V.

WILSON AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

The idea of a League of Nations as the only possible means by which to establish and keep a world peace, is not new with President Wilson. He has had it in his mind for a long time and expressed himself concerning it in a number of speeches and conversations public and private. Following is a small collection of his utterances on this subject, culled from his speeches made during the last two years:

>>What is America expected to do? She is expected to do nothing less than keep the law alive while the rest of the world burns. You know that there is no international tribune. I pray God that if this contest has no other result, it will at least have the result of creating an international tribune and producing some sort of joint guarantee of peace on the part of the great nations of the world.>>

(From a speech at Des Moines, Iowa, Febr. 1, 1916.)

We believe in these fundamental things: First, that every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live. Second, that the small states of the world have a right to enjoy the same respect for their sovereignty and for their territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist upon. And, third, that the world has a right to be free from every disturbance of its peace that has its origin in aggression and disregards of the rights of peoples and nations.

I am sure that I speak the mind and the wish of the people of America when I say that the United States is willing to become a partner in a universal association of the nations to maintain the inviolate security of the highway of the seas for the common and unhindered use of all the nations of the world, and to prevent any war begun either contrary to treaty covenants or without warning and full submission of the causes to the opinion of the world a virtual guarantee of territorial

integrity and political independence.

(From an Adress before the League to enforce Peace, Washington. May 2, 1916.).

No nation stands wholly apart in interest when the life and interest of all nations are thrown into confusion and peril. If hopeful and generous enterprise is to be renewed, if the healing and helpful arts of life are indeed to be revived, when peace comes again, a new atmosphere of justice and friendship must be generated by means the world has newer tried before. The nations of the world must unite in joint guarantees that whatever is done to disturb the whole worlds life must first be tested in the court of the whole worlds opinion before it is attempted.

These are the new foundations the world must build for itself, and we must play our part in the reconstruction, generously and without too much thought of our separate interests.

We can no longer indulge our traditional provincialism. We are to play a leading part in the world drama whether we wish it or not. We shall fend, not borrow; act for ourselves, not imitate or follow; organize and initiate, not peep about merely to see where we may get in.

(From speech at Long Branch, Sept. 2, 1916.)

I believe that the people of the United States are ripe for entrance into an international league whose main object shall

be to guarentee international justice and right in the whole world. George Washington warned us against mixing ourselves up in other peoples conflicts or alliances, I shall never myself consent to any alliance that would mix us up in conflicts between other nations, but I shall be glad to join an alliance which will unite the peoples for keeping the peace of the world on the basis of universal justice. Therein is liberation, not limitation. Therein is independence, not retrenchment. This is the object United States is willing to work for.

(From a speech of May 30, 1916.)

When we look ahead towards the coming years I wish I could say the coming months and the end of this war, we wish that the whole world shall know that we are ready to use our means and power without limit to the establishment and upkeep of a peace in the interest of all humanity. The world is no longer divided in small groups each with their peculiar interests. The world is no longer divided and consists only of neighboring countries. The world is now one with a common life and common interests, something humanity has not experienced heretofore, and to start a war can never again be a question concerning only the two opposite powers who want to fight. It will be the concern of the world, and the worlds opinion will not allow any powers, large or small, to start a war in any corner of the world, no matter how obscure or remote it may be. The world at large, represented by a League of all the Nations will see to it that no filibusters in Zanzibar or Archangel disturb its peace.

(From speech at Omaha, Oct. 6, 1916.)

What I particularly insist upon now and in the future, is, that America must as a member of the family of nations, show to the world that it treats all other nations as it wishes to be

treated by them. That America believes implicitly in the golden rule: »Do unto others as you wish to be done by.» And that it will give not only its moral but also its physical assistance, if the other nations will unite with it in the combat to prevent any nation or groups of nations to use their superior powers to dominate or oppress other less powerful nations, and that the only thing America will fight for is the general human rights.

We must organize a Union of nations, not in undue haste or under pressure, but deliberately and well considered, as an expression of the demands of time and circumstances. The nations of the world must unite and say that hereafter no one can be neutral when the peace of the world is endangered by or for any cause which is not sanctioned by the worlds opinion. The world peace would be disturbed if the general human rights are violated. The United States must therefore always be ready to use both its moral and physical powers in defence of these rights throughout the world.

(From a speech made October 26, 1916.)

The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the worlds peace.

(From Message to Congress Dec. 4, 1917.)

We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, and the undictated development of all peoples, and every feature of the settlement that concludes this war must be conceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first be righted, and

then adequate safeguards must be created to prevent their being committed again. We ought not to consider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and sonorous sound. Practical questions can be settled only by practical means. Phrases will not accomplish the result. Effective readjustments will; and whatever readjustments are necessary must be made.

And then the free peoples of the world must draw together in some common covenant, some genuine and practical co-operation that will in effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in the dealings of nations with one another. The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a structure of force and reality. The nations must realize their common life and effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power.

(From Wilsons Message to Russian Provisional Government May 26, 1917).

In every discussion of the peace that must end this war it is taken for granted that peace must be followed by some definite concert of power which will make it virtually impossible that any such catastrophe should ever overwhelm us again. Every lover of mankind every sane and thoughtful man must take that for granted.

It is inconceivable that the people of the United States should play no part in that great enterprise. To take part in such a service will be the opportunity for which they have sought to prepare themselves by the very principles and purposes of their polity and the approved practices of their government ever since the days when they set up a new nation in the high and honorable hope that it might in all that it was and did show mankind the way to liberty. They cannot in honor withold the service to which they are now about to be challenged. They do not wish to withold it. But they owe it to themselves