FOREWORD THIS volume, exclusive of the Supplement, constitutes the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Academy held on May 13 and 14, 1921. One of the problems constantly confronting the officers of the Academy is to select for the Annual Meeting a subject which will be in the foreground of public attention at the time the sessions are held. The Academy was particularly fortunate in the selection of the topic for the Annual Meeting held in May last, and in placing this volume in the hands of our members. The Editors, as well as the Officers, feel that the Academy has made a real contribution to the enlightenment of public opinion. The Officers of the Academy desire to take this opportunity again to thank those who participated in the sessions of the Annual Meeting, as well as to express their appreciation to the delegates from all sections of the country who attended the sessions. L. S. ROWE, The League of Nations Effective By HAMILTON HOLT Editor of The Independent, New York City In his famous Des Moines speech of N his famous Des Moines speech of only fair to say to the world in general and to our associates in war in particular that the League Covenant can have no sanction by us. definitely repudiated the League of Nations, Senator Harding said: Our opponents are persistently curious to know whether if-or perhaps I might better say when I am elected I intend to "scrap' the League. It might be sufficient in reply to suggest the futility of "scrapping' anything that is already scrapped. A committee of thirty-one influential and distinguished Republicans issued, a week later, an appeal to all friends of the League urging them to vote for Mr. Harding on the theory that he would bring the United States into the existing League of Nations better than would Mr. Cox. They stated that: The conditions in Europe make it essential that the stabilizing effect of the treaty already made between the European powers shall not be lost by them and that the necessary changes be made by changing the terms of the treaty rather than by beginning entirely anew. That course Mr. Harding is willing to follow. It now turns out that Mr. Harding meant exactly what he said on October 7, and that the thirty-one eminent Republicans have misled the country in saying that he would bring the United States into the existing League modified to meet America's objects, for in his first message to Congress, delivered on April 12, he said: In the existing League of Nations, world governing with its super powers, this Republic will have no part. There can be no misinterpretation and there will be no betrayal of the deliberate expression of the American people in the recent election; and, settled in our decision for ourselves, it is 1 If any doubt remains of the attitude of the leaders of the Republican party on the existing League of Nations I make the following quotation from Senator Lodge who erected this tombstone above the grave when he said in the Senate on April 30, 1921: The League, brought back by Mr. Wilson from Paris, as snarled up with the Treaty of Peace of Versailles, has been passed upon by the Senate and by the people, and that League, I venture to say, is dead. It is dead for the time being, anyway. It will stay dead, I think, at least four years, and I do not believe that any change of party in this country will ever restore life to that unhappy instrument. What then is this League of Nations that Senator Harding said last October is already scrapped" and President Harding says today "can have no sanction by us?" What is this moribund thing that the distinguished Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate declares is "snarled up" and "dead?" I can not hope in this short article to bring in review all the things that have been done by the League of Nations and under its auspices since it began its official existence on January 10, 1920, exactly a year and a half ago. Things are happening with such cumulating swiftness that I doubt if anyone outside the Secretariat at Geneva can keep fully up-to-date in things accomplished and things projected. All I can hope to do is to present a few of the more salient things that have been accomplished by the League or are now on its agenda. At the present moment forty-nine nations have become members. Evidently they have no fears that the Covenant violates their constitutions or limits their sovereignty or independence. Indeed at the very first meeting of the Council, Lord Curzon, the British delegate, took occasion to answer this purely American criticism by saying: It has sometimes been said that the League of Nations implies the establishment of a Super-State or a Super-Sovereignty. The very title "League of Nations" should be sufficient to dispel this misconception. The League does not interfere with nationality. It is upon the fact of nationhood that it rests. The The League is an association of sovereign nations whose purpose is to reconcile divergent interests and to promote international coöperation in questions which affect-or may affect the world at large. Of the three principal agencies through which the League functions, all are already completely organized and all are effectively at work. THE COUNCIL The Council has so far held twelve separate sessions. At each one of these, questions of world importance have been discussed and so far the members have been able to come to unanimous agreement on every issue. It has already appointed the various commissions entrusted to it by the Covenant. Perhaps the most important of these is the Permanent Advisory Commission on Military, Naval, and Aerial Affairs, which was organized at the San Sebastian session and is now at work. This commission is composed of technical military experts. The principal duties of this commission are/ to propose plans for universal disarma ment; to advise as to the size of the armaments of the new states who apply for membership in the League; and to suggest plans for obviating the evil effects attendant upon the private manufacture of munitions and implements of war. An eminent commission of jurisconsults was appointed by the Council to work out the constitution of the Permanent Court of International Justice. It is no secret that Elihu Root was the dominating personality of the commission and to him more than any other member is due credit for the truly admirable plan that was worked out. The court has been accepted by the Council and ratified by the Assembly. It will be the first international tribunal on earth with original jurisdiction. The method of selecting the judges, failure of the Second Hague Conference which has baffled diplomacy since the to agree on a plan, has been happily solved by having the Council and Assembly select the judges. Thus Elihu Root, who has done so little to help and so much to hinder the establishment of the existing League of Nations, finds that only through the machinery of the League can his life dream of a Great World Tribunal be realized. The Council has appointed a Provisional Committee on Communications and Transit. This Commission will take up all problems connected with international ports, waterways and railways, and it has been especially charged with making an early report on the abominations that exist through the world and especially in Europe since the war began in connection with through tickets, customs and passports. The Conference on International Health was called by the Council and was held in London last April and chiefly concerned itself with the measures to be taken against the spread of typhus in Poland. This conference proposed |