The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1919-01-16
The League Of Nations Discussed
From the London Spectator, October 20, 1915.

It is no exaggeration to say that the fate Of the civilized world
the wrong path in dealing with the problem Of the league Of nations
Remember, the vision Of peace by agreement and Of the federation of
Countless slsi 9 Centuries aa1Hssa Greek r. &la sta.s : n had ID these si ides. q at 1 the end 'o 81
the Persian war, during the who'll, Of the great PelOponnesan con.
sors Of RealpoIitik smiled at their simplicity, thinkers and poets
ascendant nas rlaes s and minds ans l. snS sp aGRs are sn s:in %9Fs soa .as iass to 4 sh. .s a Il:
issues Men of light and leading are wondering whether it may not
to do what our progenitors could dream about but never accomplish.
nr,m Success es { or sia failure re in w this - great e. ven e mus, must depend nd, upon the the
league Of nations the abolition Of war in the abstract, or the erection
entrust the dearest things which they posse m ; i li he.saes their h
rights, and their independence. We do not want the object Of the
.lectivst form of the Par Romano which viii crush all national individ.
e eahtyI Or w .na p ret .s : aiId w Of Ds1 Fl sss1t. ppas Ws I'll that y will !, sae, .ss
nations in their mood of humanity caused by the horrors they have
anything is better than war, and then to find that they were mistaken
and revert to the old and hopeless regime Of armed peace. What zee
glsags tss~sslss. :sysraay and janfy 70 i"ss. that :" solemn a" ! irss.,s'
osssss" nat ns.s saSu rot De treated ed as scraps Of papo,,o but shall be
nations, while they remain, the most solemn and essential things in
tween individuals, just as the interests Of the nation are a thousand.
fold more sacred than those of the single individuals that compose it.
greater or more despicable than the illegal reputation of a treaty
s contract ssa Whether s@d6sfn made &c for for some a"as.s specific i purpose or for general
never be put into a straight waistcoat, that there must always b, the
tional circle. Above ali, we must never forget that freedom op is se cssen.
tal to human happiness, and, further, that freedom to do right must
man the beneficial power to choose the one path without taking the
risk Of his choosing the other. Therefore, treaties which are not to
SOehSS bA w tun tC udIOUS DlO nuU-
mics rather than free imbed human organisms, can never be per.
petnal They must be revocable, and revocab1e within a time that
will not make men despair of seeing what they will regard as an
essential Improvement. Thus, though treaty contracts as long as
they are in existence must be maintained by the whole weight and
power OF mankind, the nations which entered into them must be able
to free themselves h.r from their contractual bonds, if they deem it essen.
tal to their welfare to do SO, without intolerable difficulty or DELAY
We suggest that If mankind acting in unison shall be bound to
uphold the sanctity Of treaties, a years notice shall free any nation
from its diplomatic instruments. Any recourse to arms before that
year has expired, no matter what the alleged excuse, and no matter
what the merits, must be dealt with with the utmost sternness. BIT
it must not be dealt with by war, for that would mean some system
OF international armies and fleets and air squadrons, which. men
being what they are, would open up a hopeless vista of intrigue. We
must have recourse to nonintercourse as the weapon by which tho
sancity of treaties is to be upheld. We believe that compulsory dis.
armament, compulsory arbitration, compulsory entry into an intsrna.
tonal federation, can only lead first of all to disappointment, tyr
amy, and intrigue, and ultimately either to the loss of that national
individuality which the peoples rightly cherish, or to the breaking up
of the league as a hopeless failure. Instead of all these high sounding
aims we desire to have the one clear obligation that nations must
respect their treaty pledges.
Remember that no nation which was restrained from fighting for
one year would be able to say, as it might in the case of arbitration
that 1T must refuse to submit to the ruling of q court Of which the
Judges could be alleged to be foolish, inhuman, prejudiced, brbed orr
capable of acting as politicians rather than as iurists. By orr nlan
we avoid all these apparently good excuses for war. We avoid also
the danger OF the great powers being judges in their own cause. or
else OF having to submit issues of supreme Importance to the legal
representatives OF the smaller nations, as the only persons p~rocurabls
who could be regarded as wholly impartial.