YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1 lie League. of Nations

AN ADDRESS BY
I —
x BRECKINRIDGE LONG
'¦' , .¦-- -.-¦¦• '.' -.:.. ••¦¦•- .-"-.- >^\.' _. :-; ; . .::-
'THIRD ,ASSISTANT SECRETARY" OF STATE

JANUARY 8 th, 1919

BEFORE THE CHAMBER OE COMMERCE
<; -"-" '' ST." LOUIS, MO. --•"'¦

X'. 79.

.THE LEAGUE. OF- NATIONS
AN, ADDRESS BY
BRECKINRIDGE LONG,
THIRD ASSISTANT SECRETARY OP STATE

There is being discussed by people all over the-world the idea of
a LEAGUE OF NATIONS. It is of such human. interest and so
-'. associated with the objects we had in view during the awful con-
" flict just recently, ended that: I feel. -we should give it the most
'.•'careful, even generous consideration, . and that' we should not set
;.'¦ pur minds again sr the thought, xx'" • '..V..- :'-'¦''. "'¦'-'¦
'¦'_.. Before us, now,, is only, the general idea-, of a- League of" Nations.-
,:' No specific League has been proclaimed. No .single: detail has
' been: spread out ..before the people of the United - States for them
to say whether or not they approve it. -Until there is- 1 say with
hold your objection and refrain from giving expression to thoughts:
'¦" which may .be futile! .. Until it is a. definite plan we cannot justly
;, oppose it and until it is- so specific that we can see -whether there
.is in it something which- strikes at the vitality of the American
nation we can not properly criticize it as being a scheme antago- ,
nistic to' our interests, ••-¦ f-
This war was fought for more than just to beat Germany. It
was foughfto secure the blessings of peace to posterity,: to banish
," from the world the system which made wars probable, to secure
the blessings of life, liberty and. the pursuit of happiness to. Ameri- -
.cans wherever they might be. _i>-x. ""¦,'¦; '¦- '^xW "'"'--""- '"
,.,.¦'• It has been suggested that he who how'guides our destinies" in ¦
.;; foreign affairs. will by some agreement subordinate the ¦ interests
of our country, and his, to those of other nations:' Can. any man
¦ believe that he who has done so much to bring this country to a
- great international position would do one thing to detract from
¦.'. the position of power and influence in which^ he has placed us?
Does any one believe he is going to do anything, or will commit
'_„.,' himself to anything, that would bring him in a false position. before
x the people for whom he has worked, whom he loves and 'of whom
'' he is a part?. -. . "-X ' ¦; ¦•,. V. ^.x- 'xtexx'x-
• . It is argued thatLeagues of Nations are no-new things; that
,' they have been tried and found wanting. Reference- is made to-
Triple- Alliances, Quadruple Alliances, Holy Alliances, . and to
x the Congress of Vienna. The latter is 'even ignorantlydikened to.
the Conference about to meet in Paris. x , X -:";,*:. x'„
'x -These -things had their beginning an hundred year's ago and
were based on different concepts. The sinister Metternich, wielding
: an insidious influence, held sway at Vienna and for more than a
,;. generation thereafter exercised his malign • power- to . oppose
progress, advancement, and enlightenment. His long arm moved
around .the dark and hidden passages of Europe and in various

ways built-up the very military systems it has taken the force of
the world to destroy. . These recently fallen military autocracies
were the direct descendents of his methods. They were part and \
parcel of the same brain, the same blood; — were moved by the.
same imoulses, and had a philosophy based on the same foundation
of brute" force. That the world of today rose in horror at the
methods they employed testifies that the world of today is no
longer in sympathy with those who practice methods conceived
in darkness and born of a malign purpose. It affirms that we are
as much out of sympathy with the methods of Metternich- as we
are out of step with his time. A congress which meets today and -
is composed of delegates who are representative of the enlightened
intellect of the -peoples of their respective" nations is as incomparable
with the Congress of Vienna as will be the evolutions of the Con- -.,
ference -of 1919 with those hybrid offsprings of the Congress that .--,
assembled in 1814. X..', .' .-.- . xx x X" - . ' "'-•
The -world has progressed since those days.'.- A great intellectual ..
' development has made possible scientific achievements which h^ve -
held up the light of learning as a great torch to cast its rays and ._
-its warmth throughout the world.. - Nor has our moral awakening x-
-failed to keep pace with the impulses of an enlightened age." To- -
day we abhor the dark and hidden byways, the underground avenues x"
of the world, the devious paths- of immorab minds. We like to
speak honestly and fearlessly and to: feel that .those with whom we -v
deal are likewise constituted.-1 x --t : - ^ ,x
'-; No, the days of Metternich are gone. ; His-' chapter is written -. -
and the book is closed. We are even in a new volume in which
international- relations take on a new aspect. For the world has .
grown much smaller and we are better acquainted today with 7
distant peoples and closer to places once far away than were our.-
ancestors of an hundred years ago with their comparative neigh- x
bors. ¦-¦¦¦." ': \-_^
In those days there was no telegraph. In those days the tele- ..:.
phone was unknown. In those days electricity was in its "infancy -, '
and had not been placed to any practical use. In those days the
steam car and the train were just in their infancy, and I doubt .
if there were a thousand miles Of rail in all the world. What do
these things mean? What does the telegraph, the telephone, the :'.
railroad, the steamship, — what do they mean to the world? They
mean that the" world has been brought close together. It means that - -
today the city of St. Louis, or the. city of Minneapolis, or the city X
of Boston, or the city of San Francisco, or the city of New Orleans,
is closer to Peking and to Buenos Aires and to Bucharest, and to :,
any place in the world you can name, than Paris was to London .-
a hundred years ago. It means that the thoughts and communica- >-;
tions of the peoples who made these agreements in times a hundred ;„
years past were as separate and different from, and "as unsympa- ;-
thetic with,, and with as little knowledge of the one of the other as---
was possible. Why?. Because they had no means of communica
tion. Because the habits and the thoughts and the daily life of one ",
people did not appear in the morning press for them to read; be- , .
cause the people of Austria didn't know the people of Russia, and
the people of France didn't know the people of Belgium.
Today the world is closer together; we are more a conglomerate.
whole; we co-ordinate better; we are parts of a whole."
It is argued that the idea of .a. League of Nations is inconsistent- :
with the teachings and advices of the statesmen now departed who S

conceived and promulgated this system of Government of ours,
and with the practices and policies of those later statesmen who
guided its course and in a large measure shaped its destiny. It is
said that Washington warned us against entangling alliances; that
Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison followed his advice and
demonstrated by their practices faith in his teachings ; that Monroe,
by the enunciation of the Doctrine which bears his name, expressed
his approval of those pronouncements of political policies and left
directions- for the guidance of our national affairs which succeeding
generations have followed.
To these wise men, to their abundant learning and sound judg
ment, we owe much. For their sagacity I have only the greatest of
respect, and for their memories, only the most solemn of reverence.
But the world in which they lived was not the world of today.
When they lived, the nearest port in Europe was six or eight
weeks distant; Boston and New York were days apart; muddy
roads and horse-drawn vehicles were their avenue and means of
communication with their Capital; mails had just been established
as a public institution and were only then supplanting the irregular
and archaic private ownership and operation of mail routes. Hud
son was then an impractical dreamer and his steamboat, lame and
irregular in its movements, an object of curiosity, but of little
concern; the thirteen states that stretched along the Atlantic Sea
board were loosely hung together and the journey through them
from north to south a fatiguing and primitive labor of months;
newspapers were of the weekly or spasmodic variety and were not
in general circulation nor were generally read — and could not be,
for there was no speedy method of interchanging items of interest
nor means of distributing the papers, save in the immediate
locality of their publication.
The statesmen who lived in those days and under such conditions
could not view the world as do we of today. Their principles, their
senses of morality and propriety, their philosophy, their mental
processes would not have changed if they could have had their
being in the midst of the circumstances in which we live, but I can
not bring 'myself to the point of believing they would have refused
to accept the instrumentalities of scientific production or that, once
accepted, these instrumentalities would not have had an effect upon
their views. I will not believe that such remarkable minds would
not be keenly alive to the possibilities which the discoveries of the
last hundred years have produced, and I have too high a regard
for their attainments to believe that the limitations which then
existed to receiving and communicating intelligence would not be
willingly, enthusiastically removed if it had been in their power
to do so. To deny that they would is to proclaim that all the
world has progressed except the mind of man, which very theory
. is in itself refuted and irretrievably exploded by the fact that these
" scientific improvements are themselves the offspring of an improved
and more highly developed mind.
I have often., thought how Napoleon would have enjoyed the
machine gun, the "Big Berthas," the aeroplane, and the submarine;
conjectured how the course of the world might have been changed.
Do we believe he would have failed to use the aeroplane or heavy
artillery if he could have? Would he have denied himself that
advantage over his enemies? Rather, history would lead us to
believe he would have so used and so organized them to suit his
purposes as to be nigh unconquerable.

Likewise, can we accept the argument that the statesmen to
whom we owe so much and whose teachings have profited us so
well would fail to apply the instruments of our scientific develop
ment if they were alive today, or would fail to adjust themselves
to conditions of our modern life?
He who points to the teachings of our forefathers argues that
we are confined to the borders of a continental United States forgets
the leash was long since broken. Was it not our statesmen of
revered memory who so wisely founded our institutions who started
our expansion and added the Louisiana Territory and Florida?
Was it not through the actions of their successors that we acquired
Texas, and the great California, so that we stretch now from the
Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Border of Canada to the Gulf
of Mexico in one unbroken field? Is it forgot that islands to the
southeast in the Atlantic have our destinies linked with theirs and
that we have recently spent §25,000,000.-00 to have for our own
some little ones lying hundreds of miles from our shores? That
in the distant tropics in Panama we have a great canal which has
cost us millions of dollars but in which our interest is immeasurable
in money? That in the far and frozen north we have in Alaska '
a great territory, snow covered and partly ice bound, but rich and
bountiful in its resources? And out in the wide expanse of the
Pacific - we have a chain of insular possessions stretching seven
thousand miles to the Philippines, themselves in Asiatic Waters?
Long since our interests crossed the boundaries of these United
States and assumed a permanent form without They now run -
from near the Equator to within- the Arctic Circle, and are in
extricably involved with the fate of oceans and continents. We
have international interests. . We have- tentacles abroad which if
we had not had before would now force upon us an activity in the
affairs of nations in order to assert our influence, and to protect
from the destroying consequences of war those lands in which we
have a possessory interest.
But that is our national point of "view. There is another, one
of the great lessons this war has taught. It is the international
point of view and is founded on the recently well exemplified fact
that every country in the world has an interest in every other
country in the world and the continuance in each other country
of a state of peace and prosperity. This war has shown that we
are all dependent upon one another and that when war and its
necessary disturbance of economic life appears in one country each
of the others is effected thereby. Ships are diverted from their
regular routes ; cargoes are limited to certain articles of a character
necessary for belligerent purposes; food and clothes are directed
into different channels and fall under certain prohibitions and
restrictions which the necessities of belligerents demand that they
enforce; a premium is placed upon manufactured products of a.
warlike character and the ordinary courses of trade and traffic are'
interfered with if not entirely interrupted. The consequence is that
the economic and industrial structures of a country are disturbed.
In some cases, particularly in those industries which are adapted
to manufacture warlike supplies, they take on an unnatural ac
tivity, while those not so adapted fall to a subnormal state and
often fail. Labor is thrown out 'of joint; prices rise; food and
clothing are scarce and expensive; and the whole social, industrial
and economic society is deranged from its normal course. 'This
has been the experience of every country in the world,, whether it

has been belligerent or neutral. So that each country has an in
terest in, the re-establishment and maintenance of a state of peace,
and we 'have an interest which stretches into every country in the
world and a desire that conditions in each of them, everywhere
shall remain normal and that no situations shall again arise to
disturb the world and disrupt its proper procedure.
We have been living in stirring times, through days that have
meant so much for the future history of the world, for its peace
and prosperity. We have had an international point of view. We
have thought and talked and read of the Ukraine, and Besserabia
and Livonia and Esthonia, which a year ago or a little more, were
sealed books to us,- names with which the ethnologist was wont to
conjure and for the use of him who scientifically traces the origin
and growth of language, or the history and development of races.
Today they are household words. We have thought internationally
and have come to know the peoples of other places. Sometimes I
feel that we are like the aviator: He rises from the ground and
ascends into pure -and sublime atmosphere and sunlight of the
world'. He leaves behind him the sordid and the bloodshed and
turmoil, the sadness and the sorrow; he leaves behind him the
personal, the individual — those things that absorb the attention and
desires of men, their petty aims and personal ambitions. He
ascends height upon height and as he goes up, things that he
thought were great and important, because he was close to them,
assume their proper place in the general scheme of the landscape.
His horizon expands, his vision extends. When he casts his eyes
.around, he sees things hes never has seen before, and sees familiar
objects from a point of view he never had before. He sees the
world is a, world, not a spot or a place or a location from which
other places and things are judged. '
When he lands, he again assumes his place as an individual; he
again becomes a part of a great machine; he again becomes, as
nature intended, a man, with a man's occupation and he becomes .
again an individual. But will he forget the impressions he got on
high? Will not the emotions that surged through his breast, will
not the lofty purposes and great ideals he had on high, make some
impression on him? Will he forget he has seen the world?
Will we now draw ourselves back again into that place where
we were before the war, either as a nation or as individuals? Will
we retain nothing from the impressions we have had? Do they
mean nothing to us except impressions? Was it only for a passing
moment? Will we forget we, too, have seen the world?
There are those of us who have been denied the opportunity to
have a more concrete and specific part in this world during its
crisis. There are those of us, among whom I count myself one,
who would have given any precious thing to have been so placed
as to be able to give more forceful expression to the views we
held than we could from where we sat. There are those among us
who would have jumped at any opportunity to use some physical
force to accentuate our beliefs in the things that- we hold so dear,
and for which we have sacrificed so much. Is there a man who
would not gladly have been one of that great army of crusaders
in the cause of righteousness; who, if he could, would not proudly
proclaim himself one of those already immortal heroes of Soissons,
. St. Mihiel and Chateau Thierry? Is there a man who breathes who
would not proudly and loudly proclaim it if he had himself done
some physical act to advance the Stars and Stripes in its unalter-

able and unaltered advance to liberty and victory/ and tp account
himself a veteran of Democracy? A
The immediate object has been attained. The crowns of the
Hohenzollerns are in the streets of Germany. The Star Spangled
Banner flies on the banks of the Shine. Military autocracy has
been wiped from the face of Etirope. But is the chapter closed?
Are the men who died in France to have died for a temporary
expttdient? Did American blood fertilize the fields of France only
to produce more war? Are we to have made all this sacrifice in
money and blood and energy and self-denial, and in doing every
thing that could be done to prevent that such a holocaust does not
again get the world in its grip, in vain? I for one proclaim that
if there is one opportunity for the Presfdent of the United States
to make an arrangement which will insure for all times the things
we have fought for, he has my prayer for success and such humble
assistance as I can render, that peace may be perpetual and tran
quility undisturbed.
We should have implicit confidence in the man who has so inter
preted the feelings and sentiments of humanity and -who has so.
expressed those great emotions which have welled up from his
breast as to have made them intelligible in the four corners of the
world. We should express our confidence in him who brought this
country from a nation with a limited international influence to be -
one of the greatest powers, if not the greatest power that the
world has ever seen. I have confidence in him, and I see that con
fidence reflected in people throughout the length and breadth of
the world. What language they speak matters,-not; nor what their
complexions and their colors are.. They are each and everyone a
nation which at some time, under certain circumstances, not now
conceivable, may do something which will upset the peace of the
world and start it all over again -on this horrible experience we
have just'been through. I know that he is going to uphold the
honor of his country. . He knows the crimes that have been com-
. mitted in one name or another, and he has helped to. fight this
war to prevent the recurrence of those things which have wrought '
such destruction and which have caused so much sorrow. He has
tried to change the systems that made those things possible, and I
am satisfied the American people feel he will uphold their flag as
the last act of his life, and that the country will never be called
upon to accept a proposal which is not thoroughly in keeping with
the honor and dignity of the United States of America.