The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1919-07-17

guaruS ABOUT the rights OF racial, ma
! t1onal and religious minorities by
| solemn international covenant: an on
opportunity to limit and regulate mill
| tary establishments where they were
most likely to be mischevious; an ,op-
portun1ty to effect complete and sys-
I tematlc Observation-Disclosures of. water
ways and railways which were neces-
| sary TO the free economic life of more
than one nation and to clear many
of the normal channels of commerce
! of unfair distractions of law or of
privilege; and the very welcome OPP
portun1ty to secure for labor the con-
certed protection of definite interna-
tional pledges of principle and prac-
| tice.
These were not tasks which the
conference looked about it to find and
went out of it's way to perform.
They were inseparable from the set
Elements of peace. They were thrust
upon it by circumstances which could
! not be overlooked. The war had Gre
ated them. They had to be set right
by applying some uniform principle
! of justice or enlightened expediency
|
merely prescribing in a treaty what
should be done. New states were to
be set up which could not hope to live
through their first period of weakness
without assured support by the great
nations that had consented to their
: creation and won for them their indie
pendence. nl-governed colonies could
not be put in the hands of govern
ments which were to act as trustees
| for their people and not as their mas
| ters If there was to be no common
authority among the nations to which
they were to be responsible for the
execution Of their trust. Future in
ternational conventions with regard
to the control of waterways, with re-
gard to illicit traffic of many kinds,
in arms or in deadly drugs, or with
| regard to the adjustment of many
| varying international administrative
arrangements could not be assured if
the treaty were to provide no perma-
nent common international agency, if
| it's execution in such matters was to
be left to the slow and uncertain
processes of cooperation by ordinary
methods of negotiation. If the peace
| conference itself was to be the end Of
cooperative authority and common
counsel among the governments to
which the world was looking to en-
force justice and give pledges Of an
enduring settlement, regions like the
Saar basin could not be put under
| which did not involve a transfer of
political sovereignty and which con-
templated final determination of its
political connections by popular vote
to be taken at distant date; no free
city like Danzig could be created
which was, under elaborate interna-
tional guarantees, to accept excep-
tional obligations with regard to the
use of it's port and exceptional rela-
tions with a state of which it was not
to form a part; properly safeguarded
plebescites could not be provided for
where populations were at some flu
ture date to make choice what sover-
eighty they would live under; no GER
tain and uniform method of arbitra-
ton could be secured for the settle
ment of anticipated difficulties of final
decision with regard to many matters
dealt with in the treaty itself; the
long continued supervision of the task
of reparation which Germany was to
undertake to complete within the
next generation might entirely break
down; the reconsideration and revis-
ion of administrative arrangements
and restrictions which the treaty pre-
scribed but which it was recognized
might not prove of lasting advantage
or entirely fair if too long enforced
would be impracticable. The prom
ises governments were making to one
another about the way in which labor |
was to be dealt with, by law not only |
but in fact as well, would remain a
mere humane thesis if there was to
be no common tribunal of opinion
and Judgment to which liberal states
men could resort for the influences
which alone might secure their re-
demption. A league of free nations |
had become practical necessity. Ex- |
anime the treaty of peace and you |
will find that everywhere throughout
it's manifold provisions its trainers
have felt obliged to turn to the league
Of nations as an indispensable instru-
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 a league of /
nations to steady the counsels and
maintain the peaceful understandings
of the world, to make, not treaties
alone, but the accepted principles of
international law as well, the inter-
national rule of conduct among the
governments of the world, had been
one of the agreements accepted from
the first as the basis of peace with
the central powers. The statesmen
of all the belligerent countries were