When at last, on April 27, the revised Covenant was given to the World it appeared that many, and important, changes had been made, and most of those suggested by Mr. Taft and Mr. Hughes adopted. The phraseology had been improved, and the meaning of many sections made clearer; there was an "annex" in which were named the thirty-three powers that were to be "the original members of the League of Nations," and the thirteen neutral powers to be invited to accede to the covenant; there was provision for the withdrawal of any member after two years' notice; there was a requirement that, unless otherwise expressly stated, all "decisions at any meeting of the Assembly, or of the Council, shall require the agreement of all the members of the League represented at the meeting." The words "Executive Council" and "body of delegates" were changed to "Council" and "Assembly." Geneva was chosen as the seat of the League, and all positions under the League were opened to women equally with men. Any League member violating the Covenant might be evicted by the unanimous vote of the other members of the League represented on the Council; no member of the League was to be made a mandatory against its will; and all members were pledged to "encourage and promote the establishment" of National Red Cross organizations. Amendment could be made to the covenant by the Council, and by a majority, instead of three-fourths, of the members of the Assembly. The Monroe Doctrine was safeguarded by an Article which reads, "Nothing in this Covenant shall be deemed to affect the validity of international engagements, such as treaties of arbitration, or regional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine, for securing the maintenance of peace." In another article are the words, "if the dispute between the parties is claimed by one of them, and is found by the Council to arise out of a matter which, by international law is solely within the domestic jurisdiction of that party, the Council shall so report, and shall make no recommendation as to its settlement." These words were understood to remove from the jurisdiction of the League such domestic ques

tions as Japanese immigration. Plans for the reduction of armament must first be approved by the Governments concerned before going into effect, and were made subject to revision, "at least every ten years."

April 28, at a plenary session of the Peace Conference, on motion of President Wilson, the Covenant, as revised, was unanimously adopted. That it had been greatly improved and many of the old objections satisfied was generally admitted. The amendments inserted in the text, in spite of the President's determination that none should be made, have, it was said, improved the document so far as American interests are concerned. Revision has materially improved it both in diction and arrangement. Many of the objections to the original have wholly, or in part, been removed. An honest endeavor has been made to meet every reasonable objection raised by the opponents of the old draft. The Monroe Doctrine is safe. A nation once in may get out without a fight. The United States is in no danger of becoming involved in a war without her consent. Ambiguities have been cleared up, and provisions that seemed to open the way to misunderstandings have been made clear. It is an attempt to get the nations of the World together in a gentlemen's agreement to do just what all honest nations wish to see done. Defects there are, but they are curable by the provisions of the Covenant itself.

There were those, also, who failed to see any improvement. In the main, according to them, it was the same old Covenant. The matter of immigration to this country was not definitely left in our control. The voting trust of nine nations dominated, by five, would have final decision on all matters in international dispute. A vote of seven to two would bind the United States, and prevent it using force to sustain a position vital to its sovereignty. The right to withdraw, it was said, is valueless because it is wiser to stay on the steam roller than to get off, and stand in front of it. As now drawn the Covenant runs counter to the Constitution of the United States. It does so in Article XVI, which empowers the Council to force members

to take up arms against a power declaring war, and thereby abrogates the right of Congress to make war. It does so in Article X, still unchanged, which assures the territorial and political integrity of members of the League, and drags the United States into the petty broils of European nations against the will of Congress. The Monroe Doctrine, some of the Senators who signed the "round-robin" pointed out, was not "a regional understanding," and was not announced for the purpose of "securing the maintenance of peace." It was an announcement intended to protect American control of the Western hemisphere even to the point of war. Senator Lodge, now majority leader in the Senate, telegraphed to Republican Senators: "We suggest that Republican Senators reserve final expressions of opinion respecting the amended League Covenant until the latest draft has been carefully studied, and until there has been an opportunity for conference."

The League to Enforce Peace now announced, that from a poll of the Senators, based on statements made by them in newspaper interviews, letters to the League, and personal talks, it appeared that sixty-four were for the Covenant, twelve opposed, and twenty doubtful, and that the covenant was sure of ratification. Said the emergency campaign committee of the League in an appeal urging ratification:

The covenant for a League of Nations, in the amended form adopted by the Paris Peace Conference should satisfy all except those who oppose any League whatever. It is now a thoroughly American instrument, thoroughly American and thoroughly nonpartisan. Recent amendments include the more important changes proposed by the leaders of the Republican party.

The covenant asks the American people to surrender neither their honor, nor their independence, nor their dominant position. in the new world. It involves no obligation that we should not be ready to assume to lessen the danger of future wars.

Opponents must now show their colors. The old argument, "We are for a League, but not this League," will no longer serve, the issue now is, "The League or none."

On the eighth of May there appeared in the newspapers a proclamation of the President summoning the members of Congress to meet in extraordinary session on May 19, and also the official summary of the Treaty of Peace, in which the covenant was embodied as Article I. The President had made good his assurance that it would be found in the treaty so interwoven that the two could not be parted. The country now waited to see what the Senate would do.

CHAPTER VIII

THE TREATY OF PEACE

LONG ere the delegates to the Peace Conference began to assemble at Paris, in December, 1918, the magnitude of the work they must perform, and the difficulties they must overcome, before even a preliminary treaty of peace could be framed, were quite apparent. More than one of the nations that fought Germany and her allies were already preparing to lodge claims more in accord with their national ambitions than with the fourteen points that were to be made the basis of peace. Belgium was looking forward to the restoration of Luxemburg, and to obtaining a part of Lemburg and the left bank of the Scheldt. Alsace-Lorraine was, of course, to go to France, but she would also demand a surrender of the Saar coal fields. Denmark, it was understood, would insist on a return of Northern and Central Schleswig. Poland must be free, but how to draw her frontiers, and how to give her, in the words of President Wilson, an assured "direct outlet to the great highways of the sea," would be most difficult to determine. Such an outlet was down the valley of the Vistula to Danzig. But Danzig was a German town, and could a settlement which cut communication between East and West Prussia last long? What was to become of Russia, of Turkey, of German Austria, of the late Emperor, of the German Colonies, and what restitution and reparation Germany must make, were but a few of the problems awaiting solution by the Peace Conference.

Towards the close of January, 1919, the Conference settled down to the work before it, and immediately took up the case of Russia, adopted a proposal of President Wilson to summon