Evening star., 1938-11-20
League Topples 1gnominiously
Even as Peace Passion Flames
Importance of First Decade Raised Palace of Mans
Ideals That Collapses Internally as
World Strife Crows
BY WiIIiam g. McCI0v.

The League of Nations was first made
known to most of us by President Wood
row Wilson even before the World War
began. THE League to Enforce Peace
was its original title. A parallel sugges-
ton had also been made in Europe. but
it was President Wilson who fathered the
scheme, made it's details his own and who
was its most valiant champion. 1t was
Wilson who chose the word covenant
to define the Leagues agreements. Well
he knew, as son of Presbyterian cler-
gyman, how dear to millions of Amer
leans was that word with it's religious
implications.
L. S. SHES at Bonds.
But it wasn't enough to make the
United States enter the League of Ma
tions. Hosts of voters approved the
League in spirit, only to vote against it
at the polls.
The United States did not join the
League of Nations. But. unoficially and
socially, it has always been we'll repre-
sented at Assembly meetings. 1t has
signed many League covenants.
A great contrast to the present was
that first decade of the League. 1t then
enjoyed the highest esteem. Public
opinion throughout the world all but
revered it. And the League was able to
accomplish many good things in those
days. 1t averted war between Greece
and Bulgaria in 1926. 1t settled salts
factorily quarrel over strip of Green
land claimed both by Norway and Dem
mark. 1t brought to an amicable con-
clusion serious dispute between Great
Britain and Persia concerning oil wells.
There were no designations that first
decade. Instead, nation after nation
clamored for admission. and, after due
consideration, was admitted. What re-
.ioicing when. in 1926. Germany entered
the League! Now. with Japan, Germany
and Italy, as we'll as the United States,
outside the League, will it be able to cele-
brate its twentieth anniversary next
year in September, 1889?
Reaches Pinnacle, Then Cracks.
No one who knew Geneva in the gold
decade can ever forget the Leagues
tenth anniversary, in 1929, celebrated
with such gay extravaganza only one
month before the Wall Street crash. 1t
was the Leagues high moment: its
peak. japanese and Chinese hobnobbing
together at the brilliant ball-climax to
the festivities-given by the Chinese
delegation-and all blissfully unconscious
that Manchukuo was just around the
corner; BRAND and Stresemann hap
PLY ignorant that both would be dead
soon and all their work undone by an
Austrian paperhanger named Adolf
Hitler. Everything German was fash
ionable in Geneva that year. Hadn't
Germany just joined the League and laid
the ghost of another war forever" 4!
American Lady Astor, fragile, pale
and high spirited: Dame Rachel Crowdy.
brisk brainy British delegate; Nine.
Wang. Chinese author, dark, subtle. in
telligent-the sort of women Hitler and
Mussolini want to do away with because
such women are among the most ef-
fective obstacles to war.
The idea of a League of Nations was
not original with President Wilson. 1t
has an ancient and honorable ancestry.
The Amphitryonic Council of the
Greeks was an embryo League OF Ma
tions 1000 years before the destruction
of Belgium and Serbia. The pact be-
tween Robert the Cody of France and
Henry the Holy of Germany in 1923;
the proposals of Philip w of France and
his adviser, Dubois, 300 years later, were
attempts to make a League Of Nations
dream come true Desiderius Erasmus.
in 1917 suggested: 1T is favorable
subject among scholars to assemble a
congress of kings at Cambria to enter
into a mutual and indissoluble agree
ment to preserve the peace with each
other and throughout Europe" Henry
VIII of England. Francis I Of France,
Emperor Maximilian and Charles OF the
Low Countries were all favorable to a
plan for united peace-though nothing
came OF it.
"The Political Design of Henry Of Ma
varre," published Is years after that
warrior kings death, has much that is
modern about it, for, though ostenslbly
a project for peace, it's real idea, none too
well concealed, was to curb the power
of the Hapsburgs. William Penn. the
Quaker who settled Pennsylvania; Abbe
de St. Pierre author of Paul and Vir-
ginia": Jeremy Bentham, in. 1889; I'm
manuel Kant, years later-the list is
long and illustrious of those who from
all walks of life have earnestly tried from
time to time to perfect practical plan
for keeping the peace.
What was called the Holy Alliance
followed the Napoleonic wars, but 1t
failed to function. Car Nicholas II
called a peace conference at The Hague
in 1899. This peace league lasted longer
than most Of its predecessors-perhaps
because our own Andrew Carnegie gave
it a palace for a permanent home. II
actually held two sessions the second
and final one in 1907. Nothing was ac-
complished at either session. And when
in 1914, the World War broke out, moth
ing was more ironic than the pretty httls
Peace Palace ut The Hague.