The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-09-09
Purpose of the LEAGUE.

The chief purpose of the League of
Nations is to keep the world In a
s'ate of peace. Another way of ex-
pressing it is to say that the league
Is designed to prevent wars.
We have Just finished the greatest.
which is to say the most horrible. of
all conflicts between nations. We
Lave won glorious victory. But that
victory will be wasted unless this war
has made the nations ready to
put aside their differences and CO.
operate to end war forever
1t is not enough, however, to pro-
vide for the prevention of wars and
the settlement Of disputes after they
hive arisen. We must foresee causes
OF trouble and remove them before
they have reached an acute stage.
Hence there must be provision for fire.
q :ent consultations Of members of the
league for exchange of information.
for agreement on common policies and
for the gradual formation of rules of
international law which at present are
uncertain and incomplete
The representatives of the great
free nations which won the war have
met at Paris and, after long consulta-
ton, have drawn an agreement which
they believe will accomplish these
ends At the very least it will set In
motion great changes which will re-
suit in universal benefit to all man.
Kind This agreement is called the
Covenant Of the League OF Nations
and 1t Is part of the peace treaty.
There will be no league worth talk
ing about, however. unless the United
States Is a member The decision as
to whether the United States shall
join rests with our Senate. The Sena-
tors, chosen by the people, will in the
end vote as the people desire. For
this reason the people themselves will
decide whether or not the United
States will Join the league. In this
question every citizen should have a
voice. He or she can express opinion
either by writing direct to Senators,
by letters to the newspapers, by
speeches In his lodge or local union or
In conversation with friends.
Methods of Maintaining Peace.
Since the prime object of the
League Of Nations is to preserve peace
and to reap the benefits of peace
let us see how the league Will operate
to accomplish that purpose.
In the first place it will seek to re-
move the main causes of war BY the
formation of an international court 1t
will create means for the peaceful
settlement of disputes between ma
tions Then 1t will seek to compel the
nations to make use Of this court
This is nothing more nor less than an
application of the rules and customs
governing private individuals In civil
lied communities to the relations be-
tween nations.
Secondly, the League win seek to re-
move great temptation to war by
the general agreement to reduce the
size of armies and navies. This will
halt the race for military and naval
supremacy which was largely respon-
sible for the war just ended The
amount of armament any nation may
maintain will be strictly defined
Thus 1t will be impossible for one
country to overwhelm its neighbor by
unexpected attack, IN the way that
Germany crushed Belgium and would
have crushed France had not the other
democratic nations gone to her aid The
idea Is that each country may keep
an army and navy large enough to en-
able it to fulfil its responsibilities as
member of the League, but no larger.
The United States, for example, prob
ably would be expected to keep a
check on Mexico and the state Of con-
slant turmoil In that country would be
taken into consideration In deciding
how large an army we should need.
The third important safeguard |
which the League will set up is sys-
TEN of penalties. This will make an
outlaw of any nation OF group of ma |
tons which goes to war In violation |
of the rules of the League. The out.
iawed nation will be boycotted by an /
the ether members of the League and |
Will find itself cut off from both bust
ness and social communication with
the rest of the world.
How II VIII Prevent Wars.
1t Is not claimed that the League of
Nations will do away with war alto
gether. Every possible provision that
human intelligence can devise win be
made to settle international disputes
peaceably. But should all these meas
ures fail and two nations go TO war,
this is what will happen
II both parties to the dispute have
observed the rules of the League the
other nations will stand back and let
them fight II out. War under such
is difficult to imagine,
however, because before the angry ma
tons will be allowed to fight in ac-
cordance with the rules of the League,
so much time must elapse that in all
their anger will cool and
they VIII reach an amicable under
What we have to fear is that some
nation will 80 to war in defiance of