The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-05-06
PEACE BY FORCE
SAYS DR.. LOWELL
HARVARD'S PRESIDENT URGES
FORCE TO RESTRAIN WAR
LORDS

sity of Nevada, has received a
communication from DIR. A. Law
renee Lowell. president of Har-
ward university. urging him to at
tend the first annual assemblage of
the League to Enforce Peace, which
will be held in Washington, d. c..
on May &c and %. Ex-Presi6ent
Taft is president of the league. DIR.
Lowell is chairman of the executive
committee.
IF, however," DR.. Lowell writes,
you should be unable to attend
the meeting, may we ask you to ap-
Doint other delegates to represent
your institution, either from the
faculty or from the board of trus-
tees"
1t was DIR. Lowell, who with ex-
President Taft and others inaugu-
rated the league to enforce peace
movement, at the independence hall
injecting last June, and it Is under
stood that it was Harvard's presi-
dent who originated the proposal
THAT the joint armed forces of a
league of nations be used against
any s%ignatory refusing to keep an
agreement to submit a dispute to a
Cancellation before beginning hos
tilities or declaring war. This pre-
posal is the main feature of the
league, some of the striking par
;agraphs of which follow:
There is little use in trying to
.toD a conflict after it has begun;
hut there is much hope of dimin-
fishing the cases where information
al dissentions shall hereafter lead
20 fighting; and it is against the
propcsed league to enforce peace is
exclusively aimed.
But why should the United
States join a league to maintain
peace over the world? Simply be-
cause it is for the interest of. every
country to prevent war anywhere,
and also the duty of every great
country to help in doing so by all
reasonable means.
THE consequences of going 20
wal without first submitting the
question in dispute to an inter
national tribunal Or council ought
tc be as certain to follow as pos
'sible, and ought to be such that
no nation will brave them. They
must not be discretionary, or left
for future determination, and
therefore a conference of nations
to decide what steps snail be TAX
en- is Objectionable. Such a con-
ference, like the ~proverbial council
of war, will never fight, and it is
very likely not to do anything in
time to be effective.
Moreover a prospect of imme-
date universal war is the n
thing that would be sure to deter
any country, however powerful or
self-sustaininS. from beginning hos
~tili,ies wits it's neighbor. 1t is al
most in~conceivable that any nation
would attack another if convinced
that to do so would involve war
with all the leading powers of the
world. If, therefore such a league
as is proposed were formed by a
3ufficient number of great coun-
tries it is in the highest degree
improbable that the agreement to
take up arms would ever need to
h0 mt into nynnufinn. for a1fhnuob
there may be issues on which a
nation would rather perish than
yield. there are none on which it
would prefer a public hearing be-
fore fighting it's adversary, to fight
ing a whole array Of powerful
states without such a hearing.
Most plans for the maintenance
OF peace among nations start with
the idea of compelling the arbi-
tration of disputes. This n starts
srom a different standpoint, that of
~~revent'ng sudden val by force. 1t
is the method pursued in the case
CT individuals within a community.
The state does not compel a man TO
bring suit for an injury if he does
not want to do 10. 1t merely tells
him that he must not resort to
force, must not take redress into
his own hands, on pain of punish
ment by the whole force of the
community. So this plan does not
tell a nation that it must submit
disputes to arbitration and abide
- 49, -
en- pain of repression by all the
members of the league go to war
before the matter has been sub
mitted to an International tribunal
or council"