PREFACE In the pages which follow I have attempted to do three distinct things. First, I have tried to show that international organization is not a new thing in world history,nor a reform proposed for the future,-but a political system of long standing which deserves to be studied as such. Second, I have tried to show how this standing system of international organization has expanded and developed, particularly in the past century, and to set forth the causes which will probably lead to a continuation and intensification of that process in the future. Finally, I have expressed the conviction that such a process is salutary, in that it meets a real need of the world today, and have attempted to make some suggestions regarding steps which might profitably be taken in the improvement and development of the existing institutions of international government. The task of recording and explaining existing international institutions and practices becomes daily more difficult, because of the rapidity with which activities in this field are being expanded. In every branch of international organization dealt with in this volume, particularly in Parts V, VI, and VII, new steps are constantly being taken, and it is almost impossible for the student to keep himself informed of these advances, to say nothing of digesting and recording all the information relating to these matters which comes pouring in through official documents, current newspapers and periodicals, and private writings. For this reason I hope that where the account given appears to be inaccurate or out of date the reader will remember that my object is not to describe exhaustively and finally the international organization of the world, but to provide an introduction to the study of that subject, by describing basic institutions and analysing the principles underlying them. For this reason also I have not tried to bring the record in Part VIII down to the last minute, but have left it at a juncture where one movement -that of the League-reached a definite point in its development, and a new one-the Washington Conferencebegan. The League of Nations has been taken as the culmination of international constitutional growth in the past, and the treatment of certain subjects in various chapters has been arranged with this in mind. Thus, the development of international organization has been carried down only to 1918 in Parts I-VI, with the exception of certain materials in the later portions of Chapters IV, XVI, and XXI; the League is presented as the last stage in the process of creating world government; and the events of 1920-21 have been treated mainly in their relations to the League. For this there seems to be ample justification. In its essential character, and in the magnitude of the effort which it represents, the institution of the League of Nations is comparable in world history only with the adoption of the Constitution of the United States in the history of the American nation. Defective it is, and final in its present form it most certainly is not; but whatever is done in the future in the direction of general international organization will be done by way of modification of, or additions to, the present League. If the importance of the League is to be minimized at all, it is not because of anything directly connected with its own organization and methods, but only by recalling the great amount of international organization of the simpler types, such as diplomacy, treaties, and conferences, which exists apart from the League. My object being to provide a volume useful to college students and to general readers, I have, with a view to |