our task to keep the road open only for our- selves, or to assist other nations to enjoy a like road? Is it possible indeed to keep this road open for ourselves unless we open it for other nations also ? For example again : the true value of anything can only be discussed when we regard it from the standpoint of its real or supposed absence. The proposed League of Nations cannot be adequately treated unless we consider the probable effect of rejecting the project. We know what the effect has been for many centuries without it. The experience of the past ought to be some guide to the future. What will be the probable effect, in the light of present conditions, if we decide to reject it now? Mr. Philip Gibbs, a British war correspondent, took a statesmanlike look into the future, when he considered the Covenant and its effects. He said : — "What will happen if the League is not established with the impulse of the world's democracy behind it, is as clear THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 35 as sunlight to discerning minds which are in touch with popu- lar passion born out of the sufferings of the war. What will happen is the wild revolt of many peoples against their estab- lished forms of government in the mad hope that by anarchy they may gain freedom of their souls and bodies and of their unborn children to enjoy the fruits of labor in larger measure than now, and in safety against the devastating terrors of modem warfare. "The alternative to a League of Nations, democratic in its foundations, and powerful by the understanding and faith of peoples — machinery from above will be of no avail — is Bolshevism. For Bolshevism is the revolt of the mob against leaders who have betrayed it, and against classes who have resisted a new philosophy of life which seeks to replace the fetish- worship of old cruelties by wider brotherhood. It is the madness of mobs, driven to insanity by despair and fear. I have heard the mutterings of that menace in Europe, not only in Germany where the dragon has raised its head, but also in England where it is beginning to stir. America has the supreme chance of any power in the world to-day be- cause she is looked upon by the peoples of Eturope as a fair, unselfish, and democratic arbitrator, aloof from their rival- ries, and untainted by the disease which infected their civ- ilization. American people that I have met do not realize this immense power of their mission, nor do they understand that to the European masses, when President Wilson speaks, he speaks, in their belief, for America herself. Over here, in New York, many people repudiate the assertion that the President speaks for America, and say that he has no au- thority behind him. If that is so and Mr. Wilson fails and falls, America may lose this great chance in the history of mankind; and, in any case, if, with President Wilson or without him, the League of Nations fails, then the world will, in my belief, crash into the gulfs of widespread an- 86 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS archy." Statements like this one will stimulate communities to look before and after in their discussion of the question. FREETRADE IN FRIENDSHIP All the principles here suggested for the guidance of the discussion on the League of Nations apply equally well to the discussion of any other public policy. If the citizens of any community conduct their discussion in the light of these principles, they will discover a fact about the proposed League of Nations which is also equally true of other po- litical questions, and which is the essential fact at the bottom of them all. That is to say, the problem concerning a League of Nations is moral, not intellectual. This is why it is vital that a right conclusion be reached. It makes no serious dif- ference whether a mistaken policy is adopted with reference to trade or finance. But all crucial questions are moral ques- tions, and it makes a profound difference how they are de- cided. The League of Nations is such a question, and the heart of it is not touched unless it is treated as a moral question. Fortunately, experience makes it dear that on such ques- tions the people can be trusted. "The moral sense," said Jefferson, "is as mucb a part of man as his arm or leg. State a moral case to a plowman and a professor. The former will decide it as well and often better than the latter, because he has not been led away by artificial ndes." It is fitting, therefore, that community meetings throughout the nation should be held to debate such a question. The average man, and still more the average woman, is more capable of pro- nouncing a true judgment on ft than a military expert or a professional diplomat. It is true that the operation of the machinery of a League of Nations is infinitely complex and difficult, but its aim and purpose is simple. Its aim is to establish a free trade in THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 37 friendship among the nations. This is, after all, the question to be decided. Shall we organize international relationship on the basis of friendship and mutual tmderstanding, and will the proposed plan start the process? Friendship is a moral quality ; it is a state of mind, it is a question of morale ; and "morale," said Napoleon, "is to force as three is to one." It is the basic factor in the proposition for discussion. The question for America to decide, after a full and frank discussion, is whether we shall try the proposed plan of a League of Nations as an instrument for the operation of friendship not only as a sentiment but also as a practical regulation of human relationship ; whether it has not become apparent that what is not good for the hive is not good for the bee ; whether it is not clear that no nation can any longer exist by itself; whether free trade in friendship is not the pathway to international peace ; whether the proposed League of Nations does not afford America the opportunity to stand on her duties instead of on her rights, and thus help to inaugurate a new national chivalry. The question for debate is the challenge uttered by Whitman, the poet of democracy, when he said: "Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice, Be not dishearten'd — ^Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet. Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms? Nay — nor the world, nor any living thing, will so cohere." "Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land religious intoler- ance under which mankind so long bled and suflteredj we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the bil- lows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle." Thomas Jeffebson When Tszekung asked, "Is there any one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life," the Master replied: "Is not 'Reciprocity such a word? What you do not want don^ to yourself, do not do to others. SUBJECT FOR DEBATE Proposed Covenant for a League of Nations By Fourteen Nations An Outline of the Covenant William H. Short What It Is — Questions and Answers , . . . Breckinridge Long OPPORTUNITY This I beheld or dreamed it in a dream; There spread a cloud of dust along the plain, And underneath the cloud, or in it raged A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes. A craven hung along the battle's edge And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel That blue blade that the king's son bears but this Blunt thing! he snapped it and flung it from his hand, And lowering crept away and left the field. Then came the king's son wounded, sore bested And weaponless — and saw the broken sword. Hilt buried in the dry and trodden sand. And ran and snatched it, and with battle shout Lifted afresh, he hewed the enemy down, And saved a great cause that heroic day. Edwabd Roland Sill THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS « Adopted by the plenary session of the Peace Conference, Paris, April 28, 1919. PREAMBLE In order to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security, by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just and honorable relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as to actual rule of conduct among Governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organized peoples with one another, the high contracting parties agree to this Cove- nant of the League of Nations. ARTICLE ONE [Membership] The original members of the League of Nations shall be those of the signatories which are named in the annex to this Covenant and also such of those other states named in the annex as shall accede without reservation to this Covenant. Such accessions shall be effected by a declaration deposited with the Secretariat within two months of the coming into force of the Covenant. Notice thereof shall be sent to all other members of the League. Any fully self-governing state, dominion, or colony not named in the annex, may become a member of the League if its admission is agreed by two-thirds of the assembly, pro- vided that it shall give effective guarantees of its sincere intention to observe its international obligations, and shall 41 42 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS accept such regulations as may be prescribed by the League in regard to its military and naval forces and armaments. Any member of the League, may, after two years' notice of its intention so to do, withdraw from the League, provided that all its international obligation! and all its obli gation s under this CoyenanFjEall HavelSeen fulfilled at the time of its withdrawal. ARTICLE TWO [Executive and Administration Machineiy] The action of the League under this Covenant shall be effected through the instrumentality of an Assembly and of a Council, with a permanent Secretariat. ARTICLE THREE [The Assembly] The Assembly shall consist of representatives of the mem- bers of the League. The Assembly shall meet at stated intervals and from time to time as occasion may require, at the seat of the League, or at such other place as may be decided upon. The Assemb ly may deal at its meetings with any matter withm"^wie sphere of action of the League or affecting the peace of the w orld. " "" AiTmeetmgs of the Assembly, each member of the League shall have one vote, and may have not more than three rep- resentatives. ARTICLE FOUR [The Council] The Council shall consist of representatives of the United States of America, of the British Empire, of France, of Italy, and of Japan, together with representatives of four other members of the League. These four members of the League shall be selected by the Assembly from time to time in its THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 43 discretion. Until the appointment of the representatives of the four members of the League first selected by the Assem- bly, representatives of Belgium, Brazil, Greece and Spain shall be members of the Council, With^the ^^oval of the majority of the Assembly, th e Council may narne"agc[rtiStial membersoflheXeague who se representatiyer-sllgl-lr-alway s be aafimbfirs-of- thft Council : the Council with like approval may increase the number of mem- bers of the League to be selected by the Assembly for repre- sentation on the Council. The Council shall meet from time to time as occasion may require, and at least once a year, at the seat of the League, or at such other place as may be decided upon. T he C o uncil may deal at its meetings with any matter with- in the sphere of action of the League or affecting the peace of the world. Any member of the League not represented on the Council shall be invited to send a representative to sit as a member at any meeting of the Council during the consideration of matters specially affecting the interests of that member of the League. At meetings of the Council, each member of the League represented on the Council shall have one vote, and may have not more than one representative. AKTICLE FIVE [Decision by Unanimity or Majority; Initial Meetings] Except where- otherwise expressly provided in this Cove- nant, or by the terms of this treaty, decisions at any meeting of the Assembly or of the Council shall require the agree- ment of all the members of the League represented aX the meeting A ll matters of procedure at meetings of the Assembly or of the Council, the appointment of committees to investigate 44 TEE LEAGUE OF NATIONS particular matters, shall be regulated by the Assembly or by the Council and may be decided by a majority of th e members of the League represented at t he m eeting . The first meeting of the Assembly and the first meeting at the Council shall be summoned by the President of the United States of America. ARTICLE SIX [The Secretariat] The permanent Secretariat shall be established at the seat of the League. The Secretariat shall comprise a Secretary- General and such secretaries and staff as may be required. The first Secretary-General shall be the person na:med in the annex; thereafter the Secretary-General shall be ap- appointed by the Secretary-General with the approval of the the Assembly. The Secretaries and the staif of the Secretariat shall be appointed by the Secretary-General with the approval of the Council. The Secretary-General shall act in that capacity at all meet- ings of the Assembly and of the Council. The expenses of the Secretariat shall be borne by the mem- bers of the League in accordance with the apportionment of the expenses of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union. AETICLE SEVEN (Lfeague Capital; Status of Officials and Property; Sex Equality] The seat of the League is established at Geneva. The Council may at any time decide that the seat of the League shall be established elsewhere. All positions under or in connection with the League, in- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 45 eluding the Secretariat, shall be open equally to men and women. Representatives of the members of the League and officials of the League when engaged on the business of the League shall enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities. The buildings and other property occupied by the League or its officials or by representatives attending its meetings shall be inviolable. ARTICLE EIGHT [Disarmament] The members of the League recognize that the maintenance of a peace requires the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with the national safety and the enforcement by common action of international obligations. The Council, taking account of the geographical situation and circumstances of each state, shall formulate plans for such reduction for the consideration and action of the several governments. Such plans shall be subject to reconsideration and revision at least every ten years. After these plans shall have been adopted by the several governments, limits of armaments therein fixed shall not be exceeded without the concurrence of the Council. The members of the League agree that the manufacture by private enterprise of munitions and implements of war is open to grave objections. The Council shall advise how the evil effects attendant upon such manufacture can be pre- vented, due regard being had to the necessities of those mem- bers of the League which are not able to manufacture the munitions and implements of war necessary for their safety. The members of the League undertake to interchange full and frank information as to the scale of their armaments, their military and naval programmes and the condition of such of their industries as are adaptable to warlike purposes. 46 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ARTICLE NINE [Disarmament Commission] A permanent commission shall be constituted to advise the Council on the execution of the provisions of Articles One and Eight and on military and naval questions generally. ARTICLE TEN [Territorial and Political Guarantees] The members of the League undertake to respect and pre- serve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression, the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled. ARTICLE ELEVEN [Joint Action to Prevent War] Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of the members of the League or not, is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League, and the League shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations. In case any such emer- gency should arise, the Secretary-General shall, on the re- quest of any member of thie League, forthwith summon a meeting of the Council. It is also declared to be the fundamental right of each mem- ber of the League to bring to the attention of the Assembly or of the Council any circumstance whatever affecting inter- national relations which threatens to disturb either the peace or the good understanding between nations upon which peace depends. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 47 ARTICLE TWELVE [Postponement of War] The members of the League agree that if there should arise between them any dispute likelv to lead tn a niP*^"-^ they will submit the matter either to arbitration or to inquiry by the Council, and they agree in no case to resort to war until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the report by the Council. In any case, under this Article the award of the arbitra- tors shall be made within a reasonable time, and the report of the Council shall be made within six months after the sub- mission of the dispute. ARTICLE THIRTEEN [Arbitration of Justiciable Matters] The members of the League agree that whenever any dis- pute shall arise between them which they recognize to be suitable for submission to arbitration and which cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy, they will submit the whole subject matter to arbitration. Disputes as to the inter- pretation of a treaty, as to any question of international law, as to the existence of any fact which if established would constitute a breach of any international obligation, or as to the extent and nature of the reparation to be made for any such breach, are declared to be among those which are gen- erally suitable for submission to arbitration. For the con- sideration of any such dispute the court of arbitration to which the case is referred shall be the court agreed on by the parties to the dispute or stipulated in any convention existing between them. The members of the League agree that they will carry- out in full good faith any award that may be rendered and that they will not resort to war against a member of the League which complies therewith. In the event of any 18 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS failure to carry out such an award, the Council shall propose what steps should be taken to give eifect thereto. ARTICLE FOURTEEN [Permanent Court of International Justice] The Council shall formulate and submit to the members of the League for adoption plans for the establishment of a pernaanent court of international justice. The court shall.be competent to hear and determine any dispute of an international character which the parties thereto submit to it. The court may also give an advisory opinion upon any dis- pute or question referred to it by the Council or by the As- sembly. ARTICLE FIFTEEN [Settlement of Disputes by Council or Assembly; Exclusion of Domestic Questions] If there should arise between members of the League any dispute likely to lead to a rupture, which is not submitted to arbitration as above, the members of the League agree that they will submit the matter to the Council Any party to the dispute may effect such submission by giving notice of the existence of the dispute to the Secretary-General, who will make all necessary arrangements for a full investigation and consideration thereof. For this purpose the parties to the dispute will communicate to the Secretary-General, as promptly as possible, statements of their case, all the relevant facts and papers ; the Council may forthwith direct the pub- lication thereof. The Council shall endeavor to effect a settlement of any dispute, and if such efforts are successful, a statement shall be made public giving such facts and explanations regarding the dispute and terms of settlement thereof as the Council may deem appropriate. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 49 If the dispute is not thus settled, the Council either unani- mously or by a majority vote shall malie and publish a report containing a statement of the facts of the dispute and the recommendations which are deemed just and proper in regard thereto. ifi Any member of the League represented on the Council may make public a statement of the facts of the dispute and f the conclusions regarding the same. /if a report by the Council is unanimously agreed to by the members thereof other than tfierepresentatives of one or more of the parties to the dispute, the members of the League agree that they will not go to war with any party to the dis- ^Dute which complies with the recommendations of the report. ' If the Council jails to reach a report which is unanirp^ouslv "Agreed to by the members tliereof , other thanSerepresenta- tives of one or more of the parties to the dispute, the mem- bers of the League reserve to themselves the right to take such action as they shall consider necessary for the mainte- jUance of right and justice, f If the dispute between the parties is claimed by one of them, and is found by the Council to aris e out of a matter which ty mternatronaT"KwjiS sp^y withirr^ie doniestic juris- diction of that party ,^ttie_Coiiffiil ^atU. so report, and, shall make no reroi^^ncfatign as to its jettlement. The Council may in any case under this Article refer the dispute to the Assembly. The dispute shall be so referred at the request of either party to the dispute, provided that such request be made within fourteen days after the submis- sion of the dispute to the Council. In any case referred to the Assembly all the provisions of this Article and of Article Twelve relating to the action and powers of the Council shall apply to the action and powers of the Assembly, provided that a report made by the As- sembly, if concurred in by the representatives of those mem- bers of the League represented on the Council and of a inz- 50 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS jority of the other members of the League, exclusive in each case of the representatives of the parties to the dispute, shall have the same force as a report by the Council concurred in by all the members thereof other than the representatives of one or more of the parties to the dispute. ARTICLE SIXTEEN [Sanctions] Should any member of the League resort to war in disre- gard of its covenants under Articles Twelve, Thirteen or Fifteen, it shall ipso facto be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other members of the League, which hereby undertake immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all inter- course between their nationals and the nationals of the cove- nant-breaking state and the prevention of all financial, com- mercial, or personal intercourse between the nationals of the covenant-breaking state and the nationals of any other state, whether a member of the League or not. It shall be the duty of the Council in such case to recom- mend to the several governments concerned what eifective military or naval forces the members of the League shall severally contribute to the armaments of forces to be used to protect the covenants of the League. The members of the League agree, further, that they will mutually support one another in the financial and economic measures which are taken under this Article, in order to minimize the loss and inconvenience resulting from the above measures, and that they will mutually support one another in resisting any special measures aimed at one of their num- ber by the covenant-breaking state, and that they will take the necessary steps to afford passage through their territory to the forces of any of the members of the League which are cooperating to protect the covenants of the League. Any member of the League which has violated any cove- THE LEAGUE OF STATIONS 51 nant of the League may be declared to be no longer a mem- ber of the League by a vote of the Council concurred in by the representatives of all the other members of the League represented thereon. ARTICLE SEVENTEEN [Disputes of Non-Members] In the event of a dispute between a member of the League and a state which is not a member of the League, or between states not members of the League, the state or states not members of the League shall be invited to accept the obliga- tions of membership in the League for the purposes of such dispute, upon such conditions as the Council may deem just. If such invitation is accepted, the provisions pf Articles Twelve to Sixteen inclusive shall be appli^ed with such modifi- cations as may be deemed necessary by the Council. Upon such invitation being given, the Council shall im- mediately institute an inquiry into the circumstances of the dispute and recommend such action as may seem best and most effectual in the circumstances. If a state so invited shall refuse to accept the obligations of membership in the League for the purposes of such dis- pute, and shall resort to war against a member of the League, the provisions of Article Sixteen shall be applicable as against the state taking such action. If both parties to the dispute, when so invited, refuse to accept the obligations of membership in the League for the purposes of such dispute, the Council may take such measures and make such recommendations as will prevent hostilities and will result in the settlement of the dispute, ARTICLE EIGHTEEN [Registration of International Engagements] Every convention or international engagement entered into henceforward by any member of the League shall be forth- 5« THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS with registered with the Secretariat and shall as soon as pos- sible be published by it. No such treaty or international en- gagement shall be binding until so registered. ARTICLE NINETEEN [Revision of Former Treaties] The Assembly may from time to time advise the reconsid- eration by members of the League of treaties which have become inapplicable, and the consideration of international conditions of which the continuance might endanger the peace of the world. ARTICLE TWENTY [Abrogation of Understandings not Consistent with the Covenant] The members of the League severally agree that this Cove- nant is accepted as abrogating all obligations or understand- ings inter se which are inconsistent with the terms thereof, and solemnly undertake that they will not hereafter enter into any engagements inconsistent with the terms thereof. In case members of the League shall, before becoming a member of the League, have undertaken any obligations in- consistent with the terms of this covenant, it shall be the duty of such member to take immediate steps to procure its release from such obligations. ARTICLE TWENTY-ONE [The Monroe Doctrine] Nothing in this covenant shall be deemed to affect the validity of international engagements such as treaties of ar- bitration or regional understandings like the Monroe Doc- trine for securing the maintenance of peace. ARTICLE TWENTY-TWO [Mandatory Tutelage of Colonies and Backward Races] To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS W the states which formerly governed them and which are in- habited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves imder the strenuous conditions of the modem world, there should be applied the principle that the well being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization and that securities for the performance of this trust should be em- bodied in this covenant The best method of giving practicable effect to this prinr dple is that the tutelage of such peoples be entrusted to ad- vanced nations who, by reasons of their resources, their expe- rience or their geographical position, can best undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them as mandatories on be- half of the League. The character of the mandate must differ according to the stage of the development of the people, the geographical sit- uation of the territory, its economic condition and other sim- ilar circumstances. Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recog- nized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory tmtil such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the mandatory. Other peoples, especially those of Central Africa, are at such a stage that the mandatory must be responsible for the administration of the territory under conditions which will guarantee freedom of conscience or religion subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses such as the slave trade, the arms traffic and the liquor traffic and the prevention of the establishment of for- tifications or military and naval bases and of military training of the natives for other than police purposes and the defense of territory and will also secure equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of other members of the League. 54 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS There are territories, such as Southwest Africa and cer- tain of the South Pacific islands, which, owing to the sparse- ness of their population or their small size or their remoteness from the centers of civilization or their geographical con- tiguity to the territory of the mandatory and other circum- stances, can be best administered under the laws of the man- datory as integral portions of its territory subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the interests of the indigenous population. In every case of mandate, the mandatory shall render to the Council an annual report in reference to the ter- ritory committed to its charge. The degree of authority, control or administration to be exercised by the mandatory shall, if not previously agreed upon by the members of the League, be explicitly defined in each case by the Council. A permanent commission shall be constituted to receive and examine the annual reports of the mandatories and to advise the Council on all matters relating to the observance of the mandates. ARTICLE TWENTY-THREE [Humanitarian Provisions; Freedom of Transit] Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of inter- national conventions existing or hereafter to be agreed upon, the members of the League (a) will endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women and children both in their own countries and in all countries to which their commercial and industrial relations extend, and for that purpose will establish and maintain the necessary international organizations; (b) undertake to se- cure just treatment of the native inhabitants of territories under their control; (c) will entrust the League with the general supervision over the execution of agreements with regard to the traffic in women and children, and the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs; (d) will entrust the THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 65 League with the general supervision of the trade in arms and, ammunition with the countries in which the control to this traffic is necessary in the common interest; (e) will make provision to secure and maintain freedom of communication and of transit and equitable treatment for the commerce of all members of the League. In this connection the special necessities of the regions devastated during the war of 1914- 1918 shall be in mind; (f ) will endeavor to take steps in mat- ters of international concern for the prevention and control of disease. ARTICLE TWENTy-POUR [Control of International Bureaus and Commissions] There shall be placed under the direction of the League all international bureaus already established by general treaties if the parties to such treaties consent. All such inter- national bureaus and all commissions for the regulation of matters of international interest hereafter constituted shall be placed under the direction of the League. In all matters of international interest which are regulated by general conventions but which are not placed. under the control of international bureaus or commissions, the Secre- tariat of the League shall, subject to the consent of the Coun- cil and if desired by the parties, collect and distribute all relevant information and shall render any other assistance which may be necessary or desirable. The Council may include as part of the expenses of the Secretariat the expenses of any bureau or commission which is placed under the direction of the League. ARTICLE TWENTY-FIVE [The Red Cross and International Sanitation] The members of the League agree to encourage and pro- mote the establishment and cooperation of duly authorized voluntary national Red Cross organizations having as pur- 56 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS poses improvement, of health, the prevention of disease and the mitigation of suffering throughout the world. ARTICLE TWENTY-SIX [Amendments of the Coyeriant ; Right of Dissent] Amendments to this Covenant Will take effect when ratified by the members of the League whose representatives compose the Council and by a majority of the members of the League whose representatives compose the Assembly. No such amendment shall bind any member of the League which signifies its dissent therefrom, but in that case it shall cease to be a member of the League. ANNEX TO THE COVENANT One : Original members of the League of Nations. Signatories of the Treaty of Peace: United States of America, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, British Empire, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, China, Cuba, Czecho-Slovakia, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hedjaz, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, Servia, Siam, Uruguay. States invited to accede to the Covenant: Argentine Re- public, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Venezuela. Two : First Secretary-General of the League of Nations : Sir Eric Drummond. AN OUTLINE OF THE COVENANT BY WILXJAM H. SHORT I. THE AIM: The Paris Covenant provides for a voluntary League of civilized nations, which shall undertake to pro- mote the justice and preserve the peace of the world by accepting obligations not to resort to war but to deal openly, justly, and honorably with one another, by scru- pulously maintaining the sanctity of treaties, by firmly establishing the rules of international law as the rule of conduct between governments and by establishing dose cooperation in matters of common concern. It does not assume to be able to end war, any more than govenunents assume to be able to end crime. But as governments reduce crime by settling disputes peace- ably, by punishing crime when it is conamitted, and by organizing society in the general interest ; so the League of Nations aims to reduce war by settling disputes peace- ably, by penalizing the nation that begins war contrary to the covenant of the League, and by an administration of matters of common concern in the interest of the peo- ple of the whole world. II. THE COVENANT: To accomplish these purposes, the menibers of the League agree that they will — RESPECT AND PRESERVE THE POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE AND TERRITORIAL INTEG- RITY of each member against external aggression. SUBMIT DISPUTES TO ARBITRATION by a tribunal administering international law or to mediation .57 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS by a Council or the Assembly provided for in the treaty, and furnish a statement of the case to the Secretary-Gen- eral of the League. ABSTAIN FROM WAR against any member until the dispute has been submitted to arbitration or media- tion, and until three months after the award or recom- mendation ; and even then not go to war with a member of the League that complies with the award of the tribu- nal or with the unanimous recommendation of the Coun- cil or Assembly. CARRY OUT IN GOOD FAITH any awards that may be rendered whenever the parties to the dispute vol- untarily agree to arbitrate. BOYCOTT any nation that goes to war contrary to the covenants of the League, support one another in re- sisting any special measure aimed at one of their number by the offending state, support one another in economic measures necessary to make the boycott effective, and afford passage through their territory to the forces of League members operating against the offending na- tion. EXCHANGE INFORMATION concerning military and naval programs and industries adaptable to warlike purposes, and for stated periods not exceeding ten years, unless relieved of the obligation by the Council, observe limitations or armament when voluntarily adopted by each of them on recommendation of the Council. SECURE FAIR AND HUMANE TREATMENT FOR LABOR, as far as practicable, at home and in all countries with which they trade. SECURE JUST TREATMENT, so far as possible, for native inhabitants of territories under their control. ENTRUST THE LEAGUE WITH SUPERVI- SION over the execution of international agreements providing for the suppression of the white slave traffic THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 59 and the sale of dangerous drugs, and with the super- vision of the trade in arms and ammunition in countries where the control of this traffic is necessary in the com- mon interest. MAINTAIN FREEDOM OF TRANSIT and equi- table treatment for the commerce of members. COOPERATE IN MEASURES for the prevention and control of disease. ENCOURAGE AND PROMOTE ORGANIZA- TION and work of the Red Cross. ESTABLISH INTERNATIONAL BUREAUS to administer such matters of common interest as may be agreed upon. ABROGATE all treaties and obligations among them- selves inconsistent with the Covenant and enter into no such obligations in the future. REGISTER ALL NEW TREATIES, which shall not be binding until so registered. PAY A DUE SHARE of the expenses of administer- ing the affairs of the League, IIL THE AGENCIES: The Covenant provides the follow- ing offencies to advise and assist in carrying out these agreements — AN ASSEMBLY which shall represent all member nations, determine by majority vote its own procedure, and meet at stated intervals and as occasion requires. Each member of the League may have three delegates but only one vote. The Assembly shall make its deci- sions by unanimous vote except as otherwise provided, and shall have power to — "DEAL WITH" (that is, discuss) ALL MAT- TERS within the sphere of action of the League, or affecting the peace of the world. 60 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ADVISE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF TREA- TIES which have become inapplicable, or of interna- tional conditions dangerous to peace. SELECT THE FOUR NON-PERMANENT MEMBERS to the Council, in succession to Belgium, Brazil, Greece and Spain temporarily appointed by vote of the Paris Conference pending action by the Assembly. ADMIT NEW MEMBERS to the League by two- thirds vote. INQUIRE INTO DISPUTES referred to it by the Council or the parties to the dispute and by majority vote make recommendations, which will be binding if concurred in by the votes of all the States represented in the Council, exclusive in each case of the parties to the dispute. A COUNCIL of nine which by a majority vote shall determine its own procedure and meet at least once each year, each member having one vote as follows: Repre- sentatives of the United States, Great Britain; France, Italy, Japan and of the following four nations designated by the Peace Conference to serve until the Assembly shall appoint their successors, — Belgium, Brazil, Greece and Spain.^ The Council shall have power, by unani- mous vote, to, — EXPEL A MEMBER that has violated any cove- nant of the League'' FORMULATE PLANS for the reduction of arma- ments, for the consideration of the several govern- *The Council may, by unanimous vote of its members and a majority vote of the Assembly, increase its permanent membership. By similar procedure it may increase the number to be selected by the Assembly. 'The vote of the covenant-breaking nation, if a member of the Council, would be ignored in determining unanimity of action. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 61 ments, such plans to be subject to revision at least every ten years. ADVISE HOW THE EVILS attendant upon the manufacture by private enterprise of munitions and implements of war may be obviated. ADVISE UPON THE MEANS of preserving the territorial integrity and political independence of the members against external aggression, whether actual or threatened. PROPOSE WHAT SHALL BE DONE to give effect to the decision, if a state fails to carry out the award of an arbitration by which it has agreed to abide. FORMULATE PLANS for an international court. INQUIRE INTO DISPUTES not within the do- mestic jurisdiction of a State; and not submitted to the court or to arbitration or to the Assembly; en- deavor to secure a settlement by mediation and, failing this, make recommendations which, if unanimous, pro- tect the state complying with it from attack. RECOMMEND WHAT MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCES shall be contributed by each mem- ber to protect the covenants of the League against a nation that resorts to war contrary thereto. INQUIRE INTO, AND OFFER FACILITIES FOR the settlement of disputes with or between non- member states and, in case of refusal by the non-mem- ber state or states to accept such offer, make recom- mendations and, if necessary, take action to prevent hostilities and settle the dispute. FIX THE TERMS OF A MANDATORY, by a nation willing to accept it, over any colony or territory formerly governed by Germany or Turkey, whenever this has not been previously agreed upon by the mem- bers of the League. 62 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS APPOINT THE SECRETARY-GENERAL, sub- ject to confirmation by majority vote of the Assembly, and confirm his subordinates. APPOINT PERMANENT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSIONS and control international bureaus. SUPERVISE THE EXECUTION OF AGREE- MENTS to suppress the white slave trade, and the traffic in dangerous drugs. A SECRETABY-GENERAL, and his subordinates, chosen by the Council for administrative work. AN INTERNATIONAL COURT to be established in accordance with plans worked out by the Council, with power to decide any dispute referred to it by the parties thereto, and to give an advisory opinion upon any matter referred to it by Council or Assembly. A MANDATORY COMMISSION to oversee and advise respecting the administration of colonies and backward peoples formerly governed by Germany or Turkey. A PERMANENT COMMISSION TO ADVISE on military and naval questions. INTERNATIONAL BUREAUS for the regulation of matters of international interest; -existing interna- tional bureaus such as the International Postal Union to come under the League's direction when the parties to the treaties creating them so agree, and all interna- tional bureaus hereafter created to come automatically under the League's direction. IV. GUIDING PRINCIPLES: The Covenant formulates the following principles for the guidance of League members and administrative agencies — That the validity of international engagements for the maintenance of peace, such as the Monroe Doctrine and THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 63 treaties of arbitration shall not be affected by the Cove- nant. That war or threat of war anywhere is the concern of the League, since war, Hke fire, is liable to spread; and the members of the League may take action to safe- guard the peace of the nations. That making war contrary to the covenants of the League shall be deemed an act of war on the part of the offending nation against all other members of the League. That maintenance of peace requires reduction of armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety and the enforcement of international obliga- tions. That submission of any dispute to mediation by the Council can be effected by either party thereto by giving notice of its existence to the Secretary-General. That each member of the League shall have the right and responsibiUty of calling the attention of the League to anything that threatens to disturb peace and good understanding among nations. That publication of the facts of all disputes that threat- en war and are not settled by arbitration shall be made, so far as expedient, whether or not unanimous recom- mendation of an award is reached. That the well-being and development of backward peo- ples residing in colonies of the Central Empires, or in territories taken from them, is a sacred trust and that they shall be administered by nations acting as agents or mandatories of the League: a principal consideration in the selection of such mandatories being the wishes of the peoples in the areas to be administered. That all positions in connection with the League shall be open equally to men and women. 64 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS V. THE LIMITATIONS: Things the Paris Covenant does not do : — , Does NOT create a super-government that outranks those of member states or with armies to over-awe them ; but a treaty in which the members pledge themselves to maintain a condition of international morality akin to that maintained by every civilized State within its own borders. Does NOT commit members to obligations they can- not get out of. A nation may withdraw from member- ship on two years' notice, if its international and League obligations have been fulfilled, just as a partner may withdraw from a partnership. Does NOT place the United States in a position where it can be coerced by the vote of other nations in the Council or the Assembly, as the power of these bodies is almost wholly advisory and even for this a unanimous vote is required on all vital matters. Does NOT involve the calling out of American sol- diers in case of local squabbles in the Balkans or else- where. While members of the League are obliged to take part in a boycott against a nation that attacks an- other member contrary to the League covenant they do not otherwise agree to join in making war. Does NOT place peace above justice, but provides for war as a last resort to restrain an aggressive nation and does not forbid war against a nation that refuses to ac- cept the awards of the League tribunals and in case of disputes where no decision can be reached by the Coun- cil or Assembly. Does NOT prevent the division or union of existing nations, but keeps open every means of effecting changes in national boundaries except by external aggression. Does NOT affect the constitutional authority of Con- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 65 gress to declare war, although Congress will be morally bound by this treaty, as by every other. The Council can recommend war but only Congress can declare war. Does NOT destroy the Monroe Doctrine. On the con- trary, the Monroe Doctrine for the first time in history is expressly recognized by all the members of the League, and its principle extended to the world by means of the provision that the territorial integrity and political in- dependence of all the members shall be preserved. Does NOT interfere in the domestic affairs of any na- tion. That also is expressly provided against. The League does not concern itself witli revolutions, rebel- lions, immigration, tariffs and other interna! problems of its members. Does NOT exceed the treaty power under the Consti- tion. The United States has during its history entered into treaties involving all the powers affected by the covenant. VI. MEMBERSHIP : The Covenant provides the follow- ing rules for membership in the League: — CHARTER MEMBERSHIP is open to the following signatories to the Treaty of Peace: United States of America, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, British Empire, Can- ada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, China, Cuba, Czecho-Slovakia, Ecuador, France, Greece, Guate- mala, Haiti, Hedjaz, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Serbia, Siam, Uruguay; and to the following states which are invited to accede to the covenant: Argentine Republic, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Netherlands, Nor- way, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switz- erland, Venezuela. OTHER SELF-GOVERNING STATES. DOMIN- 66 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IONS OR COLONIES may be admitted to the League provided they give "effective guarantees" of sincerity and accept such regulations regarding military and naval armaments as may be prescribed by the League. Vn. LOCATION— The seat of the League shall be at Geneva unless changed by the Council. VIII. APPROVAL, RATIFICATION AND AMEND- MENT— This Covenant in its original form was unanimously approved by representatives of fourteen nations at the Peace Conference, was then referred to the peoples of the world for criticism and suggestion and revised in the light of this discussion. It includes all the material amendments requested by the people of the United States. In its final form, it is now referred to the gov- ernments of the nations for adoption. When ratified it can be amended by the unanimous vote of the nations represented in the Council and a majority of the nations represented in the Assembly. No amendment, however, shall bind any member of the League which signifies its dissent therefrom, but in that case it would cease to be a member of the League. WHAT IT IS— QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS By Breckinridge Long PURPOSES I. Q. What is the proposed League of Nations ? Q. Is it proposed to create a super-state, or world federation ? 3. Q. How is it proposed to attain its objects ? A. An association of self- governing nations, formed to promote inter- national cooperation, and to secure international peace. (Preamble), A. No; an association deriv- ing its powers and func- tions from common coun- sel, resting upon the com- mon judgment of man- kind. (Preamble) A. By establishing open, just and honorable relations between nations; by pro- moting clear understand- ings of international law as the actual rule of con- duct among governments, and by developing a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations. (Pre- amble) 68 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS MEMBERSHIP 4. Q. What steps have been taken to establish such a League? 5. Q. What other nations are to be invited to adhere to the cove- nant? A. Representatives of thir- ty-two nations, sitting in the Peace Conference, have agreed to a covenant which embodies the con- stitution of the League (Preamble and Annex), and which has been in- corporated in the treaty of peace. Ratification by the Senate is necessary to our participation in the benefits of the League. A. Neutral nations, qualified for membership, named in the annex to the cove- nant. (Art. I and An- nex) 6. Q. How can other na- tions be admitted to membership ? By the assent of two- thirds of all members of the League. (Art. I) Q. What qualifications are necessary? All member states must be self-governing coun- tries, and able to give ef- fective guaranties of their sincere intention to observe international ob- ligations, and accept the principles and regulations of the League with ref- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 69 erence to naval and mili- tary forces and arma- ments. (Art. I) 8. Q. What provision is A. Any member of the made for withdraw- League which has faith- al from membership fully kept its intemation- in the League ? al obligations and has ob- served the stipulations of the covenant may with- draw, after two years' notice of its intentions so to do. (Art. I, Par. 3) ORGANIZATIONS 9. Q. How is the League A. Through the instrumen- to be organized? tality of an Assembly, in which all members shall have one vote (Art. II) ; of a Council, consisting of representatives of the United States, the Brit- ish Empire, France, Italy, and Japan, together with representatives of four other members of the League (Art. IV) ; by creating a Permanent Secretariat (Art. VI) ; and by establishing per- manent commissions (Art. IX, Art. XXII & Art. XXIV) and a per- manent court of interna- 70 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS lO. Q. How is the Council to be constituted ? II. Q. How may the Coun- cil be increased? 12. Q. What is the method of organizing the Secretariat ? 13- Q. What is the seat of the League? tional justice XIV) (Art, A. The Council will consist of five permanent mem- bers from the powers designated and named above, and four addition- al members to be selected by the Assembly (Art. IX) A. With the concurrence of a minority of the Assem- bly, the Council may in- crease its membership, either permanent or elec- tive. (Art. IV) A. The first Secretary-Gen- eral is named in the an- nex to the covenant; hereafter he shall be ap- pointed by the Council with the approval of a majority of the Assem- bly. The other secretaries and the staff shall be named by the Secretary- General, with the approv- al of the Council. (Art. VI) A. The seat of the League is established at Geneva, but THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 71 14. Q. When will the first meetings of the League be held ? 15. Q. What permanent commissions are to be established ? may, by action of the Council, be located else- where. (Art. VII) A. Upon the call of the President of the United States. (Art. V) A. I — ^A permanent commis- sion upon armament, and military and naval ques- tions generally. (Art. IX) 2 — ^A permanent bureau of labor, to endeavor to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor throughout the world. (Art. XXIII) 3 — ^A commission to re- ceive and examine re- ports of powers en- trusted with trusteeships over territory treated as mandatories. (Art. XXII) 4 — ^All existing interna- tional bureaus, such as the International Bureau of the Postal Union, are to be placed tmder the control of the League. (Art. XXIV) 72 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ARMAMENTS i6. Q. What principle is recognized affecting naval and military forces and arma- ments ? 17. Q. How is it proposed that this principle shall become effec- tive? The members of the League recogoize the principle "that the main- tenance of peace will re- quire the reduction of na- tional armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety, and the enforcement by com- mon action of interna- tional obligations. (Art. VIII) The Council shall deter- mine and reconamend for the consideration of each government what mili- tary equipment and arma- ment is fair and reason- able in proportion to the scale fixed in the general program of disarmament, taking into account the geographical situation and circumstances of each state. Thereupon, each state, acting in its own sovereignty, and ac- cording to its own laws, shall consider the recom- mendations of the Coun- cil, and decide how they can be made effective. (Art. VIII) THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS n 1 8. Q. Has provision been made for reconsid- eration and revision of the scale of arma- ments ? A. It is provided that such plans shall be subject to revision at least every ten years. (Art. VIII) 19. Q. What great reform does the League pro- pose respecting pri- vate manufacture of munitions and imple- ments of war? 20. Q. What other obliga- tions are assumed by members of the League concerning their military and naval programs? 21. Q. It is claimed that the Council his power to compel a nation to adopt the scale of armament agreed on in the world pro- A. The Council is to advise as to how the evil effects of private interest in such manufacture can be pre- vented, looking to the adoption by governments of the policy of manufac- turing for themselves war materials necessary for their safety. (Art. VIII) A. All members of the League agree that they will not conceal military and naval information from each other, and that there shall be full and frank interchange of ad- vices as to their military and naval programs. (Art. VIII) A. The Council can only ad- vise cUid recommend to the member-states such a limit upon armaments as would be proportionate to the rest of the world, in 74 THE LEAGIIE OF NATIONS gram. Is this cor- accordance with the scale rect? fixed. Each state would consider these recom- mendations and adjust its plans in accordance with the will of its own sov- ereign functionaries. The United States would not have a limited armament placed upon it without the independent action of Congress. The only ob- ligatory feature of the armament program is to this effect, namely: that if the several nations adopt the recommenda- tions of the League as to limited armaments, these armaments cannot be in- creased in later years, or the proportion changed without the consent of the Council, of which the United States would be one of the controlling factors. (Art. VIII) DISPUTES 22. Q. What principles are A. That disputes shall be League members thoroughly discussed and asked to accept with that war, as a means of respect to disputes testing justice, should be between nations? retarded as much as pos- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 75 sible; and that no nation will go to war if the rest of the civilized world has unanimously expressed an opinion, through the League, against the jus- tice of its cause. (Art. XII & Art. XIII) ARBITRATION AND INQUIRY 23. Q. What is the method of dealing with dis- putes between na- tions? It is agreed that if dis- putes should arise be- tween nations, which can not be adjusted by diplo- macy, these nations will not go to war without submitting the dispute either to arbitration, or to inquiry by the Council, and not then until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the recommendation by the Council. (Art. XII & XIII) 24. Q. Is there any distinc- tion between dis- putes as to whether they are stiitable or unsuitable for arbi- tration ? Yes ; it is provided that if the disputing nations shall recognize that a dis- pute is suitable for sub- mission to arbitration, they will then proceed to arbitrate. If a dispute should arise which is not 76 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 25. Q. Does the constitution of the League speci- fy certain disputes as generally suitable for arbitration ? so recognized, and there- fore is not submitted to arbitration, it is agreed that the whole subject shall be referred to the Council to inquire into the justice of each na- tion's cause. (Art. XH, Art XIII & Art. XV) Yes; as follows: "Dis- putes as to the interpre- tation of a treaty; as to any question of interna- tional law; as to the existence of any fact, which, if established, would constitute a breach of any international obli- gation; or as to the ex- tent and nature of the reparation to be made for any such breach." (Art. XIII) 26. Q. How is a dispute to be submitted to ar- bitration ? By reference to the per- manent court of interna- tional justice, to be estab- lished by the League, or in accordance with any esxisting treaty which pro- vides methods of arbitra- tion, of which the United States has many. (Art. XIII & Art. XIV) __j THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 77 27. Q. What course is to be pursued by the League as to other disputes, not submit- ted to arbitration ? A. An inquiry into the mer- its of the disputes is con- ducted by the Council, followed by recommen- dations which the Coun- cil thinks just and proper for the settlement of the dispute, which recom- mendations must be made within six months after the submission of the controversy. (Art. XII & Art. XV) ACTION OF THE COUNCIL UPON SUBMISSION OF DISPUTE 28. Q. When a dispute is submitted to the Council for inquiry, what is the proced- ure? Following the submission of all relevant facts and papers, the Council shall endeavor to settle the dis- pute by any available process of mediation. If mediation fails, and no settlement can be se- cured, the Council shall make and publish a re- port as to the facts, with recommendations as to a just and proper settle- ment. (Art. XV) 29. Q. How may this action be taken ? A. Either by unanimous vote, or by a majority vote. (Art. XV) 78 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 30. Q, What obligation is imposed upon par- ties to the dispute with respect to un- animous findings of the Council ? 31. Q. What action is con- templated in the event of a failure of the Council to reach unanimous conclu- sions ? A. It is agreed that the par- ties affected will not go to war with any party to the dispute which complies with the recommenda- tions of the uncmimous report. (Art. XV) A. By the terms of the con- stitution, the members of the League reserve to themselves the right to take such action in the premises as they shall consider necessary for the maintenance of right and justice. (Art. XV) REFERENCE TO THE ASSEMBLY 32. Q. 33- Q- How may disputes be referred to the Assembly ? What is the proced- ure with respect to disputes referred to the Assembly? A. By action of the Council, or upon the request of either party to the dis- pute, if such request shall be made within fourteen days after the submission of the dispute to the Council. (Art. XV) A. All provisions relating to the action and powers of the Council in dealing with disputes shall apply to the action and powers of the Assembly, pro- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 79 vided that a report made by the Assembly, when concurred in by repre- sentatives of members of the League represented in the Council, and of a majority of the other members of the League, exclusive of the parties to the dispute, shall have the same force as an un- animous report of the Council. (Art. XV) DOMESTIC QUESTIONS 34. Q. What action is i"e- quired of the Coun- cil as to questions of domestic concern? If a dispute is claimed by one of the parties to arise out of a matter which by international law is solely within the domestic juris- diction of that party, and the Council shall so find, no recommendations for settlement shall be made. (Art. XV) ENFORCEMENT OF FINDINGS 35. Q. What is the attitude of the members of the League toward any nation which re- fuses to accept the settlement by arbi- A. It shall be deemed to have committed an act of war against all the other members of the League. (Art. XVI) 80 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS tration or the recom- mendations of the League? 36. Q. What action is then taken by the Leagiifc? 37- Q- What provision is made for the use of force against any state which should resort to war in vio- lation of its obliga- tion as a member of the League? A. All trade or financial re- lations are severed be- tween the members of the League and the offending nation. All intercourse between the citizens of members of the League, and the citizens of the of- fending state, is prohib- ited, and steps shall be taken by the members of the League to prevent fi- nancial, commercial or personal intercourse be- tween the offending na- tion and the rest of the world. (Art. XVI) A. The Council shall recom- mend what effective force the members of the League shall severally contribute to the armed force of the nations in proceeding against the state violating its agree- ment. Therefore each member state, acting in its own sovereignty, ac- cording; to its constitution and laws, would take THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 81 steps to carry out these recommendations. (Art. XVI) POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES 38. Q. What would be the position of the United States in such a contingency? .. The representatives of the United States in the Council would first pass upon the merits of the dispute, and if they with- held their approval of the recommendation of the Council, it would not be binding upon any nation affected by the dispute. If the United States agreed to the finding, when one or both of the parties to the dispute re- sorted to war in violation of their obligations un- der the League Constitu- tion such nations would be committing an act of war against the United States and all the other members of the League. The entire subject would then be submitted to Con- gress by the President for appropriate action in accordance with the Con- stitution of the United States, which vests in 82 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Congress the sole power to declare war. (Art. XVI) THREATENING INTERNATIONAL SITUATIONS 39. Q. H o w may the League treat inter- national situations which might result in war ? 40. Q. 41. Q. What steps would be taken in the event of a dispute between a member of the League and a non- member ? What steps would be taken in the event of a dispute between states neither of which is a member of the League? A. Such situations are de- clared a matter of con- cern to the League and it may take any action to safeguard the peace of nations without waiting for a definite rupture. (Art. XI) A. The non-member first would be invited to ac- cept the obligations and rights of membership for the purpose of the dis- pute — and the procedure would be the same as be- tween member states. If the non-member state re- fuses and resorts to war the League would treat it as an offending state as under Article XVI. (Art. XVII) A. Each state would be in- vited to accept the obliga- tions and privileges of membership for the pur- pose of the dispute. If one accepted and the oth- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 83 er refused the one accept- ing would be treated as a member of the League and the other as an of- fending state. If neither should accept the Council would take such steps as would result in settle- ment or prevent hostil- ities. (Art. XVII) INVASION OF TERRITORY 42. Q. What is the nature of the agreement among the nations as to invasion of terri- tory or attacks upon members of the League? As a further inducement to peace and as an elimi- nation of causes of war, each member of the League agrees not only to respect but to preserve as against external aggres- sion the territorial integ- rity and existing political independence of all mem- bers of the League. As most of the territory in the world will be in- cluded within the juris- diction of the League and, consequently, sub- ject to the agreement that all such territory shall be preserved as against ex- ternal aggression, and as each state agrees to re- spect the territorial integ- 84 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS rity and existing political independence of such ter- ritories, there is removed practically all of the temptation toward terri- torial expansion. One state cannot now conquer and subdue another, nor can it annex, without the consent of the other, any part of its territory. The use of the word "exter- nal" operates to exclude from interference by the League of Nations any uprising or disturbance within a state which is its own private business. (Art. X) RIGHTS OF REVOLUTION 43. Q. How does this provi- A. The right of revolution sion affect the right against oppressive inter- of the people of any nal authority r^nains im- state, dominion, col- affected and unimpaired, ony or possession, to The members of the rebel against the es- League would not take tablished govern- cognizance of civil war ment? unless it threatened the peace of the world. (Art. X) SECRET TREATIES 44. Q. Are secret treatiesA. No; the members of the between nations pos- League agree to deposit THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 88 sible hereafter under the conditions of the League covenant ? with the Secretary-Gen- eral of the League all treaties or agreements in any form, entered into by any such nations, and such treaties are then to be published. No treaties are to be binding unless so registered. (Art. XVIII) 45. Q. What provision is made with respect to treaties which are in- consistent with the Constitution of the League? The members of the League agree that the Constitution of the League shall be accepted as abrc^ting all such treaties. They also agree not to enter into any such treaties. (Art. XX) MONROE DOCTRINE 46. Q. What is the provi- sion of the covenant sustaining the Mon- roe Doctrine ? A. Article XXI reads: "Nothing in this cove- nant shall be deemed to aflfect the validity of in- ternational engagements such as treaties of arbi- tration or regional under- standings like the Mon- roe Doctrine for securing the maintenance of peace." (Art. XXI) 86 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ICANDATORIES 47. Q. What is meant by mandatories ? 48. Q. Is it necessary for any nation to be a mandatory ? A. It is proposed that cer- tain colonies, and terri- tories, formerly under the control of Germany and Turkey shall be taken over by the League, to be placed under the author- ity of a member of the League, which shall ad- minister them as a trus- tee for the League. (Art. XXII) A. No; not unless it is will- ing. (Art. XXII) VOTING STKENGTH 49. Q. Would it be possible for combinations to be made against the United States in the Assembly or in the Coimcil? No. It is stipulated in Article V, that except where otherwise express- ly provided, decisions at any meeting of the As- sembly or Council shall require the agreement of all the members of each, consequently the United States could not be bound against its will. The Council is the governing body, and the United States must assent to any act of the Council before it can be made more than THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 87 advisory. The Assembly can pass upon the ques- tion of admission of member states, on which a two-thirds majority is required. It shall also determine how four rep- resentatives on the Coun- cil shall be chosen, — that is to say, the representa- tives, aside from those named by the United States, the British Em- pire, France, Italy and Japan. In the case of a reference of a dispute to the Assembly the assent of the United States would be required, if the finding or report is to be more than advisory. (Art. V) AMENDMENTS 50. Q. How may the Con- A. Amendments must be stitution of the ratified by every nation League be amended ? represented on the Coun- cil and by a majority of the other members of the League. No amendment will be binding on the United States until it is ratified by the United States Senate. (Art. XXV) THE GREATEST TRIUMPH OF OUR TIME. "In truth the nations of Europe are a family. Some one of them is likely, if not certain, from time to time to be the strongest, either by inherent power or by favoring oppor- tunity. To this strength great influence will attach, and great power over the lot of others. Such influence and power jnay be abused. In one important respect Germany may be peculiarly open to temptation to abuse the power which she has undoubtedly acquired. But whether they do or not, it is idle to believe that they have before them a career of uni- versal conquest or absolute predominance, and that the Euro- pean family is not strong enough to correct the eccentricities -of its peccant and obstreperous members. Certain it is that ■a. new law of nations is gradually taking hold of the mind, and coming to sway the practice of the world; a law which recognizes independence, which frowns upon aggression, -which favors the pacific, not the bloody settlement of dis- putes, which aims at permanent, not temporary' adjustments ; ■above all, which recognizes as a tribunal of paramount au- .thority, the general judgment of civilized mankind. It has •censured the aggression of France; it will censure, if need arise, the greed of Germany. 'Free from partiality is the judgment of the world.' It is hard for all nations to go astray. Their ecumenical judgment sits above the partial passions of those who are misled by interest and disturbed by quarrel. The greatest triumph of our time will be the en- thronement of this idea of public rt-ght as the governing prin- ciple of European policy." Wm. E. Gladstone (1870). "The intelligence which has converted the brother of the wolf into the faithful guardian of the flock ought to be able to do something towards curbing the in- stincts of savagery in civilized men." — Huxley EXPLANATIONS Purpose of League of Nations (Paris) . . . .President Wilson Presentation of the Covenant (Paris) President Wilson Report to America (Boston) President Wilson The Sentiment of America (New York) . . .President Wilson Statement of Changes Made (Paris) President Wilson ON REFUSAL OF AID BETWEEN NATIONS "Not that the earth is changing, O my God! Nor that the seasons totter in their walk, — Not that the virulent ill of act and talk Seethes ever as a winepress ever trod, — Not therefore are we certain that the rod Weight in thine hand to smite thy world; though now Beneath thine hand so many nations bow, So many kings; — not therefore, O my God! — But because Man is parcelled out in men To-day; because, for any wrongful blow No man not stricken asks, 'I would be told Why thou dost thus'; but his heart whispers then, 'He is he, I am I.' By this we know That the earth falls asunder, being old." R06SETT1 THE PURPOSE OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (Peace Conference, Paris, January 25, 1919.) by president wilson Mr. Chairman: I consider it a distinguished privilege to be permitted to open the discussion in this conference on the league of na- tions. We have assembled for two purposes, to make the present settlements which have been rendered necessary by this war, and also to secure the peace of the world, not only by the present settlements but by the arrangements we shall make at this conference for its maintenance. The league of nations seems to me to be necessary for both of these pur- poses. There are many complicated questions connected with the present settlements which perhaps can not be success- fully worked out to an ultimate issue by the decisions we shall arrive at here. I can easily conceive that many of these settlements will need subsequent reconsideration, that many of the decisions we make shall need subsequent alteration in some degree ; for, if I may judge by my own study of some of these questions, they are not susceptible of confident judg- ments at present. It is, therefore, necessary that we should set up some machinery by which the work of this conference should be rendered complete. We have assembled here for the pur- pose of doing very much more than making the present set- tlements. We are assembled under very peculiar conditions of world opinion. I may say without straining the point that we are not representatives of Governments, but representa- 91 92 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS tives of peoples. It will not suffice to satisfy governmental circles anywhere. It is necessary that we should satisfy the opinion of mankind. The burdens of this war have fallen in an unusual degree upon the whole population of the countries involved. I do not need to draw for you the picture of how the burden has been thrown back from the front upon the older men, upon the women, upon the children, upon the homes of the civilized world, and how the real strain of the war has come where the eye of government could not reach, but where the heart of humanity beats. We are bidden by these people to make a peace which will make them secure. We are bidden by these people to see to it that this strain does not come upon them again, and I venture to say that it has been possible for them to bear this strain because they hoped that those who represented them could get together after this war and make such another sacrifice unnecessary. It is a solemn obligation on our part, therefore, to make permanent arrangements that justice shall be rendered and peace maintained. This is the central object of our meetmg. Settlements may be temporary, but the action of the nations in the interest of peace and justice must be permanent. We can set up permanent processes. We may not be able to set up permanent decisions. Therefore, it seems to me that we must take, so far as we can, a picture of the world into our minds. Is it not a startling circumstance, for one thing, that the great discoveries of science, that the quiet studies of men in laboratories, that the tlioughtful developments which have taken place in quiet lecture rooms, have now been turned to the destruction of civilization? The powers of destruction have not so much multiplied as gained facility. The enemy whom we have just overcome had at his seats of learning some of the principal centers of scientific study and discovery, and he used them in order to make destruction sudden and complete; and only the watchful, continuous cooperation of THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 98 men can see to it that science as well as anned men is kept within the harness of civilization. In a sense the United States is less interested in this sub- ject than the other nations here assembled. With her great territory and her extensive sea borders, it is less likely that the United States should suffer from the attack of enemies than that many of the other nations here should suffer; and the ardor of the United States — for it is a very deep and genuine ardor — for the society of nations is not an ardor springing out of fear or apprehension, but an ardor springing out of the ideals which have come to consciousness in this war. In coming into this war the United States never for a moment thought that she was intervening in the politics of Europe or the politics of Asia or the politics of any part of the world. Her thought was that all the world had now become conscious that there was a single cause which turned upon the issues of this war. That was the cause of justice and of liberty for men of every kind and place. Therefore, the United States should feel that its part in this war had been played in vain if there ensued upon it merely a body of European settlements. It would feel that it could not take part in guaranteeing those European settlements unless that guaranty involved the continuous superintendence of the peace of the world by the associated nations of the world. Therefore, it seems to me that we must concert our best judgment in order to make this League of Nations a vital thing — not merely a formal thing, not an occasional thing, not a thing sometimes called into life to meet an exigency, but always functioning in watchful attendance upon the inter- ests of the nations — and that its continuity should be a vital continuity; that it should have functions that are continuing functions and that do not permit an intermission of its watch- fulness arid of its labor; that it should be the eye of the na- tions to keep watch upon the common interest, an eye that 94 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS does not slumber, an eye that is everywhere watchful and attentire. And if we do not make it vital, what shall we do? We shall disappoint the expectations of the peoples. This is what their thought centers upon. I have had the very de- lightful experience of visiting several nations since I came to this side of the water, and every time the voice of the body of the people reached me through any representative, at the front of its plea stood the hope for the League of Na- tions. Gentlemen, the select classes of mankind are no longer the governors of mankind. The fortunes of mankind are now in the hands of the plain people of the whole world. Satisfy them, and you have justified their confidence not only but established peace. Fail to satisfy them, and no arrange- ment that you can make will either set up or steady the peace of the world. You can imagine, gentlemen, I dare say, the sentiments and the purpose with which representatives of the United States support this great project for a league of nations. We regard it as the keystone of the whole program which expressed our purposes and ideals in this way and which the associated natons have accepted as the basis of the settlement. If we returned to the United States without having made every effort in our power to realize this program, we should return to meet the merited scorn of our fellow citizens. For they are a body that constitutes a great democracy. They expect their leaders to speak their thoughts and no private purpose of their own. They expect their representatives to be their servants. We have no choice but to obey their mandate. But it is with the greatest enthusiasm and pleasure that we accept that mandate; and because this is the keystone of the whole fabric, we have pledged our every purpose to it, as we have to every item of the fabric. We would not dare abate a single part of the program which constitutes our in- struction. We would not dare compromise upon any matter THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 93 as the champion of this thing — this peace of the world, this attitude of justice, this principle that we are the masters of no people but are here to see that every people in the world shall choose its own masters and govern its own des- tinies, not as we wish but as it wishes. We are here to see, in short, that the very foundations of this war are swept away. Those foundations were the private choice of small coteries of civil rulers and military staffs. Those founda- tions were the aggression of great powers upon the small. Those foundations were the holding together of empires of unwilling subjects by the duress of arms. Those foundations were the power of small bodies of men to work their will upon mankind and use them as pawns in a game. And noth- ing less than the emancipation of the world from these things will accompUsh peace. You can see that the representatives of the United States are, therefore, never put to the embar- rassment of choosing a way of expediency, because they have laid down for them the unalterable lines of principle. And, thank God, those lines have been accepted as the lines of settlement by all the high-minded men who have had to do with the beginnings of this great business. I hope, Mr. Chairman, that when it is known, as I feel confident it will be known, that we have adopted the principle of the League of Nations and mean to work out that prin- ciple in effective action, we shall by that single thing have lifted a great part of the load of anxiety from the hearts of men everywhere. We stand in a peculiar case. As I go about the streets here I see everywhere the American uni- form. Those men came into the war after we had uttered our purposes. They came as crusaders, not merely to win a war, but to win a cause; and I am responsible to them, for it fell to me to formulate the purposes for which I asked them to fight, and I, like them, must be a crusader for these things, whatever it costs and whatever it may be neceSsary to do, in honor, to accomplish the object for which they 96 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS fought. I have been glad to find from day to day that there is no question of our standing alone in this matter, for there are champions of this cause upon every hand. I am merely avowing this in order that you may understand why, per- haps, it fell to us, who are disengaged from the politics of this great Continent and of the Orient, to suggest that this was the keystone of the arch and why it occurred to the gen- erous mind of our president to call upon me to open this debate. It is not because we alone represent this idea, but because it is our privilege to associate ourselves with you in representing it. I have only tried in what I have said to give you the foun- tains of the enthusiasm which is within us for this thing, for those fountains spring, it seems to me, from all the ancient wrongs and sympathies of mankind, and the very pulse of the world seems to beat to the surface in this enterprise. PRESENTATION OF THE COVENANT (Paris, Feb. 15, 1919.) by woodrow wilson Me. Chairman : I have the honor — and assume it a very great privilege — of reporting in the name of the commission constituted by this conference on the formulation of a plan for the League of Nations. I am happy to say that it is a unanimous report, a unanimous report from the representatives of fourteen nations — ^the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czecho-Slovakia, Greece, Po- land, Portugal, Rumania and Serbia. I think it will be serv- iceable and interesting if I may, with your permission, read the document as the only report we have to make. President Wilson then read the draft. When he reached Article XV, and had read through the second paragraph, the President paused and said : "I pause to point out that a misconception might arise in connection with one of the sentences I have just read — "if any party shall refuse to comply, the council shall propose measures necessary to give effect to the recommendations.' "A case in point, a purely hypothetical case, is this : Sup- pose there is in the possession of a particular power a piece of territory, or some other substantial thing in dispute, to which it is claimed that it is not entitled. Suppose that the matter is submitted to the Executive Council for recommen- dation as to the settlement of the dispute, diplomacy having 97 98 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS failed, and suppose that the decision is in favor of the party which claims the subject-matter of dispute, as against the party which has the subject-matter in dispute. "Then, if the party in possession of the subject-matter in dispute merely sits still and does nothing, it has accepted the decision of the council in the sense that it makes no resist- ance, but something must be done to see that it surrenders the subject-matter in dispute. "In such a case, the only case contemplated, it is provided that the Executive Council may then consider what steps will be necessary to oblige the party against whom judgment has been given to comply with the decisions of the council." After having read Article XIX, President Wilson also stopped and said : "Let me say that before being embodied in this document this was the subject-matter of a very careful discussion by representatives of the five greater parties, and that their unanimous conclusion is the matter embodied in this article." UNANIMITY OF PURPOSE After having read the entire document. President Wilson continued as follows: "It gives me pleasure to add to this formal reading of the result of our labors that the character of the discussion which occurred at the sittings of the commission was not only of the most constructive but of the most encouraging sort. It was obvious throughout our discussions that, although there were subjects upon which there were individual diflEerences of judgment, with regard to the method by which our objects should be obtained, there was practically at no point any serious differences of opinion or motive as to the objects which we were seeking. Indeed, while these debates were not made the opportunity for the expression of enthusiasm and sentiments, I think the other members of the commission will THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 99 agree with me that there was an undertone of high respect and of enthusiasm for the thing we were trying to do, which was heartening throughout every meeting. "It was because we felt that in a way this Conference did intrust unto us the expression of one of its highest and most important purposes, to see to it that the concord of the world in the future with regard to the objects of justice should not be subject to doubt or uncertainty ; that the cooperation of the great body of nations should be assured in the maintenance of peace upon terms of honor and of international obligations. The compulsion of that task was constantly upon us, and at no point was there shown the slightest desire to do anything but suggest the best means to accomplish the great object. "There is very great significance, therefore, in the fact that the result was reached unanimously. Fourteen nations were represented, among them all of those powers which for con- venience we have called the great powers, and among the rest a representation of the greatest variety of circumstances and interests. So that I think we are justified in sapng that the significance of the result, therefore, has the deepest of all meanings, the union of wills in a common purpose, a union of wills which cannot be resisted, and which, I dare say, no nation will run the risk of attempting to resist. LEAGUE OF SIMPLE STRUCTURE "Now as to the character of the document. While it has consumed some time to read this document, I think you will see at once that it is very simple, and in nothing so simple as in the structure which it suggests for a League of Nations — a Body of Delegates, an Executive Council and a Permanent Secretariat. "When it came to the question of determining the character of the representation in the Body of Delegates, we were all aware of a feeling which is current throughout the world. 100 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Inasmuch as I am stating it in the presence of the official representatives of the various Governments here present, in- cluding myself, I may say that there is a universal feeling that the world cannot rest satisfied with merely official guid- ance. There has reached us through many channels the feel- ing that if the deliberating body of the League of Nations was merely to be a body of officials representing the various Governments, the peoples of the world would not be sure that some of the mistakes which preoccupied officials had admit- tedly made might not be repeated. It was impossible to con- ceive a method or an assembly so large and various as to be really representative of the great body of the peoples of the world, because, as I roughly reckon it, we represent, as we sit around this table, more than twelve hundred million people. You cannot have a representative assembly of 11,200,000,000 people ; but if you leave it to each Government to have, if it pleases, one or two or three representatives, though only with a single vote, it may vary its representation from time to time, not only, but it may originate the choice of its several representatives. . . . VARIETY OF REPRESENTATION "Therefore, we thought that this was a proper and very prudent concession to the practically universal opinion of plain men, everything that everyone wanted, the door left open to a variety of representation, instead of being confined to a single official body with which they could or might not find themselves in sympathy. "And you will notice that this body has unlimited rights of discussion — I mean of discussion of anything that falls within the field of international relations — and that it is especially agreed that war or international misunderstandings, or any- thing that may lead to friction or trouble is everybody's busi- ness, because it may affect the peace of the world. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 101 "And in order to safeguard the popular power, so far as we could, of this representative body, it is provided, you will notice, that when a subject is submitted it is not to arbitra- tion, but to discussion by the Executive Council. It can, upon the initiative of either of the parties to the dispute, be drawn out of the Executive Council to the larger forum of the general Body of Delegates ; because through this instru- ment we are depending primarily and chiefly upon one great force, and this is the moral force of the public opinion of the world — the pleasing and clarifying and compelling in- fluences of publicity; so that intrigues can no longer have their coverts, so that designs that are sinister can at any time be drawn into the open, so that those things that are destroyed by the light may be promptly destroyed by the overwhelming light of the universal expression of the con- demnation of the world. "Armed force is in the background in this program, but it is in the background ; and if the moral force of the world will not sufiSce, the physical force of the world shall. But that is the last resort, because this is intended as a constitution of peace, not as a league of war. VEHICLE OF LIFE, NOT STRAITJACKET "The simplicity of the document seems to be one of its chief virtues, because, speaking for myself, I was unable to see the variety of circumstances, with which this League would have to deal. I was unable, therefore, to plan all the machinery that might be necessary to meet the differing and unexpected contingencies. Therefore, I should say of this document that it -is not a straitjacket, but a vehicle of life. A living thing is born, and we must see to it what clothes we put on it. "It is not a vehicle of power, but a vehicle in which power 102 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS may be varied at the discretion of those who exercise it and in accordance with the changing circumstances of the time. And yet, while it is elastic, while it is general in its terms, it is definite in the one thing that we were called upon to make definite. It is a definite guaranty of peace. It is a definite guaranty by word against aggression. It is a definite guaranty against the things which have just come near bring- ing the whole structure of civilization into ruin. Its purposes do not for a moment lie vague. Its purposes are declared, and its powers are unmistakable. It is not in contemplation that this should be merely a League to secure the peace of the world. It is a League which can be used for cooperation in any international matter. LABOR GIVEN NEW STATUS "That is the significance of the provision introduced con- cerning labor. There are many ameliorations of labor con- ditions which can be effected by conference and discussion. I anticipate that there will be a very great usefulness in the bureau of labor which it is contemplated shall be set up by the League. Men and women and children who work have been in the background through long ages and sometimes seemed to be forgotten, while Governments have had their watchful and suspicious eyes upon the maneuvers of one an- other, while the thought of statesmen has been about struc- tural action and the larger transactions of commerce and of finance. Now, if I may believe the Picture which I see there comes into the foreground the great body of the laboring people of the world, the men and the women and the children upon whom the great burden of sustaining the world must from day to day fall, whether we wish it to do so or not; people who go to bed tired and wake up without the stimula- tion of lively hope. These people will be drawn into the field THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 303 of international consultation and help, and will be among the wards of the combined Governments of the world. There is, I take leave to say, a very great step in advance in the mere conception. TREATIES MUST BE PUBLISHED "Then, as you will notice, there is an imperative article con- cerning the publicity of all international agreements. Hence- forth no member of the League can claim any agreement valid which has not been registered with the Secretary-Gen- eral, in whose office, of course, it will be subject to the exam- ination of anybody representing a member of the League. And the duty is laid upon the Secretary-General to publish every document of that sort at the earliest possible time. I suppose most persons who have not been conversant with the business of foreign affairs do not realize how many hundreds of these agreements are made in a single year, and how dif- ficult it might be to publish the more unimportant of them immediately, how uninteresting it would be to most of the world to publish them immediately; but even they must be published just as soon as it is possible for the Secretary- General to publish them. PROTECTION OF SMALL NATIONS "Then there is a feature about this covenant which, to my mind, is one of the greatest and most satisfactory advances that has been made. We are done with annexations of help- less people, meant, in some instances by some powers, to be used merely for exploitation. We recognize in the most solemn manner that the helpless and undeveloped peoples of the world, being in that condition, put an obligation upon us to look after their interests primarily, before we use them for our interests, and that in all cases of this sort hereafter 104 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS it shall be the duty of the League to see that the nations who are assigned as the tutors and advisers and directors of these peoples shall look to their interests and their development before they look to the interests and desires of the mandatory nation itself. "There has been no greater advance than this, gentlemen. If you look back upon the history of the world you will see how helpless peoples have too often been a prey to powers that had no conscience in the matter. It has been one of the many distressing revelations of recent years that the great power which has just been, happily, defeated, put intol- erable burdens and injustices upon the helpless people in some of the colonies which it annexed to itself, that its interest was rather their extermination than their development; that the desire was to possess their land for European purposes, and not to enjoy their confidence in order that mankind might be lifted in these places to the next higher level. "Now, the world, expressing its conscience in law, says there is an end to that, that our conscience shall be settled t» this thing. States will be picked out which have already shown that they can exercise a conscience in this matter, and under their tutelage the helpless peoples of the world will come into a new light and into a new hope. SYMPATHY IN IT "So I think I can say of this document that it is at one and the same time a practical document and a human document. There is a pulse of sympathy in it. There is a compulsion of conscience throughout it. It is practical, and yet it is in- tended to purify, to rectify, to elevate. "And I want to say that so far as my observation instructs me, this is in one sense a belated document. I beUeve that the conscience of the world has long been prepared to express THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 105 itself in some way. We are not just now discovering our sympathy for these people and our interest in them. We are simply expressing it, for it has long been felt and in the administration of the affairs of more than one of the great states represented here — so far as I know, all the great states that are represented here — that humane impulse has already expressed itself in their dealings with their colonies, whose peoples were yet at a low stage of civilization. A COVENANT OF FRIENDSHIP "We have had many instances of colonies lifted into the sphere of complete self-government. This is not the discovery of a principle. It is the universal application of a principle. It is the agreement of the great nations which have tried ta live by these standards in their separate administrations to unite in seeing that their common force and their common thought and intelligence are lent to this great and humane enterprise. I think it is an occasion, therefore, for the most profound satisfaction that this humane decision should be reached in a matter for which the world has long been waiting and until a very recent period thought that it was still too early to hope. "Many terrible things have come out of this war, gentle- men, but some very beautiful things have come out of it. Wrong has been defeated, but the rest of the world has been more conscious than it was ever before of the superiority of right. People that were suspicious of one another can now live as friends and comrades in a single family, and desire to do so. The miasma of distrust, of intrigue, is cleared away. Men are looking eye to eye and saying, 'We are brothers and have a common purpose. We did not realize it before, but now we do realize it, and this is our covenant of friend- ship.' " REPORT TO AMERICA (Address at Boston, February 24, 1919) by president wilson "Governor Coolidge, Mr. Mayor, Fellow Citizens: "I wonder if you are half as glad to see me as I am to see you. It warms my heart to see a great body of my fellow citizens again because in some respects during recent months I have been very lonely, indeed, without your comradeship and counsel, and I tried at every step of the work which fell to me to recall what I was sure would be your counsel with regard to the great matters which were under consideration. GREETING NOT PERSONAL "I do not want you to think that I have not been apprecia- tive of the extraordinary generous reception which was given me on the other side, in saying it makes me very happy to get home again. I don't mean to say I wasn't very deeply touched by the cries that came from greater crowds on the other side. But I want to say to you in all honesty, I felt them to be the call of greeting to you rather than to me. I did not feel that greeting was personal. I had in my heart the overcrowning pride of being your representative and of receiving the plau- dits of men everywhere who felt that your hearts beat with theirs in the cause of liberty. There was no mistaking the tone in the voices of these great crowds. It was not the tone of mere greeting, it was not the tone of mere generous Avel- come, it was the calling of comrade to comrade, the cry that 106 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 107 comes from men who say we have waited for this day when the friends of liberty should come across the sea and shake hands with us to see that the new world was constructed upon a new basis and foundation of justice and right. VOICES OF THE CROWD "I can't tell you the inspiration that came from the senti- ments that came out of these simple voices of the crowd. And the proudest thing I have to report to you is that this great country of ours is trusted throughout the world. I have not come to report the proceedings or results of the pro- ceedings of the peace conference — that would be premature. I can say that I have received very happy impressions from this conference, impressions that while there are many dif- ferences of judgment, while there are some divergencies of object, there is nevertheless a common spirit and a common realization of the necessity of setting up a new standard of right in the world. Because the men who are in conference in Paris realize as keenly as any American can realize that they are not masters of their people, that they are servants of their people, and that the spirit of their people has awakened to a new purpose and a new conception of their power to realize that purpose, and that no man dare go home from that conference and report anything less noble than was expected of it. SLOWNESS IN PARIS "The conference seems to you to go slowly; from day to day in Paris it seems to go slowly, but I wonder if you realize the complexity of the task which is undertaken. It seems as if the settlements of this war affect, and affect directly, every great, and I sometimes think every small, nation in the world. And no one decision can prudently be made which is not properly linked in with the great series of other deci- 108 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS sions which must accompany it, and it must be reckoaed in with the final result if the real quality and character of that result is to be properly judged. MUST HEAR ALL SIDES "What we are doing is to hear the whole case, hear it from the mouths of the men most interested, hear it from these who are officially commissioned to state it, hear the rival claims, hear the claims that affect new nationalities, that affect new areas of the world, that affect new commercial and economic connections that have been established by the great world war through which we have gone. And I have been struck by the moderateness of those who have repre- sented national claims. I can testify that I have nowhere seen the gleam of passion. I have seen earnestness, I have seen tears come to the eyes of men who plead for down-trodden people whom they were privileged to speak for, but they were not tears of anger, they were tears of ardent hope ; and I don't see how any man can fail to have been subdued by these pleas, subdued to this feeling that he was not there to assert an individual judgment of his own but to try to assist the cause of humanity. SEEK THE UNITED STATES "And in the midst of it all every interest seeks out first of all when it reaches Paris the representatives of the United States. Why? Because — and I think I am stating the most wonderful fact in history — because there is no nation in Europe that suspects the motives of the United States. Was there ever so wonderful a thing seen before? Was there ever so moving a thing? Was there ever any fact that tio bound the Nation that had won that esteem forever to deserve it ? I would not have you understand that the great mea who THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 109 represent the other nations there in conference are dises- teemed by those who know them. Quite the contrary. But you understand that the nations of Europe have again and again clashed with one another in competitive interest. It is impossible for men to forget these sharp issues that were drawn between them in times past. It is impossible for men to believe that all ambitions have all of a sudden been foregone. They remember territory that was coveted, they remember rights it was attempted to extort, remember politi- cal ambitions which it was attempted to realize, and while tliey believe men have come into different temper they cannot forget these things, and so they don't resort to one another for dispassionate view of matters in controversy. RESORT TO FRIENDLY NATION "They resort to that nation which has won enviable distinc- tion being regarded as the friend of mankind. Whenever it is desired to send a small force of soldiers to occupy a piece of territory where it is thought nobody else will be welcome they ask for American soldiers. And where other soldiers would be looked upon with suspicion and perhaps met with resist- ance, the American soldier is welcomed with acclaim. I have had so many grounds for pride on the other side of the water that I am very thankful that they are not grounds for personal pride, but for national pride. PRIDE IN THE U. S. SOLDIER "If they were grounds for personal pride, I'd be the most stuck-up man in the world. And it has been an infinite pleas- ure to me to see these gallant soldiers of ours, of whom the Constitution of the United States made me the proud com- mander. Everybody praises the American soldier with the feeling that in praising him he is subtracting from the credit no THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS of no one else. I have been searching for the fundamental fact that converted Europe to believe in us. Before this war Europe did not believe in us as she does now. She did not believe in us throughout the first three years of- the war. She seems really to have believed that we were holding off because we thought we could make more by staying out than by going in. And all of a sudden, in short, i8 months, the whole verdict is reversed. There can be but one explanation for it. They saw what we did, that without making a single claim we put all our men and all our means at the disposal of these who were fighting for their homes in the first in- stance, but for the cause — the cause of human right and justice — and that we went in, not to support their national claims, but to support the great cause which they held in common. And when they saw that America not only held the ideals but acted the ideals, they were converted to Amer^ ica and became firm partisans of those ideals. THE REFLEX OF TIME "I met a group of scholars when I was in Paris. Some gentlemen from one of the Greek universities who had come to see me and in whose presence, or rather in the presence of the traditions of learning, I felt very young indeed. And I told them that I had had one of the delightful revenges that sometimes come to men. All my life I have heard men speak with a sort of condescension of ideals and of idealists, and particularly of those separated, encloistered persons whom they choose to term academic, who were in the habit of uttering ideals in a free atmosphere when they clash with nobody in particular. And I said I have had this sweet re- venge. Speaking with perfect frankness in the name of the people of the United States I have uttered as the objects of this great war ideals and nothing but ideals, and the war has been won by that inspiration. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 111 CHANGE IN FIGHTING MEN "Men were fighting with tense muscle and lowered head until they came to realize those things, feeling they were fight- ing for their lives and their country, and when these accents of what it was all about reached them from America they lifted their heads, they raised their eyes to heaven, then they saw men in khaki coming across sea in spirit of crusad- ers, and they found these were strange men, reckless of dan- ger not only, but reckless because they seemed to see some- thing that made that danger worth while. Men have testi- fied to me in Europe that our men were possessed by some- thing that they could only call religious fervor. They were not like any of the other soldiei's. They had vision, they had dream, and they were fighting in dream, and fighting in dream they turned the whole tide of battle and it never came back. And now do you realize that this confidence we have estab- lished throughout the world imposes a burden upon us — if you choose to call it a burden? It is one of those burdens which any nation ought to be proud to carry. Any man who resists the present tides that run in the world will find him- self thrown upon a shore so high and barren that it will seem as if he had been, separated from his human kind forever. THE EUROPE OF TO-DAY "Europe that I left the other day was full of something that it had never felt fill its heart so full before. It was full of hope. The Europe of the second year of the war, the Europe of the third year of the war, was sinking to a sort of stub- bom desperation. They did not see any great thing to be achieved even when the war should be won. They hoped there would be some salvage; they hoped they could clear their territories of invading armies ; they hoped they could set up their homes and start their industries afresh. But they 112 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS thought it would simply be a resumption of the old life that Europe had led — led in fear, led in anxiety, led in constant suspicion and watchfulness. They never dreamed that it would be a Europe of settled peace and justified hope. And now these ideals have wrought this new magic that all the peoples of Europe are buoyed up and confident in the spirit of hope, because they believe that we are at the eve of a new age i-n the world, when nations will understand one another ; when nations will support one another in every just cause; when nations will unite every moral and every physical strength to see that right shall prevail. If America were at this juncture to fail the world, what would come of it? AMERICA HOPE OF THE WORLD "I do not mean any disrespect to any other great people when I say that America is the hope of the world. And if she does not justify that hope results are unthinkable. Men will be thrown back upon bitterness of disappointment not only, but bitterness of despair. All nations will be set up as hostile camps again; men at the peace conference will go home with their heads upon their breasts, knowing they have failed — for they were bidden not to come home from there until they did something more than sign the treaty of peace. Suppose we sign the treaty of peace and that it is the most satisfactory treaty of peace that the confusing elements of the modem world will afford and go home and think about our labors we will know that we have left written upon the historic table at Versailles, upon which Vergennes and Ben- jamin Franklin wrote their names, nothing but a modern scrap of paper, no nations united to defend it, no great forces combined to make it good, no assurance given to the down- trodden and fearful people of the world that they shall be safe. Any man who thinks that America will take part in giving the world any such rebuff and disappointment as that THE LEAGUE OF yjTIGNS 113 does not know America. I invite him to test the sentiments of the Nation. "We set this Nation up to make men free and we did not confine our conception and pui-pose to America, and now we will make men free. If we did not do that all the fame of America would be gone and all her power would be dis- sipated. She would then have to keep her power for those narrow, selfish, provincial purposes which seem so dear to some minds that have no sweep beyond the nearest horizon. I should welcome no sweeter challenge than that. I have fighting blood in me and it is sometimes a delight to let it have scope, but if it is challenged on this occasion it will be an indulgence. Think of the picture, think of the utter black- ness that would fall on the world! America has failed! America made a little essay at generosity and then withdrew ! America said, 'We are your friends,' but it was only for to-day, not for to-morrow ! America said, 'Here is our power to vindicate right,' and then next day said, 'Let right take care of itself and we will take care of ourselves.' America said, 'We set up light to lead men along the paths of liberty, but we have lowered it — it is intended only to light our own path.' LIBERTY, TRUE AND IDEAL , "We set up a great ideal of liberty, and then we said 'Liberty is a thing that you must win for yourself.' Do not call upon us and think of the world that we would leave. Do you realize how many new nations are going to be set up in the presence of old and powerful nations in Europe and left there, and if left by us, without a disinterested friend? Do you believe in the Polish cause as I do ? Are you going to set up Poland, immature, inexperienced, as yet unorgan- ized, and leave her with a circle of armies around her? Do you believe in the aspirations of the Czecho-Slovaks and Jugo-Slavs as I do? Do you know how many powers would 114 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS be quick to pounce upon them if there were not guarantees of the world behind their liberty ? Have you thought of the sufferings of Armenia ? You poured out your money to help succor Armenians after they suffered. Now set up your strength so that they shall never suffer again. WORLD PEACE TO GUARANTEE PEACE "Arrangements of the present peace can not stand a gen- eration unless they are guaranteed by the united forces of the civilized world. And if we do not guarantee them can you not see the picture? Your hearts have instructed you where the burden of this war fell. It did not fall upon national treasuries; it did not fall upon the instniments of administration ; it did not fall upon the resources of nations. It fell upon the voiceless homes everywhere, where women were toiling in hope that their men would come back. When I think of the homes upon which dull despair would settle if this great hope is disappointed, I should wish for my part never to have had America play any part whatever in this attempt to emancipate the world. "But I talk as if there were any question. I have no more doubt of the verdict of America in this matter than I have doubt of the blood that is in me. And so, my fellow citizens, I have come back to report progress, and I do not believe that progress is going to stop short of the goal. The nations of the world have set their heads now to do a great thing, and they are not going to slacken their purpose. And when I speak of the nations of the world, I do not speak of the gov- ernments of the world. I speak of peoples who constitute the nations of the world. They are in the saddle, and they are going to see to it that if their present governments do not do their will, some other governments shall. The secret is out, and present governments know it. There is a great deal of harmony to be got out of common knowledge. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS US "There is a great deal of sympathy to be got of living in the same atmosphere, and except for the differences of lan- guages, which puzzled my American ear very sadly, I could have believed I was at home in France or Italy or in England when I was on the streets, when I was in the presence of crowds, when I was in great halls where men were gathered irrespective of class. I did not feel quite as much at home there as I do here but I felt that now, at any rate, after this storm of war had cleared the air men were seeing, eye to eye, everywhere and that these were the kind of folks who would understand what the kind of folks at home would understand; that they were thinking the same things. GLAD TO "speak U. S." "It is a great comfort, for one thing, to realize that you all understand the language I am speaking. A friend of mine said that to talk through an interpreter was like witnessing the compound fracture of an idea. But the beauty of it is that whatever the impediments of the channel of communi- cation the idea is the same, that it gets registered, and it gets registered in responsive hearts and receptive purposes, I have come back for a strenuous attempt to transact business for a little while in America, but I have really come back to say to you, iii all soberness and honesty, that I have been trying my best to speak your thoughts. When I sample myself, I think I find that I am a typical American, and if I sample deep enough and get down to what probably is the true stuff of the men, then I have hope that it is part of the stuff that is like the other fellow's at home. And, there- fore, probing deep in my heart and trying to see things that are right without regard to the things that may be debated as expedient, I feel that I am interpreting the pur- pose and the thought of America; and in loving America I find I have joined the great majority of my fellowmen throughout the world." THE SENTIMENT OF AMERICA (Address at New York, March 4, 1919) by president wilson "My Fellow Citizens: "I accept the intimation of the air just played ('Over There'). I will not come back "till it's over, over there.' And yet I pray God in the interests of peace and of the world that that may be soon. "The first thing that I am going to tell the people on the other side of the water is that an overwhelming majority of the American people is in favor of the League of Na- tions. I know that that is true. I have had unmistakable intimations of it from all parts of the country, and the voice rings true in every case. I account myself fortunate to speak here under the unusual circumstances of this evening. I am happy to associate myself with Mr. Taft in this great cause. He has displayed an elevation of view and devotion to public duty which is beyond praise. NOT A PARTY ISSUE "And I am the more happy because this means that this isn't a party issue. No party has a right to appropriate this issue and no party will in the long run dare oppose it. "We have listened to so clear and admirable an exposition (Mr. Taft's address preceding the President) of many of the main features of the proposed Covenant of the League of Nations that it is perhaps not necessary for me to discuss 116 THS LEAGUE OF NATIONS 117 in any particular way the contents of the document. I will seek rather to give you its setting. I don't know when I have been more impressed than by the conferences of the commission set up by the conference of peace to draw up the Covenant for a League of Nations. The representatives of fourteen nations sat around that board — ^not young men, not men inexperienced in the affairs of their own coimtries, not men inexperienced in the politics of the world — and the inspiring influence of every meeting was the concurrence of purpose on the part of all those men to come to an agree- ment and an effective working agreement with regard to this league of the civilized world. CONVICTION FELT BY ALL "There was a conviction in the whole impulse, there was conviction of more than one sort, there was the conyiction that this thing ought to be done and there was also the con- viction that not a man there would venture to go home and say that he hadn't tried to do it. "Mr. Taft has set a picture for you of what failure of this great purpose would mean. We have been hearing, for all these weary months that this agony of war has lasted, of the sinister purpose of the Central Empires and we have made maps of the course t-hat they meant their conquests to take. Where did the lines of that map lie, of that central line that we used to call from Bremen to Bagdad ? They lay through these very regions to which Mr. Taft has called your atten- tion, but they lay then through a united empire. The Aus- tro-Hungarian Empire, whose integrity Germany was bound to respect as her ally, lay in the path of that line of con- quest; the Turkish Empire, whose interests she professed to make her own, lay in the direct path that she intended to tread. And now what has happened? The Austro-Hun- garian Empire has gone to pieces and the Turkish Empire has 118 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS disappeared, and the nations that effected that great result — for it was the result of liberation — are now responsible as the trustees of the assets of those great nations. You not only would have weak- nations lying in this path but you would have nations in which that old poisonous seed of intrigue could be planted with the certainty that the crop would be abundant; and one of the things that the League of Nations is intended to watch is the course of intrigue. Intrigue can not stand publicity, and if the League of Nations were noth- ing but a great debating society it would kill intrigue. EIGHT OF EVERY MEMBER NATION "It is one of the agreements of this covenant that it is the friendly right of every nation a member of the League to call attention to anything that it thinks will disturb the peace of the world, no matter where that thing is occurring. There is no subject that may touch the peace of the world which is exempt from inquiry and discussion, and I think everybody here present will agree with me that Germany would never have gone to war if she had permitted the world to discuss the aggression upon Serbia for a single week. The British foreign office pleaded that there might be a day or two delay so that representatives of the nations of Europe could get together and discuss the possibilities of a settlement. Ger- many did not dare permit a day's discussion. You know what happened. So soon as the world realized that an outlaw was at large the nations began, one by one, to draw together against her. We know for certainty that if Germany had thought |or a moment that Great Britain would go in with France and Russia she never would have undertaken the en- terprise, and the League of Nations is meant as notice to all outlaw nations that not only Great Britain, but the United States and the rest of the world will go in to check enterprises of that sort. And so the League of Nations is nothing more THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 119 nor less than the covenant that the world will always main- tain the standards which it has now vindicated by some of the most precious blood ever spilt. DEMANDED BY THE PEOPLE "The liberated peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Turkish Empire call out to us for this thing. It has not arisen in the councils of statesmen. Europe is a bit sick at heart at this very moment because it sees that the states- men have had no vision and that the only vision has been the vision of the people. Those who suffer see. Those against whom wrong is wrought know how desirable is the right of the righteous. Nations that have long been under the heel of Austria, that have long cowered before the German, that have long suffered the indescribable agonies of being governed by the Turk, have called out to the world genera- tion after generation for justice, liberation, and succor, and no cabinet in the world has heard them. Private organiza- tions, pitying hearts, philanthropic men and women, have poured out their treasure in order to relieve these sufferings, but no nation has said to the nations responsible, 'You must stop ; this thing is intolerable and we will not permit it.' And the vision has been with the people. My friends, I wish you would reflect upon this proposition; the vision as to what is necessary for great reforms has seldom come from the top in the nations of the world. It has come from the need and aspiration and self-assertion of great bodies of men who meant to be free. And I can explain some of the criticisms which have been leveled against this great enterprise only by the supposition that men who utter the criticisms have never felt the great pulse of the heart of the world. 120 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS NO STEMMING THE TIDE "And I ajn amazed — not alarmed but amazed — ^that there should be in some quarters such a comprehensive ignorance of the state of the world. These gentlemen don't know what the mind of men is just now. Everybody else does. I don't know where they have been closeted, I do not know by what influences they have been blinded, but I do know they have been separated from the general currents of the thought of mankind. "And I want to utter this solemn warning, not in the way of a threat; the forces of the world do not threaten, they operate. The great tides of the world do not give notice that they are going to rise and run; they rise in their majesty and overwhelming might, and those who stand in the way are overwhelmed. Now the heart of the world is awake and the heart of the world must be satisfied. Don't let yourselves suppose for a moment that uneasiness in the populations of Europe is due entirely to economic causes or economic motives ; something very much deeper underlies it all than that. They see that their Governments have never been able to defend them against intrigue or aggression, and that there is no force of foresight or of prudence in any modern cabinet to stop war. And therefore they say, 'There must be some fundamental cause for this,' and the fundamen- tal cause they are beginning to perceive to be that nations have stood singly or in little jealous groups against each other, fostering prejudice, increasing the danger of war rather than concerting measures to prevent it ; and that if there is right in the world, if there is justice in the world, there is no rea- son why nations should be divided in support of justice. WORLD LOOKING TO THE UNITED STATES "They are, therefore, saying if you really believe that there is a right, if you really believe that wars ought to be stopped, THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 121 stop thinking about the rival interests of nations and think about men and women and children throughout the world. Nations are not made to afford distinction to their rulers by way of success in the maneuvers of politics; nations are meant, if they are meant for an)^hing, to make the men, women, and children in them secure and happy and prosper- ous, and no nation has the right to set up its special interests against the interests and benefits of mankind, least of all this great Nation which we love. It was set up for the benefit of mankind ; it was set up to illustrate the highest ideals and to achieve the highest aspirations of men who wanted to be free ; and the world — the world of to-day — ^believes that and counts on us, and would be thrown back into the blackness of despair if we deserted it. "I have tried once and again, my fellow citizens, to say to little circles of friends or to larger bodies what seems to be the real hope of the peoples of Europe, and I tell you frankly I have not been able to do so, because when the thought tries to crowd itself into speech the profound emotion of the thing is too much ; speech will not carry. I have felt the tragedy of the hope of those suffering peoples. "It is a tragedy because it is a hope which can not be realized in its perfection and yet I have felt besides its tragedy its compulsion, its compulsion upon every living man to exercise every influence that he has to the utmost to see that as little as possible of that hope is disappointed because if men can not now, after this agony of bloody sweat, come to their self-possession and see how to regulate the affairs of the world we will sink back into a period of struggle in which there will be no hope and therefore no mercy. There can be no mercy where there is no hope, for why should you spare another if you yourself expect to perish? Why should you be pitiful if you can get no pity? Why should you be just if, upon every hand, you are put upon? "There is another thing which I think the critics of this 122 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS covenant have not observed. They not only have not ob- served the temper of the world but they have not even ob- served the temper of those splendid boys in khaki that they sent across the seas. I have had the proud consciousness of the reflected glory of those boys because the constitution made me their commander-in-chief and they have taught me some lessons. When we went into the war we went into it on the basis of declarations which it was my privilege to utter because I believed them to be an interpretation of the purpose and thought of the people of the United States. "And those boys went over there with the feeling that they were sacredly bound to the realization of those ideals; that they were not only going over there to beat Germany; they were not going over there merely with resentment in their hearts against a particular outlaw nation ; but that they were crossing those three thousand miles of sea in order to show to Europe that the United States, when it became neces- sary, would go anywhere where the rights of mankind were threatened. They would not sit still in the trenches. They would not be restrained by the prudence of experienced continental commanders. They thought they had come over there to do a particular thing, and they were going to do it and do it at once. And just as soon as that rush of spirit as well as the rush of body came in contact with the lines of the enemy they began to break, and they continued to break until the end. They continued to break, my fellow citizens, not merely because of the physical force of those lusty youngsters but because of the irresistible spiritual force of the armies of the United States. It was that that they felt. It was that that awed them. It was that that made them feel if these youngsters ever got a foothold they could never be dislodged, and that therefore every foot of ground that they won was permanently won for the liberty of mankind. "And do you suppose that, having felt that crusading spirit of these youngsters who went over there not to glorify Amer- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 128 ica but to serve their fellow men, I am going to permit myself for one moment to slacken in my effort to be worthy of them and of their cause? What I said at the opening I said with a deeper meaning than perhaps you have caught; I do not mean to come back until its over over there, and it must not be over until the nations of the world are assured of the permanency of peace. "Gentlemen on this side of the water would be very much profited by getting into communication with some gentlemen on the other side of the water. We sometimes think, my fel- low citizens, that the experienced statesmen of European na- tions are an unusually hardheaded set of men, by which we generally mean, although we do not admit it, they are a bit cynical; they say, 'This is a practical world,' by which you always mean that it is not an ideal world; that they do not believe things can be settled upon an ideal basis. Well, I never came into intimate contact with them before, but if they used to be that way they are not that way now. They have been subdued, if that was once their temper, by the awful significance of recent events and the awful importance of what is to ensue, and there is not one of them with whom I have come in contact who does not feel he can not in con- science return to his people from Paris unless he has done his utmost to do something more than attach his name to a treaty of peace. Every man in that conference knows the treaty of peace in itself will be inoperative, as Mr. Taft has said, without this constant support and energy of a great organization such as is supplied by the League of Nations. "And men who, when I first went over there, were skeptical of the possibility of forming a League of Nations, admitted that if we could but form it it would be an invaluable instrumentality through which to secure the operation of the various parts of the treaty ; and when that treaty comes back gentlemen on this side will find the Covenant not only in it, but so many threads of the treaty tied to the Covenant that 124 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS you can not dissect the Covenant from the treaty without destroying the whole vital structure. The structure of peace will not be vital without the League of Nations and no man is going to bring back a cadaver with him. Washington's words interpreted "Mr. Taft was speaking of Washington's utterance about entangling alliances, and if he will permit me to say so, he put the exactly right interpretation upon what Washington said, the interpretation that is inevitable if you read what he said, as most of these gentlemen do not. And the thing that he longed for was just what we are now able to supply: an arrangement which will disentangle all the alliances in the world. "Nothing entangles, nothing enmeshes a man except a self- ish combination with somebody else. Nothing entangles a nation, hampers it, binds it, except to enter into a combina- tion with some other nation against the other nations of the world. And this great disentanglement of all alliances is now to be accomplished by this Covenant, because one of the covenants is that no nation shall enter into any relationship with another nation inconsistent with the covenants of the League of Nations. Nations promise not to have alliances. Nations promise not to make combinations against each other. Nations agree there shall be but one combination, and that is the combination of all against the wrongdoer. "And so I am going back to my task on the other side with renewed vigor. I had not forgotten what the spirit of the American people is. But I have been immensely re- freshed by coming in contact with it again. I did not know how good home felt until I got here. "The only place a man can feel at home is where nothing has to be explained to him. Nothing has to be explained to me in America, least of all the sentiment of the American THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 125 people. I mean, about great fundamental things like this There are many differences of judgment as to policy — and perfectly legitimate. Sometimes profound differences of judgment, but those are not differences of sentiment, those are not differences of purpose, those are not differences of ideals. And the, advantage of not having to have anything explained to you is that you recognize a wrong explanation when you hear it. "In a certain rather abandoned part of the frontier at one time it was said they found a man who told the truth; he was not found telling it, but he could tell it when he heard it. And I think I am in that situation with regard to some of the criticisms I have heard. They don't make any impres- sion on me because I know there is no medium that will transmit them, that the sentiment of the country is proof against such narrowness and such selfishness as that. I com- mend these gentlemen to communion with their fellow citi- zens. PUZZLE IN SOME CRITICISMS "I must say that I have been puzzled by some of the criticisms — not by the criticisms themselves ; I can understand them perfectly even when there was no foundation for them ; but by the fact of the criticism. I can not imagine how these gentlemen can live and not live in the atmosphere of the world. I can not imagine how they can live and not be in contact with the events of their times, and I particularly can not imagine how they can be Americ^ins and set up a doctrine of careful selfishness thought out to the last detail. I have heard no counsel of generosity in their criticism. I have heard no constructive suggestion. I have heard nothing ex- cept 'Will it not be dangerous to us to help the world?' It would be fatal to us not to help it. "From being what I will venture to call the most famous and the most powerful Nation in the world, we would of a 126 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS sudden have become the most contemptible. So I did not need to be told, as I have been told, that the people of the United States would support this Covenant. I am an Amer- ican and I knew they would. What a sweet revenge it is upon the world. They laughed at us once ; they thought we did not mean our professions of principle. They thought so until April of 1917. It was hardly credible to th'em that we would- do more than send a few men over and go through the forms of helping, and when they saw multitudes hastening across the sea, and saw what those multitudes were eager to do when they got to the other side, they stood amazed and said, 'The thing is real, this Nation is the friend of mankind as it said it was.' The enthusiasm, the hope, the trust, the confidence in the future bred by that change of view is indescribable. Take an individual American and you may often find him selfish and confined to his special interests ; but take the American in the mass and he is willing to die for an ideal. The sweet revenge therefore is this, that we believed in righteousness and now we are ready to make the supreme sacrifice for it, the supreme sacrifice of throwing in our for- tunes with the fortunes of men everywhere. CONFIDENCE IN THE FUTURE "What are we to say, then, as to the future? I think, my fellow citizens, that we can look forward to it with great confidence. I have heard cheering news since I came to this side of the water about the progress that is being made in Paris toward the discussion and clarification of a great many difficult matters; and I believe settlements will begin to be made rather rapidly from this time on at those conferences. But what I believe — ^what I know as well as believe, is this : that the men engaged in those conferences are gathering heart as they go, not losing it ; that they are finding community of purpose, community of ideal to an extent that perhaps they THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 127 did not expect; and that amidst all the interplay of influence— because it is infinitely complicated — amidst all the interplay of influence, there is a forward movement which is running toward the right. Men have at last perceived that the only permanent thing in the world is the right, and that a wrong settlement is bound to be a temporary settlement— bound to be a temporary settlement for the very best reason of all, that it ought to be a temporary settlement, and the spirits of men will rebel against it, and the spirits of men are now in the saddle. AN INCIDENT IN ITALY "When I was in Italy, a Uttle limping group of wounded Italian soldiers sought an interview with me. I could not conjecture what it was they were going to say to me, and with the greatest simplicity, with touching simplicity, they presented me with a petition in favor of the League of Nations. "Their wounded limbs, their impaired vitality were the only argument they brought with them. It was a simple re- quest that I lend all the influence that I might happen to have to relieve future generations of the sacrifices that they had been obliged to make. That appeal has remained in my mind as I have ridden along the streets in European capitals and heard cries of the crowd, cries for the League of Nations from lips of people who, I venture to say, had no particular notion of how it was to be done, who were not ready to pro- pose a plan for a league of nations, but whose hearts said that something by way of a combination of all men everywhere must come out of this. As we drove along country roads weak old women would come out and hold flowers to us. Why should they hold flowers up to strangers from across the Atlantic? Only because they believed that we were the messengers of friendship and of hope and these flowers were 328 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS their humble oiferings of gratitude that friends from so great a distance should have brought them so great a hope. "It is inconceivable that we should disappoint them and we shall not. The day will come when men in America will look back with swelling hearts and rising pride that they should have been privileged to make the sacrifice which it was necessary to make in order to combine their might and their moral power with the cause of justice for men of every kind everywhere. "God give us the strength and vision to do it wisely. God give us the privilege of knowing that we did it without count- ing the cost, and because we were true Americans, lovers of liberty and of right." STATEMENT OF CHANGES MADE WHEN THE COVENANT WAS ADOPTED (Paris, April 28, 1919) President Wilson alterations made "When the text of the Covenant of the League of Nations was laid before you, I had the honor of reading the Covenant in extenso. I will not detain you to-day to read the Covenant as it has now been altered, but will merely take the liberty of explaining to you some of the alterations that have been made. The report of the commission has been circulated. You yourselves have in hand the text of the Covenant and will no doubt have noticed that most of the changes that have been made are mere changes of phraseology, not changes of substance, and that, besides that, most of the changes are intended to clarify the document, or rather to make explicit what we had all assumed was implicit in the document as it was originally presented to you. But I shall take the liberty of calling your attention to the new features such as they are, some of them considerable, the rest trivial. PROVISION OF NEUTRALS "The first paragraph of Article i is new. In view of the insertion of the Covenant in the Peace Treaty, specific provi- sion as to the signatories of the treaty, who would become 129 130 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS members of the League, and also as to neutral states to be invited to accede to the Covenant, were obviously necessary. The paragraph also provides for the method by which a neu- tral state may accede to the Covenant. "The third paragraph of Article i is new, providing for the withdrawal of any member of the League on a notice given of two years. "The second paragraph of Article 4 is new, providing for a possible increase in the council should other powers be added to the League of Nations, whose present accession is not anticipated. "The two last paragraphs of Article 4 provide specifically for one vote for each member of the League in the council, which was understood before; and providing also for one representative of each member of the League. UNANIMITY OF VOTING "The first paragraph of Article 5 is new, expressly incor- porating the provisions as to the unanimity of voting, which was at first taken for granted. "The second paragraph of Article 6 has had added to it that a majority of the assembly must approve the appoint- ment of the Secretary-General. "The first paragraph of Article 7 names Geneva as the seat of the League, and is followed by a second paragraph which gives the council power to establish the seat of the League elsewhere should it subsequently deem it necessary. "The third paragraph of Article 7 is new, establishing equality of employment "of men and women, that is to say, by the League. "The second paragraph of Article 13 is new, inasmuch as it undertakes to give instances of disputes which are generally suitable for submission to arbitration, instances of what have latterly been called 'justiciable' questions. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 131 DOMESTIC JURISDICTION "The eighth paragraph of Article 15 is new. This is the amendment regarding domestic jurisdiction, that where the council finds that a question arising out of an international dispute affects matters which are clearly under the domestic jurisdiction of one or other of the parties it is to report to that effect and make no recommendation. "The last paragraph of Article 16 is new, providing for an expulsion from the League in certain extraordinary cir- cumstances. "Article 21 is new. "The second paragraph of Article 22 inserts the words with regard to mandatories 'and who are willing to accept it,' thus explicitly introducing the principle that a mandate can- not be forced upon a nation unwilling to accept it. "Article 23 is a confirmation of several former articles, and also contains the following, a clause providing for the just treatment of aboriginies, a clause looking toward a prevention of the white slave traffic, and the traffic in opium, and a clause looking toward progress in international prevention and control of disease. "Article 25 specifically mentions the Red Cross as one of the international organizations which is to connect its work with the work of the League. PROVISION FOR AMENDMENT "Article 26 permits amendment of the covenant by a ma- jority of the states composing the assembly instead of three- fourths of the states, though it does not change the require- ments in that matter with regard to the vote in the council. "The second paragraph of Article 26 is also new and was added at the request of the Brazilian delegation, in order to avoid certain constitutional difficulties. It permits any mem- 132 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ber of the League to dissent from an amendment, the effect of such dissent being withdrawal from the League. "And then the annex is added giving the names of the signatories of the treaty who become members and the names of the states invited to accede to the Covenant. SECRETARY-GENERAL PROPOSED "These are all the changes I believe which are of moment. "I take opportunity to move the following resolutions in order to carry out the provisions of the Covenant : You will notice that the Covenant provides that the first Secretary- General shall be chosen by this conference. It also provides that the first choice of the four member states who are to be added to the five great powers on the council is left to this conference. I move therefore that the first secretary-gen- eral of the League shall be the Hon. Sir James Eric Drum- mond, K. C. M. G. C. B. ; second, that until such time as the assembly shall have selected the first four members of the League to be represented on the council in accordance with Article 4 of the covenant, representatives of Belgium, Brazil, Greece, and Spain shall be members; and third, that the powers to be represented on the council of the League of Nations are required to name representatives who shall form a committee of nine to prepare plans for the organization of the League and for the establishment of the seat of the League and to make arrangements and to prepare the agenda for the first meeting of the assembly this committee to report both to the council and to the assembly of the League. "I think it is not necessary to call your attention to other matters we have previously discussed — ^the capital significance of this Covenant, the hopes which are entertained as to the effect it will have upon steadying the affairs of the world and the obvious necessity that there should be a concert of the THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 133 free nations of the world to maintain justice in international relations and people between the nations of the world. "If Baron Makino will pardon me for introducing a matter which I absentmindedly overlooked, it is necessary for me to propose the alteration of several words. The first line of Article 5 — let me say that in several parts of the treaty of which this Covenant will form a part, certain duties are as- signed to the council of the League of Nations. In some instances it is provided that the action they shall take shall be by a majority vote. It is, therefore, necessary to make the Covenant conform with the other portions of the treaty by adding these words. I will read the first line and add the words : " 'Except where otherwise expressly provided in this Cove- nant or by the terms of the treaty, decisions at any meeting of the assembly or of the council, shall require the agreement of all the members of the League represented at the meeting.' " 'Except where otherwise expressly provided in this Cove- nant' is the present reading, and I move the addition 'or by the terms of this treaty.' With that addition, I move the adoption of the Covenant." The revised Covenant was adopted. "In vain thou deniest that thou art my brother. Thy very hatred, Thy very envy, those foolish lies thou tellest of me in thy splenetic humor; what is all this but an inverted Sympathy? Were I a steam engine, wouldst thou take the trouble to tell lies of me? "All things, the minutest that a man does, minutely influence all men, I say there is not a red Indian, hunting by Lake Winnipeg, can quarrel with his squaw but the whole world must smart for it, will not the price of beaver rise? "What a shallow delusion is this we have all got into, That any man should or can keep himself apart from men, have 'no business' with them, except a cash-account 'business' ! It is the silliest tale a distressed generation of men ever took to telling one another. Men cannot live isolated : We are all bound together, for mutual good or else for mutual misery, as living nerves in the same body. No highest man can disunite himself for any lowest. "Let a chief of men reflect well on it. Not in having 'no business' with men, but in having no unjust business with them, and in having all manner of true and just business, can either his or their blessed- ness be found possible, and their waste world become, for both parties, a home and peopled garden. Thomas Caklyle. 'He drew a circle that shut me out, Hereftic rebel, a thing to flout, But love and I had the wit to win We drew a circle thcut took him in." — Edwin Markham A NEW ORDER OF THINGS The Charter of International Freedom, President Wilson The Practice of the Charter's Principles, President Wilson SAY NOT THE STRUGGLE NOUGHT AVAILETH Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labor and the wounds are vain. The enemy faints not, nor faileth. And as things have been they remain. If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; It may be, in yon smoke concealed. Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers, And, but for you, possess the field. For while the tired waves, vainly breaking. Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in,' the main. And not by eastern windows only. When daylight comes, comes in the light. In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly. But westward, look, the land is bright. Arthur Htjgh Clough THE CHARTER OF INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM From the Fourteen Point Address United States Senate, Jan. 9, 1919 By Woodrow Wilson The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our pro- gram, and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this : I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic bar- riers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. IV. Adequate guaranties given and taken that national .armaments will be reduced to the lowest points consistant with domestic safety. V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjust- ;ment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance 137 138 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS of the principle that in determining all such questions of sov- ereignty the interest of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined. VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a set- tlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed op- portunity for the independent determination of her own politi- cal development and national policy, and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under insti- tutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distin- guished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacu- ated and restored without any attempt to limit the sover- eignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the natioAs in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with ome another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is for- ever impaired. VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1 87 1 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted in order that peace may once more be made secure in the. interest of all. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 139 IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous develop- ment. XI. Roumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacu- ated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one anotlier determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nation- ality; and international guaranties of the political and eco- nomic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into. XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Em- pire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely un- molested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guaranties. XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guaranties of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. THE PRACTICE OF THE CHARTER'S PRINCIPLES Statement on the Claims of Italy Paris, April 24, 19 19 By President Wilson "In view of the capital importance of the questions af- fected, and in order to throw all possible light upon what is involved in theii: settlement, I hope that the following state- ment will contribute to the final formation of opinion and to a satisfactory solution : "When Italy entered the war she entered upon the basis of a definite private understanding with Great Britain and France, now known as the pact of London. Since that time the whole face of circumstances has been altered. Many other powers, great and small, have entered the struggle, with no knowledge of that private understanding. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY GONE "The Austro-Hungarian Empire, then the enemy of Eu- rope, and at whose expense the pact of London was to be kept in the event of victory, has gone to pieces and no longer exists. Not only that, but the several parts of that empire, it is agreed now by Italy and all her associates, are to be erected into independent states and associated in a League of Nations, not with those who were recently our enemies, but with Italy herself and the powers that stood with Italy in the great war for liberty. "We are to establish their liberty as well as our own. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 141 They are to be among the smaller states whose interests are henceforth to be safeguarded as scrupulously as the interests of the most powerful states. PEACE PRINCIPLES ACCEPTED "The war was ended, moreover, by proposing to Germany an armistice and peace, which should be founded on certain clearly defined principles, which set vip a new order of right and justice. Upon those principles the peace with Germany has been conceived, not only, but formulated. Upon those principles it will be executed. We cannot ask the great body of powers to propose and effect peace with Austria and es- tablish a new basis of independence and right in the states which originally constituted the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and in the states of the Balkan group on principles of another kind. We must apply the same principles to the settlement of Europe in those quarters that we have applied in the peace with Germany. It was upon the explicit avowal of those principles that the initiative for peace was taken. It is upon these that the whole structure of peace must rest. SMALL STATES NEED FIUME "If those principles are to be adhered to, Fiume must serve as the outlet of the commerce, not of Italy, but of the land to the north and northeast of that port; Hungary, Bohemia, Rumania, and the states of the new Jugo-Slav group. To assign Fiume to Italy would be to create the feeling that we have deliberately put the port upon which all those countries chiefly depend for their access to the Mediterranean in the hands ©f a power of which it did not form an integral part and whose sovereignty, if set up there, must inevitably seem foreign, not domestic or identified with the commercial and industrial life of the regions which the port must serve. 142 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS It is for that reason, no doubt, that Fiume was not included in the pact of London, but there definitely assigned to the Croatians. FORTS WILL BE RAZED "And the reason why the line of the pact of London swept away many of the islands of the eastern coast of the Adriatic and around the portion of the Dalmatian coast which lies most open to that sea was not only that here and there on those islands and here and there on that coast there are bodies of people of Italian blood and connection, but alse, and, no doubt, chiefly, because it was felt that it was necessary for Italy to have a foothold amidst the channels of the eastern Adriatic in order that she might make her owii coasts safe against the naval aggression of Austria-Hungary. "But Austria-Hungary no longer exists. It is pi'oposed that the fortifications which the Austrian government con- structed there shall be razed and permanently destroyed. ARMS TO BE LIMITED "It is part also of the new plan of the European order which centers in the League of Nations that the new states erected there shall accept a limitation of armaments, which puts aggression out of the question. There can be no fear of the unfair treatment of groups of Italian people there, be- cause adequate guaranties will be given, under international sanction, of the equal and equitable treatment of all racial or national minorities. "In brief, every question associated with this settlement wears a new aspect — a new aspect given it by the very vic- tory for right for which Italy has made the supreme sacrifice of blood and treasure. Italy, along with the four other great powers, has become one of the chief trustees of the new order which she has played so honorable a part in establishing. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 143 ITALIAN UNITY RESTORED "On the north and northeast her natural frontiers are com- pletely restored, along the whole sweep of the Alps from northwest to southeast to the very end of the Istrian penin- sula, including all the great watershed within which Triest and Pola lie, and all the fair regions whose face nature has turned toward the great peninsula upon which the historic life of the Latin people has been worked out through centu- ries of famous story ever since Rome was first set upon her seven hills. "Her ancient unity is restored. Her lines are extended to the great walls which are her natural defense. It is within her choice to be surrounded by friends; to exhibit to the newly liberated peoples across the Adriatic that noblest qual- ity of greatness, magnanimity, friendly generosity, the pref- erence of justice over interest. "The nations associated with her, the nations that know nothing of the pact of London or of any other special under- standing that lies at the beginning of this great struggle, and who have made their supreme sacrifice also in the interest, not of national advantage or defense, but of the settled peace of the world, are now united with her older associates in urging her to assume a leadership which cannot be mistaken in the new order of Europe." AMERICA Italy's friend "America is Italy's friend. Her people are drawn, millions strong, from Italy's own fair country sides. She is linked in blood, as well as in affection, with the Italian people. Such ties can never be broken. And America was privileged, by the generous commission of her associates in the war, to init- iate the peace we are about to consummate — to initiate it upon terms which she had herself formulated and in which I was her spokesman. 14-4 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS "The compulsion is upon her to square every decision she takes a part in with those principles. She can do nothing else. She trusts Italy, and in her trust believes that Italy will ask nothing o£ her that cannot be made unmistakably consistent with those sacred obligations. FOUGHT FOR BY AMERICA "The interests are not now in question, but the rights of peoples, of states, new and old, of liberated peoples and peo- ples whose rulers have never accounted them worthy of a right; above all, the right of the world to peace and to such settlements of interests as shall make peace secure. "These, and these only, are the principles for which Amer- ica has fought. These, and these only, are the principles upon which she can consent to make peace. Only upon these principles, she hopes and believes, will the people of Italy ask her to make peace." "No men can act with effect who do not a^t in concert; no men can act in con- cert who do not act with confidence; no men can act with confidence who are not bound together by common opinions, com/mon affections and common inter- ests." — Burke FOUR POINTS OF VIEW Accept the Best You Can Get George Washington How to Treat a Constitution Benjamin Franklin The League of Nations Thomas Paine America in the World John Dewey THE HAPPY WARRIOR Who is the happy warrior? Who is he That every man in arms should wish to be? :je sf: ^ 4: :tc 3|c ^ 'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends Upon that law as on the best of friends; Whence, in a state where men are tempted still To evil for a guard against worse ill, And what in quality or act is best Doth seldom on a right foundation rest, He fixes good on good alone, and owes To virtue every triumph that he knows; Who, if he rise to station of command. Rises by open means, and there will stand On honourable term, or else retire And in himself possess his own desire; Who comprehends his trust, and to the same Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim. And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait For wealth or honours or for worldly state. :«: :^ * * ^ * * William Worbsworth ACCEPT THE BEST YOU CAN GET BY GEORGE WASHINGTON Mount Vernon, Oct. lo, 1787. My Dear Humphreys: Your favor of the 28th ult. came duly to hand, as did the other of June. . . . The Constitution that is submitted, is not free from imper- fections ; but there are as few radical defects in it as could well be expected, considering the heterogeneous mass of which the Convention was composed and the diversity of in- terests which were to be reconciled. A Constitutional doer being opened, for future alterations and amendments, I think it would be wise in the People to adopt what is offered to them, and I wish it may be by as great a majority of them as in the body that decided on it; but this is hardly to be expected, because the importance, and sinister views of too many characters will be affected by the change. Much will depend, however, on literary abilities, and the recommenda- tion of it by good pens, should it be openly, I mean publicly, attacked in the Gazettes. Go matters, however, as they may, I shall have the consolation to reflect, that no objects but the public good, and that peace and harmony which I wished to see prevail in the Convention, ever obtruded, even for a moment, in my mind, during the whole session, lengthy as it was. What reception this State will give to the proceedings (thro' the great territorial extent of it) I am unable to inform you. In these parts of it, it is advocated beyond my expecta- tion. The great opposition, if great is given, will come from 147 148 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS the Counties Southward and Westward; from whence I have not, as yet, heard much that can be depended on. . . . Sincere friend and Obed' & H'ble Servant, G. Washington. Col. Humphreys. HOW TO TREAT A CONSTITUTION BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN , (This was his last speech to the Constitutional Convention and also the last speech of his life.) "Mr. President: "I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have expe- rienced many instances of being obliged by better informa- tion, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on im- portant subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otiierwise. It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them, it is so far error. Steele, a Protestant, in a dedication, tells the Pope, that the only difference between our churches, in their opinion of the certainty of their doctrines, is, "the Church of Rome is in- fallible, and the Church of England is never in the wrong." But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who, in a dispute with THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 149 her sister, said, 'I don't know how it happens, sister, but I meet with nobody but myself, that is always in the right — il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison.' "In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such ; because I think a General Gov- ernment necessary for us, and there is no form of govern- ment, but what may be a blessing to the people if well admin- istered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well ad- ministered for a course of years, and can only end in despot- ism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. I doubt, too, whether any other Con- vention we can obtain may be able to make a better Consti- tution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble witli those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does ; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded, like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they shall die. If every one of us, in returning to our constituents, were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally re- ceived, and thereby lose all the salutary effects and great ad- vantages resulting naturally in our favour among foreign na- tions as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent 150 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS unanimity. Much of the strength and efficiency of any gov- ernment, in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion — on the general opinion of the goodness of the government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope, therefore, that for our own sakes, as a part of tlie people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Con- stitution (if approved by Congress and confirmed by the Con- vention) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavours to the means of having it well administered. "On the whole, sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention, who may still have ob- jections to it, would with me, on this occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument." THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS BY THOMAS PAINE What were formerly called revolutions, were little more than a change of persons, or an alteration of local circum- stances. They rose and fell like things of course, and had nothing in their existence or their fate that could influence beyond the spot that produced them. But what we now see in the world, from the revolutions of America and France, are a renovation of the natural order of things, a system of principles as universal as truth and the existence of man, and combining moral with political happiness and national prosperity. "I. Men are bom, and always continue, free and equal in respect of their rights. Qvil distinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 151 "II. The end of all political associations, is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and tliese rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of op- pression. "III. The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; nor can any INDIVIDUAL, or ANY BODY OF MEN, be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it." In these principles, there is nothing to throw a nation into confusion by inflaming ambition. They are calculated to call forth wisdom and abilities, and to exercise them for tlie public good, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular descriptions of men or families. Monarchical sovereignty, the enemy of mankind, and the source of misery, is abolished ; and the sovereignty itself is restored to its natu- ral and original place, the nation. Were this the case through- out Europe, the cause of wars would be taken away. It is attributed to Henry the Fourth of France, a man of enlarged and benevolent heart, that he proposed, about the year 1610, a plan for abolishing war in Europe. The plan consisted in constituting an European Congress, or as the French authors style it, a Pacific Republic; by appointing delegates from the several nations who were to act as a court of arbitration in any disputes that might arise between nation and nation. Had such a plan been adopted at the time it was proposed, the taxes of England and France, as two of the parties, would have been at: least ten million sterling annually to each nation less than they were at the commencement of the French Revolution. To conceive a cause why such a plan has not been adopted (and that instead of a Congress for the purpose of preventing war, it had been called only to terminate a war, after a fruit- less expense of several years) it will be necessar}' to consider 152 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS the interest of governments as a distinct interest to that of nations. Whatever is the cause of taxes to a nation, becomes also the means of revenue to government. Every war terminates with an addition of taxes, and consequently with an addition of revenue; and in any event of war, in the manner they are now commenced and concluded, the power and interest of governments are increased. War, therefore, from its pro- ductiveness, as it easily furnished the pretense of necessity, for taxes and appointments to places and offices, becomes a principal part of the system of old governments ; and to es- tablish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to nations, would be to take from such government the most lucrative of its branches. The frivolous matters upon which war is made show the disposition and avidity of governments to uphold the system of war, and betray the motives upon which they act. Why are not republics plunged into war, but because tlie nature of their government does not admit of an interest distinct from that of the nation? Even Holland, though an ill-constructed republic, and with a commerce extending over the world, existed nearly a century without war; and the instant the form of government was changed in France, the republican principles of peace and domestic prosperity and economy arose with the new government ; and the same con- sequences would follow the cause in other nations. As war is the system of government on the old construc- tion, the animosity which nations reciprocally entertain is nothing more than what the policy of their governments ex- cites to keep up the spirit of the system. Each government accuses the other of perfidy, intrigue, and ambition, as a means of heating the imagination of their respective nations, and incensing them to hostilities. Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of govern- ment. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambi- THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 15S tion of kings, the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such governments; and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of a nation should apply itself to reform the system. From what we now see, nothing of reform in the political world ought to be held improbable. It is an age of revolu- tions, in which everything may be looked for. The intrigue of courts, by which the system of war is kept up, may pro- voke a confederation of nations to abolish it; and an Euro- pean congress to patronize the progress of free government and promote the civilization of nations with each other, is an event nearer in probability than once were the revolutions and alliance of France and America. AMERICA IN THE WORLD BY JOHN DEWEY There seems to be a little irony in the fact that upon Wash- ington's Birthday the topic most apt for discussion is con- nected with the participation of America in a world war. Instead of a little strip of territory sparsely populated, able to maintain its own with the great nations of the world chiefly because of the advantage of remoteness, we are now a continental state, able to confer with the nations of the world on equal terms. While once there was enough to do in conquering a wilderness, we have now come to the end of the pioneer period, and have a margin of energy to draw upon. The change has, of course, been brought about by that same development of industry and commerce which has an- nihilated distance, drawn all peoples into closer relations, and made the affairs and interests of one nation the concern of 154 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS all, for weal or for woe. The fact that the interdependence which the new industry and the new methods of transporta- tion and intercommunication have brought about should first reveal itself in strains and alignments for conflict does not alter the essential fact that the world for the first time now finds itself a round world, politically and economically as well as astronomically. That nations from every continent on the globe are engaged in the war is the outer sign of the new world struggling to be delivered. It is a commonplace that whatever else the war means, it signifies for our own country the end of its period of isola- tion. Whether for better or for worse, America is no longer a people unto itself. America is now in the world. Unless this change of position is to mean that we are to be affected by the jealousies, the intrigues, and hostilities which have marked other nations longer in the world, we must see to it that those other nations, accept and are influenced by the American idea rather than ourselves by the European idea. Of late we have been afilicted with national bashfulness, with a shy self-consciousness as to noting even that there is an American idea, lest we be guilty of spread-eagleism. We have assumed a self-depreciatory, almost apologetic, attitude towards the rest of the world. But unless our contribution to the present world struggle is to be confined to military and economic force, it must be that we have an idea to con- tribute, an idea to be taken into account in the world recon- struction after the war. What are the important aspects of this idea? Politically, federation; e pluribus unum, where the unity does not destroy the many, but maintains each constituent factor in full vigor. It is not accident that the conceptions of a world federation, a concert of nations, a supreme tribu- nal, a league of nations to enforce peace, are peculiarly Amer- ican contributions. They are conceptions which spring di- rectly out of our own experience, which we have alreadv THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 155 worked out and tested on a smaller scale in our own political life. Leaders of other nations may regard them as iridescent dreams ; we know better, for we have actually tried them. One of the greatest problems which is troubling the old world is that of the rights of nationalities which are included within larger political units — the Poles, the Irish, the Bohe- mians, the Jugo-Slavs, the Jews. Here, too, the American contribution is radical. We have solved the problem by a complete separation of nationality from citizenship. Not only have we separated the chttrch from the state, but we have separated language, cultural traditions, all that is called race, from the state — that is, from problems of political organiza- tion and power. To us language, literature, creed, group ways, national culture, are social rather than political, human rather than national, interests. Let this idea fly abroad; it bears healing in its wings. Federation and release of cultural interests from political dictation and control are the two great positive achievements of America. From them spring the other qualities which give distinction and inspiration to the American idea. We are truly interracial and international in our own internal con- stitution. The very peoples and races who are taught in the old world that they have an instinctive and ineradicable an- tipathy to one another live here side by side, in comity, often in hearty amity. We have become a peace-loving nation both because there are no strong powers close to our borders and because the diversified elements of our people have meant hope, opportunity, release of virile powers from subjection to dread, for use in companionship and unconstrained rival- ries. Our uncoerced life has been at liberty to direct itself into channels of toleration, a general spirit of live and let live. Since our minds have not been constantly impressed with the idea that the growth of another power means the decav of our own, we have been emancipated to enjoy sharing 136 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS in the struggles which exist wherever there is life, and to take its incidental defeats in good humor. In working out to realization the ideas of federation and of the liberation of human interests from political domina- tion, we have been, as it were, a laboratory set aside from the rest of the world, in which to make, for its benefit, a great social experiment. The war, the removal of the curtain of isolation, means that this period of experimentation is over. We are now called to declare to all thte world the nature and fruits of this experiment, to declare it not by words or books, but by exhibiting the two primary conditions under which the world may achieve the happiness of a peace which is not the mere absence of war, but which is fruit-bearing concord. That we should have' lost something of our spirit of boasting about our material greatness is a fine thing. But we need to recover something of the militant faith of our forefathers that America is a great idea, and add to it an ardent faith in our capacity to lead the world to see what this idea means as a model for its own future well-being. "When is a man lost?" asked the ne- gro bishop of Kansas. "A man is never lost" said he, "when he doesn't know where he is, for he always knows where he is -wherever he is. A man is lost when he doesn't know where the other folks are." SEEING IT FACE TO FACE. A Dialogue Edward Bjorkman LOVE THE OPPRESSORS Love the oppressors and tyrants! Love the men of violence and the men of greed, the narrow men and the stubborn laggards who hold the world back! Love the scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites! With love we shall dislodge them from their posts of vantage. They will have to love us in self-defense, for love is hell-fire to the unloving. We can mine and countermine their strongholds with love, for love is the dynamite of heaven. Love the oppressors and tyrants! It is the only way to get rid of them. Ernest Crosby SEEING IT FACE TO FACE BY EDWIN BJORKMAN. A well kept modem state road running along the foot of a pine-clad hill. Sloping gently from the road, green meadows, broken in one spot by a cluster of apple-trees in full bloom, dip downward to a brook and then rise again until they varnish among the vanguards of another wooded hillside. A little farther on the landscape broadens out into a plain dotted with clumps of trees and half-hidden farmhouses. In the far distance a solitary spire appeaxrs on the horizon. A dust-covered man is standing on the road, gazing at the apple-trees that blaze like balls of white lire in the rays of the setting sun, every blossom, turned into a tiny Uame. It would be hard to tell his age, and his features are strangely changeable, so that one moment he looks almost ugly and in the next beautiful. Another m.an, the very type of an average American — probably a farmer, and yet not unfamiliar with the cities — comes along in a motor buggy and stops abreast of the wam- derer. Average American. D'you want a ride? Wanderer. Yes, thanks, it's getting late. A. All right, jump in. You're going to town, I suppose ? W. And a good way beyond. A. A stranger in these parts, I take it ? W. Well— I don't know. A. You don't know ? That sounds queer. Who are you anyhow, if I may ask? 159 160 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS W. I am the Spirit of the Time. A. You don't say! But then I ought to recognize your voice, and I don't. W. You think you have heard it then? A. Indeed, I have. Many times. At meetings, in church, and at the State Capital when I got up there once in a while. But it always had a funny ring to it, like one of those gramo- phone records — never quite human-like as you speak now. W. There are so many who claim to speak for me. A. And yet, just now, it seemed as if I had heard your voice before — in the still of the night sometimes, or when I was half asleep at my plow at the end of a long day. W. Perhaps. . . . What is your name ? A. Same as my father's was before — ^Average American. W. Then, my friend, we two have much more in common than you imagine. A. You're conning me! However, if we have, then you must be mighty puzzled like myself. W. About what? A. This here League of Nations they have sprung on us plain folks. W. What is so puzzling about that? A. It will get us into a mess, I fear. W. The world's a mess, friend, and you're right in it. There's only one way out of it — to lend a hand in cleaning it up. A. But those foreigners are always scrapping like dogs over a bone. Why should we, who have, plenty, let us be bothered by them ? And we're so far off. W. You wear a service star on your lapel, I see. A. For my oldest boy. He's just back from France, none the worse for his trip, but pretty sick of the job. W. You're more lucky than many others. Why did you let him go ? THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS l6l A. He had to. And how could we keep out of it, with those Germans carrying on the way they did? W. No, how could we? He's not your only one ? A. I've three more, from twelve to eighteen, as well set up as any youngsters you ever put eyes on, if I say it my- self. W. And, of course, you like to see them go some day, as this one did, and perhaps never come back? A. Not on your life I Not if I can help it ! W. You couldn't help it this time. Why be so sure of the next? A. Himiph. . . . And you think a League of Na- tions . . . ? W. You must be doing pretty well in life, judging by your looks. Plenty of hands on your place, I suppose? A. Five all the year 'round, and many more at harvest time. W. They never scrap? A. Don't they, though I We used to have a regular time of it, with Joe, the biggest and strongest of them, bullying the life out of the others. Many a time I'd let him go but for his being such a worker. He used to lick the rest, one at the time, as sure as Saturday comes 'round. W. And he doesn't any longer? A. No, that's over and done with. One day the other four put their heads together and warned him that if he touched any one of them after that, he'd have to square it with the whole male quartet. W. And that settled it? A. For a time. Then Tom Smith, who'd taken the lead, got a swell head and began to pick on Joe, and I thought sure we would have a feud again. But Joe had a head of his own, although his temper isn't of the best. He got hold of Charley and Steve and Hank and put it to them plain. I guess there was a light of the old sort in his eyes, too, when he told them 162 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS that he thought what was sauce for the gander should also be sauce for that goose Tom. W. And they? A. They sat regular court fashion and called Tom before them, and he came meek as a lamb and was given notice that if he didn't quit cutting up, they'd cut him dead — at meal time and Saturday nights, you know. That helped won- derful, and we have had peace ever since, though strange hands come in and have to learn the lesson now and then. W. So you have a League of Nations on your farm and prosper by it, but you don't care to let the whole world be helped in the same manner? A. What's that you say? Is that what it means? W. Practically. Only more — so much more! Your hands never killed or maimed each other. There are seventy thousand of our boys left behind for ever on the other side, and look at some of those that have come back 1 A. And you really think . . . ? But those foreigners are so different from us. . . . W. How do you know? A. They always scrap — even when they come over here. It seems to be in their blood. W. Maybe it is. So much more reason to put a stop to it. You have a lot of them in the town? A. Yes, since we've got the factories. Poles mostly, and what they call Hunkies, and some Dutchmen, with a lot of Eytalians selling vegetables to the rest of 'em. They keep peace fairly well most of the time, until some sort of special holiday comes along and one of the gangs put on their Sun- day best in the middle of the week and take to parading the streets — ^and then you never know what may happen later in the night. But even when there is nothing on, the Dutch- men look down on the Poles, and the Poles are sore on the Hunkies, and the Hunkies have no use either for Dagos or Dutchmen. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS l6S W. Do you think they hate each other ? A. Looks like it, I should say. W. And do you know why? A. No, I don't. We don't go 'round hating other people like that, although there was a time when I used to think Democrats little better than varmint. W. I'll tell you why they hate each other : because hatred has been bred into them ; because for centuries and centuries their forefathers have been taught to hate each other ; because they have been told that what they had somebody else must lack; because, on the strength of it, they have killed each other and robbed each other as far back as history has any- thing to tell us about them. A. And what are you going to do about it? Isn't it just as I said a while ago? W. But need it be like that? Do you want it to be like that? Do you think it good for us to have it like that? With millions of them right among us, living side by side, and with an unbroken stream of news from abroad keeping the old hatreds alive — don't you think that in the long run it may matter a great deal to us whether or not they go on killing and maiming and robbing oyer there? How do you know that it won't spread to our side the next time it breaks loose in Europe or Asia or Africa ? A. And you think . . . ? W. You said yourself that most of the time they get along pretty well with each other here in spite of all. That's because the old causes for fighting don't exist here — ^because all of them have equal opportunities and equal protection, equal justice and equal rights. Why not make sure that they get the same thing over there, and so stop fighting for ever? If we do, then, and not until then, can we be certain of peace among ourselves as well. Then your boys will not have to face danger and death for the sake of some mean little 164 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS injustice that keeps the fires of hatred smouldering some three or five or ten thousand miles away. A. But there are some who tell us this League is no good? W. Did you ever hear of any human thing that started perfect? Didn't we have to try twice before we could put our own republic on a proper foting? Have we not had to amend our Constitution time and again ? The League, man, will be what you make it! A. You think I'll have a chance . . . ? W. See that you get it. Statesmen, they tell me, listen closely when you speak in earnest. A. It will be a kind of court, too, I hear. And courts are mighty risky things. Once you're in, you never know when or where or how you'll come out. W. Would you prefer to do without them ? A. No, I guess not! W. You have a rather remarkable Justice of the Peace in this neighborhood, haven't you? A. Oh, he's a corker! But that's no real court. We just step in to him and talk things over neighborlike, and so there isn't much suing in this place. W. Well, don't you think that's the real court — and not the one that sits in state and punishes? I believe it is the kind of court the)r'll have at Geneva, once they get it going. A. Of course, I never thought of it like that. . . . But, Hsten — ^this peace treaty is bad as it can be, they say, except in hitting the Germans pretty hard, and now the League will make us use our army and navy to keep everything the way it's put by the treaty. W. Tommy-rot, my friend! There will be no more at- tacks by bullies — ^that's settled. But if there are mistakes in the treaty, as I suppose there are some Joe or Tom among the nations will soon come forward and point out that they "affect the peace of the world," and then Qiarlev and Steve THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 16S and Hank and the rest will have a clear right to consider the trouble and take measures accordingly. A. And you really think . . . ? W. I think it's better to listen to reason than to cling blindly to what has been proven disastrous. I think it's better to try what looks like a solution than to cry for ever that nothing can be done. I think it's better to risk a slip in the gateway and get up again for a new start, as our forefathers did, than to stand still on one spot clamoring for an im- possible perfection. I think, above all, that matters are mov- ing our way — ^your way and mine — forward, and not back- ward — and that what's most needed now is faith. A. You sure have put a lot of new things in my head W. No, they were there before. I have merely been read- ing your own thoughts, which you had had no time to clear up. . . . Here's where I get out. Many thanks for the lift ! A- (Startled). No, wait a moment. . . . There is a lot more. . . . W. (Already a little distance off). One thing only: re- member, first and last, that this will be something for the plain people, and not for the big ones who have ruled the world hitherto. A. And you are really . . . ? W. (Speaking from far off, but in a voice that fills the zvhole place like thunder). I am the Spirit of the Time I I am the voice of yourself! THE EKD. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND LABOUR "The project of a League of Nations is the keystone of the new social order that Labour desires to build. It stands also in the forefront of the Labour policy of international con- ciliation. Neither national reconstruction nor international conciliation is possible as long as the people are preoccupied with the menace of foreign aggression, and Governments are forced to spend huge sums yearly upon the means of national self-defence. In the past many necessary reforms have had to be postponed or altogether abandoned for this reason. Future Chancellors of the Exchequer will have a far more difficult task to raise the revenue necessary to meet the enor- mous charges arising out of the War; and if they have to impose heavy taxation for military purposes the nation will be unable to bear the additional burden of expenditure in- volved in the great and far-reaching schemes of social recon- struction which the War has made imperative. If nations are to be forced to continue to pay the blood-tax, even on the pre-war scale, it is useless to talk of reform." Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson. "The chief constituent of social ef- ficiency is, intelligent sympathy or good- will. For sympathy as a desirable qual- ity is something more than mere feeling, it is a cultivated imagination for what men have in common and a rebellion at whatever unnecessarly divided them. — John Dewey. LEST WE FORGET The Debate on Our Constitution William E. Barton IF I HAD THE TIME If I had the time to find a place And sit me down full face to face With ray better self, that cannot show- In my daily life that rushes so; It might be then I would see my soul Was stumbling still toward the shining goal, I might be nerved by the thought sublime. If I had the time! If I had the time to let my heart Speak out and take in my life a part. To look about and to stretch a hand To a comrade quartered in no-luck land; Ah, God! If I might but just sit still And hear the note of the whip-poor-will, I think that my wish with God's would rhyme — If I had the time! If I had the time to learn from you How much for comfort my word could do; And I told you then of my sudden will To kiss your feet when I did you ill; If the tears aback of the coldness feigned Could flow, and the wrong be quite explained, — Brothers, the souls of us all would chime. If we had the time I RiCHASD BUXTOS THE DEBATE ON OUR FEDERAL CONSTITUTION BY WILLIAM E. BARTON In 1716 there was an alliance of thirteen small states, who fought a German king then reigning in Great Britain, in order to make one comer of the world safe for democracy. That war came to a successful termination, and then the question became a pressing one whether democracy was safe for the world. For several years there was a situation closely akin to anarchy. A revolutionary general proposed that the army be- come Bolsheviki and march to Philadelphia and attack Con- gress ; and Colonel Loammi Baldwin stopped discovering his famous apple long enough to head his troops and prevent a rebellion at Concord, just where the Colonial troops had met the British at the old bridge. After several years of uncer- tainty and near-anarchy, it was decided to try the experiment of creating a league of thirteen small nations, banded together to preserve peace and promote the common welfare. In order to secure these ends, the Federal Constitution was prepared and submitted to the States; the same instrument which constitutes the model for the proposed League of Nations. If we take a seat in the gallery and look down on the Con- stitutional Convention (from whose sittings, however, we should have been excluded had we been living then) we shall be impressed by the dignity and high character of the men who composed it. Washington was there, and Franklm, eighty-one years of age, had returned from France with high honor and been made "president" of the republic of Pennsyl- vania, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were there, 169 170 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS and did more than any other two men, except possibly, James Wilson, to give us our constitution. There were fifty-five men, all men in high standing, and of them twenty-nine were university men. But some men were absent who might well have been there. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independ- ence, and John Adams, who secured its adoption in a three days' debate, were both in Europe, and returned each to sit as president of the new League of Nations, and to die on the same day, just fifty years after the adoption of the Declara- tion which made America safe for democracy but did not make democracy safe for America. Samuel Adams ought to have been there, but he did not believe in it. Patrick Henry ought to have been there, and so ought Light Horse Harry Lee, but they both believed that it was dangerous for Virginia to let New England tell her what to do. Alexander Hamilton was there, but New York saw to it that this intrepid spirit was chained with a ball on each leg, for his two associates were both reactionary men, determined that New York should not go one inch farther into such a league than should appear to her own advantage; so Hamilton was never able to carry the united vote of his state for any constructive measure while discussion was in progress. That was why Hamilton did not exert a larger influence in the convention; he was too great a man to be a fit representative of his state. The Constitutional Convention met in Independence Hall, with George Washington in the chair. The meetings were held in secret, and what was done was not revealed for fifty years, when the journals kept by James Madison were pub- lished. It is well that the people did not know from day to day what was happening. It is well that the three great states of Massachusetts, New York and Virginia did not know how their precious liberties were being tampered with, or they might have called their delegates home. It was felt by the convention that if the discussions were secret, the delegates THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 171 could wrangle with perfect freedom, and if they came finally to agreement the thirteen states would have only the agree- ment to consider and not any of the material of the debate. That was fortunate. If the thirteen states, and especially the three or four largest ones, had been able to fling into the faces of their returning delegates some of the things which they had said on the floor, saying to them, "Why did you vote for an instrument of which you yourself said this?" the thirteen colonies might have gone to the bow-wows and the Bolshevild. Finally, the Constitution was adopted by the convention, and submitted to the thirteen states. And they all saw what a noble instrument it was, and has- tened to adopt it ? Not quite in that fashion . But the great states were first to see how great an instru- ment it was? Not exactly. When George Washington went back to Virginia and sub- mitted the fruit of his toil, Patrick Henry rose in heat and shouted, "Even from the man who saved us by his valor, I will demand a reason for his conduct. Why does this instru- ment say, 'We, the people'? Why does it not say, 'We the states' ? And Patrick Henry was not alone in his demand. How did the Constitution of the United States get itself adopted? On its Merits? Well, hardly. Its adoption was the result of a niunber of compromises and of sops thrown to Cerberus. First of all, the favor of the Southern states was secured by giving them more than their share of delegates in Con- gress. They were permitted representation not only on their free citizens, but a representation, in reduced proportion, on their slaves. That insured the favor of the Carolinas and Georgia and Virginia acted as a kind of stakeholder, while a slave state, was represented in the convention by men who ira THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS earnestly desired the end of slavery. The three states south of Virginia were determined never to accept the Constitution unless they secured representation for their slaves, and with- out those three states the Constitution could not have been adopted. So they were first won over by this compromise. Five slaves were permitted to count as many as three white men, and Georgia and the Carolinas became advocates of the Constitution. The next thing was a bargain between New England and the South by which the new Federal Government might make trade regulations for the entire country in exchange for per- mission to keep the slave trade going till 1808. It went hard with some of the states to give up the right to impose import duties on shipments from other states ; New York was determined to make every Connecticut farmer pay import duties on every dozen eggs he brought to the city to sell, and Connecticut retaliated by refusing to ship any firewood to New York. The privilege of having little scraps like this was very precious to the thirteen free and mighty independent states, and this mean compromise was adopted to make it pos- sible for the National Government to take over commerce regulations. To her everlaisting honor, Virginia voted against the compromise, and did it on the ground of the iniquity of the slave trade. It is almost the only large-minded and righteous act of any of the greater states in the convention. George Mason said, "Every master of slaves is a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a country. As nations cannot be regarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of cause and effect, Provi- dence punished national sins with national calamities." That was what Virginia said about slavery in 1787. But New England and the far South made the bargain, and it went through against the protest of Virginia. The conventios hoped that in twenty years slavery itself would end. But still the Constitution could hardly have been carried. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 1.7« And so an arrangement was made to secure the favor of the smaller states by giving them equal representation in the Sen- ate with the larger states and making legislation impossible without concurrent action of both bodies. That brought over Rhode Island and Delaware and other small states (though Rhode Island backed out of the bargain), and without this nothing could have been accomplished. For our noble Con- stitution could not have been adopted by the far-seeking and unselfish leadership of the great states. All the states, large and small, were too petty, too jealous, too selfish, to prone to ask how their local interests would be affected. So the proposed Constitution was submitted first of all to Congress. Whose voice was first raised regarding it? That of Richard Henry Lee, who eleven years before had moved the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Did he move to adopt the Constitution ? He did not. He organized the forces to oppose it. Who stood next to him? Nathan Dane, the able leader of the delegation from Massachusetts. And who next? The solid delegation from the great State of New York. Thej' were not going to have any league of nations. For eight days the three great states of New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia tried to obstruct the measure, and they were past masters in all the arts of obstruction. But at length the Congressional vote was taken and the Constitu- tion was transmitted to the several states. Pennsylvania was first to approve it for submission to the vote for a Constitutional convention. She carried it by a vote of 45 to 19 in her Legislature, which had but one house. As 47 were necessary to make a quorum, and the minority determined to defeat the Constitution by stapng away, two members of the minority were taken violently from their rooms and forcibly held in their seats in the Legislature, where, muttering and using bad language, they were com- pelled to sit during the brief space of time required for the vote, which went through, 45 to 2. In this dignified and far- 174 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS visioned manner did the first State Legislature go on record in favor of the new league of nations. Then followed stump speeches, pamphlets, caricatures and villification, which is more instructive than edifying to re- member. What need had the Thirteen Colonies for a new Constitution ? Were not the Articles of Confederation good enough for us? Had we not under them whipped Great Britain? And who were these men who were trying to cut the Thirteen Colonies loose from their well known policy and send them to certain wreck in their folly ? Washington — who was Washington ? A good general, maybe, but what did he know about politics? There were not lacking those who openly denounced him as an old fool. As for Hamilton, he was a believer in monarchy anyway. Franklin was an old dotard, who had come back from France to bring us into bondage to European ideals. And how was the new government to work ? There would have to be a president, doubtless ; and what was a president but a puppet king? If one of the states got into trouble must another state get her out? If Rhode Island continued to muddle matters as she always had done, must Massachusetts stand responsible ? If Delaware went to war must New York send soldiers to defend her ? Pennsylvania had been first to approve the Constitution for submission to a convention. But it was done, as will be re- membered, against the protest of two gentlemen held forcibly in their seats and fifteen others locked in their rooms and refusing to come out and vote. These protestants organized a vigorous opposition, and Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, became the leader of it ; for Pennsylvania would be the first state whose convention would vote. Then rose James Wilson, whom we have almost forgotten, and met the filibustering and obstructive measures with calm reason and skilful par- liamentary procedure. While Pennsylvania was held up in THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 175 this fashion Delaware hurried a vote and approved the Con- stitution, and New Jersey followed ; but not till Pennsylvania, forced to a vote, adopted the Constitution by a two-thirds vote of 46 to 23. Only nine states out of the thirteen were needed, and one- third of them approved in December, 1787. To be sure, James Wilson was hanged and burned in effigy for what he did, and the almanac for 1788, containing the text of the new Constitution, was publicly cursed and burned with due ceremony in divers and sundry places in this free and enlightened land. Georgia, already committed to the measure by her slave representation and the privilege of importing negroes for twenty years, ratified the Constitution on January 2, and Connecticut, grateful that New York could not tax her pota- toes and that she had as many senators as Massachusetts, followed just a week later. Massachusetts was the first of the large states to come in. She came with great travail of soul! In her constitu- tional convention were, among others, twenty-four ministers, and to their everlasting honor they were among the most intelligent and progressive men there. But it is doubtful how the matter would have gone had not old Sam Adams changed his mind. He sat for three weeks in the convention and never opened his mouth, and when he finally spoke it was to utter three words, "I am satisfied." On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts ratified the Constitution by a very nar- row vote of 177 to 168, becoming the sixth state to ratify. Maryland came in on April 28, and New Hampshire's con- A'ention met, but timidly adjourned till June to see what the other states would do. South Carolina ratified in May, and New Hampshire met again in June and ratified. Virginia following after a long and bitter debate, making one more than the necessary nine states. Most bitter was the contro- versy in New York, where Hamilton won a belated victory with a small major'*v of 30 to 27 on July 26. 176 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Petty as were the large states, the small ones, which had most to gain by the union, proved even more petty. North Carolina did not ratify until George Washington had been President for some months and Rhode Island became one of the United States of America May 29, 1790. Had she waited just a little longer Vermont, which was not one of the original thirteen, would have gotten in ahead of her. For a year and more it had been Rhode Island uber alles ; but Rhode Island came in, with many misgivings for her precious rights, having so many sacred interests to guard that she needed two cap- itals. Providence and Newport. The value of this look backward is to be found in the dis- covery that there is nothing now being said against a League of Nations that was not said in 1788 with equal cogency, bitterness and fear that the liberties of America were forever doomed if this thing should be done. Whoever desires to make a good speech against the League of Nations as it is proposed in the year of our Lord 1919 will find it already made for him in the year 1788. Those speeches are not very edifying as we read them now, but they appear quite as able, farsighted and statesmanlike as some speeches now being made will appear in one hundred and thirty years. In the whole history of the adoption of the Constitution the small states acted from small motives and the larger states from smaller motives in proportion to their strength and lead- ership. No state acted so badly as New York, except Rhode Island. But even Rhode Island did finally get in, and New York gave up reluctantly the power of taxing the potatoes and eggs that she imported from Connecticut, and assumed an obligation to assist in protecting from invasion a state as remote and ill-mannered as Rhode Island. By a succession of political miracles and much log rolling that noble instru- ment was adopted which never could have been adopted on its own merits, and the United States became a nation, and a pattern for the United States of the World." "Then without determining as y*t whether war does good or harm, thus much we may aMrm, that now we have discovered war to be derived from causes which are also the causes of almost all the evil in states, private as well as pub- lic." — Socrates THE NEW PATRIOTISM. International Sympathy Mazzini Removing the Causes of War Carlyle The Need of Intelligence Ruskin Guiding Principles Jesus The Present Crisis Lowell BE NOT AFRAID All creation has travailed together To bring the great Present to birth, With no faltering May-be or Whether, The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth; It is ours; let us follow the vision Lest we perish, as Solomon said; And go forward with dauntless decision Of the average man unafraid. What wonder, when palaces totter. When war-lords and tears turn to clay, When privilege pulps like a blotter And titles and charters decay, If the coronet wearer of profit, Grows needlessly nervous with dread Lest Demos compel him to doff it And don a red nightcap instead. This war is the end of the error That Earth was designed for the Few, The end of the tenure of terror; The deed to the world is made new. We are blind if we stop with the Kaiser, While we practice our burdens to shirk; To begin at the bottom were wiser And condemn all who live without work. World-ruin, it seems to the spoiler, To the prophet a new age begun ; For the burden-bearer and toiler Are taking their place in the sun. So fear not, though palaces totter And the scheme of the past is unmade; The same voice that stilled Galilee's water Calms the tempest now : Be not afraid 1 WiLUAM Hekbekt Carruth INTERNATIONAL SYMPATHY By Joseph Mazzini A PEOPLE, Greek, Polish, Circassian, raises the banner of the Fatherland and of Independence, fights, conquers, or dies for it. What is it that makes your hearts beat at the story of its battles, which makes them swell with joy at its vic- tories, and sorrow over its defeats? A man, perhaps your fellow-countryman, perhaps a foreigner, rises amid the uni- versal silence, in some corner of the earth, gives utterance to certain ideas which he believes to be true, maintains them in persecution and in chains, and dies, still constant to them, upon the scaffold. Why do you honor him with the name of Saint and of Martyr? Why do you respect and teach your children to respect his memory? And why do you eagerly read the miracles of patriotic love recorded in Greek story, and repeat them to your chil- dren with a feeling of pride, almost as if they were stories of your own fathers? These deeds of the Greeks are two thousand years old, and belong to an epoch of civilization which is not and never can be yours. That man whom you call martyr dies perhaps for ideas which you do not hold, and anyhow by his voluntary death he cut short his individual progress here below. That people whom you admire in vic- tory and in defeat is a people foreign and perhaps almost unknown to you ; speaking a different language, and with a manner of life which has no visible influence upon yours; what matters it to you whether it is dominated by the Sultan or the King of Bavaria, by the Russian Czar or by a govern- ment springing from the common will of the nation ? But in 179 IW THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS your heart a voice cries, "Those men of two thousand years ago, those far-off peoples that fight to-day, that martyr to ideas for which you would not die, were and are your broth- ers: brothers not only by community of origin and nature, but community of work and of purpose. Those ancient Greeks passed away; but their work did not pass away, and without it you would not possess to-day that degree of intel- lectual and moral development which you have reached. Those peoples consecrate with their blood an idea of national liberty for which you too are fighting. That martyr pro- claimed by his death that man must sacrifice all things, and if needs be life also, for that which he believes to be the Truth. It is of little importance that he and all who seal their faith with their blood cut short their own individual development here upon earth; God provides elsewhere for them. But the development of Humanity is of importance. It is of importance that the coming generation, taught by your combats and your sacrifices, should rise higher and grow mightier than you in the understanding of the Law, in the adoration of the Truth. It is of importance that human nature, fortified by example, should become better, and realize more and more God's will upon earth. And wherever human nature grows better, wherever a new truth is won, wherever a step forward is taken on the path of education, of progress, and of morality, it is a step, a gain, which will bear fruh sooner or later for the whole of Humanity. REMOVING THE CAUSES OF WAR BY THOMAS CARLYLE What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net-pur- port and upshot of war? To my own knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dum- drudge, usually some five hundred souls. From these, by certain "Natural Enemies" of the French, there are succes- sively selected, during the French war, say thirty able-bodied men; Dumdrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them ; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood, and even trained them to crafts, so that one can weave, another build, another hammer, and the weakest can stand under thirty stone avoirdupois. Never- theless, amid much weeping and swearing, they are selected ; all dressed in red; and shipped away, at the public charges, some two thousand miles, or say only to the south of Spain ; and fed there till wanted. And now to that same spot, in the south of Spain, are thirty similar French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner wending; till at length, after infinite effort, the two parties come into actual juxta- position ; and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his hands. Straightway the word "Fire!" is given: and they blow the souls out of one another ; and in place of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the Devil is, not the smallest 1 They lived far enough apart; were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a Universe, there was even, unconsciously, by Commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How 181 18S THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS then? Simpleton! their Governors had fallen-out; and, in- stead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot, — Alas, so is it in Deutschland, and hitherto in all other lands ; still as of old, "what devilry- soever Kings do, the Greeks must pay the piper !" THE NEED OF INTELLIGENCE BY JOHN RUSKIN Though I am no poet, I have dreams sometimes; — I dreamed I was at a child's May-day party, in which every means of entertainment had been provided for them, by a wise and kind host. It was in a stately house, with beautiful gardens attached to it ; and the children had been set free in the rooms and gardens, with no care whatever but how to pass their afternoon rejoicingly. They did not, indeed, know much about what was to happen next day; and some of them, I thought, were a little frightened, because there was a chance of their being sent to a new school where there were examinations ; but they kept the thoughts of that out of their heads as well as they could, and resolved to enjoy them- selves. The house, I said, was in a beautiful garden, and in the garden were all kinds of flowers ; sweet, grassy banks for rest; and smooth lawns for play; and pleasant streams and woods; and rocky places for climbing. And the children were happy for a little while, but presently they separated themselves into parties ; and then each party declared it would have a piece of the garden for its own, and that none of the others should have anything to do with that piece. Next, they quarreled violently which pieces they would have; and at last the boys took up the thing, as boys should do, "prac- tically," and fought in the flower-beds till there was hardly THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 188 a flower left standing; then they trampled down each other's bits of garden out of spite ; and the girls cried till they could cry no more ; and so they all lay down at last breathless in the ruin, and waited for the time when they were to be taken home in the evening." Meanwhile, the children in the house had been making themselves happy also in their manner. For them, there had been provided every kind of indoor pleasure, there was music for them to dance to; and the library was open, with all manner of amusing books ; and there was a museum full of the most curious shells, and animals, and birds ; and there was a worship, with lathes and carpenter's tools, for the ingenious boys ; and there were pretty fantastic dresses, for the girls to dress in ; and there were microscopes, and kaleidoscopes ; and whatever toys a child could fancy ; and a table, in the dining- room, loaded with everything nice to eat. But in the midst of ail this, it struck two or three of the more "practical" children, that they would like some of the brass-headed nails that studded the chairs; and so they set to work to pull them out. Presently, the others, who were reading, or looking at shells, took a fancy to do the like; and, in a little while, all the children, nearly, were spraining their fingers in pulling out brass-headed nails. With all that they could pull out, they were not satisfied ; and then, every- body wanted some of somebody else's. And at last, the really practical and sensible ones declared, that nothing was of any real consequence, that afternoon, except to get plenty of brass-headed nails; and that the books, and the cakes, and the microscopes were of no use at all in themselves, but only, if they could be exchanged for nail-heads. And at last they began to fight for nail-heads, as the others fought for the bits of garden. Only here and there, a despised one shrank away into a comer, and tried to get a little quiet with a book, in the midst of the noise ; but all the practical ones thought of nothing else but counting nail-heads all the afternoon — 184 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS even though they knew they would not be allowed to carry so much as one brass knob away with them. But no— it was — "Who has most nails ? I have a hundred and you have fifty ; or, I have a thousand, and you have two. I must have as many as you before I leave the house, or I cannot possibly go home in peace." At last, they made so much noise that I awoke, and thought to myself, "What a false dream that is, of children!" The child is the father of the man; and wiser. Children never do such foolish things. Only men do. THE PRESENT CRISIS LOWELL When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west. And the slave, whei-e'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time. Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe, When the travail of the Ages wrings earth's systems to and fro; At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start. Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart. And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future's heart. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 18* For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right and wrong ; Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast frame Through its ocean sundered fibers feels the gush of joy or shame ; — In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim. Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new Messiah, oflfering each the bloom or blight, Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right. And the choice goes by forever 'twixt the darkness and that light. Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand. Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land? Though the cause of EviF' prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong. And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong. Careless seems the great Avenger ; history's pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, 186 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS Yet that scafFoId sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great. Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate. But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din. List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within, — They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin." Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just ; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside. Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified, And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied. 'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves, Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime ; — Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time ? Turn those tracks toward Past or Future, that make Plym- outh Rock sublime? They have rights who dare maintain them ; we are traitors to our sires. Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom's new-lit altar-fires ; THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 187 Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our haste to slay, From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away To light up the martyr- fagots round the prophets of to-day? New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth ; Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must Pil- grims be. Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the des- perate winter sea, Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key. LOWBLC. BRIEF LIST OF BOOKS Angell, Norman: The Political Condition of Allied Success. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Brailsford, Henry Neel: A League of Nations. The Mac- millan Company, New York. Hobson, J. A. : Democracy After the War. The Macraillan Company, New York. Jastrow, Morris, Jr. : The War and the Coming Peace. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. Kallen, Horace M. : The League of Nations. Marshall Jones & Company. Kant, Immanuel: Perpetual Peace. The Macmillan Com- pany, New York. Latane, John H. : From Isolation to Leadership. Doubleday, Page & Company. Lawrence, T. J. : The Society of Nations. Oxford Univer- sity Press, New York. Lippman, Walter : The Stakes of Diplomacy. Henry Holt & Company, New York. Lippman, Walter : The Political Scene. Henry Holt & Com- pany, New York. Minor, Ralph C. : A Republic of Nations. Oxford University Press, New York. Phelps, Edith M. : The League of Nations Hand Book. Wil- son Co., New York. Sayre, Francis B. : Experiments in International Administra- tion. Harper & Bros. Tead, Ordway : The People's Part in Peace. Holt & Com- pany, New York. Toynbee, Arnold J. : Nationality and the War. E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. Wells, H. G.: In the Fourth Year. The Macmillan Com- pany, New York. 188 BRIEF LIST OF PAMPHLETS. Brailsford. H. N. : The Covenant of Peace. Huebsch, B. W. Call, Arthur D. : The War for Peace. Committee on Public Information. Collins, Peter W.: Why Labor Demands a League of Na- tions. Labor Secretary, League to Enforce Peace, New York. Corbett, Sir Julian: 3d net,' The League of Nations and the Freedom of the Seas. Oxford University Press, New York. Grey, Viscount of Fallodon, K. G. : 3d net. The League of Nations. Oxford University Press. Henderson, Rt. Hon. Arthur, P. C. M. P.: 3d net. The League of Nations and Labour. Oxford University Press. Lodge, Senator, and Lowell, Doctor: The Lodge-Lowell De- bate. World Peace Foundation, Boston. Murray, Prof. Gilbert: 3d net. The League of Nations and the Democratic Idea. Oxford University Press. Pollard, Prof. A. F. : 3d net. The League of Nations in History. Oxford University Press. Sherman, Stuart P.: American and Allied Ideals. World Peace Foundation, Boston. Smuts, J. C. : League of Nations. Nation Press. Taf t, William Howard : Why a League of Nations is Neces- sary. League to Enforce Peace, New York. Wilson, Woodrow: War Labor and Peace. Committee on Public Information, Washington, D. C. 189 "When we consider the horrible calamities which war has caused, the millions of lives it has cost, and the unutterable anguish which it produces, not only on the battlefield and in the military hospital, but in the social circle and the retired closet of the widow and orphan. we have reason to conclude, that the inquisition, the slave trade, slavery, and intemperance, all put together, have not caused half so much grief and anguish to mankind as war. It is the duty, therefore, of every philanthropist, and every statesman, to do what they can to support a measure which will probably prevent many a bloody war, even if the probability were but a faint one. Should all the endeavors of every philanthropist, statesman and Christian in the world be successful in preventing only one war, it would be a rich reward for their labor. If only once in a century, two nations should be persuaded to leave their disputes to a Court of Nations, and thereby one war be avoided, all the expense of maintaining such a court would be repaid with interest. We therefore conclude, that every man, whether his station be public or private, who refuses to lend his aid in bringing forward this plan of a Congress and Court of Nations, neglects his duty to his country, to tlie world, and to God, and does not act consistently with the character of a statesman, philanthropist, or Christian." W1U.IA11 Ladix "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations ; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt, that in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which en- nobles human nature." Geokge Washington Help your friends and neighbors to a better understanding of the most important question of the day. Order copies of the "League of Nations" for them. We will mail the books direct if you wish. Paper-covered copies $ .50 Cloth-bound copies 1.00 PRENTICE-HALL, Inc. 70 Fifth Avenue New York A Cable Message to President Wilson Washington, D. C, March 23, 1919. "In order to provide opportunity for the people to discuss intelligently and to express their opinion in, regard to the Con- stitution of the League of Nations, I suggest that a bulletin be prepared and distributed containing the Constitution of the Leagflie as finally adopted in Paris^ together with your New York and Boston speeches and appropriate introductory material on the value of orderly, nonpartisan discussion, and that throug-h this bulletin, the public press, and otherwise, the people be requested to come together in community meet- ings for this purpose. This will stimulate int''lligent^ prac- tice of citizenship in regard to a question of paramount national importance." The President's Cable in Reply Paris, France, April 15, 1919. "Full knowledge of the plan for a League of Nations and full discussion of it can do nothing but good and is cer- tain to bring about a cordial cooperation of America with the other nations of the world in taking the only step that can possibly result in assuring peace. I am sure that our fellow countrymen will welcome this opportunity to study a matter of such vital and capital importance." Woodrow Wilson. ■ rx