The Washington herald., 1919-07-11


mentality for the maintenance OF
the new order It has been their
purpose to set up IN the world
the world of civilized men.
That there should be league
of nations to steady the counsels
and maintain the peaceful under
not treaties alone, but the accept
ed principles OF international law
as we'll, the actual rule of conduct
among the governments Of the
World, had been one OF the agree
ments accepted from the first as
the basis of peace with the central
powers. The statesmen of all the
beIligerent countries were agreed
that such league must be Gre
ated to sustain the settlements
that were to be effected. But at
first l think there was feeling
among some of them that, while
1t must be attempted. the forma-
ton of such a league was perhaps
a counsel of perfection which prac-
ticaI men. long experienced In the
world of affairs, must agree to
e very cautiously and with many
misgivings.
Feared "scrap of Paper"
1t was only as the dificult
work of arranging an all but,
universal adjustment of the
worlds affairs advanced from
day to day from one stage of
conference to another that it be-
came evident to them that what
they were seeking would be lit
tie more than something written
upon paper, to be interpreted and
applied by such methods as the
chances of politics might make
available IL they did not provide
a means of common counsel
which all were obliged to accept.
a common authority whose deci-
sions would be recognized as de-
cisions which all must respect.
And SO the most practical, the
most skeptical among them turn
ed more and more to the league
as the authority through which
international action was to be
secured, the authority without
which. as they had come to see
il, it would be dificult to give
assured effect either to this
treaty or to any other interna-
tional understanding upon which
they were to depend for the
maintenance of peace. The fact
that the covenant of the league
was the first substantive part of
the treaty to be worked out and
agreed upon, while all else was
in solution. helped to make the
formulation of the rest easier.
Conference Not EphemernI.
The conference was. after all.
not to be ephemeral. The con-
cert of nations was to continue,
under a definite covenant which
had been agreed upon and which
all were convinced was workable.
They could go forward. with con-
fidense, to make arrangements in
tended to be permanent The most
practical of the conferees were at
last the most ready to refer to the
league of nations the superintend-'
ence of all interests which did not
admit of immediate determination.
of all administrative problems
which were to require a continuing
oversight. What had seemed
counsel of perfection had come to
seem a plain counsel of necessity.
The league of nations was the
practical statesman's hope Of sue
cess in many of the most diffi-
cult things he was attempting.
Not Mere Instrument.
And il had validated itself in
the thought of every member of
the conference as something
much bigger. much greater
every way, than a mere instru-
ment for carrying out the pro-
visions OF a particular treaty.
1t was universally recognized
that all the peoples of the world
demanded of the conference that
it should create such a continu-
ing concert OF free nations as
would make wars of aggression
and spoliation such as this that
has just ended forever impossi-
BILE. A cry had gone out from
every home in every stricken
land from which sons and
brothers and fathers had gone
forth to the great sacrifice that
such a sacrifice should never
again be exacted. 1t was mani
fest why it had been exacted. It
had been exacted because one
nation desired dominion and
other nations had known no
means of defense except arma-
ments and alliances. War had
lain. at the heart of every ar
rangement of the Europe-of
every arrangement of the world
that preceded the war. Res
tive peoples had been told that
fleets and armies. which they
toiled to sustain, meant peace;
and they now knew that they
had been lied to; that fleets and
armies had been maintained to
promote national ambitions and
meant war.
Old Policy, Always Force.
They knew that no old pol
icy meant anything else but
force, force-always farce And
they knew that it was intoler-
able. Every true heart in the
world. and every enlightened
Judgment demanded that, at
whatever cost of independent
action. every government that
took thought for its people or
for justice or for ordered free
dom should lend itself to a new
purpose and utterly destroy
the old order of international