JX 
 
 197S 
 .9 
 
 ffilNRLF 
 
 *B 5TD 7bl 
 
Prico id. 
 
 Series 2. Pamp/iUt No. ^. 
 
 *n* 
 
 Ihe 
 
 f eagttc of Jret ^ationa ^00O£tatton, 
 
 22. BUCKINGHAM GATE. S.W.I. 
 
 THE MORAL ASPECT .9 
 
 OF THE LjL L~ 
 
 LEAGUE OF NATIONS ^' 
 
 By SILAS K. HOCKING. 
 
 THERE can be only one adequate end to the bitter 
 struggle through which, we are passing, and that is 
 the utter destruction of the godless militarisms that have 
 drenched the earth with blood; and the creation of a new 
 order which shall make war in the future impossible. 
 Unless that is accomplished— whatever we may achieve 
 in other respects— we shall have failed in the essential 
 thing, and the world will be left no better for its long 
 agony and sacrifice, but in many respects a great deal 
 worse. The future will be unendurable if, when peace 
 comes, pre-war conditions still obtain; for in that event 
 every nation will feel compelled to start afresh to re-arm, 
 and to re-arm on a scale scarcely dreamed of as yet. 
 Science will have to devote itself — and with feverish 
 energy — to devising new and more formidable instruments 
 of destruction; the burden of taxation — almost unbearable 
 now — will go on increasing, and life will *be a hideous 
 and intolerable nightmare of fear and apprehension. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that thoughtful men 
 everywhere are searching eagerly for some way out of 
 the difficulty — some means of delivering mankind from 
 such a direful prospect — some method by which a new 
 order shall be established — an order of justice and right 
 law, which shall take the place of the present order 
 of brute force. 
 
 The Growth of an Idea 
 
 Little by little the idea of a League of Free Nations 
 has grown and taken shape. 
 
 It has its roots in the 
 
 t\/sf-.a i>>lldLI^ 
 
Sermon on the Mount : it has been fostered — though vvhh 
 insufficient care — by the Christian Church ; it has been 
 watered by Peace and Arbitration Societies ; it has been 
 trimmed and pruned by Conferences and Councils; it was 
 quickened by the establishment of the Hague Tribunal; 
 and finally, in June, 191 5, it emerged from a Conference 
 in the Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in the form of 
 "A League of Nations to Enforce Peace." 
 
 In days to come the proposal may be further modified 
 and improved, but for the present, at any rate, it provides 
 • a good working model. It has in itself the promise and 
 prophecy of a better future. It holds out to distraught 
 humanity a new hope; and it only needs to be pushed 
 forward with energy and enthusiasm for that hope to 
 be crystallised into a great and beneficent reality. 
 
 A Workable Scheme 
 
 That there are many difficulties that will have to be 
 surmounted goes without saying; that it will meet with 
 fierce opposition may be taken for granted. Already the 
 critics are on the war-path, "breathing out slaughter," 
 but that should give no ground for discouragement. 
 Every great movement for the betterment of the world 
 has encountered difficulties and met with opposition. The 
 enduring things are beaten into shape by conflict. But 
 to say that the thing is unworkable . and impossible is to 
 belittle humanity and insult its intelligence. If it is 
 possible to devise and perfect machinery for the prosecu- 
 tion of war, it is childish to say that machinery cannot 
 be devised for the maintenance of peace. 
 
 For myself, I believe in the scheme because I have 
 never lost faith in the moral order of the Universe. In 
 spite of lapses into barbarism, the world moves forward 
 to its appointed end. Indeed, I question whether the 
 ethical standard of the world as a whole was ever so high 
 as at present; and it is that which makes the conduct 
 of Germany appear so hideous and repulsive. In a 
 darker and less moral age the abominations of the Kaiser 
 and his satellites would not have appeared so shocking : 
 to-day they are an affront to every moral sense. 
 
 The Kaiser's Foul Blow 
 
 The Kaiser, with infinite stupidity, took advantage of 
 the moment when morally the world was at its best to 
 strike his foul blow, and from that moment he has dragged 
 
the German nation down from infamy to deeper infamies 
 still, until to-day the whole civilised world stands aghast 
 at the spectacle of his crimes. In that, and in that alone, 
 lies the explanation of Germany's failure — not In the 
 ineffectiveness of her war machine, not in the mistakes of 
 her Generals, not in the poor quality of her troops ; but 
 in her defiance of the moral order, in her contempt for 
 treaties, in her violation of the laws of God and man. 
 That brought England in, and Italy, and the United 
 States. The world is built on moral foundations, and 
 any nation that sets itself to dig up those foundations 
 and to destroy the moral order of the Universe is bound 
 ultimately to fail. 
 
 In the meanv/hile, it is the business of all free nations 
 that believe in righteousness to seek to prevent any such 
 violation of the moral order in the future, and to bring 
 home to the offending State the enormity of her crimes. 
 The German people must have watched with curious 
 interest the gradual baiiding together of the great nations 
 of the world against them ; they must have asked, with 
 considerable searchings of heart, why Germany had 
 become an Ishmael among the tribes of Israel — what lay 
 at the back of th's almost universal execration? 
 
 The Awakening: 
 
 They have been told, as we know, by their war-lords 
 and their kept Press, that jealousy was at the root of it 
 all — jealousy of their commercial success, their scientific 
 attainments, their Intellectual culture, their growing 
 influence. But there has been evidence of late that the 
 truth has begun to percolate slowly through their minds. 
 With all their moral obtuseness, they are not fools. A 
 few of them, at any rate, are beginning to see that crime 
 does not pay ; that to tear up treaties and affront the 
 moral sense of the world is a mistake — that behind this 
 uprising of seven-eighths of the world against them, 
 there is a moral indignation that cannot be ignored, and 
 that will have to be reckoned with. 
 
 Also, they are watching with interest the growth and 
 development of this idea of a League of Free Nations. 
 What does it mean? W^hat is its objective Not war, 
 but peace. Not oppression, but freedom. Not aggrandise- 
 ment for any, but equal rights for all — th« weak, as well as 
 the strong. In a word, it is becoming clear to some of 
 them, as it is clear to us, that this movement is not so much 
 
4 
 
 political as ethical ; that it has its roots in the moral 
 order of the Universe; that it is an evangel of righteous- 
 ness; that its supreme purpose is to rid the world for 
 ever of the appalling crime of war. 
 
 The World's Long^ing 
 
 It will no doubt take time to convince the average 
 German that war is a crime. He has been taught from 
 childhood the very opposite. He has been told by teacher 
 and text-book that war is a nation's best industry — an 
 industry that brings riches and greatness to the State 
 and profit and prosperity to the individual; and, being a 
 servile creature, he accepts in all good faith what his 
 teachers and pastors tell him. But this war has been a 
 great eye-opener for most people. It has swept away 
 a whole Host of illusions and superstitions. It has made 
 fools wise. He would be a bold man — and not a particu- 
 larly wise one — who would chant the praises of war to-day. 
 We know too much. Its meaning has been brought 
 home to us too vividly. We have seen its hideousness 
 and brutality, its loathsomeness and horror. What the 
 world (Germany included) longs for to-day, with an almost 
 intolerable longing, is deliverance from its curse and 
 shame. 
 
 The Bow of Promise 
 
 Hence the League of Free Nations is in harmony with 
 the world's most passionate desire. It chimes in with 
 its highest moral ideal, and with the most cherished 
 tenet of^ its faith. It re-awakens the angels' song of 
 Peace and Goodwill. It puts once more a bow in the 
 clouds. It is, in my judgment, the greatest moral move- 
 ment of the century. 
 
 For the moment it may be a great divider — a divider 
 of the good from the bad, the free from the bound, the 
 democrat from the autocrat — but it will become a great 
 unifier later on^ linking up into one great family all the 
 nations of the earth, and so making possible the prophet's 
 dream of a new world wherein dwells righteousness. 
 
 Edited and Published by Mr. W. -fc. Williams, Press and Propaganda 
 Secretary of The League of Free Nations Association, at their Head 
 Offices, 22, Buckingham Gate, London, S.W.I; and printed by The 
 National Pre.ss Agency Limited, at Whitefriars House, Carmelite Stropt. 
 fvondon, EC. 4. 
 
HOME USE 
 
 AU BOOKS MAY BE «CAUED AFTER 7 DAVS 
 
 ^yiAOTAMPEDBELOW 
 
 FORM NO. DD6