Any measure of regulation established by the American nation alone would have its limitations. The commercial methods of foreign rivals are always a factor to be considered, and over these our Government has only such control as may come from negotiations. The regulations that may be imposed by our Government are always limited by the competitive position of Americans. Too drastic measures would drive them from the field. If backward countries are to be abandoned to exploitation with only a shadowy international control, there is little that a single nation can do, for merely to force its commercial interests to withdraw in no way removes the difficulty. It is a case with which we are not unfamiliar in the United States, where conflicting state laws, particularly on social matters, have retarded progress and where there was an obvious need for a uniform Federal law. In the limitations that may confront a democratic nation earnestly trying to establish fair dealings lies one of the most conclusive arguments for international regulation. But these limitations furnish no excuse for the refusal of individual nations to democratize their economic activities. Reform should begin at home. The political democracies which waged war against autocratic Central Europe have in their midst commercial autocracies which are governed by the same ambitions of dominion as governed Germany. Fortunately, there is a strong movement contesting their influence which is insisting that industry, trade, and finance shall submit to democratic control. It is this influence that is preparing the world for a League of Nations. It will not do harm to say again that a democratic league cannot exist unless it be composed of nations democratic to the core. Our League looks to a union of the democratic nations of the world, to the will of the peoples, expressed through their Governments, as its basis and sanction. It looks to the establishment of new Governments by popular choice and control. It is to be founded on justice, impartially administered, and not on the interests of Kings or Emperors or dynasties. It is to rise as a structure built upon the ashes of militarism, and it is to rest on the pillars of justice and equality and the welfare of peoples. То The League does not contemplate the slightest interference with the internal government of any country. The League does not propose to interfere, except where the claims of right of one country clash with the claims of right of another. submit such claims of right to an imperial tribunal no more interferes with the sovereignty of a nation than the submission of an individual to a hearing and decree of court interferes with his liberty. The League is merely introducing into the world's sphere, liberty of action regulated by law, instead of license uncontrolled except by the greed and passion of the individual nation. EX-PRESIDENT TAFT at Madison, Wisconsin, My conception of the League of Nations is just this that it shall operate as the organized moral force of men throughout the world, and that whenever or wherever wrong and aggression are planned or contemplated, this searching light of conscience will be turned upon them, and men everywhere will ask, "What are the purposes that you hold in your heart against the fortunes of the world." PRESIDENT WILSON at Paris, CHAPTER XII WHERE NATIONAL CONTROL BREAKS DOWN Where international control begins - Anarchy in international trade How foreign trade should not be promoted - Bounties-Imitating trade-marks and designs Depression of prices-Espionage - Predatory price cutting-Discriminations in transportation - Efforts of nations to correct evilsHow nations handle unfair practices within their jurisdiction In the United States - The Courts - Federal Trade Commission Interstate Commerce Commission - Attempts to control unfair competition by international action - Brussels Sugar Convention — International agreements concerning industrial property and unfair competition - International trade and commerce commissions The penalty for refusal to act. In the commercial affairs of the world there comes a time when national control must in some degree yield to international control. Even complete democracy within individual nations, desirable as it is, is not sufficient. Nations which fully democratize their internal life will still find themselves confronted by problems which singly they will not be able to solve but which will require their collective effort. Today there are relations between nations which are not adequately regulated by either law or custom. A certain amount of independence of action must be surrendered by individual nations in order that these problems, which are world-wide and which no one nation in and of itself can solve, may be considered by an international organization looking at them from the world point of view. The economic life of the world has in many ways burst the confines of the individual state. In so far as it has, it is without a coextensive control. Nations have merely accentuated the fierceness of individual competition in world trade and |