The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-03-20
LOWELL TAKES
ST AND FOR A
NATION LEAGUE
President of Harvard University
Insists America Must Share
Obligations
OPPOSITION is EXPECTED
No Great Forward Step of This
Kind Ever Taken Without
Incurring Hostility

Incurring Hostility
Boston, Mass, March 2O.--Replying
to the attack of Senator Lodge on the
proposed covenant Of the league Of
nations. A. Lawrence Lowell, presi-
dent of Harvard university in Sym
phony hall last night said in part:
Few, If any, Americans hold the
doctrine, propounded by certain
German writer's, that war is in itself
good. Few do not desire peace a
mOng men; and it would probably
be safe to 60 further and say that
the vast majority of our people wei
come the idea of League OF Nations
to prevent war, even If it involves
some Inconvenience for us. There
Is naturally, however, much differ
ence of opinion about the form such
a league should take; and any con-
crete plan that could be presented,
would not accord entirely with most
mems preconceived ideas, If they
have any; or, If they have not, would
involve difficulties that they had not
forseen as inevitable; with the re-
suit that criticism breaks forth III
abundance. This has been, and
must always be, true of every step
in human progress. Every advance
goes through the stages Of general
aspiration, of concrete plan, and of
every step in human progress. Every
advance goes through the stages OF
general aspiration. Of concrete plan.
and Of sharp criticism, before it be-
comes established. The process Is
normal, healthy and instructive.
The Essentials
Before examining the nature OF
the plan proposed in the Covenant
of Paris it may be we'll to consider
the minimum essentials of an ef-
fective League of Nations to prevent
war. Everyone will agree that such
a league must forbid a resort to arms
before submitting the question in dis
pute to a public trial, arbitration or
inquiry of some kind; and probably
It ought also to forbid a resort to
arms after an award which is uni
versally believed to be right and
Just. Such delay before hostilities
will not prevent all wars, but 1t VIII
make them much less common, and it
will wholly prevent a nation from
deliberately planning a war, as Ger
many did. and seeking the advantage
OF surprise when Its victims are un-
prepared It Is generally assumed
that, II Germany had not possessed
that advantage, she would not have
gone to war. Obviously, the sub
mission to arbitration must be COM
pulsory, for il not, the condition is
nowise different from what 1t has
been hitherto; and the compulsion,
the sanction, as the lawyers say
the punishment for the offender, must
be such that no nation would venture
to incur it; for the more severe, the
more certain, the more Immediate
the penalty, the less the chance that
any bellicose nation would run the
risk The country that goes to war
before submitting its case to arbl-
tration must be regarded as criml-
nal against mankind, and treated IN
stantly as an outlaw and common
enemy by the rest Of the world, or ny
those nations which bind themselves
together for the maintenance OF order
For this reason the League to IN
force Peace has always insisted that
thepenalty should not be decreed ny
a council of the League which woulo
involve delay, possibly disagreement
and inaction, but automatically;
that is, the members Of the League
should bind themselves jointly and
severally to resist the aggressor at
once. In this way the members would
stand together, and an attack on one
would be ipso facto an attack on all;
and IL the League contained, as we
expect, by far the greater part OF
the world, no nation would, for
moment, contemplate war with such
a coalition, and therefore wars
would not occur before arbitration.
1.-THE principle should apvy not
only to disputes among the members
of the League, but also to dissentlons
between ther nations not belonging
to the League, because war ike 1ire'
has a tendency to spread, and no
one in community has a right to
start a conflagration which his neigh
bors have not a right to put out.
Council for Consultation.
although the penalty against the
agressor is automatic in the sense
that 1t does not depend upon the
action of an international council,
nevertheless such a council for pur-
poses, not of command, but OF con-
sultation, is highly beneficial. 1t
tends to remove friction by enabling
nations to understand one another's
point of view, and to reconcile or
adjust differences before they reach
an acute stage Most plans for
League of Nations have. l believe,
proposed two bodies: one large and
comprehensive, for the discussion OF
general problems, with an opportun-
ity for the presentation of all pos
sible opinions, but too large for con-
fidential interchange Of ideas; the
other smaller, representing mainly
those countries on whom the burden
in case of breach Of the peace, would
chiefly rest, a body small enough to
work out in detail recommendations
TO be submitted to the members of
the League for acceptance. modifi-
cation or rejection.
1T will, I think, be generally
agreed by all persons who desire a
I.As4ua nf Nations that these points