munities have co-operated to maintain the authoritative state and to preserve peace within its borders. States have formed leagues or confederations or have otherwise co-operated to establish peace among themselves. Always peace has been made and kept, when made and kept at all, by the superior power of superior numbers acting in unity for the common good.

Mindful of this teaching of experience, we believe and solemnly urge that the time has come to devise and to create a working union of sovereign nations to establish peace among themselves and to guarantee it by all known and available sanctions at their command, to the end that civilization may be conserved, and the progress of mankind in comfort, enlightenment, and happiness may continue.

We, therefore, believe it to be desirable for the United States to join a league of nations binding the signatories to the following:

1. All justiciable questions arising between the signatory powers, not settled by negotiations, shall, subject to the limitations of treaties, be submitted to a judicial tribunal for hearing and judgment, both upon the merits and upon any issue as to its jurisdiction of the question.

2. All other questions arising between the signatories and not settled by negotiation shall be submitted to a Council of Conciliation for hearing, consideration,

and recommendation.

3. The signatory powers shall jointly use forthwith both their economic and military forces against any one of their number that goes to war, or commits acts of hostility, against another of the signatories before any question arising shall be submitted as provided in the foregoing.

4. Conferences between the signatory powers shall be held from time to time to formulate and codify rules of international law, which, unless some signatory shall signify its dissent within a stated period, shall thereafter govern the decision of the judicial tribunal mentioned in Article 1.

There were half a dozen brief speeches in favor of the report. John Wanamaker did not think the report went far enough. He had hoped the conference would send out a message to the warring nations that would make them pause and think. He could not help but favor the report, he added, but felt that it, standing alone without any further action, would be laughed at by those on the other side of the Atlantic.

It is expected the Executive Committee will meet in the near future to adopt plans to carry out the objects of the league. One of the things that probably will be done, according to members of the Executive Committee, will be to start a propaganda in this country with a view to having the United States Senate adopt measures in line with the object of the league. Mr. Taft said today that, judging by its action in rejecting treaties in the past, the chief stumbling block to the aspirations of the league would be the Senate. Steps will also be taken to get European countries interested in the league.

ORGANIZATION.

President.

William Howard Taft. Vice Presidents.

Lyman Abbott,
Edwin A. Alderman,
A. Graham Bell,
R. Blankenburg,
Charles R. Brown,
Francis E. Clark,
John H. Finley,
W. D. Foulke,
James Cardinal Gib-
bons,

W. Gladden,
George Gray,
Myron T. Herrick,
John G. Hibben,
George C. Holt,
D. P. Kingsley,
S. W. McCall,
J. B. McCreary,
Victor H. Metcalf,
John Mitchell,
John B. Moore,
Alton B. Parker,
George H. Prouty,
Jacob H. Schiff,
John C. Schaffer,
Robert Sharp,
Edgar F. Smith,
C. R. Van Hise,
B. I. Wheeler,
Harry A. Wheeler,
Andrew D. White,

Executive

W. H. Mann,
John B. Clark,
J. M. Dickinson,
Austen G. Fox,
Henry C. Morris,
Leo S. Rowe,
Oscar S. Straus,
Thomas R. White,

W. A. White,
George G. Wilson,
Luther B. Wilson,
Oliver Wilson,
Stephen S. Wise,
T. S. Woolsey,
James L. Slayden,
David H. Greer,
Bernard N. Baker,
Victor L. Berger,
Edward Bok,

Arthur J. Brown,
Edward O. Browne,
R. Fulton Cutting,
John F. Fort,
A. W. Harris,
L. L. Hobbs,

George H. Lorimer,
Edgar O. Lovett,
S. B. McCormick,
Martin B. Madden,
Charles Nagel,
George A. Plimpton,
Isaac Sharpless,
William F. Slocum,
Dan Smiley,

F. H. Strawbridge,
Joseph Swain,
Edwin Warfield,
H. St. G. Tucker.

Committee.

Hamilton Holt,
Theodore Marburg,
W. B. Howland,
John H. Hammond,
W. H. Short,

A. L. Lowell,
John A. Stewart,
William H. Taft.

Clifton, Mass., June 9, 1915. Dear Sir: I beg to express my thanks for the courtesy of the invitation to attend the conference of the League of Peace in Independence Hall under the Presidency of the Hon. W. H. Taft. I feel myself, of course, in deepest sympathy with the spirit of justice and peacefulness which has suggested the foundation of such a league. Nevertheless, I beg to be excused from attendance, as I am convinced that this time of international excitement and prejudice is unfit for the crystallization of new forms for the common life of the nations.

I venture, however, to add that I feel in any case grave doubts of the value of any plans which aim to secure future peace by the traditional type of agreements and treaties. We live in the midst of a war in which one belligerent nation after another has felt obliged to disregard treaties and to interpret agreements in a one-sided way. Only yesterday Italy, without any reason vital necessity, annulled an agreement and a treaty which had appeared the firmest in European politics, and which yet failed in the first hour of clashing interests. A psychologist has no right to expect that the national temper of the future will be different.

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Moreover, the Supreme Court of the United States has sanctioned the idea, which is shared practically by all nations, that treaties are no longer binding when a situation has changed so that the fulfillment of the agreement would be against the vital interests of the nation. We have learned during the last ten months how easily such disburdening changes can be discovered as soon as the national passions are awakened.

The new plan depends upon only one new feature by which the mutual agreement is to be fortified against the demands of national excitement. The plan of the League of Peace promises the joint use of military forces in case that one nation is unwilling to yield. But the world witnesses today the clear proof that even the greatest combination of fighting forces may be unable to subdue by mere number a nation which is ready to make any sacrifice for its convictions. One hundred and fifty millions are attacked by eight hundred and fifty millions, by joint forces from five continents, which moreover are backed by the economic forces of the richest country in the world; and yet after ten months of fighting one million prisoners, but no other hostile soldiers, stand on German soil. After this practical example the plan merely to join the military forces will less than ever appear a convincing argument in an hour in which a nation feels its existence or its honor threatened. For a long time we heard the claim that the Socialists and the bankers would now make great wars impossible; both prophecies have failed. The threat that the warring nation will have to face the world in arms will be no less futile. But the failure in this case will be disastrous, as the terms of such an agreement would draw many nations into the whirlpool which would have no reason of their own for entering the war.

The interests of strong growing nations will lead in the future as in the past to conflicts in which both sides are morally in the right and in which one must yield. We have no right to hope that after this war the nations will be more willing to give up their chances

in such conflicts without having appealed to force. On the contrary, the world has now become accustomed to war and will therefore more easily return to the trenches. The break between England and Russia and finally the threatening cloud of world conflict between Occident and Orient can already be seen on the horizon; the battles of today may be only the preamble. In such tremendous hours the new-fashioned agreements would be cobwebs which surely could not bind the arms of any energetic nation.

But, worst of all, they would not only be ineffective-they would awake a treacherous confidence. The nations would deceive themselves with a feeling of safety, while all true protection would be lacking. The first step forward toward our common goal must be to learn the two lessons of the war of today and to face thern unflinchingly; mere agreements do not and can not bind any nation on the globe in an hour of vital need, and the mere joining of

forces widens and protracts a war, but does not hinder it. We must learn that success for peace endeavors can be secured only from efforts to avert war which are fundamentally different from the old patterns of pledges and threats. These old means were negative; we need positive ones.

If a psychologist can contribute anything to the progress of mankind, he must, first of all, offer the advice not to rely on plans by which the attention is focused on the disasters which are to be avoided. Education by forbidding the wrong action instead of awaking the impulses toward the right one is as unpromising for peoples as it is for individuals. We must truly build up from within. But a time in which the war news of every hour appeals to sympathies and antipathies is hardly the time to begin this sacred work, which alone could bring us the blessed

age of our vision, the United States of the World.

HUGO MUENSTERBERG.

The following dispatch from Washington, dated June 8, 1915, appeared in The Chicago Herald:

President Wilson and his Cabinet considered today the known fact that German interests, reported backed by the German Government, are negotiating for the purchase of the great gun and munition of war plants in this country.

Secretary McAdoo of the Treasury laid the matter before the Cabinet. He had information from Secret Service agents of the Government who have been following these German activities for some weeks. It is reported today, confirming The Herald dispatch of last night, that the plants for which negotiations are on include that of Charles M. Schwab at Bethlehem, Penn.; the Remington small arms works at Hartford, Conn., and the Cramp works at Philadelphia, which, it is said, Schwab is about to acquire; the Metallic Cartridge Company, the Remington Company, and other munition and small arms works.

Included in the Schwab plant holdings are the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Massachusetts, and the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, where it is reported parts of submarines are being made for English contract, shipment being made through Canada.

This new move of the Germans involves the outlay of hundreds of millions, a gigantic financial operation in the face of war needs and conditions. It is one of the most sensational developments of the present conflict in connection with the United States. Its consummation inevitably would lead this country into serious disagreement, if not conflict, with Great Britain and the Allies.

The latter will demand the fulfillment of their contracts with these concerns.

The German move is to prevent this delivery of munitions of war. With the consummation of the purchases, the German owners could refuse to fill these contracts. They will not fear suits for broken contracts.

The whole matter is fraught with such possibilities of danger to this country that Attorney General Gregory and the experts of the Department of Justice have taken up the question with a view to interposing legal obstacles. It may become necessary, it was suggested today, to prevent such a sale on the grounds of public welfare because of strained relations with Germany.

Secretary McAdoo will not disclose who are the agents for the German interests seeking to purchase the munitions plants, or who are the financial backers. The Secret Service men are believed to know these details, having been on the investigation for three weeks. Rich Germans in the United States are believed to be interested.

Charles M. Schwab, head of the Bethlehem Company, came here two weeks ago in response to an urgent summons. He saw Secretary McAdoo, Secretary Daniels, and other officials. At that time it was given out that he was conferring as to details of supplies to be furnished this Government under contracts for new warship construction about to be awarded. It is now understood that Secretary McAdoo sought information as to the negotiations under way at that time for the purchase of the munitions plants in this country by the German interests.

The report of Secretary McAdoo today stirred the Cabinet as deeply almost as the resignation of Secretary of State Bryan. Complete reports were asked and the Secret Service arm of the Government will be required to fur

nish immediately more complete and detailed information.

Of the efforts to obtain control of the munitions companies, The Providence Journal of June 9, 1915, reported:

Acting under the personal instructions of the German Ambassador, several German bankers of New York have been working together for the last week on preliminary negotiations for the purchase of every large plant they can lay their hands on which is now engaged in turning out munitions of war for the Allies.

Count von Bernstorff, Dr. Dernburg, and two well-known German bankers held a conference at the German Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, June 1. At that conference the Ambassador outlined in detail instructions he had received the day before from Berlin to proceed with this propaganda, and he declared to the three men there present that his Government considered the success of the plan as of vital importance, superseding every other phase of the war situation.

The bankers at once returned to New York, and at a meeting next day with Captain Boy-Ed and several other men at the German Club outlined their plan of campaign.

For months past the German Ambassador has been in possession of a list of factories all over the country engaged in turning out munitions of war for the Allies. Last Saturday concerted movement was begun toward securing a majority control of many of these plants.

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When one of the bankers at the conference in Washington asked the Ambassador if he had any conception of the magnitude of the financial problems involved in the scheme he replied that his Government was fully prepared to pay everything necessary, and repeated that the fate of the empire might rest on the success or failure of the plan. He then added these words:

"There is no limit, gentlemen, to the amount of money available."

The activities of the representatives of Count von Bernstorff in this matter

have already brought them up to the point of negotiation, or attempted negotiation, with the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, the Remington Arms Company, the Bethlehem Steel Company, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company.

Government officials, when notified of this new propaganda yesterday, were a unit in declaring it was impossible to believe that such a scheme could be carried through successfully. In the first place, they pointed out that activity of this kind would be a direct violation of the Sherman act, and, secondly, a case of conspiracy would lie against individuals attempting such a movement for wholesale violation of contracts, which would become necessary in order to carry the plan to its successful conclusion.

The moment the German agents in New York began to disclose their purpose, several cunning individuals who have had some slight connection with the contracts for supplying the Allies with various materials have deliberately put themselves in the path of these agents under the pretext that they already had contracts, or were about to be and given contracts, have already mulcted the German Government of many thousands of dollars.

In two specific cases men have talked of having contracts for picric acid-the manufacture of which necessitates the most skilled training, with most expensive and complicated machinery, and which is only being attempted in four places in this country, and were promptly paid off, on their pledge that they would violate these alleged agreements. One of these deals was made in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last Saturday.

Another case, which is fully authenticated, is that of a Western dealer in horses, who delivered 1,500 horses to the port of New Orleans for the British Government last January. As soon as he ascertained what the German agents were doing, he produced his receipt for delivery of his first and only order, and declared he was now searching for 5,000 horses, in addition, for the British Government. On his pledge to abandon this