LAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 A CHAPTER 
 IN THE HISTORY OF 
 THE MOVEMENT 
 
 THEODORE 
 MARBURG
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS 
 ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. 
 
 TORONTO
 
 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY 
 OF THE MOVEMENT 
 
 BY 
 THEODORE MARBURG, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 Formerly United States Minister to Belgium 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1919 
 
 All rights reserve A
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1917 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published, October, 1917. 
 Reprinted. November, 1917.
 
 ^ * 
 
 \ c\ r SANTA BARBARA 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 This work aims not at a compre- 
 hensive narrative of the origin and 
 growth of opinion on that greatest of 
 problems adequate international or- 
 ganization but is confined largely to 
 developments with which the writer has 
 been personally connected. 
 
 Due largely to its endeavour to con- 
 fine its program to the realizable in the 
 present stage of world opinion and preju- 
 dice, the American movement appears to 
 have been accepted abroad more freely 
 than that of any other group. Progress 
 beyond the hope of its originators is al- 
 ready recorded. But as we are still in 
 the full tide of events in this field the au- 
 thor hopes to follow the present publica- 
 tion with a second volume.
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 This little book is a history of the 
 movement in the United States to secure 
 action by the United States and other 
 Nations, after this great world war, 
 looking to the establishment of a League 
 to Enforce Peace. Mr. Marburg, the 
 author, is a student of international law, 
 a publicist, and a diplomat of marked 
 ability and learning. Under the last 
 Republican Administration, he was 
 United States Minister to Belgium. 
 With great public spirit he has always 
 been active in associations for the pro- 
 motion of arbitration and judicial set- 
 tlement of international controversies. 
 
 Mr. Marburg, with Mr. Holt of the 
 Independent, was the first to move for 
 the formation of a League to Enforce 
 Peace, and has been most diligent and
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 effective in promoting the League ever 
 since. 
 
 The principles and project of the 
 League to Enforce Peace, as projected 
 by the American Section of its promo- 
 ters, are few and simple. Shortly 
 stated, they look to the peaceable pro- 
 cedure for the hearing and decision of 
 all international controversies, to be en- 
 forced by the joint power of the nations 
 of the world. The force is to be applied 
 in securing the due process under the 
 agreements of the League. It does not 
 extend to the enforcement of the judg- 
 ment or recommendation of compromise 
 which shall be the result of the hearing. 
 The essence of the plan is the delay and 
 deliberation involved in orderly proced- 
 ure for the hearing and decision of the 
 controversy. It is thought that most 
 wars can be avoided by such a procedure, 
 and the force is to be applied against 
 the premature hostilities of any nation 
 which violates its plighted faith under 
 the League by beginning war before the
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 procedure of hearing and judgment has 
 been completed. 
 
 Mr. Marburg, in his first chapter, has 
 discussed a good many details and 
 phases of the possible operation of a 
 League to Enforce Peace which have 
 been considered by a group of members 
 of the League. As Mr. Marburg has 
 taken pains to point out, it is a private 
 group and not a committee of the 
 League. The group itself holds the 
 view that it is best for the League to 
 confine its authoritative commitments to 
 the short program of the League, and 
 it has never asked the Executive Com- 
 mittee to pass upon the results of its 
 labour. 
 
 The resume which Mr. Marburg has 
 given of the growth of the support of the 
 general plan of the League must become 
 more and more useful as the time ap- 
 proaches for the consummation of the 
 purpose of the League. This time can 
 not come until Germany, the head and 
 front of military autocracy in the world,
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 shall have been defeated and the power 
 of vicious militarism broken. This is a 
 condition precedent to any useful League 
 to Enforce Peace. Experience shows 
 that the fundamental evil of military 
 autocracy is the theory that there is no 
 international morality and that no 
 sacredness attaches to national obliga- 
 tions when the interest of the state re- 
 quires that the obligations shall be 
 broken. When such a false and vicious 
 philosophy is broken down by a defeat 
 of the German military caste in this war, 
 the world will be ripe for a League to 
 Enforce Peace, because national obliga- 
 tions will then acquire a strength and 
 practical binding quality that will lead 
 all the nations to rest reasonably secure 
 in the promises of their sister nations. 
 
 I hope that Mr. Marburg's little book 
 will be widely read. 
 
 WM. H. TAFT. 
 
 Pointe-a-Pic, Canada, 
 September 6, 1917.
 
 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY 
 OF THE MOVEMENT 1 
 
 STRUCK with the benefits of politi- 
 cal organization within the State, 
 thinking men have long viewed the pos- 
 sibility of similar organization between 
 States; to suffer the continuance of in- 
 ternational anarchy with its disastrous 
 results was a reflection on the common 
 intelligence. 
 
 From time to time this consciousness 
 has flowered in noble expression and oc- 
 casionally in definite plans for world or- 
 ganization. Men did not question the 
 wisdom of the steps advocated by these 
 thinkers. But they looked about them 
 and saw apparently insurmountable bar- 
 riers of national jealousies and hate and 
 ambition. And the simple fact is that 
 no body of men in the various nations 
 appeared with sufficient vision and pur-
 
 2 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 pose to attempt to realize these projects. 
 The present movement for interna- 
 tional justice, to be attained ultimately 
 through international organization, may 
 be said to have had its birth at the First 
 Hague Conference (1899). While it has 
 suffered disappointments, the movement 
 from that day to this has constantly 
 grown, drawing within its ranks more 
 and more thoughtful men in private sta- 
 tion and an ever greater number of men 
 in positions of power, until today it 
 really looks as if we were on the eve of 
 realizing at least the beginnings of a 
 true world organization. Are the men 
 who have the doing of this thing in the 
 hollow of the hand to suffer the world 
 to be again disappointed? God forbid. 
 
 VISAGING THE ORGANIZATION AND 
 
 WORKINGS OF A LEAGUE OF 
 
 NATIONS 2 
 
 The brain centre of a League of Na- 
 tions will probably be an executive body
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 3 
 
 (Ministry) which will be the source of 
 much of the League's activity. Such a 
 body would naturally entertain com- 
 plaints and, if unable itself to compose 
 the controversies, would pass them up to 
 a World Court or to a Council of Concili- 
 ation accordingly as it judged them to 
 be justiciable questions or conflicts of 
 political policy. 
 
 As the Court would probably be em- 
 powered, like the Supreme Court of the 
 United States of North America, itself to 
 pass upon the question of jurisdiction, 
 the Ministry could well afford to lean to- 
 ward the Court in making the choice re- 
 ferred to, being assured that if it erred 
 in its choice the Court would correct the 
 mistake. 
 
 That which is sometimes termed " pre- 
 ventive justice " could likewise be intro- 
 duced through the Ministry, by charg- 
 ing that body with the important posi- 
 tive function of keeping a close watch 
 on both international developments and 
 on internal dissensions likely to lead to
 
 4 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 international complications. In the lat- 
 ter field its powers would, of necessity, 
 be purely facultative, since it is not pro- 
 posed to confer upon the League the 
 right to interfere in the internal affairs 
 of its members. Whether or not it 
 would eventually find it necessary, in the 
 interests of the World's peace, to deal 
 more drastically with backward coun- 
 tries is a question which we are not 
 called upon to answer now. To its own 
 members the League could only suggest 
 the advisability of taking notice of, and 
 endeavouring to allay, internal discon- 
 tent which was likely to assume interna- 
 tional aspects, and offer the services of 
 its tribunals and committees to that end. 
 
 In all probability it would likewise be 
 in the Ministry that most legislation 
 would originate, to be acted upon by an 
 International Legislative Assembly. If 
 any such function is expected of it, the 
 members of the Ministry should then 
 have seats in the Legislative Assembly. 
 
 But the greatest responsibility that
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 5 
 
 would rest on a Ministry would be that 
 of determining when a crisis had arisen 
 calling for the use of force under the 
 terms of the League and of so notifying 
 the individual States of the League, 
 leaving them to determine, each for it- 
 self, whether or not it was prepared to 
 live up to its obligations under the 
 treaty. Such a situation would be par- 
 allel to that in which the United States 
 Congress would find itself if called upon 
 by the President to act under the treaty 
 by which the United States has guaran- 
 teed the integrity of Cuba : the Congress 
 alone, under the Constitution, may de- 
 clare war, and when the conditions con- 
 templated by the treaty have arisen the 
 Executive Branch of the Government 
 must await the pleasure of the Congress 
 before it can make war in fulfilment of 
 the country's treaty obligations. 
 
 A decision by the Ministry of the 
 League such as is here contemplated 
 must necessarily be swift and immediate, 
 for war, once begun in earnest, is hard
 
 6 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 to stay. And, as prompt decision can 
 be expected ordinarily only from small 
 bodies of men, the numbers composing 
 the Ministry must not be large. It has 
 been suggested that it should be ap- 
 pointed by and out of the proposed 
 Council of Conciliation, which itself 
 would embrace only men of " wide experi- 
 ence and of marked discretion and abil- 
 ity," and that it should consist of five 
 members. It would seem that five is not 
 too small a number to insure deliberation 
 nor too large to prevent prompt decision 
 in an emergency. The failure of most 
 councils that have sat in international 
 crises in the past has been due to their 
 inability to agree promptly on a line of 
 action. Such disagreement has been so 
 common that nations aggressively dis- 
 posed have come to count upon it. As 
 the chief aim of the rudimentary organ- 
 ization of states which it is now pro- 
 posed to set up as an entering wedge in 
 the present senseless block of interna- 
 tional anarchy is to prevent war before
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 7 
 
 there has been a hearing of the dispute, 
 it is of foremost importance that the 
 machinery designed to accomplish this 
 object should be effective. It cannot be 
 effective unless the responsibility for de- 
 termining the moment when the League 
 is called upon to use force rests with a 
 small body of men, not diplomats but 
 statesmen who have had wide experience, 
 the very foremost men in their respective 
 countries so far as possible, men who 
 enjoy the confidence not only of their 
 fellow countrymen but of the world. It 
 would not be difficult to name such men 
 today from each of several of the Great 
 Powers and from some of the Secondary 
 Powers as well. 
 
 If Europe had had sitting perma- 
 nently, say at the capital of some small 
 country, a group of men of this kind, 
 charged with the duty of watching 
 closely international events, gathering 
 knowledge of local difficulties and na- 
 tional aims, legitimate and other, and 
 charged too with the duty of recom-
 
 8 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 mending promptly a solution of disputes 
 as they arose, such solution as their 
 experience and knowledge suggested and 
 would have given especial value to, is 
 there any doubt that it would have wit- 
 nessed fewer wars? 
 
 COUNCIL OF CONCILIATION 
 
 Co-operating with the Ministry, the 
 source of its strength and of its author- 
 ity, there must be a larger body, com- 
 posed of representatives of the States of 
 the League. This body, it has been sug- 
 gested, should be styled " Council of 
 Conciliation," since one of its important 
 functions will be to compose conflicts of 
 political policy with which a Court is 
 not expected to deal. It should be 
 vested with the power of injunction be- 
 cause in matters of vital importance na- 
 tions will not abstain from taking the 
 case in their own hands will refuse to 
 refer it to enquiry involving possibly a 
 full year's delay unless they can be 
 assured that the offending Nation will be
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 9 
 
 estopped meanwhile from proceeding 
 with the objectionable act. The Court 
 would naturally enjoy this same power 
 in cases within its jurisdiction. 
 
 The Council of Conciliation, like its 
 committee, the Ministry, ought to have a 
 permanent seat and a secretariat. It is 
 likewise the best body to entrust with the 
 duty of making rules for the League un- 
 der the constitution in the sense in which 
 a Department of the United States Gov- 
 ernment makes rules under the law. The 
 making of international law proper 
 should be in the hands of a still larger 
 body representing the whole world and 
 not simply the members of the League, 
 since it will be law for the world. Here 
 too, however, the Council of Conciliation 
 and its committee, the Ministry, may 
 properly play an important part in 
 recommending, and actually initiating, 
 measures in the Legislative Assembly. 
 The time of the Council would probably 
 be given up largely to such matters, 
 actual controversies referred to it being
 
 10 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 entrusted by it to subcommittees, fluctu- 
 ating in personnel, or to a subcommittee 
 of fixed personnel, as may be found wis- 
 est. 
 
 A matter of importance, one around 
 which there is likely to be considerable 
 discussion, is the composition of a body 
 endowed with such great powers. Shall 
 the Council be constituted on the princi- 
 ple of the equality of States, or shall the 
 larger and more powerful countries have 
 larger representation? It has been sug- 
 gested that the leading Powers may be 
 able to supply more men of the high type 
 called for by the important duties resting 
 on the Council. Furthermore, if the 
 League is called upon to use force, the 
 burden of the operations will naturally 
 fall on the Great Powers who have the 
 equipment. Will they not therefore in- 
 sist on control of the Council? It is the 
 Great Powers who actually make war, as 
 we know it today, though the smaller 
 Powers, particularly the backward ones, 
 may be instrumental in bringing it on.
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 11 
 
 This question is not simple. The con- 
 clusion of several important groups is 
 that the principle of equality should gov- 
 ern in the selection of the Council, and 
 that for a time at least it is unlikely to 
 give rise to complications, since the 
 League, at the start, will be confined 
 largely to the Great Powers, with a few 
 only of the Secondary Powers added. If 
 the backward nations are excluded, full 
 representation of the Secondary Powers 
 in the Council ought not to offer obsta- 
 cles to its successful working. An analy- 
 sis of their aims and of the motives gov- 
 erning their conduct in general would 
 lead rather to the opposite conclusion: 
 the conclusion that their presence in the 
 Council would really make for justice 
 and moderation. 
 
 Changes in the constitution of the 
 League may well originate by resolution 
 of the Council, subject to approval or re- 
 jection by a fixed proportion, more 
 than a bare majority, of the States of 
 the League. No constitutional change
 
 12 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 and no war measure should be voted by 
 the Council unless such measure has the 
 approval, say, of four-fifths of the repre- 
 sentatives of the Great Powers. Such a 
 provision would prevent the smaller Pow- 
 ers from crowding into the League and 
 from thus overwhelming the voice of the 
 Great Powers in the Council. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL COTJKT OF JUSTICE 
 
 The suggestion that the Draft Con- 
 vention for the Court of Arbitral Justice 
 accepted in principle by the Second 
 Hague Conference would serve as the 
 basis for the proposed International 
 Court of Justice under a league of na- 
 tions has met with criticism from several 
 important quarters. The Court which 
 that Convention provided was thought to 
 be inadequate to the needs of the League. 
 There has followed a full discussion of 
 the problem resulting in the elaboration 
 of complete provisions designed to give 
 the world a true international court of 
 justice in connection with a league of na-
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 13 
 
 tions or independently of it, should the 
 latter project unhappily fail of realiza- 
 tion. 3 
 
 Be it remembered at the outset that 
 it is not thought wise, in the present 
 stage of world opinion, to endow an 
 international court with power to en- 
 force its judgments. Such power may 
 come to the Court in the fulness of 
 time, but it is believed that at present 
 the Great Powers are not ready to ac- 
 cept a proposal which would make it 
 possible for a judicial tribunal, with 
 power to pass upon the question of its 
 own jurisdiction, to pronounce conclu- 
 sively on disputes involving vital in- 
 terests. It is proposed that the Court 
 should consist of fifteen judges, not more 
 than two of whom should be connected 
 with any one country, but that they 
 may be taken even from non-contracting 
 States. The appointments should be for 
 life, with optional retirement on pension 
 at the age of seventy. 
 
 Few questions connected with the set-
 
 14 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 ting up of an international court have 
 proved in practice more difficult of solu- 
 tion than that of the composition of the 
 Court. The discussions at the Second 
 Hague Conference disclosed great diver- 
 sity of opinion on this subject, the 
 smaller States preventing an agreement 
 by insisting on full representation on the 
 Court, that which would have produced 
 an assembly of forty-five in lieu of a 
 court. But for the difficulty of solving 
 this problem the Court of Arbitral Jus- 
 tice would have come into being long 
 since. 
 
 That which is now proposed is that 
 the judges for the International Court of 
 Justice should be chosen by an assembly 
 of judicial electors appointed by the con- 
 tracting Powers, each Power being en- 
 titled to three electors. One judgeship 
 should be filled at a time, the assembly 
 remaining in session until the membership 
 of the Court has been completed. It is 
 suggested that nominations should be 
 made not only by the judicial electors
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 15 
 
 themselves, who will no doubt represent 
 the views of their respective Govern- 
 ments, but also by national and interna- 
 tional societies of jurists, the persons 
 nominated in the latter manner to be 
 deemed candidates when their nomination 
 has been communicated by any high offi- 
 cial of one of the contracting Powers. 
 It should be possible for the Assembly of 
 Judicial Electors to adopt a preferential 
 system of voting; but in the absence of 
 such a provision no candidate should be 
 declared elected unless he receives an ab- 
 solute majority of the votes cast. 
 
 To fill vacancies in the Court by call- 
 ing together again this Assembly of Ju- 
 dicial Electors from all parts of the 
 earth, mayhap at short intervals, would 
 be too cumbersome; so it is believed best 
 to leave to the judicial electors them- 
 selves, who are to be a continuing body 
 of changing personnel, the determination 
 of this question. But in cases of im- 
 peachment the electors should meet and 
 no judge be removable except by an abso-
 
 16 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 lute majority of those present and vot- 
 ing. 
 
 As to the competence and procedure of 
 the Court, it is felt that the contracting 
 Powers should agree to submit to it all 
 controversies of a justiciable nature not 
 made the subject of other peaceful dis- 
 position. 
 
 Even non-contracting Powers should 
 be encouraged to bring their cases to the 
 Court and its jurisdiction should extend 
 not only to these but likewise to disputes 
 between a corporation and a State, or 
 solely between corporations provided the 
 dispute be of international consequence. 
 It is realized that an international court 
 will be called upon to deal with various 
 systems of law ; but it is thought possible 
 to cover this point by specifying that the 
 Court shall apply the doctrines of law 
 which " the contracting Powers may pro- 
 vide or the litigants agree upon," failing 
 which it shall be free to follow its own 
 theory of justice subject to the doctrines 
 already established by international law
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 17 
 
 as found in the various recognized 
 sources. 
 
 Growth of law would be promoted by 
 following the practice of accompanying 
 the decree, itself in writing, with a written 
 opinion, bearing the name of the judge 
 by whom it was prepared, and giving the 
 reasoning on which the decision is based. 
 It is believed that when their names ap- 
 pear in connection with decisions judges 
 attach greater importance to their la- 
 bours. There is then added to the natu- 
 rally conscientious discharge of their du- 
 ties the personal element of regard for 
 their own future reputations. The pub- 
 lication of a dissenting opinion is ob- 
 jected to on the ground that even though 
 the judgment of the majority judges, 
 which is the authoritative judgment, 
 " were also a true and righteous judg- 
 ment," nevertheless, owing possibly to the 
 cleverness of the minority judges who 
 would naturally do their best to present 
 their views forcibly, " the reasonableness 
 and persuasiveness of the dissenting opin-
 
 18 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 ion " might be such as to throw discredit 
 on the majority opinion. The judges 
 should reside permanently at the seat of 
 the Court. They would constitute a 
 learned group whose interests would be 
 similar and great benefit would result 
 from their constant intercourse. 
 
 In order to promote resort to the 
 Court non-contracting Powers should 
 not be chargeable with any of the costs. 
 A sense of right will lead them in due 
 time to adhere to the Convention and 
 assume their share of the burden of main- 
 taining the Court if impelled to use it. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 
 
 Exclusion of backward countries from 
 a league of nations will naturally be re- 
 sented by them, as few countries will be 
 ready to admit that they belong in that 
 category. This difficulty might be met 
 to a certain extent, though not overcome, 
 by inviting them to send representatives 
 at stated intervals to sit with the Council
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 19 
 
 of Conciliation, with the right to be heard 
 by it but without a vote. Such a pro- 
 vision would supply the means of their 
 getting their grievances before the 
 League of Nations and of facilitating, at 
 the same time, the discharge of the duty 
 imposed on the Ministry to watch and 
 forestall unfavourable international de- 
 velopments whether within or without the 
 League. 
 
 The principal means of reconciling the 
 backward countries, however, to their ex- 
 clusion from membership in the League 
 would be to admit them to the Interna- 
 tional Legislative Assembly. They ought 
 to be there all nations ought to be 
 there because the enactments of that 
 body, in the absence of a veto within a 
 given period of time, are supposed to bind 
 not only the States of the League but to 
 be true international law which the whole 
 world is bound to respect. 
 
 It is suggested that the basis of repre- 
 sentation in the Legislative Assembly
 
 20 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 should be units of population supple- 
 mented by additional representation on 
 the basis of units of commerce. 
 
 Numerous plans have been presented 
 to the world from time to time, some ex- 
 ceedingly elaborate, aiming to give to 
 each nation such representation in an in- 
 ternational assembly as its importance 
 entitles it to. The facts on which these 
 plans are based are difficult of exact as- 
 certainment and the many elements en- 
 tering into the calculation make it very 
 complex. They satisfy no one. On the 
 other hand, it is manifestly unfair to em- 
 ploy population as the sole basis of 
 representation among nations varying 
 greatly in political power and in activity 
 in international intercourse. 
 
 By including the single additional ele- 
 ment of commerce, which usually runs 
 parallel with progress in other directions, 
 we correct this injustice in large measure 
 and at the same time offer a compara- 
 tively simple basis of calculation. 
 
 It is desirable that the Legislative As-
 
 THE ORGANIZATION 21 
 
 sembly, while thus composed of repre- 
 sentatives of all nations we might des- 
 ignate them specifically as the nations 
 which were invited to participate in the 
 Second Hague Conference should be 
 under the guidance of the League, and to 
 that end should be called and dissolved by 
 the League, the latter's Ministry, as 
 above indicated, having seats in the As- 
 sembly and being made largely responsi- 
 ble for initiating measures. 
 
 As provided in the platform of the 
 American League to Enforce Peace, the 
 acts of the Legislative Assembly should 
 be binding on each participant unless re- 
 jected by it within a stated period. One 
 year is probably sufficient time to allow 
 for a nation to make up its mind on any 
 subject likely to be brought before it in 
 this way. The need of some such provi- 
 sion is shown by the failure of signatories 
 to various Hague and other international 
 conventions to ratify them, leaving na- 
 tions which have ratified them in the posi- 
 tion of having signed a contract, which, it
 
 22 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 is true, is not binding as against the par- 
 ties who have failed to ratify, but which 
 may become binding against such parties 
 at any moment that they choose to rat- 
 ify. Again, the difficulty of keeping 
 track of such ratifications is very great 
 for the public and not inconsiderable for 
 Governments. In time of war the vary- 
 ing obligations of belligerents to each 
 other, owing to this same fact, lead to 
 actual confusion. Much of this will be 
 avoided by the provision recommended. 
 
 In course of time the Legislative As- 
 sembly, perpetuating the work both of 
 the Interparliamentary Union, which has 
 originated so many useful measures, and 
 of the Hague Peace Conference, which 
 turned them and many more of its own 
 devising into law, should prove to be one 
 of the most useful of the institutions 
 which the plans for a league of nations 
 contemplate. In the beginning it will 
 probably lack power and even authority, 
 and its activities may for a time be con- 
 fined to the kind of work the Hague Con-
 
 A BIT OF BACKGROUND 23 
 
 ference has been doing. Ultimately, if 
 its work inspires sufficient confidence to 
 lead the Powers to institute annual ses- 
 sions, it will not only develop and formu- 
 late international law, but should grow 
 into a true regulating, if not an actual 
 governing, body, to the marked promo- 
 tion of justice in the conduct of nations 
 toward one another. 
 
 II 
 
 A BIT OF BACKGROUND 
 
 On Jan. 31, 1910, William Howard 
 Taft, then President of the United 
 States, addressed the following letter to 
 the author of this volume: 
 
 " I have learned with interest of the 
 plans to found an ' American Societv for 
 Judicial Settlement of International Dis- 
 putes.' 
 
 " The leaflets which you propose to pub- 
 lish, together with the meetings of national 
 scope which you are planning to hold from 
 time to time, may have a very great influ-
 
 24 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 ence on the development of public opinion 
 on this important subject. If the proposed 
 Court of Arbitral Justice at The Hague 
 becomes an accomplished fact there will 
 still remain the task of securing the adhe- 
 sion of a number of Powers to the Court, 
 and the very important task of so cultivat- 
 ing opinion in various countries as to in- 
 cline Governments to resort to the Court 
 when occasion calls for it. There is no 
 other single way in which the cause of 
 peace and disarmament can be so effect- 
 ively promoted as by the firm establishment 
 of a permanent international Court of Jus- 
 tice." 
 
 Armed with this endorsement and sup- 
 ported further by the active sympa- 
 thy of men like Elihu Root, the former 
 Secretary of State, and Philander C. 
 Knox, the then Secretary of State, a 
 group of men formed the above-named 
 Society in February, 1910. Mr. Taft 
 accepted the honourary presidency of it 
 and his active interest in the cause of 
 a better world organization has grown
 
 A BIT OF BACKGROUND 25 
 
 steadily ever since. The great arbitra- 
 tion treaties negotiated under him be- 
 tween Great Britain and the United 
 States, and between France and the 
 United States, but which, unhappily, 
 failed of confirmation by the United 
 States Senate, were the direct outcome 
 of this movement. 
 
 At a dinner of the Society at Wash- 
 ington on Dec. 17, 1910, Mr. Taft said: 
 "If now we can negotiate and put 
 through a positive agreement with some 
 great nation to abide the adjudication of 
 an international arbitral court in every 
 issue which cannot be settled by nego- 
 tiation, no matter what it involves, 
 whether honour, territory, or money, we 
 shall have made a long step forward by 
 demonstrating that it is possible for 
 two nations at least to establish as be- 
 tween them the same system of due proc- 
 ess of law that exists between individu- 
 als under a government." 
 
 At his side happened to be the French 
 Ambassador. When Mr. Taft sat down
 
 26 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 M. Jusserand turned to him and said, 
 " Do you mean what you say ? " And on 
 receiving an affirmative reply he pro- 
 ceeded : " I will take you at your word 
 and we will negotiate such a treaty be- 
 tween your country and my own." 
 
 A campaign of education conducted 
 throughout the country in the interest of 
 these treaties awakened the minds of 
 many people to the importance of put- 
 ting an end to the intolerable lack of 
 organization in international affairs. 
 There was but little dissent in the coun- 
 try at large to the principles embodied 
 in these treaties. It is safe to say that 
 if a referendum had been instituted the 
 treaties would have been overwhelmingly 
 endorsed by the American people. Un- 
 fortunately, as repeated incidents in its 
 history show, the United States Senate 
 is not responsive to public sentiment. It 
 was intended by the founders of our 
 Government to be the conservative 
 branch of the Legislature, designed to 
 withstand the emotional will of the peo-
 
 A BIT OF BACKGROUND 27 
 
 pie and to register the informed will of 
 the people. In course of time it has 
 come to ignore both. Its actions have 
 repeatedly illustrated the truth of this 
 statement but never more plainly than 
 in connection with the arbitration treat- 
 ies in question. The vote of the Sen- 
 ate on these treaties shows only three 
 Senators of the opposition party favour- 
 ing them, while the vote of the Adminis- 
 tration party was almost solidly in fa- 
 vour of them. As there is nothing what- 
 ever in the tenets of what was then the 
 opposition party the Democratic 
 against which these treaties militated, the 
 motive for the vote of the Senate cannot 
 be interpreted as any other than parti- 
 san : a refusal, on the eve of an elec- 
 tion, to confer upon the Administration 
 the prestige that would have attached to 
 the consummation of these great treaties. 
 But truth is a root with long fibres. 
 Cut away the stalk and, unless hostile 
 powers are constantly on the watch, new 
 shoots are apt to appear. Turning the
 
 28 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 attention of the country in this direction 
 made possible the adoption of the useful 
 Bryan Treaties for obligatory inquiry, 
 of which more than thirty have been 
 negotiated between the United States 
 and foreign countries. It greatly in- 
 creased the influence of the Judicial Set- 
 tlement Society. It gave new stimulus 
 to the endeavour to erect a World Court. 
 It rendered numbers of men more in- 
 formed and more ready for this new 
 movement which sprang up spontane- 
 ously in the first months succeeding the 
 outbreak of the Great War, namely, the 
 movement for a league of nations to dis- 
 courage future wars. 
 
 Ill 
 
 THE BACKWARD NATION 
 
 In 1912 the author was privileged to 
 print a magazine article 4 which pointed 
 to the insecurity of life and property in 
 backward countries as " an ever-present 
 menace to the peace of the world " and
 
 THE BACKWARD NATION 29 
 
 dealt with the problem of finding " some 
 means of sowing the seed of progress and 
 civilization throughout the world without 
 the sacrifice of life and the injustice 
 which war involves." It suggested that 
 the solution might be found " in the joint 
 action of all the enlightened Powers of 
 the world, big and little, to secure equal 
 rights and political liberty . . . for the 
 European races in backward lands." 
 The instrumentality suggested was " a 
 commission appointed jointly by the 
 chancelleries of such Powers." Security 
 against the triumph of selfish interests 
 would be found " in the extent of the con- 
 certed action now proposed in contrast 
 to the limited number of Powers that 
 have participated in similar leagues here- 
 tofore." To accomplish this the League 
 must embrace " not only the eight lead- 
 ing Powers, but ... all the Powers 
 where there are just laws administered 
 with a fair approximation to justice. 
 . . . One cannot but feel that substan- 
 tial justice would be done by it, just as
 
 30 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 substantial justice is done by the Federal 
 Government of the United States to the 
 individual communities embraced within 
 the scope of its activities. 
 
 " If we agree to that statement if 
 we agree that the united will of all the 
 enlightened Powers, acting through the 
 commission, would result in substantial 
 justice, then the main criticism of the 
 project falls." 
 
 The view was expressed that " the po- 
 tential force latent in such a concert 
 of Powers need seldom translate itself 
 into war. . . . 
 
 *' At present one country alone or a 
 small group of countries intervenes and 
 actually administers the government of 
 a backward country for a shorter or a 
 longer period. The United States ad- 
 ministered Cuba until the Cubans showed 
 signs of being able to maintain an or- 
 derly government. When, under the in- 
 dependent government then set up, an- 
 archical conditions returned, the United 
 States entered the island a second time
 
 THE BACKWARD NATION 31 
 
 and administered it until there was assur- 
 ance that the voice of the Cuban people 
 would be respected at the polls. It then 
 again withdrew. Such fortitude and re- 
 sistance to temptation are unusual in 
 history. Neither the European nations 
 nor we ourselves can be counted upon 
 generally to exercise them. If, now, in- 
 tervention on the part of a single coun- 
 try or of a small group of countries 
 should come at the mandate of all the 
 enlightened Powers, is there not a much 
 greater likelihood that the temptation to 
 remain will be resisted, and that there- 
 fore the national life of the small Pow- 
 ers will in the end be more secure than 
 at present? " 
 
 In commenting upon the suggestion, 
 Prof. H. F. Guggenheim of Cambridge 
 said: "No international war is likely 
 to be carried on without either real or 
 imaginary anticipation of some gain 
 And the backward nation today presents 
 the only possibility for a profitable war." 
 He expressed the view that the sugges-
 
 32 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 tion " cannot be too seriously consid- 
 ered." 
 
 Count Albert Apponyi said of the 
 plan : " It will probably secure peace 
 in most cases because no backward na- 
 tion would dare resist the joint applica- 
 tions of so many Powers and because the 
 particularly interested ones among the 
 latter would be prevented from quarrel- 
 ling about their claims, the whole ques- 
 tion being lifted up into the higher do- 
 main of principle." 
 
 The comment of Prince di Cassano of 
 Rome contains the following passage: 
 " What we want is a committee of ab- 
 solutely free men free of mind, free 
 of interest who shall act as an in- 
 ternational jury d'honneur first of all 
 to enlighten public opinion and after- 
 wards to obtain justice and fair treat- 
 ment." 
 
 Charles Francis Adams' observations 
 on the plan pictured the actual working 
 of it as follows : " The issue presented 
 would, of course, first be formulated by
 
 THE BACKWARD NATION 33 
 
 one or more of the Powers in question. 
 It would then be submitted to a tribu- 
 nal in the nature of that at The Hague. 
 The backward nation in question would 
 then be invited to appear before this 
 tribunal. The tribunal would in due 
 process make its report ; and it would 
 be communicated to all the parties it 
 represented, together with the recom- 
 mendations of the tribunal as to how its 
 report and recommendations should be 
 made effective. It seems to me the world 
 has now advanced to that point when 
 such a mandate, properly expressed, in a 
 firm but kindly way, would work its own 
 results. Should it fail to do so, the 
 question of its enforcement through the 
 joint action of the Powers from which 
 the complaint had emanated would pre- 
 sent itself. It would then become a 
 practical question which would call into 
 operation the diplomatic agencies and the 
 capacity, so to speak, of ' getting there ' 
 on the part of the tribunal. On this 
 head no general rules could be laid down ;
 
 34 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 but the problem must be worked out in 
 an effective manner through the good 
 judgment and the capacity for accom- 
 plishing results of those in charge. In 
 this, as in other things, something must 
 be left to time and the process of natural 
 development." 
 
 IV 
 
 VEERING OF OPINION 
 
 All the existing institutions at The 
 Hague are voluntary : that is to say, na- 
 tions may or may not resort to them, as 
 they see fit. The advocates of the new 
 World Court provided for by The Hague 
 Convention under the name of the Court 
 of Arbitral Justice almost to a man be- 
 lieved that this new institution should 
 likewise be purely voluntary in charac- 
 ter. They discouraged the idea of the 
 use of force to hale nations into Court, 
 or to execute the judgment of the Court, 
 as not only unnecessary but harmful. 
 Men pointed to a whole series of arbi-
 
 VEERING OF OPINION 35 
 
 trations through the greater part of a 
 century, none of which had been thrown 
 down by the refusal of one party alone 
 to abide by the award, and asserted that 
 the sense of honourable obligation, 
 backed by the pressure of public opinion, 
 was sufficient not only to insure the ac- 
 ceptance of the awards of international 
 tribunals but to lead the progressive na- 
 tions habitually to resort to this method 
 of settling disputes in lieu of war. True, 
 in the past few years, several of the 
 backward countries of Latin America 
 had thrown down arbitrations, thus 
 breaking the splendid record of a cen- 
 tury. But it was felt that this illus- 
 trated less a failure of principle than 
 the actual condition of the peoples in 
 question, peoples who ought never to 
 have been expected to apply successfully 
 such advanced methods. 
 
 With the beginning of the present 
 war this reliance on voluntary institu- 
 tions suffered a fatal shock. It was 
 plain that the efforts of the Entente to
 
 36 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 refer the Austro-Serbian dispute to a 
 conference, efforts initiated by Viscount 
 (then Sir Edward) Grey and supple- 
 mented by France, Italy and Russia, 
 were brought to nought by Germany 
 simply because Germany had decided 
 that the time was ripe once again to set 
 in motion its great military machine, 
 and that it had selected a moment to 
 precipitate war when it was Austria's 
 quarrel so that Austria could be counted 
 upon with certainty as an ally. 
 
 An important line of progress in the 
 history of war has been the tendency to 
 spare the non-combatant and confine the 
 conflict to the armed forces of the bel- 
 ligerents. These helpful rules of war, 
 so painfully bought by experience and 
 laboriously worked out through genera- 
 tions of endeavour, Germany threw to 
 the winds. And she did not stop there. 
 Deeds which men, relying upon the com- 
 mon dictates of humanity, thought it 
 wholly unnecessary specifically to forbid,
 
 VEERING OF OPINION 3? 
 
 were done, not in the heat of battle, but 
 deliberately as part of a conscious pol- 
 icy. 
 
 To many men the crimes committed in 
 this war, the very assault itself, were, be- 
 fore the event, simply unthinkable. The 
 whole philanthropic movement of the 
 twentieth century and the advanced out- 
 look of men seemed to belie their possi- 
 bility. This made the shock only the 
 greater when the scales fell from men's 
 eyes. Many men who had hitherto op- 
 posed the use of force in the relations of 
 States were at once convinced that it 
 must, after all, be injected into interna- 
 tional institutions. 
 
 The League to Enforce Peace owes 
 its existence to that change of attitude. 
 The men working with the Judicial Set- 
 tlement Society and men outside of its 
 ranks who had shown an active interest 
 in a better international organization 
 joined hands in the endeavour to make a 
 repetition of such an assault on the
 
 38 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 world's peace more difficult in future. 
 
 Prominent in the latter group was Mr. 
 Hamilton Holt. In May, 1911, Mr. 
 Holt had read a paper at Baltimore 
 on the subject of a league of peace. 5 As 
 originally drafted, the paper embraced 
 the sanction of force. That feature was 
 omitted after consultation by its author 
 with the leading proponents of a World 
 Court who, it will be remembered, put 
 their faith in the development of volun- 
 tary institutions in the belief that na- 
 tions would use them without other in- 
 ducement than a clear-eyed perception 
 of their own interests. 
 
 The main recommendations then left 
 in Mr. Holt's paper related to an obli- 
 gation on the part of the League to ar- 
 bitrate " all disputes of whatsoever 
 character," to use the Hague Court or 
 such other similar tribunals as may be 
 constituted, and to institute " a period- 
 ical convention or assembly to make all 
 rules for the League, such rules to be- 
 come law unless vetoed by a nation within
 
 VEERING OF OPINION 39 
 
 a stated period." There was to be no 
 attempt to limit armaments. 
 
 The paper excited only academic in- 
 terest. There was no endeavour on the 
 part of individuals or groups to realize 
 the plan. The Secretary of State, Mr. 
 Knox, had already suggested, in the pre- 
 vious year, that the time would come 
 " when the nations of the world shall 
 realize a federation as real and vital as 
 that now subsisting between the compo- 
 nent parts of a single State." 6 
 
 As early as 1899 William T. Stead, 
 borrowing a title previously used by Vic- 
 tor Hugo, had published his " United 
 States of Europe," embodying the views 
 of leading statesmen and sovereigns on 
 the subject of improved international or- 
 ganization. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt had likewise sug- 
 gested in 1910 that the Great Powers 
 should form a League of Peace " not only 
 to keep the peace among themselves but 
 to prevent, by force, if necessary, its be- 
 ing broken by others," and to that end
 
 40 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 should institute an international police. 7 
 At the time of their presentation few 
 men believed that agitation in favour of 
 any of these plans would lead to practi- 
 cal results in our day. 
 
 But immediately after the beginning 
 of the present war the subject was again 
 put forward by Mr. Holt who had taken 
 it up anew in association with the direc- 
 tors of the New York Peace Society. 8 
 The philosophy of this new plea of his 
 was that " Peace follows justice, jus- 
 tice follows law, and law follows political 
 organization." This time the sugges- 
 tion, which spoke the thoughts of many 
 men i.e., was really in the air ex- 
 cited a great deal of attention. It of- 
 fered something around which men could 
 centre a positive effort. Important com- 
 ment was at once forthcoming. 9 John 
 Bassett Moore declared the principle to 
 be sound. While pointing, as a precau- 
 tion against over-confidence in the unin- 
 terrupted workings of such a plan, to the
 
 VEERING OF OPINION 41 
 
 impatience which men often display of 
 legal restraint and to organized revolt 
 within the State against such restraint, 
 he said : " No doubt one of the best 
 assurances against indulgence of this 
 propensity is a regulated governmental 
 control, and for this reason I applaud 
 your advocacy of a practical step to- 
 ward international federation for attain- 
 ment of that end, without intending, how- 
 ever, to countenance the supposition that 
 we may slumber upon any contrivance, 
 parliamentary, judicial or otherwise, 
 municipal or international, as an all- 
 sufficient safeguard against outbreaks of 
 violence." 
 
 Richard Olney said: "The merit of 
 your proposal is affirmed by the expe- 
 rience of the people of the United States 
 under their national Constitution not 
 as being a certain preventative of war 
 but as clearly tending in that direction." 
 
 Arthur T. Hadley : " I am consoling 
 myself for the evils of the present war
 
 42 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 by the thought that at the end of it we 
 may see something of the kind put into 
 effect." 
 
 The present writer ventured the state- 
 ment that we were at a turning point 
 in history, that the war would re- 
 sult in good or in accentuated evil, oc- 
 cordingly as the right-minded nations 
 saw their duty, and that if we could se- 
 cure a promise from the Entente to join 
 such a league " as a condition precedent 
 to our doing what we ought to do any- 
 way, namely, vent our righteous indig- 
 nation at the way in which Germany has 
 outraged Belgium and has trampled un- 
 der foot the law of nations and the moral 
 law alike, we should be accomplishing 
 the double object of helping to crush 
 militarism and of setting up an institu- 
 tion which might bring about a marked 
 decline of war."
 
 EXAMINING THE PROBLEM 43 
 
 EXAMINING THE PROBLEM 
 
 Instead of launching the project at a 
 public meeting, as was first suggested, 
 the conclusion was reached that better 
 results would follow if there should be a 
 careful study of the subject beforehand, 
 first by a group of purely scientific men 
 and later on by men of larger practical 
 experience. That plan was carried out. 
 
 At the invitation of four individuals, a 
 group of about twenty scientific men met 
 at dinner at the Century Club in New 
 York on three separate occasions. 10 
 The group embraced professors of politi- 
 cal science, of international law, of his- 
 tory, and of economics. The subject 
 was thrown into the arena and torn to 
 pieces at meetings lasting well into the 
 night. In this way was worked out what 
 was regarded as a " desirable " plan. 
 
 The discussions arc reflected in a 
 paper, " World Court and League of
 
 44 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 Peace," published by the Judicial Set- 
 tlement Society in February, 1915. n 
 The difficulties to be overcome in order 
 to secure such a League, its advantages 
 and dangers, the forces which would tend 
 to hold it together and those which would 
 incline to disrupt it, are there considered. 
 
 Only nations whose aim is justice and 
 whose practices make for justice should 
 be admitted to the League. Backward 
 countries should not be included for the 
 reason that a nation which cannot main- 
 tain law and order within its own bor- 
 ders and is either unable or unwilling to 
 carry out its international obligations 
 cannot lend strength to a League. It 
 would actually be a source of weakness 
 to it. On the other hand, the League 
 should if possible embrace all the pro- 
 gressive Powers, namely, the eight Great 
 Powers, the Secondary Powers of Eu- 
 rope (except the Balkan States and 
 Turkey), and the "ABC" countries of 
 South America. 
 
 In several of the countries in this
 
 EXAMINING THE PROBLEM 45 
 
 group democracy is no longer regarded 
 as a passing phase of political develop- 
 ment but as a permanent fact in politics. 
 These common ideals would tend to hold 
 that group together. Two of the pro- 
 posed members, Great Britain and the 
 United States, may be said to be satis- 
 fied territorially. While the smaller 
 progressive countries in the group, such 
 as Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and 
 Sweden, have no disturbing ambitions. 
 
 The play of interests in such a large 
 group would make for justice. The 
 League would not be instituted unless it 
 embraced an overwhelming preponder- 
 ance of military power, and, if it was 
 both strong and just, its potential 
 strength need seldom translate itself 
 into war. Such a comprehensive circle 
 of Powers is all the more necessary 
 when it is proposed, as in this original 
 plan, to enforce the judgment of the 
 Court or award of the arbitral tribunal, 
 because of the danger of oppression con- 
 nected with such purpose.
 
 46 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 To prevent all appearance of aggres- 
 sion, the League was intended to operate 
 only on its own members. That of 
 course left them open to attack from 
 outside and precluded any demand for 
 a reduction of armaments. But the lat- 
 ter problem is hedged about with so 
 many difficulties anyway that the bal- 
 ance of gain is in favour of this position. 
 No headway can be made against the ar- 
 mament evil until time demonstrates the 
 fact that the League is able not only to 
 defend its members in emergencies but is 
 itself able to hold together in stress and 
 storm. Until such time, for example, 
 Great Britain could not well be asked to 
 impair the strength of her great fleet. 
 The Great War and its accompaniments 
 have resulted in a shock to confidence 
 confidence in the binding force of treaty 
 obligations, confidence in international 
 law, and confidence in the upright inten- 
 tions of the neighbour. No matter what 
 the issue of the war, we are therefore apt, 
 for a time, to witness armaments g^ing
 
 EXAMINING THE PROBLEM 47 
 
 on at an accelerated pace. But once the 
 German menace is definitely removed by 
 a change of spirit on the part of the 
 German people, the world may not only 
 work back to its normal condition, but 
 the existence of a league of nations 
 after it shall have established general 
 confidence in its ability to do what it is 
 designed to do must eventually bring 
 about an actual amelioration of the con- 
 dition of armed peace existing before the 
 war. It is believed that, under the 
 League, abatement of armaments will 
 come about naturally through disuse 
 just as, in frontier communities, when 
 men find that the law and the Courts are 
 able to protect them, they lay aside the 
 practice of going about armed. 
 
 The adoption of something in the na- 
 ture of a Bill of Rights by the League 
 was considered desirable. It would set 
 forth great areas of principle, if we may 
 use this term, respect for life and prop- 
 erty, rights and duties in times of peace, 
 and respect for new and higher rules set
 
 48 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 up to govern the acts of nations in time 
 of war. 
 
 VI 
 
 RACE AND ALIEN GOVERNMENT 
 
 Among interests to be so safeguarded 
 in a Bill of Rights would be the question 
 of equality before the law and political 
 rights. The puzzling question of alien 
 government would then be simplified be- 
 cause oppression due to difference of na- 
 tionality would cease. In this connec- 
 tion it is important to examine a pro- 
 posal put forward prominently by the 
 Netherlands Anti-Oorlog Raad and by 
 other groups. It is the demand for a 
 plebiscite of the inhabitants before a 
 transfer of territory is permitted. The- 
 oretically this would seem to fit in with 
 the demands of justice. Practically, se- 
 rious difficulties present themselves in 
 connection with the proposal. 
 
 In the first place, to admit this right 
 of approval by the population of the ter- 
 ritory about to be transferred involves
 
 RACE AND GOVERNMENT 49 
 
 logically the right of secession. Sup- 
 pose, for example, that at the end of this 
 war the people of Alsace are consulted 
 about restitution of the province to 
 France, that they should approve of it 
 and that the transfer is thereupon made. 
 If, then, at a future time, these same peo- 
 ple of Alsace should reach the conclusion 
 that they had made a mistake and should 
 demand release from their allegiance to 
 France, could this demand logically be 
 denied? And are we prepared to admit 
 the right of secession whenever a local 
 community exhibits discontent under a 
 government? To have set up such a 
 principle would have conceded the right 
 of the New England States to secede 
 from the American Union when the sev- 
 eral waves of discontent swept over them 
 at the end of the eighteenth century 
 and in the early years of the nineteenth 
 century. It would have admitted the 
 right of the Southern States to secede 
 when the slavery issue became acute. It 
 would admit the right of Ireland today
 
 50 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 to secede from Great Britain and to es- 
 tablish, close to the border of the home 
 country, a separate sovereignty which 
 might afford a foothold for an enemy at- 
 tack. 
 
 Peace is secured by union, not by dis- 
 ruption. For generations the border of 
 England and Scotland was the scene of 
 bloody strife, all stilled by the union of 
 these two countries in 1707. For four- 
 teen hundred years after the fall of the 
 Roman Empire of the West, Italy was 
 torn by ceaseless wars between her city- 
 states and between her principalities, 
 leaving her an easy prey to the invader 
 all stilled by union. The mind of 
 Cavour grasped this truth firmly and laid 
 broad the foundations for a single Italian 
 State which has spelled rebirth, security 
 and progress. 
 
 For centuries men witnessed similar 
 wars between the principalities and petty 
 kingdoms of France. It was the very 
 establishment of strong central govern- 
 ment in France at an early day which
 
 RACE AND GOVERNMENT 51 
 
 enabled her to shine as a leader in 
 Europe in all the walks of civilization. 
 
 In Germany for long years the hand of 
 every baron and petty noble was turned 
 against his neighbour. There too it was 
 consolidation which brought law and or- 
 dered progress. 
 
 In the second place the plebiscite is 
 often a meaningless form. Certainly it 
 has been such in France, where it has been 
 used to confirm a fait accompli. For the 
 people to endeavour to undo the thing 
 already done would have meant anarchy. 
 Therefore the result has usually been mil- 
 lions of affirmative votes against a few 
 thousand negative votes. Napoleon Bo- 
 naparte made himself first Consul in 
 December, 1799, organized his govern- 
 ment and six weeks thereafter instituted 
 a plebiscite to confirm his act. Is there 
 any need to say what the result of that 
 plebiscite was? When in May, 1804, he 
 had gotten the title of Emperor con- 
 ferred on him by the Senate he again in- 
 vited a plebiscite with like result. Louis
 
 52 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 Napoleon was not slow to see the advan- 
 tages of this method. A plebiscite, De- 
 cember 20, 1851, endorsed his high- 
 handed methods of dealing with the 
 National Assembly and of perpetuating 
 himself as President of the Republic in 
 violation of the provisions of the Con- 
 stitution. Next, having gathered into 
 his hands all executive power with the 
 right to nominate the members of the 
 Senate and of the Council of State, 
 through which alone legislation could be 
 initiated, he proceeded once more to in- 
 stitute a plebiscite which conferred on 
 him the title of Emperor. 
 
 Now, is not the question of a transfer 
 of territory in much the same category? 
 Such transfer at the end of a war has to 
 be agreed upon in framing the treaty of 
 peace. For the people of the territory 
 in question to negative the decision of 
 the Congress might mean reopening the 
 vital issues of the war and so renewing 
 the war. Under such circumstances, is 
 there any doubt that the votes of the in-
 
 RACE AND GOVERNMENT 53 
 
 habitants will simply register what the 
 Congress has decreed? At such times, 
 too, the men " in possession " generally 
 get their will done. Dicey refers to the 
 way in which, during the French Revolu- 
 tion, " the Terrorist faction, when all 
 but crushed by general odium, extorted 
 from the country by means of a plebiscite 
 a sham assent to the prolongation of 
 revolutionary despotism." 
 
 The real solution of the problem of 
 race conflict lies in equal political rights. 
 
 Why are the American emigrant to 
 Canada and the Canadian emigrant to 
 the United States so content? Mani- 
 festly because they find in the new home 
 justice and order, security and freedom. 
 On the other hand, why do men of pro- 
 gressive races who settle in backward 
 countries agitate for the annexation of 
 such countries to their own and so bring 
 on extension of empire? Is it not princi- 
 pally in order to secure the freedom and 
 justice to which they have been accus- 
 tomed at home?
 
 54 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 Would the South African War have 
 occurred if the Johannesburger had en- 
 joyed full political rights under the Boer 
 government? When men everywhere 
 come to enjoy equal political rights 
 enabling them to help themselves to full 
 civil rights and religious liberty they 
 will in course of time cease to care 
 whether they live under this or that gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Discontent will further tend to disap- 
 pear if we add to this the system of local 
 self-government such as obtains in the 
 United States, where the people of the 
 separate States govern themselves in re- 
 spect of the majority of matters that 
 touch their interests. 
 
 VII 
 
 OTHER NEEDS 
 
 The abandonment of exclusive rights 
 of exploitation and the suppression of 
 discrimination in the treatment of for- 
 eign nations seeking to trade with a
 
 OTHER NEEDS 55 
 
 given State would likewise be helpful. 
 This latter does not imply abolition of 
 protective tariffs but simply the equal 
 treatment of all comers, the " favoured 
 nation " clause made universal. 
 
 It is important likewise to recognize 
 the right on the part of a State to de- 
 mand neutralization of its territory. 
 We may expect this valuable means of 
 extending the geographical area of 
 peace to be revived despite the blow it 
 has received in the present war, and to be 
 extended to wider and wider areas under 
 stronger guarantees than heretofore. 12 
 
 It might be possible, too, to lay down 
 the principle for which the United 
 States has long contended, the exemp- 
 tion from seizure of private property at 
 sea, the experiences of the present war 
 causing all nations to see the advan- 
 tages of it. 
 
 The inclusion of principles such as 
 these in the fundamental law of the 
 League would act as a loadstone to draw 
 the liberal minded everywhere to the
 
 56 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 League and so induce governments to 
 adhere to it. 
 
 It would probably be necessary to ac- 
 cept the status quo geographical be- 
 cause of the difficulty of setting a limit 
 to any attempt to correct historic in- 
 justices. It was, however, supposed 
 that certain burning questions of this 
 nature would be disposed of at the end 
 of the present war and would therefore 
 not be left to trouble the League. 
 
 Furthermore, institutions in the na- 
 ture of preventive justice, previously re- 
 ferred to, should be set up purely fac- 
 ultative institutions with no element of 
 obligation appertaining. Peoples might 
 voluntarily use these in the endeavour to 
 correct local conditions calculated to 
 ripen into real international conflicts. 
 " The suggestion rests on the idea that 
 publicity alone tends to correct abuses." 
 
 For the reason that the plan contem- 
 plated enforcing the judgment of the 
 Court, etc., and that when the Court had 
 won the confidence of men a larger and
 
 OTHER NEEDS 57 
 
 larger number of cases would be brought 
 before it, it was deemed advisable that 
 the " sheriff " the police force 
 should be internationally organized: a 
 federal force, controlled and supported 
 by the League and always ready. 
 
 We shall see how this and other fea- 
 tures of the program were modified 
 later on. 
 
 As conflicts of political policy could 
 not be dealt with by a Court some other 
 body was needed to entertain them, and 
 a name for this was supplied Council 
 of Conciliation by the printed mem- 
 orandum embodying the conclusions 
 reached by the English group, headed 
 by Lord Bryce, which was read and con- 
 sidered at our third meeting. 
 
 The studies of the Bryce group were 
 helpful to us in other ways, serving not 
 only to clarify our ideas but above all 
 to encourage us to proceed with a plan 
 which had so many points of resemblance 
 to the plan of our kinsmen over the seas. 
 
 An Executive Council and Deliberat-
 
 58 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 ive Assembly the latter already found 
 in embryo in the Hague Conference and 
 Interparliamentary Union would be 
 necessary. 
 
 VIII 
 
 SOVEREIGNTY 
 
 As true liberty in the society of na- 
 tions, like true liberty within the State, 
 can be secured only by a surrender of 
 license, we did not hesitate to recommend 
 a plan involving a modification of sover- 
 eignty. 
 
 Just as the old idea of natural rights 
 has given way to the conception that 
 the State has a right to do whatever it is 
 in the interest of society in the long re- 
 sult that it should do, so it is becoming 
 plain that the doctrine of absolute sov- 
 ereignty set up to guard the State itself 
 against interference by other States 
 must ultimately give way before the con- 
 ception of a society of nations. As is 
 well known, the theory of natural rights,
 
 SOVEREIGNTY 59 
 
 which set boundaries to the activities of 
 the State operating on its own people, 
 was designed to protect men against the 
 power of the autocrat. When govern- 
 ments came to reflect the will of the peo- 
 ple the need for this device disappeared. 
 The doctrine of absolute sovereignty had 
 its origin in a similar motive. The 
 theory was designed to safeguard the 
 right of the individual State in a world 
 where the powerful State was governed 
 by few rules or precepts and was moved 
 principally by the desire for aggrandize- 
 ment. As democracy spreads, the domi- 
 nating motive of aggrandizement is di- 
 minished and the desire to do justice to 
 the sister State begins to emerge. 
 When this happens the same ultimate 
 test may be applied to the doctrine of 
 sovereignty as was applied to the doc- 
 trine of natural rights. 
 
 If it is in the interests of men that na- 
 tions should enjoy sovereignty full and 
 unimpaired, well and good. If, on the 
 contrary, sovereignty unimpaired leads
 
 60 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 to disaster in the shape, for example, 
 of unjust and destructive wars it 
 should not be suffered to continue. The 
 State should retain only so much sov- 
 ereignty as makes for the welfare of men 
 organized in States. 
 
 The experience of the forty-eight 
 States now comprising the United States 
 of America is really an application of 
 this conception. The Union was consti- 
 tuted of sovereign and independent 
 States. They surrendered sovereignty 
 but not self-government. The separate 
 States of the Union still govern them- 
 selves with respect to three quarters of 
 the things that touch the public inter- 
 est. Absolute sovereignty was surren- 
 dered by them in the common interest. 
 
 Now, world opinion is not ripe for a 
 union of nations so complete as the 
 union of the American States under a 
 federal government. But even a rudi- 
 mentary organization must be based 
 upon this same conception, namely, the 
 right of the society of nations to demand
 
 SOVEREIGNTY 61 
 
 of the individual States whatever it is in 
 the interest of the race that it should 
 demand. 
 
 Within the State the individual with- 
 out wealth or influence who, in former 
 times, was preyed upon by the powerful, 
 now enjoys, under modern institutions, 
 the same rights and privileges before the 
 law as the wealthy and powerful. Just 
 so, under a properly organized society of 
 nations, the small State will come to en- 
 joy security equal to that of its more 
 powerful neighbour, a security far more 
 ample than any doctrine of absolute sov- 
 ereignty can give it under present condi- 
 tions. 
 
 Society implies restraint. And a so- 
 ciety of nations is not exempt from the 
 rule. The one license which it has be- 
 come perfectly clear the nations must 
 surrender is the license to make war at 
 will. Begin with that demand, make it 
 difficult for nations to settle disputes by 
 force, and they will seek and find other 
 ways to settle them. That truth is at
 
 62 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 the very bottom of the whole movement 
 for world organization. If we take our 
 stand upon that demand the machinery 
 for settling disputes will come. 
 
 IX 
 
 ORIGINAL PLAN 
 
 In the desirable project planned by 
 the original group we find four pro- 
 gressive stages: 
 
 First stage: Institutions such as we 
 now have, supplemented by a true inter- 
 national Court of Justice, all of which 
 institutions are purely voluntary or fac- 
 ultative. 
 
 Second stage: The element of obli- 
 gation added in so far as the nations 
 shall bind themselves to resort to these 
 institutions. 
 
 Third stage: The further addition 
 of an agreement to have the League act 
 as an international grand jury to hale 
 the would-be law-breaker before a 
 commission of inquiry and to use
 
 MODIFIED PLAN 63 
 
 force to bring it there if recalcitrant. 
 Fourth stage: The final addition of 
 an agreement to use force, if need be, to 
 execute the award of the tribunal. 
 
 X 
 
 MODIFIED PLAN 
 
 Following our original purpose, the 
 results of the three meetings of scientific 
 men embodied in the desirable plan 
 were now laid before a body of men of 
 wider practical experience, the date of 
 the meeting being fixed to suit the con- 
 venience of William Howard Taft. 13 
 All present at this meeting accepted 
 without demur the first and second ele- 
 ments of the plan outlined above. Two 
 men withheld their support of the 
 third element on " entangling alliance " 
 grounds. In the light of the discussions 
 had, they all abstained from supporting 
 the fourth element, which thereupon dis- 
 appeared from the program of the 
 League. It must be remembered that
 
 64 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 the object of this meeting was to decide 
 how much of the desirable plan previ- 
 ously mapped out was realizable in the 
 present stage of world opinion. 
 
 With the disappearance of the provi- 
 sion for the enforcement of the judg- 
 ment or award there likewise disappears 
 the need of a central military force. 
 And for this reason: the only demand 
 which the League will now attempt to 
 enforce is the demand for an inquiry be- 
 fore the signatories are allowed to fight. 
 
 The value of inquiry has been amply 
 illustrated in municipal affairs in con- 
 nection with labour disputes. The oper- 
 ations of the Hague Tribunal and the 
 Dogger Bank Affair, brought before the 
 International Commission of Inquiry, de- 
 monstrate its value in disputes between 
 nations. It has been found in progress- 
 ive countries like the United States that 
 mere inquiry tends to correct not only 
 illegal practices but unjust practices as 
 well, often rendering unnecessary a re- 
 sort to a court of justice or even to an
 
 MODIFIED PLAN 65 
 
 arbitration. In international disputes 
 the facts brought out by an inquiry, 
 operating not only on the opinion of the 
 world but on the people of the offending 
 country, would often serve to correct the 
 injustice complained of. 
 
 What the League to Enforce Peace 
 proposes is to take the present Bryan 
 Treaties of obligatory inquiry, made in 
 pairs, and make them common to all 
 members of the League. It proposes 
 further to add to the obligation which 
 alone attaches to them now the element 
 of compulsion in order to force a re- 
 sort to inquiry before a nation is al- 
 lowed to precipitate war. It is on the 
 fairness and usefulness of this principle 
 that the League program is mainly 
 based. 
 
 Having conformed to this demand for 
 an inquiry the signatories are free to go 
 to war as under present conditions. 
 No nation, however powerful, is apt to 
 refuse such a reasonable demand if faced 
 with the painful alternative of having to
 
 66 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 wage war practically against the civil- 
 ized world. Nations bent on aggression 
 may go through the form of an inquiry 
 and proceed with their aggressive plans 
 later. But the League as such will 
 probably never be called upon to make 
 war. Certainly the instances in which 
 it will be compelled to do so will be so 
 rare that it will be sufficient to call on 
 the members to supply their proper 
 quotas to an international military force 
 when the emergency arises. 
 
 The League would not try to change 
 human nature. Altruism is a factor in 
 its operations, but the plan still recog- 
 nizes self-interest as the governing mo- 
 tive of States as of individuals. Only, 
 under the League, with its pains and 
 penalties, the self-interest of the State 
 would now be unmistakably in the direc- 
 tion of keeping the peace, at least until 
 an inquiry of the dispute had been had. 
 
 The fact that some of the Great Pow- 
 ers were still under autocratic govern- 
 ment offered certain difficulties to the
 
 MODIFIED PLAN 67 
 
 successful operation of the League. In 
 Russia, for example, the Council of the 
 Empire carried out only so much of the 
 Duma program as it saw fit. The mem- 
 bers of the Council of the Empire were 
 the personal appointees of the Czar and 
 the Czar was reputed to be the individ- 
 ual who, in the last resort, decided all 
 important questions of internal and ex- 
 ternal policy. However good his inten- 
 tions might be, it was realized that the 
 Czar's own freedom of action was greatly 
 curtailed by malign influences having 
 their seat in a powerful and corrupt bu- 
 reaucracy. This condition has now hap- 
 pily been corrected by the inauguration 
 of liberal government in Russia. 
 
 Turning to Germany, the dominant 
 influence of its ruler was felt to be a 
 menace to the success of the League 
 should that country become a member. 
 But out of this war may come great 
 changes in Germany, too. If not, the 
 spirit of aggression on the part of its 
 rulers can probably be kept down by a
 
 68 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 league so powerful that Germany will not 
 venture to oppose its will. 
 
 XI 
 
 CRITICS 
 
 The plan to use the combined military 
 power of the League to compel an in- 
 quiry estranged several eminent Ameri- 
 can publicists who adhered to their old 
 belief that public opinion would in time 
 prove all-sufficient in securing justice 
 among the nations without resort to 
 force. They pointed to the fact that no 
 law is effective unless it has public opin- 
 ion back of it, neglecting the equally im- 
 portant fact that it is public opinion 
 plus law and the sheriff which keeps the 
 State in order. 
 
 Prominent among these was James 
 Brown Scott, 14 who has been one of the 
 most devoted and effective workers, both 
 at the Second Hague Conference and 
 since, for a true international Court of 
 Justice.
 
 CRITICS 69 
 
 On the other hand, there were men who 
 claimed that our program did not go far 
 enough. For example, the refusal on 
 the part of the League to stand for en- 
 forcing the judgment of the Court cost 
 us the co-operation of one American 
 whose services to the cause of interna- 
 tional organization must yet be noticed. 
 I refer to Charles W. Eliot who enjoys 
 great authority by reason of exceptional 
 soundness of judgment, combined with 
 unusual penetration and high purpose. 
 
 In a series of addresses beginning some 
 ten years ago Eliot turned his attention 
 to the question of how to advance in- 
 ternational good will. Pointing to the 
 self-denying ordinance by which two 
 countries of unequal strength, Canada 
 and the United States, had agreed to 
 maintain equal though insignificant na- 
 val forces on the Great Lakes, he said: 
 " Now, that is exactly what we want all 
 over the world a self-denying ordi- 
 nance and a police force furnished by
 
 70 
 
 all the civilized nations, combined to 
 maintain a common force." He coupled 
 with this observation the remark that in 
 " publicity lies the great hope of the 
 world. ... It is the way we are to find 
 not only industrial peace, but peace be- 
 tween the civilized nations of the world." 
 
 Motives of aggression aside, the in- 
 centives to armament are fear of actual 
 invasion and fear lest food supplies be 
 cut off. Only international guarantees 
 can allay these fears. 
 
 Eliot's motto is : " Peace on earth to 
 men of good will." Force is to be ap- 
 plied only to " men who lack good will." 
 Free governments tend to develop this 
 good will. 
 
 He regards it as absolutely necessary 
 to invent and apply " a sanction for in- 
 ternational law, if Europe is to have 
 international peace and any national 
 liberty." The only way for the nations 
 of Europe to obtain security is " by the 
 creation of an international legislative 
 and executive council, or other political
 
 CRITICS 71 
 
 body, backed by an international police 
 force." 
 
 A firm supporter of the proposed 
 Court of Arbitral Justice, he co-operated 
 actively with the Judicial Settlement So- 
 ciety, serving for a time as its president. 
 But unlike the other leading advocates of 
 the Court project, he believes that the in- 
 terests of durable peace require the main- 
 tenance of an international force to ex- 
 ecute the orders of the Court. It was 
 because the program of the League to 
 Enforce Peace omitted this feature that 
 he declined to associate himself actively 
 with the League when invited to do so. 
 But Eliot accepts wholly the conception 
 of " a strong union of nations leagued 
 together to maintain peace." 
 
 It will be seen that what he believes 
 in the organizers of the League to En- 
 force Peace also believe in and look for- 
 ward to. They differ simply in their 
 respective estimates of the " realizable " 
 in the present state of world opinion.
 
 72 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 XII 
 
 LAUNCHING THE PROJECT 
 
 But to return to our narrative. It 
 was Mr. Taft who took the agreement 
 reached by the meeting, and himself 
 drafted the four articles constituting 
 the platform of the League. The pro- 
 gram was limited to these few simple de- 
 mands in the belief that they constituted 
 the essential elements of a rudimentary 
 world organization to discourage war, 
 that it would be much easier to get na- 
 tions to adhere to such a program than 
 to a larger or more detailed one ; and 
 that, having once committed themselves 
 to it, all further problems of organiza- 
 tion or of scope could be worked out 
 successfully by the envoys charged with 
 the duty of framing the actual conven- 
 tion. 
 
 We were now ready to launch the pro- 
 ject at a public meeting. Independence 
 Hall at Philadelphia was chosen as the
 
 LAUNCHING THE PROJECT 73 
 
 place of the meeting. It was at this his- 
 toric hall that the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence was signed and that the Con- 
 stitution of the United States was 
 drafted. Therefore to hold the meeting 
 there a meeting called to frame a 
 Declaration of / ^dependence of the 
 Nations was calculated to appeal to 
 the imagination of the country. And it 
 had that effect. It was there that the 
 name of the association was changed 
 from that of League of Peace to 
 League to Enforce Peace. The League 
 planned was fundamentally a league to 
 compel inquiry before nations are al- 
 lowed to fight. Any such title, however, 
 would have been too long and as the tem- 
 per of the times called for the use of 
 force to prevent a nation from wantonly 
 precipitating war as the present war had 
 been precipitated, it was decided to em- 
 phasize this idea in the title of the 
 League. There were one or two minor 
 changes in the program, but on the whole 
 it stands as Mr. Taft originally drafted
 
 74 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 it. 15 Mr. Taft generously accepted the 
 presidency of the association and has 
 been untiring in his analysis and exposi- 
 tion of its aims and possible workings. 
 
 Following the Philadelphia meeting, 
 the attention of the League was turned 
 to the side of propaganda. State 
 branches were formed and even minor 
 groups until the work was organized 
 over the greater part of the United 
 States much in the manner of a political 
 campaign. The object of this move- 
 ment was to cultivate opinion which 
 would make itself felt in the United 
 States Senate. We realized that the 
 danger to the success of the project lay 
 there. It thus became a duty to develop 
 in the country not merely passive opinion 
 favourable to the League but opinion so 
 positive as to impress itself on the Sen- 
 ate. 
 
 Like measures have a way in this world 
 of not bringing like results when they 
 act on that complex creature, the human 
 being, instead of on things. Although
 
 PUBLIC DISCUSSION 75 
 
 the popular campaign to support the 
 Taft treaties failed, it does not follow 
 that a similar campaign to have the Sen- 
 ate see the light in respect of the League 
 of Nations project will be equally void 
 of result. We have hope. 16 
 
 XIII 
 
 PUBLIC DISCUSSION 
 
 It is impossible here to go fully into 
 the discussion revolving around the 
 League's program in America. But a 
 brief reference to it may serve to bring 
 out the possible workings of the project. 
 
 The two main lines of attack were on 
 the ground that membership in the 
 League would weaken the United States 
 in respect of the Monroe Doctrine and 
 would bring about an entangling alliance. 
 
 Under the former head the critics ad- 
 vanced a hypothetical case involving a 
 dispute between the United States and 
 Mexico over the lease of Magdalena Bay 
 by the latter to Japan 17 all sup-
 
 76 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 posedly members of the League, and 
 asked: "Would the United States sub- 
 mit that question to a tribunal where it 
 has but one vote or one voice, and permit 
 its entire future to be disposed of by a 
 Court where it has but a single repre- 
 sentative? " 
 
 The manifest answer was that in this 
 case the United States would run no risk 
 whatever of having its entire future 
 " disposed of by a Court " for the sim- 
 ple reason that, under the League agree- 
 ment, neither the judgment of a Court 
 nor award of the Council of Concilia- 
 tion is binding. True, in numerous in- 
 stances nations would previously enter, 
 voluntarily, into a preliminary agree- 
 ment to respect the decision of the inter- 
 national tribunal, but in the absence of 
 such special agreement they are not 
 bound by it. 
 
 With Japan and the United States 
 both members of the League, the case 
 supposed, being a conflict of political 
 policies, would go to the Council of Con-
 
 PUBLIC DISCUSSION 77 
 
 ciliation. Naturally the United States 
 would abstain from any preliminary 
 agreement to respect the decision in so 
 vital a matter. The chances are that 
 the tribunal would not even proceed to a 
 finding, but would content itself with 
 bringing out the facts permitting the 
 United States to show that the acquisi- 
 tion by Japan of Magdalena Bay would 
 be a menace to its own safety and in vio- 
 lation of a policy which, although not a 
 part of international law, was yet a 
 cherished ideal of the United States of 
 long standing. 
 
 Pending the inquiry Japan would be 
 estopped by injunction from proceeding 
 with the objectionable act of taking pos- 
 session of, and possibly fortifying, Mag- 
 dalena Bay. This injunction would be 
 supported by the full power of the 
 League and during the period of the 
 inquiry the Monroe Doctrine would be 
 safer than under present conditions. 
 If, when the inquiry was at an end, both 
 Mexico and Japan persisted in their ob-
 
 78 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 j actionable course, the United States 
 would then be free to go to war without 
 violating its agreement with the League. 
 
 Moreover, the obligation to resort to 
 inquiry before fighting, which would rest 
 on the United States under the League, 
 already rests on it under the Bryan 
 Treaties of obligatory inquiry. It 
 would not be estopped, under the League 
 agreement, from doing anything what- 
 ever which it is not already estopped 
 from doing by its plighted word given in 
 the Bryan Treaties. 
 
 In respect of entangling alliances the 
 case was imagined of the United States, 
 under the proposed League, being com- 
 pelled to join in an attack on Argentina 
 because the latter had refused to submit 
 a dispute with a European Power to 
 " an international tribunal or to a coun- 
 cil of conciliation." The answer here 
 was that no such obligation would rest on 
 the United States in the premises. 
 There is only one act which calls for the 
 use of force by the League, namely, mak-t
 
 PUBLIC DISCUSSION 79 
 
 ing war upon a fellow signatory without 
 previous resort to inquiry or honest ef- 
 fort to secure such. To compel the 
 United States to move against Argen- 
 tina, the latter must be the aggressor, 
 must begin the fighting, without having 
 previously conformed to the requirement 
 regarding an inquiry, the two-fold object 
 of which is to bring out the facts so that 
 the world and the people of the contend- 
 ing countries may know what the quar- 
 rel is about, and to afford time for sober 
 second thought. It must indeed be a 
 poor case which a country cannot af- 
 ford to submit to mere inquiry. And if 
 any country, our own included, persists 
 in precipitating war without having con- 
 formed to so reasonable a demand be- 
 ing free to go to war afterwards it 
 deserves to be disciplined. 
 
 The answer to the group who think a 
 World Court all-sufficient was that men 
 who see the question whole realize that, 
 as a deterrent of war, the Court will have 
 very little immediate effect. 18 When,
 
 80 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 through its decisions, it shall have helped 
 build up international law, and when, 
 through its very existence, the codifica- 
 tion of certain spheres of international 
 law shall have been invited, it will make 
 for peace. But that is a slow process, 
 and even then the number of wars which 
 it is likely to prevent will be small, be- 
 cause wars arise not out of justifiable 
 disputes, but out of conflicts of political 
 policy which the Court is not constituted 
 to entertain. 
 
 Moreover, the proposed Court, like all 
 existing institutions at The Hague, will 
 be a voluntary institution. Men who, 
 previously to this war, held the view 
 that public opinion, so highly commended 
 by this group, might in the end be ef- 
 fective in compelling resort to interna- 
 tional tribunals, have reached the con- 
 clusion that the world cannot wait for 
 that ideal state of mind to come, that 
 such a thing as the present war is intol- 
 erable to civilized men, and that the ele- 
 ment of force must be added in order to
 
 PUBLIC DISCUSSION 81 
 
 discourage men from attempting it 
 again. This is what the League to En- 
 force Peace plans to do by its demand 
 for an inquiry before nations are allowed 
 to fight. That is a reasonable demand 
 the demand for an inquiry. It does 
 not mean that nations will be prevented 
 from going to war for a righteous cause 
 or even an unrighteous cause. It means 
 only that they must give us a chance to 
 make up our minds beforehand whether 
 or not it is a righteous cause. 
 
 Trouble for the League was foreseen 
 in determining who begins a war ; the 
 danger of interpreting, as the critics put 
 it, as an act of aggression that which a 
 nation may itself consider an act of 
 self-defence. 
 
 That problem, it was pointed out, is 
 not so difficult of solution. It will be 
 remembered that, at the beginning of the 
 present war, France retired her forces a 
 certain number of kilometres within her 
 own borders. If some such practice as 
 this were set up, there would be a simple
 
 82 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 geographical fact to determine, namely, 
 the locus of the first battle. This would 
 determine the action of the League, be- 
 cause the program of the League at pres- 
 ent does not extend to an attempt to in- 
 sure justice, though it will make for jus- 
 tice. All it does is to compel inquiry be- 
 fore fighting. And it proposes to penal- 
 ize the signatory which makes war upon a 
 fellow-signatory without going through 
 the form of such inquiry. It is the act 
 of making war, and no other, which will 
 call for war by the League. True, the 
 beginning of hostilities at sea would be 
 more difficult of determination ; but in 
 times of tension it would clearly be the 
 duty of the fleets to keep out of the op- 
 ponent's waters. There could be no 
 great naval battle unless there was an 
 actual entry into the waters of one 
 Power by another, or unless the fleets 
 came out into the open sea purposely to 
 meet each other. Any minor incidents 
 could be composed by inquiry and indem- 
 nity, and need not necessvr'dy 1-ead to
 
 PUBLIC DISCUSSION 83 
 
 war. That difficulty is, therefore, not 
 insurmountable. 
 
 Again it was asked whether, had the 
 League agreement been in operation 
 during the Vera Cruz affair of Apr. 12, 
 1914, the world's interest would have 
 been served by the military forces of 
 the Great Powers moving against the 
 United States on account of this inci- 
 dent. The answer to this question was 
 twofold : 
 
 (a) The obligations of the League 
 will extend only to its signatories and it 
 is not proposed that backward coun- 
 tries like Mexico shall be admitted to it. 19 
 
 (b) If the dispute had been with a 
 progressive Power, instead of with Mex- 
 ico, the United States would have gone 
 through the form of an inquiry, being 
 protected against repetitions of the in- 
 jury during the inquiry, as already sug- 
 gested, by the power of injunction 
 lodged in the League. If the inquiry 
 failed to serve its purpose, that is to 
 say, if after the inquiry the offending
 
 84 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 country should again commit the acts 
 objected to, the United States would be 
 free to make war on it without being 
 visited with any penalties at the hands 
 of the League. 
 
 Under either of these alternatives, it 
 will be seen, the situation pictured, call- 
 ing for the employment of the armies 
 and navies of the Great Powers against 
 the United States, would not arise under 
 the League. 20 
 
 It is urged that it might be necessary 
 to admit certain backward peoples, such 
 as the Balkan States, because their geo- 
 graphical position would make their mili- 
 tary power count in the ranks of the 
 League's possible enemies. This is a se- 
 rious argument, to be pondered against 
 the fact that the presence of poorly gov- 
 erned States in the League would be an 
 element of weakness to it. 
 
 To admit a few States from which a 
 strong purpose of justice was absent 
 might not do much harm, since they 
 would be wholly outweighed in the
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 85 
 
 League's councils. But to receive a 
 number of States of this character would 
 doom the League to failure. - The argu- 
 ment that the leading Allies are bound to 
 advocate the admission of Serbia and 
 Montenegro because they are at present 
 brothers in arms is not conclusive. If 
 Germany, under a changed dynasty and 
 regime, becomes a member of the League, 
 as we hope she will, the omission of Tur- 
 key from the list may well be claimed to 
 offset the omission of Serbia and Monte- 
 negro. 
 
 XIV 
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 
 
 The first indication of President Wil- 
 son's sympathy with the idea of a league 
 of nations came in a speech at Des 
 Moines, Feb. 1, 1916, where he used 
 these earnest words : " I pray God that 
 if this contest have no other result, it 
 will at least have the result of creating 
 an international tribunal and producing
 
 86 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 some sort of joint guarantee of peace on 
 the part of the great nations of the 
 world." 
 
 In his address to the League to En- 
 force Peace at Washington, May 27, 
 1916, Mr. Wilson expressed the confi- 
 dent belief that the United States would 
 be ready, at the proper time, to j oin " an 
 universal association of the nations . . . 
 to prevent any war begun either con- 
 trary to treaty covenants or without 
 warning and full submission of the 
 causes to the opinion of the world a 
 virtual guarantee of territorial integ- 
 rity and political independence." His 
 position, thus proclaimed to the world, 
 attracted widespread attention abroad 
 and caused the movement to be taken 
 much more seriously by foreign govern- 
 ments and peoples. 
 
 The platform of the Democratic 
 Party, of which party Mr. Wilson was 
 the candidate for re-election to the Presi- 
 dency, contained the following : " The 
 world has a right to be free from every
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 87 
 
 disturbance of its peace that has its ori- 
 gin in aggression or disregard of the 
 rights of peoples and nations : and we be- 
 lieve that the time has come when it is the 
 duty of the United States to jom with 
 other nations of the world in any feasi- 
 ble association that will effectively serve 
 these principles, etc." 
 
 In August the President was author- 
 ized by act of Congress to invite the 
 Great Powers to a conference after the 
 war with the object of promoting "an 
 organization, a court of arbitration, or 
 other body, to which disputed questions 
 between nations shall be referred for ad- 
 judication and peaceful settlement and 
 to consider the question of disarmament 
 and submit their recommendations to 
 their respective governments for ap- 
 proval." 
 
 Several State Legislatures had pre- 
 viously endorsed the program of the 
 League to Enforce Peace. 
 
 In the course of the presidential cam- 
 paign Mr. Wilson made frequent refer-
 
 88 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 ence to the subject of a League, never 
 more eloquently than at Cincinnati, Oct. 
 27, 1916, when he said: "The nations 
 of the world must get together and say, 
 ' Nobody can hereafter be neutral as 
 respects the disturbance of the world's 
 peace for an object which the world's 
 opinion cannot sanction.' The world's 
 peace ought to be disturbed if the fun- 
 damental rights of humanity are in- 
 vaded, but it ought not to be disturbed 
 for any other thing that I can think of, 
 and America was established in order to 
 vindicate, at any rate in one Government, 
 the fundamental rights of man. Amer- 
 ica must hereafter be ready as a member 
 of the family of nations to exert her 
 whole force, moral and physical, to the 
 assertion of those rights throughout the 
 round globe." 
 
 To what extent an election gives the 
 successful party a mandate on this or 
 that particular issue in a long series of 
 issues must always remain uncertain. 
 But significance attaches to the very in-
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 89 
 
 sertion of the League plank in the Demo- 
 cratic platform as reflecting the opinion 
 of politicians that it would advantage 
 the party, and to the further fact that 
 the principle so endorsed was not com- 
 bated by the opposition party in the 
 course of the campaign. In fact, the 
 opposing candidate, Charles E. Hughes, 
 expressed most hearty approval of it. 
 In his address at Baltimore, Oct. 10, he 
 pointed to the need of organizing peace 
 through provision for the adjustment of 
 international disputes by judicial meth- 
 ods and by conciliation, backed by ap- 
 propriate means to secure resort to such 
 methods, and by frequent conferences 
 called to correct trouble-brewing condi- 
 tions. He expressed the desire to sec 
 the United States give these measures its 
 full support and, moreover, aid them in a 
 practical way by manning its State De- 
 partment and diplomatic posts with the 
 best talent. 
 
 Mr. Taft, former President of the 
 United States under a Republican ad-
 
 90 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 ministration and a most convincing 
 speaker, took an active part in the presi- 
 dential campaign, and embraced every 
 opportunity to advance the cause of a 
 league of nations. 
 
 One of Mr. Taft's- important contri- 
 butions consisted in showing that for the 
 United States to assume the responsi- 
 bility that would devolve on it under the 
 League would not be extra-legal, that 
 the Government already has full power 
 under the Constitution to do this thing 
 and is in fact doing it now under the 
 treaties by which it guarantees the in- 
 tegrity of Cuba and Panama. 
 
 In other words, to enter the League 
 agreement would not be delegating the 
 power to make war, which power resides 
 in the Congress alone. As previously 
 stated, when the conditions calling for 
 war arise under the proposed League 
 compact, as under the treaties with Cuba 
 and Panama, it is still the Congress of 
 the United States which, in discharge of 
 treaty obligations previously assumed,
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 91 
 
 will actually be called upon to declare 
 war before the United States can go to 
 war. Of course minor military opera- 
 tions are not dignified by the name of war 
 and may be undertaken at the instance of 
 the Executive Department of the Govern- 
 ment alone. Such was the participation 
 of the United States in the expedition to 
 Peking in the Boxer uprising, its second 
 entry into Cuba to re-establish orderly 
 government in 1906; and such is the ex- 
 pedition in which it is engaging to help 
 suppress insurrection in Cuba at the 
 very moment this treatise is being writ- 
 ten. 
 
 The conviction on the part of Mr. 
 Wilson that the United States was 
 ready to join a league of nations in the 
 interests of peace discloses itself espe- 
 cially in his remarkable message to the 
 Senate, Jan. 22, 1917. After stating 
 that it is taken for granted that peace at 
 the end of the present war " must be fol- 
 lowed by some definite concert of power 
 which will make it virtually impossible
 
 92 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 that any such catastrophe should over- 
 whelm us again," he says : " It is incon- 
 ceivable that the people of the United 
 States should play no part in that great 
 enterprise." ..." That service is noth- 
 ing less than this to add their au- 
 thority and their power to the author- 
 ity and force of other nations to guar- 
 antee peace and justice throughout the 
 world." This organized force must be 
 so preponderant that no nation or prob- 
 able combination of nations can with- 
 stand it. 
 
 It will be observed that President Wil- 
 s.on refers to guaranteeing peace and 
 justice. To undertake either of these 
 things would be going much further than 
 is proposed by the League to Enforce 
 Peace. 
 
 The first would mean that no signa- 
 tory to the League agreement would be 
 allowed to go to war with a fellow- 
 signatory even after it had conformed 
 to the demand of the League for an in-
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 93 
 
 quiry into the dispute, and, furthermore, 
 that the operations of the League would 
 extend even to non-signatories. That is 
 to say, that it would forbid war every- 
 where under all conditions. 
 
 To realize the second of President 
 Wilson's aims, i.e., to guarantee justice, 
 would mean that the judgments and 
 awards of the Court and Council of Con- 
 ciliation must be enforced. This is 
 something to which the League, it is 
 true, looks forward as a certain out- 
 come of the movement in the fulness of 
 time but for the immediate inauguration 
 of which it had not hoped. The position 
 of the American group is that it will cer- 
 tainly not combat the President in these 
 lofty aims. It wishes him godspeed. 
 If the larger purpose can be achieved 
 now, so much the better. At the same 
 time it will abstain from enlarging its 
 own program, in the belief that when the 
 test comes it will be found that the more 
 modest program is the one which is
 
 94 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 alone capable of realization in the pres- 
 ent stage of world relations and opin- 
 ion. 
 
 In his epoch-making war message to 
 the Senate, Apr. 2, 1917, President Wil- 
 son said that his aim was still " concert 
 of purpose and of action " among the 
 nations to make peace and justice se- 
 cure, and added these significant words : 
 " A steadfast concert for peace can 
 never be maintained except by a part- 
 nership of democratic nations. No au- 
 tocratic government could be trusted to 
 keep faith within it or observe its cove- 
 nants. It must be a league of honour, 
 a partnership of opinion. Intrigue 
 would eat its vitals away; the plottings 
 of inner circles who could plan what 
 they would and render account to no one 
 would be a corruption seated at its 
 very heart. Only free peoples can hold 
 their purpose and their honour steady 
 to a common end and prefer the inter- 
 ests of mankind to any narrow interest 
 of their own."
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 95 
 
 The danger to the peace of the world 
 residing in autocracy, a danger pointed 
 out long ago by Kant, has been revealed 
 anew and in awful guise by the present 
 war. But autocracy will not disappear 
 unless democracy shall prove itself its 
 equal in war. That is an issue which the 
 Great War has thrust upon the stage as 
 never before. 
 
 Democracy, with all its priceless, 
 proven advantages to men, is always 
 practised at the cost of efficiency in gov- 
 ernment. It is at the cost of efficiency 
 in time of peace and more so in time of 
 war. Of course autocracy, by becoming 
 tyranny, may result in misrule, immeas- 
 urable inefficiency, corruption and injus- 
 tice. But given equal ability in the peo- 
 ple and honesty in administration, an au- 
 tocratic government can go more directly 
 to its goal, can go farther and save time 
 and waste. The recognized weakness in 
 it as a permanent system is the difficulty 
 of making sure that the autocrat will 
 prove to be a benevolent autocrat. No
 
 96 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 system that men have devised has suc- 
 ceeded in solving that problem. The 
 principle of heredity certainly does not 
 solve it, and in the absence of heredity 
 the death of the ruler may be the signal 
 for civil war if not anarchy. 
 
 Justice is the growing purpose of the 
 world and it has become clear that, by 
 and large, justice is best secured under 
 free institutions. Liberty, hallowed and 
 inspiring though the term may be, is, 
 after all, only a means to an end. That 
 end is justice. Political liberty alone 
 does not insure justice. A powerful 
 class, either an hereditary aristocracy or 
 conspirators in commerce and industry, 
 as we know to our cost, may oppress the 
 people independently of the State. If 
 vigilance is the price of freedom from op- 
 pression by the Government it is no less 
 the price of freedom from oppression by 
 groups outside the Government. Sound 
 institutions are meaningless unless prac- 
 tised by a people bent on making use of
 
 INFLUENTIAL SUPPORT 97 
 
 them. Witness the many States, partic- 
 ularly in the Western Hemisphere, with 
 ideal constitutions and admirable laws, in 
 which there exists anything but liberty. 
 In fact, in some of them, where the people 
 are too ignorant or lack purpose, the 
 only time we find " law and order " and 
 security of person and property is when 
 the constitution is tossed into the sea and 
 an efficient dictator establishes himself in 
 power, frequently perpetuating his own 
 rule. Form of government is, then, not 
 a test of democracy. If we are seeking 
 democracies to constitute a league of 
 peace we must look beneath the form to 
 the substance. 
 
 Leaders of thought in Germany regard 
 even true democracy as still an ex- 
 periment. They assert that while we in 
 the United States, for example, met the 
 political test in the Civil War we have yet 
 to meet the social test which can come 
 only when the land shall be overcrowded 
 and we face numbers of the disinherited
 
 98 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 with the franchise in their hands. They 
 believe their form of government to be 
 superior and therefore do not hesitate to 
 endeavour to impose it, as part of their 
 " kultur," on the rest of the world. It 
 remains for the democratic peoples to 
 demonstrate their capacity to think true 
 in a time of world-crisis, to choose right 
 leaders, to have the courage actually to 
 surrender for the time being their cus- 
 tomary privileges and even their consti- 
 tutional liberties in order that these lead- 
 ers may meet the centralized organization 
 of autocratic Powers with equal organ- 
 ization. Whatever may be said of the 
 need of a democratized world as a condi- 
 tion precedent to the successful function- 
 ing of a league of peace, this much is 
 true : the league will not even come into 
 existence if the autocratic Powers win the 
 present war.
 
 ABROAD 99 
 
 XV 
 
 ABROAD 
 
 The duty of securing foreign co- 
 operation in the movement rested on a 
 special committee. 21 The writer, who 
 was rashly entrusted with the chairman- 
 ship of this committee, was in England 
 for two months in the winter of 1916. 
 He prepared an article for The Nation, 22 
 conferred with many individuals on the 
 subject, and addressed several groups. 
 Lord Bryce was most generous of his time 
 and most helpful in this connection. 
 Through his instrumentality the writer 
 was given an interview at the Foreign 
 Office on Mar. 17 with Viscount (then 
 Sir Edward) Grey, who declared his 
 hearty sympathy with the project of the 
 League and expressed the view that if 
 some such plan had been in operation 
 when the present war threatened, Ger- 
 many would have been forced to accept 
 the offer of a conference and the war
 
 100 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 would not have been. He added that he 
 would even go further than our pro- 
 gram: he would enforce the judgment or 
 award if the people would stand for it. 
 Like Mr. Taft he felt that, in the gen- 
 eral interest, nations should face the 
 possibility of an occasional adverse de- 
 cision and be willing to submit all ques- 
 tions to arbitration or judicial decision. 
 But several attempts to draw from 
 him an expression of opinion as to 
 whether the Great Powers would in fact 
 accept this additional feature of a com- 
 mon agreement brought no result. It 
 was evident that he himself entertained 
 doubts on this score. And here let it be 
 said that, while enforcement of the judg- 
 ment of the Court or award of the tri- 
 bunal of inquiry and conciliation would 
 undoubtedly make for justice and put a 
 much more effective check on war, great 
 practical difficulties stand in the way of 
 getting such a program accepted. For 
 example, the United States might have 
 up the question of the Monroe Doctrine,
 
 ABROAD 101 
 
 Japan the question of Korea or Man- 
 churia or of her influence in China, Great 
 Britain the question of Gibraltar or 
 Egypt or India. Would the govern- 
 ments of these countries consent to en- 
 ter into a league which compelled them 
 not only to submit such questions for a 
 hearing but also to abide by the award? 
 There is a general feeling among the 
 advocates of the League, both in Eng- 
 land and in the United States, that, in 
 contradistinction to the awards of the 
 Council of Conciliation, the judgments 
 of the Court, supposed to deal with 
 purely justiciable matters, should be 
 enforceable. As already indicated, the 
 difficulty is that some tribunal, prefera- 
 bly the Court itself, must pass upon the 
 question of jurisdiction. So the query 
 again immediately presents itself: Will 
 the Great Powers consent to enter into 
 an agreement which involves the risk of 
 having questions which may not be purely 
 justiciable, questions which may really 
 arise out of conflicts of political policy, 
 
 JJT?T>
 
 102 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 interpreted as justiciable questions and 
 so brought within the area of compulsory 
 settlement? In a letter addressed to the 
 writer on Jan. 11, 1916, Lord Bryce 
 said : " To me your plan of compelling 
 recourse to arbitration, rather than 
 using compulsion at a later stage, seems 
 the better plan." 
 
 At this time Lord Bryce's group was 
 still at work on its enlightening exam- 
 ination of the project. The Fabian So- 
 ciety, the League of Nations Society, and 
 several individuals had published most 
 helpful studies of the problem. G. 
 Lowes Dickinson, who was a leading 
 member of several English groups and 
 who had presented some of the results of 
 their studies in an American magazine, 
 was on a special pilgrimage to the 
 United States to confer with the leaders 
 there. From the beginning there has 
 been a desire on the part of both the 
 American and English groups to have 
 their programs harmonize, and in all 
 essentials they really do harmonize.
 
 ABROAD 103 
 
 Following the interview with Sir Ed- 
 ward Grey the writer made to him by 
 letter (Mar. 25) the suggestion that 
 "just as Lincoln, in the middle of our 
 Civil War, won the sympathy of the 
 world for the Northern cause by his 
 Proclamation of Emancipation, so Great 
 Britain and her allies would greatly ad- 
 vance their cause, already strong, in the 
 neutral world, and would at the same 
 time stiffen the purpose of their own 
 peoples and armies, by declaring for 
 * some sort of joint guarantee of peace 
 on the part of the great nations ' Pres- 
 ident Wilson's phrase to be set up 
 after the war." In his reply, dated 
 Apr. 7, Sir Edward stated that he was 
 entirely in sympathy with what had been 
 urged, that the difficulty was in making 
 public announcements at a time and in 
 language which prevented them from 
 being misunderstood, but that the mat- 
 ter would be kept in mind. 
 
 While Sir Edward's general attitude 
 on European affairs pointed to him as a
 
 104 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 man likely to sympathize with the move- 
 ment for improved international organ- 
 ization, he had said nothing in public 
 recently to indicate approval of the 
 project. Going back, however, to 1911, 
 we find him asserting in the House of 
 Commons (Mar. 13) that the disastrous 
 effects of modern wars on the neutral 
 as well as on the belligerent would tend to 
 bring nations together in an agreement 
 to keep the peace of the world. He 
 predicted that we would not get limita- 
 tion of armaments until nations, like in- 
 dividuals, came to regard an appeal to 
 law, not force, as the natural course for 
 them to take. But he did not consider 
 it impossible that some day they may 
 discover that " law is a better remedy 
 than force, and that, in all the time they 
 have been in bondage to this tremendous 
 expenditure, the prison door has been 
 locked on the inside." ..." Some ar- 
 mies and navies would remain, no doubt, 
 but they would remain then not in ri-
 
 ABROAD 105 
 
 valry with each other but as the police 
 of the world." 
 
 His proposals to Germany on the eve 
 of the war of course involved the idea 
 of joint guarantees as did his letter to 
 the press Aug. 26, 1915, in which he 
 said : " If there are to be guarantees 
 against future war, let them be equal, 
 comprehensive and effective guarantees 
 that bind Germany as well as other na- 
 tions, including ourselves." Sir Ed- 
 ward had also said in the House of Com- 
 mons, Jan. 26, 1916: "But the great 
 object to be attained and, until it is 
 attained, the War must proceed is 
 that there shall not again be this sort of 
 militarism in Europe, which in time of 
 peace causes the whole of the Continent 
 discomfort by its continual menace, and 
 then, when it thinks the moment has 
 come that suits itself, plunges the Conti- 
 nent into war." 
 
 On his return home the writer felt at 
 liberty to announce Sir Edward's ac-
 
 106 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 ceptance of the plan of the League to 
 Enforce Peace and made mention of it 
 at a dinner in New York, May 12, 1916. 
 This, the first public announcement since 
 1911 that he supported the idea of a 
 league of nations, appeared in the Amer- 
 ican press and was transmitted as a 
 Central News dispatch to the English 
 press. On May 13 there likewise ap- 
 peared in the Chicago Daily News Ed- 
 ward Price Bell's important interview 
 with Sir Edward. It is there said: 
 " Long before the war Sir Edward hoped 
 for a league of nations that would be 
 united, quick and instant to prevent, and, 
 if need be, punish violations of interna- 
 tional treaties, of public right, and of 
 national independence, and would say to 
 the nations that came forward with 
 grievances and claims : ' Put them be- 
 fore an impartial tribunal; subject your 
 claims to the test of law or the judgment 
 of impartial men. If you can win at this 
 bar you will get what you want; if you 
 cannot you shall not have what you want ;
 
 ABROAD 107 
 
 and if you start war we shall all adjudge 
 you the common enemy of humanity and 
 treat you accordingly. As footpads, 
 burglars, and incendiaries are suppressed 
 in a community, so those who would com- 
 mit these crimes and incalculably more 
 than these crimes, will be suppressed 
 among the nations.' ' This article was 
 followed by a second public declaration 
 in the form of an open letter addressed 
 to Mr. Herman Bernstein, New York, 
 dated June 5, 1916, in which he ex- 
 pressed the belief that the best work neu- 
 trals could do was to cultivate opinion 
 in favour of an agreement between na- 
 tions which would prevent a return of 
 such a catastrophe as the present war. 
 Then came Sir Edward's address to the 
 representatives of the foreign press in 
 London, Oct. 23, 1916, embodying a 
 most positive and direct approval of the 
 League to Enforce Peace in these words : 
 " In the United States a league has al- 
 ready sprung up, supported by various 
 distinguished people, with the object,
 
 108 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 not of interfering with belligerents in 
 this war, but of getting ready for some 
 international association, after this war 
 is over, which shall do its part in mak- 
 ing peace secure in future. I would like 
 to say that if we seem to have little time 
 to give to such ideas ourselves while we 
 are engaged in this struggle, such a 
 work in neutral countries is one to 
 which we should all look with favour and 
 with hope. . . . We say to neutrals 
 who are occupying themselves with this 
 question that we are in favour of it. 
 . . . The object of this league is to in- 
 sist upon treaties being kept and some 
 other settlement being tried before re- 
 sort to war. In July, 1914, there was 
 no such league in existence. Supposing 
 a generation hence such a condition of 
 things as in July, 1914, recurs and there 
 is such a league in existence, it may, 
 and it ought to keep the peace. Every- 
 thing will depend upon whether the na- 
 tional sentiment behind it is so pene- 
 trated by the lessons of this war as to
 
 ABROAD 109 
 
 feel that in the future each nation, al- 
 though not immediately concerned in 
 this dispute, is doing something, even if 
 it be by force, to keep the peace." 
 
 Finally the distinguished Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs, now become 
 Viscount Grey, sent to the League the 
 following cable, read at their New York 
 dinner Nov. 24 : "I think public utter- 
 ances must have already made it clear 
 that I sincerely desire to see a league of 
 nations formed and made effective to se- 
 cure future peace of the world after this 
 war is over. I regard this as the best, 
 if not the only, prospect of preserving 
 treaties and of saving the world from 
 aggressive wars in years to come. If 
 there is any doubt about my sentiments 
 in the matter, I hope this telegram in re- 
 ply to your own will remove it." 
 
 In this history of the American move- 
 ment Viscount Grey's attitude is dealt 
 with in detail because he has been its 
 best and earliest friend among the states- 
 men in power in Europe, because his open
 
 110 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 support influenced the attitude of other 
 European statesmen, and because the en- 
 dorsement of the project by these men, 
 added to the acceptance of it by Presi- 
 dent Wilson, made it plain that the ques- 
 tion was no longer merely academic but 
 had entered the realm of practical poli- 
 tics. 
 
 Among the various references by Mr. 
 Asquith, while Prime Minister, to con- 
 certed action to prevent war, the follow- 
 ing statement of the conditions on which 
 the triumph of public right must ulti- 
 mately depend probably stands out as 
 the most direct and satisfactory : 
 " safeguards resting upon the common 
 will of Europe, and I hope, not of Eu- 
 rope alone, against aggression, against 
 international covetousness and bad faith, 
 against the wanton recourse in case of 
 dispute to the use of force and the dis- 
 turbance of peace ; finally, as the result 
 of it all, a great partnership of nations 
 federated together in the joint pursuit of 
 a freer and fuller life, etc." 23
 
 ABROAD 111 
 
 A similar hearty approval of the move- 
 ment is disclosed by Arthur J. Balfour 
 in the interview with Edward Marshall 
 which appeared in the London Times, 
 May 18, 1916. In it we find the asser- 
 tion that international law must remain 
 weak " so long as it is unsupported by 
 international authority." ..." Law is 
 not enough. Behind law there must be 
 power." While favouring arbitration 
 and the discussion of differences by 
 would-be belligerents before peace is 
 broken, including special care for the 
 security of small States, he held that 
 " all the precautions are mere scraps of 
 paper unless they can be enforced. We 
 delude ourselves if we think we are doing 
 God service merely by passing good reso- 
 lutions. What is needed now, and will 
 be needed so long as militarism is uncon- 
 quered, is the machinery for enforcing 
 them ; and the contrivance of such a ma- 
 chinery will tax to its utmost the states- 
 manship of the world." 
 
 It should be noted in passing that Mr.
 
 112 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 Balfour, like Mr. Wilson, sees the need 
 of a league which shall also have power 
 to enforce the judgment of a central 
 tribunal. Is it his belief that such a 
 league can be instituted in our day ? 24 
 
 XVI 
 
 FRENCH AND GERMAN VIEWS 
 
 Approval of the project by such men 
 convinced a great number of Americans 
 that the plan was practical. An equally 
 important result was its effect on Con- 
 tinental opinion. About the middle of 
 September the French Premier, M. 
 Briand, made reference to " a solid last- 
 ing peace, guaranteed against any re- 
 turn of violence by appropriate interna- 
 tional measures." This utterance was 
 followed by a letter addressed to the au- 
 thor on Oct. 25, 1916, indicating whole- 
 hearted approval of the project of the 
 League. M. Briand's generous letter, 
 publication of which was authorized at
 
 FRENCH VIEWS 113 
 
 the time of its transmittal by the French 
 Embassy at Washington, embodies a per- 
 sonal touch but was intended none the 
 less for the League. It reads in part: 
 
 " In basing your effort on the funda- 
 mental principle of respect for the rights 
 and wishes of the various peoples of the 
 world, you are certain of being on com- 
 mon ground with the countries which, in 
 the present conflict, are giving their 
 blood and their resources, without count- 
 ing the cost, to save the independence of 
 the nations. 
 
 " No one is better qualified than you 
 to understand these sacrifices because, 
 despite the neutrality of your country, 
 you have experienced it in your closest 
 affections in the person of a son, seriously 
 crippled in the service of the Allies. In 
 rendering homage to that heroism, I can 
 only express the desire that the noble 
 ideas which inspired him may guide 
 equally your League in its attempt to 
 visit, with the heaviest penalties, the
 
 114 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 States whose avowed aim is the subjuga- 
 tion of the peoples and the destruction of 
 liberty." 
 
 The German Government likewise for- 
 mally approved the principle of a league. 
 Its Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, 
 overlooking the part which Germany had 
 played in bringing on the " monstrous 
 catastrophe," said in the Reichstag on 
 Nov. 9 : " When at and after the end of 
 the war the world will become fully con- 
 scious of its horrifying destruction of 
 life and property, then through the 
 whole of mankind will ring a cry for 
 peaceful arrangements and understand- 
 ings which, as far as lies in human 
 power, shall avoid the return of such a 
 monstrous catastrophe. This cry will 
 be so powerful and so justified that it 
 must lead to some result. Germany will 
 honestly co-operate in the examination 
 of every endeavour to find a practical 
 solution of the question and will collab- 
 orate to make its realization possible. 
 . The first condition for evolution of
 
 FORMAL COMMITMENT 115 
 
 international relations by way of arbi- 
 tration and peaceful compromise of con- 
 flicting interests should be that no more 
 aggressive coalitions are formed in fu- 
 ture. Germany will at all times be 
 ready to enter a league for the purpose 
 of restraining the disturbers of peace." 
 What an awakening! Let us hope 
 that it will be a chastened Germany 
 which will knock at the door of the 
 League for admission. A Germany 
 which had scotched the snake, Prussian- 
 ism, a Germany in which the people ruled 
 under constitutional government, would 
 not knock in vain. On the contrary it 
 would be welcomed heartily at the coun- 
 cil table of the nations. 
 
 XVII 
 
 FORMAL COMMITMENT 
 
 Although we realized that such utter- 
 ances by responsible men could not have 
 been made without consulting their col- 
 leagues, they amounted, after all, to little
 
 116 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 more than an expression of opinion. It 
 was as if Lincoln, instead of issuing his 
 great proclamation, had said : " In my 
 opinion slavery ought to be abolished 
 after the war." How different the effect 
 of such an utterance from the actual 
 proclamation ! The fact will be recalled 
 that Lincoln's proclamation was made in 
 September to take effect the following 
 January. Lincoln knew perfectly well 
 that the proclamation, which was aimed 
 alone at the States in rebellion, could not 
 take effect until these States were 
 brought back under the jurisdiction of 
 the Federal Government. It was plainly 
 a commitment to a course of conduct at a 
 future time. But, once having made the 
 commitment, was it likely that any weari- 
 ness of the war on the part of the North 
 or of the President himself would induce 
 the Administration to compromise on 
 that great issue? There was no lack of 
 effort to bring about such compromise, 
 the most marked being the offer of the 
 Confederacy to join its forces to those of
 
 FORMAL COMMITMENT 117 
 
 the North to turn the French, under 
 Maximilian, out of Mexico. 
 
 Another fact which the American 
 members of the League to Enforce Peace 
 carried in mind was the disappointments 
 which the world suffered at the Congress 
 of Vienna (1815). It will be remem- 
 bered that Stein wanted a federated 
 Germany ; Alexander had liberal aspira- 
 tions to set up a new Polish Kingdom ; 
 Great Britain wanted the immediate 
 abolition of the slave trade; the whole 
 of Europe desired more democratic con- 
 trol in government everywhere and some 
 central organization among the nations 
 to prevent a repetition of the disasters 
 of the Napoleonic period. What hap- 
 pened? The Congress, after months of 
 cross purposes, did only what it had 
 been previously obligated to do by the 
 preliminary treaties of Paris and Chau- 
 mont. There was such conflict of inter- 
 ests, real and imaginary, and such im- 
 mense labours were imposed on the Con- 
 gress by the need of settling the affairs
 
 118 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 of so many States and Principalities that 
 the larger purpose if ever entertained 
 seriously by the leaders of the Congress 
 at all failed utterly. 
 
 With this experience of the world in 
 mind we asked the chancelleries of the 
 Allied Powers to examine the project of 
 the League to Enforce Peace and, if pos- 
 sible, to commit themselves jointly and 
 formally to it. A like request was made 
 of the progressive neutral nations. 
 
 What we asked, but hardly dared hope 
 for, we have now got. 
 
 In their joint note to Mr. Wilson of 
 Jan. 10, 1917, the Allies formally com- 
 mit themselves to the project of a league 
 of nations to discourage future wars. 
 Their words are: "They associate 
 themselves with all their hopes with the 
 project for the creation of a league of 
 nations to insure peace and justice 
 throughout the world. They are con- 
 scious of all the advantages to the cause 
 of humanity and civilization which would 
 flow from the establishment of interna-
 
 tional rules designed to avoid violent con- 
 flicts between nations, rules which must 
 provide the sanctions necessary to insure 
 their execution and so prevent a false 
 security from serving simply to facilitate 
 new aggressions." 25 
 
 Hall Caine's dispatches to the New 
 York Times, forecasting the tenor of the 
 Allies' note, stated that it would make 
 the establishment of a league of nations 
 certain. 
 
 Up to that time the only intimation 
 we had received that the suggestion of 
 an official commitment might be acted on 
 favourably by the Allies came from Sir 
 Gilbert Parker, who, among others, in- 
 terested himself actively in the project. 
 A letter addressed by him to the author 
 on Sept. 19, 1916, contained the follow- 
 ing words : " I think that your idea 
 of the Allies declaring in favour of 
 compulsory inquiry, and a league to en- 
 force it to be set up after the war, may be 
 carried out, but it has not been definitely 
 settled."
 
 120 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 Following the formal commitment by 
 the Allies to the project came a separate 
 friendly despatch from Viscount Motono, 
 Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 who cabled through the Japanese Em- 
 bassy at Washington, under date of Jan. 
 15, the following: "I have noted with 
 interest your unremitting efforts to se- 
 cure the world against a repetition of the 
 present convulsion. All proposals di- 
 rected to effect so desirable an end must 
 be welcomed and carefully studied by 
 every one to whom peace and good will 
 are not empty names and who has any 
 regard for humanity." 
 
 XVIII 
 
 APPROVAL BY NEUTRALS 
 
 Two of the neutral Powers have taken 
 a similar position. In fact, the first 
 favourable response to our suggestion 
 came from the Republic of Switzerland. 
 Dr. Arthur Hoffmann, head of the Politi- 
 cal Department of Switzerland, speaking
 
 APPROVAL BY NEUTRALS 121 
 
 in the name of his Government, addressed 
 the writer from Berne under date of Dec. 
 11, 1916, as follows: 
 
 " The League to Enforce Peace, which 
 counts among its members so many emi- 
 nent personalities, aims to insure the 
 maintenance of peace after it shall have 
 been concluded; truly a delicate mission 
 but the difficulties of which are not to 
 be allowed to discourage your efforts. 
 You regard as one of the most efficacious 
 means to that end a treaty of arbitration 
 conceived in the same spirit as the treaty 
 of Feb. 3, 1914, between Switzerland and 
 the United States, a treaty which all the 
 countries are to sign and by which they 
 will undertake to submit to the decision 
 of a supreme international tribunal the 
 conflicts which may arise between them 
 in order to avoid, as far as possible, a 
 return of the catastrophe which desolates 
 the world today. Switzerland is so 
 much the better placed to appreciate the 
 work of which the United States has 
 taken the initiative because, surrounded
 
 122 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 on all sides by war, peopled by the race, 
 and inheriting the language and culture, 
 of three among the combatant nations, 
 she is better able than any other country 
 to realize the fact that war is inhuman 
 and is contrary to the superior interest 
 of civilization which is the common patri- 
 mony of all men. 
 
 " If, then, at the conclusion of peace, 
 the occasion should present itself for us 
 to unite our efforts to yours, we will not 
 fail to do so, and we will be happy to 
 make our contribution toward rendering 
 peace more secure when re-established." 
 
 The other country referred to is Spain. 
 Under date of Jan. 13, 1917, the For- 
 eign Minister of Spain, Don Amalio Gi- 
 meno, also speaking in the name of his 
 Government, sent the following cable- 
 gram through the Spanish Embassy at 
 Washington : 
 
 " His Majesty's Government is follow- 
 ing with keen sympathy the idea of estab- 
 lishing, after the end of the present war, 
 an international league for the purpose
 
 of preventing the peace of the world 
 being again disturbed, and when the op- 
 portunity of doing so arrives, with a 
 guarantee of success, will lend its con- 
 course to the realization of such a hu- 
 manitarian and lofty project." 
 
 This closes the list of the formal com- 
 mitments to the project up to the present 
 time. The Ministers of several other 
 foreign countries have shown personal in- 
 terest in, and sympathy with, the plan, 
 but express rather their private opinions 
 than the views of their Governments. 
 
 For example the Foreign Minister of 
 Denmark, Erik Scavenius, in a letter ad- 
 dressed to the writer and dated Oct. 6, 
 1916, says: 
 
 " The object for which the ' League to 
 Enforce Peace ' is specially working, viz. 
 compulsory arbitration for international 
 differences not settled by diplomatic ne- 
 gotiations, has at all times had full sym- 
 pathy of the Danish Government. It 
 will be sufficient in that respect to refer 
 to the numerous arbitration treaties con-
 
 124 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 eluded by the Danish Government with 
 other states, and to the fact that the 
 treaty of February 12, 1904, between 
 Denmark and the Netherlands is the first 
 treaty submitting to international arbi- 
 tration all differences without exception. 
 I may also refer to the stand-point taken 
 by the Danish Government in respect to 
 this question at the second Hague Peace 
 Conference in the year 1907 (see ' Actes 
 et Documents de la 2ieme Conference 
 Internationale. La Haye 1907,' II. pag. 
 887). 
 
 " I should esteem it a most valuable 
 gain for the peace of the world, if those 
 principles could attain general recogni- 
 tion." 
 
 It should be noted that the above 
 dispatch commits His Excellency to, and 
 reflects his country's interest in, simply 
 the principle of inquiry based upon hon- 
 ourable obligation, whereas the League 
 plans true compulsory inquiry supported 
 by the sanction of force. Again, treaties 
 in pairs between countries knowing each
 
 APPROVAL BY NEUTRALS 125 
 
 other's antecedents and ambitions is quite 
 a different matter from a common treaty 
 embracing a large group of signatories. 
 No doubt Denmark, which, in conjunc- 
 tion with the Netherlands, set this fine 
 example to the world in negotiating the 
 all-inclusive treaty of Feb. 12, 1904, 
 would be willing to take the next step and 
 extend the provisions of the treaty to a 
 group of nations, provided the group was 
 limited to countries with a background 
 of tradition such as would lead one rea- 
 sonably to expect them to live up to any 
 agreements they might enter into. But 
 we have yet to learn that she is ready 
 to go the length of the League program, 
 binding her to join her military forces 
 to those of other members of the League 
 in order to compel inquiry before any 
 signatory to the common treaty is al- 
 lowed to go to war with a fellow signa- 
 tory.
 
 126 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 XIX 
 
 REMAINING TASKS 
 
 While, before the Allies had sent their 
 masterly note to Mr. Wilson, we con- 
 sidered problematic the success of the 
 project of a league of nations, many of 
 us now regard it as almost certain of 
 realization. It remains to acquaint the 
 intellectual leaders in the belligerent 
 countries with the program, to cultivate 
 sentiment favourable to it in neutral 
 lands, and that most difficult of all 
 tasks to secure favourable action, 
 when the time comes, by the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 Out of the bitterness of the time comes 
 experience, which is wisdom. It seems 
 that every generation requires to learn 
 anew the awful lesson of war. Many na- 
 tions learned that lesson at one and the 
 same time in the Napoleonic wars. Was 
 it not this fact that made possible the 
 long era of peace which followed? The
 
 REMAINING TASKS 127 
 
 hopeful side of the present great conflict 
 is that it may bring the most powerful 
 nations of the earth into an attitude of 
 mind which will make possible the aban- 
 donment of international anarchy in 
 favour of international organization. 
 The hopeful thing for us here in America 
 is that out of our own painful but illu- 
 minating experience, now that we are 
 drawn into the maelstrom, will come a 
 disposition to share with others the re- 
 sponsibility for peace and not sit in isola- 
 tion as one whom this great tragedy of 
 war does not concern. 
 
 It is not, as has been suggested, the 
 unhappy experiences we have had in en- 
 deavouring to straighten out the affairs 
 of certain Latin-American countries in 
 order to avoid European interference in 
 them which has led us to avoid an exclu- 
 sive American alliance. The true reason 
 why such an alliance has never appealed 
 to the people of the United States is that 
 they have far more in common with the 
 people of Europe than with the people of
 
 128 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 Latin-America. If such a policy has any 
 standing at all it is due to the weak geo- 
 graphical argument and to the sounder 
 sentiment that the United States, as the 
 oldest, most powerful, and most progres- 
 sive of the American republics, has excep- 
 tional responsibilities to her sister States 
 on this continent. But it is quite con- 
 ceivable that the interests of the Ameri- 
 can republics may be served better by a 
 general league of nations to which the 
 United States and the " ABC " countries 
 of South America shall be parties than 
 by a Pan-American League which would 
 lend nothing to the cause of peace in 
 other parts of the world. 
 
 There remains also the task of elabo- 
 rating the League's plan and of reaching 
 a common agreement in the leading coun- 
 tries on a tentative draft convention such 
 as is described in an earlier chapter of 
 this book. To be able to present to the 
 congress which will meet to settle the 
 multitudinous problems arising out of the 
 Great War an actual convention that has
 
 ADDENDUM 129 
 
 received general approval would multiply 
 the chances of success for the project. 
 Critics who assert that a league of na- 
 tions cannot be formed until certain 
 burning national and international ques- 
 tions are settled put the cart before the 
 horse. The truth is that many of the 
 very problems they have in mind will not 
 be settled until the League is formed. 
 
 ADDENDUM 
 
 PLATFORM OF LEAGUE TO ENFORCE 
 PEACE 
 
 WARRANT FROM HISTORY 
 
 Throughout five thousand years of re- 
 corded history, peace, here and there es- 
 tablished, has been kept, and its area has 
 been widened, in one way only. Individu- 
 als have combined their efforts to suppress 
 violence in the local community. Communi- 
 ties have co-operated to maintain the au- 
 thoritative State and to preserve peace 
 within its borders. States have formed 
 leagues or confederations, or have otherwise 
 co-operated^ to establish peace among them-
 
 130 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 selves. Always peace has been made and 
 kept, when made and kept at all, by the 
 superior power of superior numbers acting 
 in unity for the common good. 
 
 Mindful of this teaching of experience, 
 we believe and solemnly urge that the time 
 has come to devise and to create a working 
 union of sovereign nations to establish peace 
 among themselves and to guarantee it by all 
 known and available sanctions at their com- 
 mand, to the end that civilization may be 
 conserved, and the progress of mankind in 
 comfort, enlightenment and happiness may 
 continue. 
 
 PLATFORM 
 
 We believe it to be desirable for the 
 United States to join a league of nations 
 binding the signatories to the following: 
 
 First: All justiciable questions arising 
 between the signatory Powers, not settled 
 by negotiation, shall, subject to the limita- 
 tions of treaties, be submitted to a judicial 
 tribunal for hearing and judgement, both 
 upon the merits and upon any issue as to its 
 jurisdiction of the question. 
 
 Second: All other questions arising be-
 
 ADDENDUM 131 
 
 tween the signatories and not settled by 
 negotiation, shall be submitted to a council 
 of conciliation for hearing, consideration 
 and recommendation. 
 
 Third: The signatory Powers shall 
 jointly use forthwith both their economic 
 and military forces against any one of their 
 number that goes to war, or commits acts of 
 hostility, against another of the signatories 
 before any question arising shall be sub- 
 mitted as provided in the foregoing.* 
 
 Fourth: Conferences between the sig- 
 natory Powers shall be held from time to 
 time to formulate and codify rules of in- 
 ternational law, which, unless some signa- 
 
 * The following interpretation of Article 3 
 has been authorized by the Executive Commit- 
 tee: 
 
 "The signatory Powers shall jointly employ 
 diplomatic and economic pressure against any 
 one of their number that threatens war against 
 a fellow signatory without having first submitted 
 its dispute for international inquiry, concilia- 
 tion, arbitration or judicial hearing, and awaited 
 a conclusion, or without having in good faith 
 offered so to submit it. They shall follow this 
 forthwith by the joint use of their military 
 forces against that nation if it actually goes to 
 war, or commits acts of hostility, against an- 
 other of the signatories before any question 
 arising shall be dealt with as provided in the 
 foregoing."
 
 132 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 tory shall signify its dissent within a stated 
 period, shall thereafter govern in the deci- 
 sions of the Judicial Tribunal mentioned in 
 Article One. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1. Publication of all documents quoted in this 
 work has been authorized. 
 
 2. This chapter represents approximately the 
 conclusions thus far reached by a private study- 
 group, not a committee of the League to En- 
 force Peace, though drawn largely from its lead- 
 ing members. The subject was examined at 
 seven meetings extending from December 15 to 
 June 28, 1917. The group was of varying per- 
 sonnel, the names of all who participated from 
 time to time being as follows: 
 
 George Louis Beer, John Bigelow, Edwin M. 
 Borchard, Elmer Ellsworth Brown, John Bates 
 Clark, William C. Dennis, Samuel T. Dutton, 
 John H. Finley, Harry A. Garfield, Franklin H. 
 Giddings, Robert Goldsmith, Frank J. Goodnow, 
 Hamilton Holt, George C. Holt, Jeremiah W. 
 Jenks, A. Lawrence Lowell, Theodore Marburg, 
 Leo S. Rowe, William H. Short, Edwin Smith, 
 James T. Shotwell, Oscar S. Straus, William 
 H. Wadhams, Eugene Wambaugh, Everett P. 
 Wheeler, Talcott Williams, George Grafton 
 Wilson. 
 
 The labours of the group will continue. It
 
 NOTES 133 
 
 has framed a Draft Convention, still incomplete, 
 designed to inaugurate a league of nations. The 
 section relating to the Court was prepared by a 
 Sub-Committee consisting of Everett P. Wheeler, 
 Eugene Wambaugh, George Grafton Wilson, and 
 W. C. Dennis. 
 
 3. It is with this in view that the term, " con- 
 tracting Powers," instead of " States of the 
 League," is used in this section. 
 
 4. The Backward Nation, The Independent, 
 June 20, 1912. The article was reprinted by the 
 Bern Peace Bureau in English, French, and Ger- 
 man, and comment on it by publicists in America 
 and abroad appeared in The Independent, Nov. 7, 
 1912, March 6, 1913, and Sept. 9, 1913. 
 
 5. A League of Peace, Hamilton Holt, Pro- 
 ceedings of the Third American Peace Congress. 
 
 6. Address before the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania, June, 1910. 
 
 7. Christiania address, May 5, 1910. 
 
 8. The Independent, Sept. 28, 1914. 
 
 9. Ibid., Oct. 26, 1914. 
 
 10. Those who took part in the three prelimi- 
 nary meetings (Jan. 25th, Jan. 31st, and March 
 30th, 1915) were: John Bates Clark, Frank 
 Crane, Irving Fisher, Franklin H. Giddings, John 
 Hays Hammond, George C. Holt, Hamilton 
 Holt, Harold J. Howland, William B. Howland, 
 William I. Hull, Jeremiah W. Jenks, Frederick 
 N. Judson, George W. Kirchwey, Frederick 
 Lynch, Theodore Marburg, George M. Plimpton, 
 John A. Stewart, William H. Short, James L.
 
 Tryon, Everett P. Wheeler, Westel W. Wil- 
 loughby, Theodore S. Woolsey. 
 
 11. World Court and League of Peace, the 
 author, Judicial Settlement Quarterly, Feb., 1914. 
 
 12. In this connection we are at once con- 
 fronted with the question whether a neutralized 
 State can properly incur the obligations resting 
 on a member of the League. In addressing him- 
 self to this problem a French writer Gaston 
 Moch, La Ouarantie de la Societe des Nations 
 sets up the alternate views that the position of 
 a neutralized State would not prevent its parti- 
 cipation in purely police measures undertaken 
 by the League in the common interest, and that 
 if this assertion does not hold and the neutral- 
 ized State should in fact be debarred from com- 
 mon military action it might still be called upon 
 to use the purely pacific penalties against an 
 offending signatory. Are either of these posi- 
 tions sound? How long would the "guaranteed" 
 neutrality of a State be respected on the out- 
 break of war if its neighbor knew that the State 
 in question was free, as a member of the League 
 to attack it, the neighbor? Commercial boycott, 
 practiced by the neutralized State, would be al- 
 most an equally severe strain on the neutraliza- 
 tion compact. While it has its manifest disad- 
 vantages, there is probably no other position to 
 take than that the neutralized State shall be left 
 out of a league and, as under the old conditions, 
 shall be asked to do nothing except defend its 
 own territory when invaded. The disadvantages
 
 NOTES 135 
 
 of such a conclusion are that the League would 
 be the poorer by the absence of such progressive 
 little countries as Belgium and Switzerland, free 
 from disturbing ambitions poorer by the lack 
 of the additional balance they would give to its 
 deliberations, and by the lack of their coopera- 
 tion in applying economic pressure. Further 
 light is needed on this problem. 
 
 13. Participants in the fourth meeting, April 
 9, 1915, were: James M. Beck, John Bates 
 Clark, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., William C. Dennis, 
 John Hays Hammond, Hamilton Holt, Harold 
 J. Howland, William B. Howland, Andrew B. 
 Humphrey, Darwin P. Kingsley, George W. 
 Kirchwey, A. Lawrence Lowell, Frederick Lynch, 
 Theodore Marburg, Henry S. Pritchett, Leo S. 
 Rowe, William H. Short, Albert Shaw, John A. 
 Stewart, William Howard Taft. 
 
 14. "Peace Through Justice," by James Brown 
 Scott. 
 
 15. The preamble to the platform, revealing 
 the tendency throughout history to secure peace 
 through ever-widening group-action, was written 
 by Franklin H. Giddings. 
 
 16. The attention which the movement has at- 
 tracted is instanced by the fact that in the week 
 ending Feb. 3, 1917, twenty-three hundred news- 
 paper clippings referring to the League were 
 received at the central office. Money contribu- 
 tions to the propaganda up to April, 1917, 
 amounted to one hundred and thirty-six thou- 
 sand dollars. The successful financing of the
 
 136 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 League is due principally to Herbert S. Houston 
 and Edward A. Filene. Both have likewise 
 been prominent in the campaign of education. 
 
 A. Lawrence Lowell, who played a leading part 
 in finally deciding upon the actual platform of 
 the League, has since then been most active in 
 spreading a knowledge of its principles in the 
 press and from the rostrum, and, as Chairman 
 of the Executive Committee, in directing the 
 League's activities. 
 
 Another source of strength to the League, not 
 only in connection with the work of propaganda 
 and general administration, but from the side of 
 the development of its principles and plans, has 
 been its Secretary, William H. Short. It is cer- 
 tain that the League would not be so far along 
 unless this particular man had occupied this par- 
 ticular office. 
 
 Still another of the " fathers " is John Bates 
 Clark. His extraordinary powers of clear think- 
 ing which have caused him for a generation past 
 to be ranked among the very foremost American 
 writers on political economy have led us to lean 
 on him throughout our examination of the proj- 
 ect. His service to the cause from the side of 
 analysis, and as head of one of the active com- 
 mittees of the League, cannot be measured. 
 
 Conspicuous service to the League has also 
 been given by Talcott Williams, who has been 
 a source of strength in council and on the ros- 
 trum; by George Grafton Wilson, out of whose 
 survey of possible activities the plan of fram-
 
 NOTES 137 
 
 ing an actual Draft Convention grew; by Eugene 
 Wambaugh, who has given much time and 
 thought to the admirable section relating to the 
 Court; and by Everett P. Wheeler, who, as 
 member of a committee of the New York Bar 
 Association, examined the question some years 
 before the present movement for a true inter- 
 national court of justice began. 
 
 17. An eminent Maryland lawyer of a former 
 generation, when a fellow member of the bar 
 whom he disliked was referred to in his pres- 
 ence as the Nestor of the Maryland bar, ex- 
 claimed "Yes, a mare's nester." This kind of 
 Nestor appears occasionally in the United States 
 Senate; and it will be remembered that a mare's 
 nest, discovered by one of them several years 
 ago, was a supposed Japanese plot to acquire 
 and fortify Magdalena Bay. The discussion to 
 which reference is made in the text, is an echo 
 of the former discussion and not a new alarm. 
 
 18. Article xiv by Cosmos, and the author's 
 reply, N. Y. Times, Dec. 17, 1916. 
 
 19. The question of precisely what Powers 
 are to be admitted to the League has never 
 been passed upon by any committee of the 
 League to Enforce Peace nor by any of the 
 private study-groups referred to, although it has 
 been frequently discussed. It is safe to say 
 that there is no important body of opinion 
 favouring the admission of all nations irrespec- 
 tive of internal conditions; while there does 
 exist a marked inclination in some quarters to
 
 138 LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 limit membership in the League to the progres- 
 sive nations. 
 
 20. Discussion of economic pressure is omitted 
 from this volume because the author sees weighty 
 objections to its use in any form or under any 
 circumstances. Throughout the earlier delibera- 
 tions he opposed the idea. But, as an officer of 
 the League, he believes that loyalty to it and 
 consideration for the larger positive side of its 
 task alike demand that he abstain from attack- 
 ing that which is become a feature of the 
 League's platform. 
 
 21. The Committee on Foreign organization 
 consists of John Grier Hibben, Talcott Wil- 
 liams, Harry A. Garfield, John Hays Hammond, 
 John Bates Clark, Oscar S. Straus, Edward A. 
 Filene, Herbert S. Houston, William Dudley 
 Foulke, Myron T. Herrick, Hamilton Holt, Theo- 
 dore Marburg. 
 
 22. Issue of April 8, 1916. 
 
 23. Speech at Queen's Hall, London, Aug. 4, 
 1916. 
 
 24. A conversation with Mr. Balfour at his 
 temporary quarters in Washington, May 17, 
 1917, left on the author's mind the impression 
 that Mr. Balfour was quite as unprepared, as 
 Viscount Grey to say that we could go so far 
 at present as to enforce the judgments of an 
 international tribunal. Mr. Balfour expressed 
 sympathy with the general purposes of the 
 League to Enforce Peace, though, for lack of 
 time, he had been unable, he stated, to study
 
 NOTES 139 
 
 its program and was therefore not ready to en- 
 dorse the separate items of its platform. 
 
 25. The last sentence is translated directly 
 from the French text because of the imperfec- 
 tions in the translation received at Washington 
 from Paris.
 
 'Frlmted in the United States of America.
 
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 few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects
 
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