Now, the expression league of nations is used to indicate something, and I think it is just as well to define it so that we may know what we are talking about. Of course it serves some purposes to have a slogan which you do not have to define. It gives you an opportunity to make a campaign without reference to details. You shout it to the crowd, and when anybody presents objections you can say that that is not the kind of a league of nations you favor. Therefore I think it best to define what we mean. I say we; I mean a party of dreamers, mayhap, who got together, after the war began, to formulate something. Way back in an administration that is now forgotten-I did not wish to bring it up again, but I only refer to it as a reminiscence and a date treaties of peace were negotiated with England and with France by the United States. They provided for arbitration of all justiciable issues between the contracting parties. We thought we had made a good deal of progress in negotiating and signing those treaties, and the Secretary of State and the Ambassadors who signed were photographed and there was a general feeling that something had been done that was of historical interest. Well, that is the only interest it has now; because when they got to the Senate, that august body truncated them and amended them and qualified them in such a way that their own father could not recognize them.

There was no danger of war between the United States and either France or England; we had proven the lack of danger by a hundred years of peace. And since the treaties had really been framed as models, when they came back thus crippled and maimed, they were not very useful. So I put them on the shelf and let the dust accumulate on them in the hope that the Senators might change their minds, or

that the people might change the Senate; instead of which they changed me. Now those treaties were an improvement on previous treaties. The previous treaties, of which there were many (there is no trouble in getting treaties of arbitration; you can get them by the bushel when they do not clinch anything), had provided that the contracting nations would arbitrate every question except one that concerned vital interests, honor or territorial integrity, leaving it, of course, to either party to determine what concerned its vital interests or its honor. Well, as no nation would ever go to war for anything but what did, in its opinion, concern its vital interests or its honor, the treaties ought to have read, and properly and freely rendered did read, "we agree to arbitrate every question which is not likely to lead to war." Therefore the assistance such treaties gave in the matter of peace was not perceptible.

So we adopted this form by which we agreed to arbitrate every justiciable question. It is necessary to know what justiciable means. Old Noah Webster said that the word had become obsolete. Well, since his time it has been revived, notably in the decisions and opinions of the Supreme Court. It is used by Mr. Justice Bradley, by Chief Justice Fuller and by Mr. Justice Brewer, and it means a controversy that can be settled in court on principles of law; one capable of settlement by the disposition of justice.

Those of us who have been engaged in promoting the settlement of difficulties by arbitration were of course overcome with disappointment when the war broke out. We knew that armament was heavy; but we thought it would be a brake on the people, who must realize from the armament itself first, how destructive war would be, and second, how

enormously expensive it would be. Nevertheless, within a week after the first of August, 1914, Europe was at war. And then those of us who had suffered this disappointment gathered ourselves together to see if we could not get some plan to discourage war, some plan which we could induce the nations to adopt after this war was over, after this dreadful destruction had come to an end, and when men would be longing for some means of promoting and making peace permanent. We met at the Century Club and afterwards at the Independence Hall, and organized the League to Enforce Peace.

When the war began the people of this country were anxious to keep out of it. The President's proclamation of neutrality was received by them with approval. We did not realize then what was at stake. We thought we could be neutral and keep within the lines of international law and avoid being drawn into the struggle. We were neutral and we did keep within the lines of international law; but we found it was impossible to avoid being drawn into the struggle. Of course we say we were drawn into it, as we were, by the blindness and cruelty of Germany's submarine policy. But what did that grow out of? It grew out of the circumstance that in war, as it is now carried on, it is impossible for a nation, which furnishes to the world what we furnish, to remain neutral. We were the market to which all the nations engaged in this war resorted for food, munitions and war equipment. Until the British navy swept the German navy from the seas, we furnished to both sides with impartiality what they came to buy. The fortunes of war having limited us to the Allies as our customers, that which was inevitable came about: Germany

came to realize that our resources were going to enable the Allies to win the war. We were within our rights under international law in doing what we did. But it was found that we were so close to Europe, so much involved by our trade with all of Europe, that it was practically impossible for us to exercise our rights as international tradesmen without in effect so strengthening one side that that side was bound to look upon us as the means by which they could carry on the war; and its enemy was bound to take the same view. Accordingly Germany determined to resort to the murderous policy of the submarines, in which she was willing to sacrifice the rights of innocent noncombatants and citizens of the United States in order to frighten us out of exercising our international rights upon the seas. That is what drove us into the war; and any future European war will probably bring about the same result. It shows how deeply interested we are, even from a selfish standpoint, in suppressing European war or war anywhere that is likely to spread. The world is now so closely knit together, oceans to-day being means of union rather than of separation, that in future wars there will be no great neutral.

When we got into this war we found that its issues were infinitely greater than that which drove us in. Our vision broadened. We discovered that our purposes in the war must be as broad as the purpose of the enemy we were fighting, that we must utterly crush him in order to cure his lust for power and to defeat that which was divulged as no less than a purpose to rule the world. Germany had, for forty years, been preparing for this war. Bismarck had taught her the value of military force. By wonderful successes in three wars, in each of which Germany, or Prussia, acquired territory and by all of which Germany was solidi

fied, the German people became convinced that they were supermen, became convinced that they had learned the secret of applying scientific principles to the military art. They were taught in their schools that the highest development of national greatness was military force. They were taught to worship the supremacy of the German State. Having applied this system of efficiency and thoroughness and these scientific principles to the military art, they proceeded to extend them to every field of human activity. That thoroughness, that system, that efficiency, which they called "kultur," enabled them to win in agriculture, manufacture, business, transportation, and every field of applied science.

It also added to the size of their heads, already enlarged by military successes. They prospered under that false and wicked philosophy. Materialism forced itself into their schools and dominated their general view; and while growing ever more materialistic they began to use the conception of God as a partner in the enterprise. They said that He needed them in supporting His philosophy, that it was their design, under His direction, to spread this kultur by force in order to help Him make civilization a success. No consideration of decency, humanity, honor or morality must be allowed to interfere. That was the doctrine; you can see it in the lectures from their university platforms. The whole people were saturated with this dreadful principle, namely, that the victories of the state must be achieved at all hazards and without regard to those ordinary considerations that restrain individuals in society. And that led to their atrocious conduct of the war. They became obsessed with a madness. When we got into the war we began to realize what our Allies had realized before-that the only thing that could rid the world of this danger was com