up a force to inspire fear in that party. All that a state can reasonably demand is that its side of a controversy be heard and considered impartially. The League to Enforce Peace proposes to secure such hearing and consideration for both parties but beyond that does not propose to go, even if the subject of the controversy be the Monroe Doctrine.

Further, it may be said if, when in dispute, the Monroe Doctrine as applied by the United States is not a policy upon which the United States is willing to await hearing, consideration and recommendation, then the United States has not acted in good faith in signing these recent treaties; and it may also be said, if the American policy as embodied in the Monroe Doctrine will not stand the test of investigation and consideration, that it is time for the United States to be determining why it should longer give to the doctrine its support.

As the plan of the league for submission of controversies such as might arise over the Monroe Doctrine has, on the initiative of the United States, already been embodied in treaties with a greater part of the states of the world, such a plan cannot be regarded as impracticable without condemnation of the judgment of those who are in control of the affairs of the world, and this judgment the League to Enforce Peace, having the well-being of the world in view, does not criticize and condemn, but supports and commends.

THE LEAGUE TO ENFORCE PEACE1

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

ENGLAND, France, Russia, Italy, and now the United States, as allies, are engaged in the greatest war of history to secure permanent world peace. With twenty or more millions of men at the colors, with the losses in dead, wounded, and captured of more than twenty-five per cent, with debts piling mountain-high and reaching many, many billions, they are fighting for a definite purpose, and that is the defeat of German militarism. If the Prussian military caste retains its power to control the military and foreign policy of Germany after the war, peace will not be permanent, and war will begin again when the chauvinistic advisers of the Hohenzollern dynasty deem a conquest and victory possible.

The Allies have made a stupendous effort and have strained their utmost capacity. Unready for the war, they have concentrated their energy in preparation. In this important respect they have defeated the plan of Germany "in shining armor" to crush her enemies in their unreadi

ness.

But the war has not been won. Germany is in possession of Belgium and part of northern France. She holds Serbia and Rumania, Poland and the Baltic Provinces of Russia. Peace now, even though it be made on the basis of the restoration of the status quo, "without indemnities and without annexations," would be a failure to achieve the great

1 An address delivered at Montreal, Canada, under the title, "The Menace of a Premature Peace," September 26, 1917. Reprinted by courtesy of the author.

purpose for which the Allies have made heartrending sacrifice. Armaments would continue for the next war, and this war would have been fought in vain. The millions of lives lost and the hundreds of billions' worth of the product of men's labor, would be wasted.

He who proposes peace now, therefore, either does not see the stake for which the Allies are fighting, or wishes the German military autocracy still to control the destinies of all of us as to peace or war. Those who favor permanent world peace must oppose with might and main the proposals for peace at this juncture in the war, whether made in socialistic councils, in pro-German conferences, or by Pope Benedict. That the Pontiff of the greatest Christian Church should wish to bring to an end a war in which millions of its communion are on both sides, is to be expected. That he should preserve a difficult neutrality is also natural. That his high purpose is to save the world from further suffering goes without saying. But the present is not the opportunity of an intervening peacemaker who must assume that compromise is possible.

The Allies are fighting for a principle the maintenance of which affects the future of civilization. If they do not achieve it, they have sacrificed the flower of their youth and mortgaged their future for a century, and all for nothing. This is not a war in which the stake is territory or the sphere of influence of one nation over another. The Allies cannot concede peace until they conquer it. When they do so, it will be permanent. Otherwise they fail.

There are wars like that between Japan and Russia in which President Roosevelt properly and successfully intervened to bring about a peace that helped the parties to a settlement. The principle at stake and the power and territory were of such a character that a settlement might be made substantially permanent. But the present issue is like

that in our Civil War, which was whether the Union was to be preserved and the cancer of slavery was to be cut out. Peace proposals to President Lincoln were quite as numerous as those of to-day, and were moved by quite as high motives. But there was no compromise possible. Either slavery and disunion lost or won. So to-day the great moral object of the war must be achieved or defeated.

An organization of citizens in the United States, known as the League to Enforce Peace, has been active for two years past in promoting its propaganda. There is a similar association in England. In that League are many persons who for years urged the settlement of all international controversies by arbitration or judicial decision. The vortex of death and destruction for the peoples of the world, which the breaking-out of the war portended, roused these peacelovers and promoters to devise a plan for avoiding war after this should end.

The plan is a simple one. It looks to a league of all nations in which all agree, first, that legal international controversies shall be heard and decided by a court; second, that controversies not to be settled on principles of law shall be submitted to a commission of conciliation for recommendation of a settlement; third, that the united forces of the nations of the League shall resist any nation beginning war before the quarrel has been submitted to one tribunal or the other, and been decided. The American League has not thought it wise to attempt to enforce the judgment or the settlement recommended. Its scheme is only to restrain the contending parties from resorting to war until after the peaceable procedure has been had and the decision rendered. The promoters of the League believe that the delay and deliberation arising from this enforced peaceable procedure before a war can be begun will prevent most wars, and that it is wiser not to attempt too much, lest the nations decline

to restrain their freedom of action so much. The English plan is more ambitious in providing that if the council of nations so decide, they must enforce the judgment or settlement.

Whatever the detailed stipulations of such a league, however, its operation and success must depend on the obligations of the treaty stipulations. Unless their binding effect is recognized by the nations as a sacred principle, the stipulations of the league will be "writ in water." The revelations and disclosures of this war will satisfy the members of the League that as long as the present military caste controls the German military and foreign policy, the league is impracticable, and would not be worth the parchment on which its obligations would be recorded. Why have they reached this conclusion? Why, as citizens of the United States, and as citizens of the world anxious to promote peace, do they feel that any proposal of peace in the present situation would defeat permanent world peace, and should be opposed by them with all the energy they can command? The answer to this question must be found in the causes of this war and the revelations it has made of Germany's purpose, stripped of confusing pretense and naked for the whole world to see.

Germany was long divided into little states, kingdoms, duchies, and other forms of one-man rule. She was the prey of political intrigue and manipulation of other Powers. All her well-wishers hoped for and looked forward to her union. The Germans of yore had loved freedom. We Anglo-Saxons were Germans once, and our representative system can be traced back to institutions found first in the forests of Germany. In the wars of the first Napoleon, Prussia and other German States were subjected to a great humiliation. But the German youth rebelled, organized themselves into military reserves, and finally contributed much to the defeat of