which shall have power to enforce the decisions of the international court.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

NEW YORK, January 17, 1919.

EVERETT P. Wheeler,

FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON,

ADELBERT MOOT,

JEREMIAH KECK.

Committee.

William D. Guthrie, of New York:

I offer, as a substitute for the resolution recommended by the Committee, and which Mr. Wheeler has stated has been submitted to the Committee, the following:

Resolved, That whilst this Association adheres to its approval, heretofore expressed, of the settlement of the principles and rules of international law by agreement. through convention, conference or leagues of nations, as well as the creation of a permanent court of arbitral justice or a permanent court of conciliation for the hearing and determination of international dispute, it is not prepared to express its judgment upon any one or more of the various plans for a league of nations which may be urged upon the Peace Conference at Paris, and will withhold any action thereon until the terms of the plan finally urged by the American representatives are fully published.

I move the adoption of this.

The motion was seconded.

The President:

This is a substitute for the resolution offered by the Committee.

Everett P. Wheeler:

Mr. President, I desire to call attention to what we have already done. Before this present Committee commenced this series of reports, the Association some twenty years ago recommended to the United States government, the presentation to the nations of the world of a proposition for an international court. That presentation was favorably received, and the proposition was presented at the first conference, at the Hague; and it was really the first formal announcement of a plan for an international court. We did not make a formal scheme; we left that to the Conference to decide. In the resolution appended to this report as printed we did not intend to commit the Association to any particular form of a League of Nations, but left that to be discussed in the Conference. But there was some misunderstanding on that subject and I am glad that Mr. Guthrie should have formulated the thought in the way that he has, so that there can certainly be no misconception on the subject.

At our meeting in February, 1915, this resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That the New York State Bar Association respectfully urges the President to consider and submit. for the consideration of the next International Congress or Convention the following propositions:

(1) That all the nations, parties to such Congress, shall by treaty limit their armaments, both on land and

sea;

(2) That there shall be established an international police force which shall have power to enforce the judgments of the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague, and which may be called upon by that court, at the instance of any party to such treaty, to intervene in case of a threatened violation of any treaty existing

between the nations who are parties to the Congress, and to prevent such violation.

Then in 1916 we presented this resolution:

Resolved, That the events of the past year, especially the extension of the area of warfare and the losses on both sides surpassing all previous experience, confirm the judgment expressed in 1915 by the Bar Association of the State of New York in reference to the necescesity of International agreement upon mutual limitation of armaments and the establishment of a Court of Arbitral Justice, of which the decrees shall be enforceable by an international police,

Resolved, That this Association respectfully urges the President to use the good offices of the United States to promote the objects mentioned in the foregoing resolution.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the President and Secretary of State.

In our subsequent reports we have traced the evolution of public sentiment on this subject. They are all accessible to you. We show distinctly that in all the allied powers there has been an assent by the leading men to this proposition for a League of Nations, with an international court, and a force behind it. Now, let me say one or two things in reference to what has been stated this morning. In a very able paper, written in the author's usually lucid style, doubt was expressed as to the enforcement of the decrees of our own Supreme Court. The example was mentioned of President Jackson, who, in the Worcester case against the State of Georgia, refused to enforce the judgment of the court and said, "John Marshall has made his decree, let him enforce it." But the fact that the President of the United States violated

his oath of office,- except as a very bad precedent, can have no weight in our deliberations. President Jackson had many remarkable qualities. He was domineering; he was aggressive, he was absolutely courageous. I think the soldiers, in answer to a questionnaire, said courage was the first of all virtues. One of President Jackson's determinations was that although the Supreme Court of the United States had held. that the Constitution gave power to create a bank of the United States, he had the power to overrule that decision. and say that no such power was conferred by the Constitution.

I do not know who designed the ten dollar notes of the Federal Reserve Bank, but whoever did it put in a portrait of Jackson. Could this have been quiet satire? Certainly the country has overruled. We have gotten a great way beyond that. Our Civil War created a great change in domestic conditions, just as President Wilson in this present war has created a great change in the relation of America to foreign countries. That is partly due to the great development of communication, through the progress of science. In my life time the electric telegraph has come into use. Then it developed into the telephone, and finally into the wireless. Steam communication has developed beyond the dreams of men fifty years ago, and it has brought all the nations together. So far from being a weak nation, we have become the most powerful nation in the world. Into this war we have thrown our whole heart, and vindicated the authority of justice, so that we may say in truth: "Returning justice lifts aloft her scales."

In making any such treaty as is proposed, to provide for a League of Nations, we do not derogate from our sovereignty, any more than New York or Massachusetts, or any of the other States that fought for the Union derogated from theirs. We give up something undoubtedly of independent action, but we gain this unity of action, or the possibility of it, which is far better than any result that could

be obtained by individual action. Mr. Beck has drawn, with great eloquence, a picture of 10,000 German aeroplanes and 1,000 German submarines; but if we are going to have a League of Nations the result will be to prevent any such great accumulation of force. There are objections undoubtedly to any plan. In some ways we would like to remain in our dignified isolation. But is that possible? Is it not the duty of each nation to protect itself? It is only by alliances in this war that we have won the victory. Instead of our being here, deliberately convening in this beautiful building of ours, it might have been a heap of ruins from the explosion of bombs dropped from German aeroplanes and our country would have been laid under tribute.

The President:

Gentlemen, are you ready for the question upon the resolution? All in favor of the adoption of the resolution will say aye; opposed, no. The ayes have it and the resolution is carried.

William D. Guthrie:

That is the substitute, I take it?

The President:

Yes, that is the only resolution before us.

George J. S. Dowling, of Brooklyn:

Are we not to vote now upon the resolution appended to the report?

The President:

No, because the substitute offered by Mr. Guthrie was accepted and has now been voted upon; that was the only resolution before us. In order that the record may be clear the chair will rule that the resolution recommended by the Committee set forth in its report was not moved, the Committee acquiescing in the substitute offered by Mr. Guthrie. We will now proceed to the election of officers.

Note. The resolution adopted will be found on page 602.