In The Fourth Year - Anticipations of a World Peace (1918) | Page 3

League of Nations" is already a classic of the
movement in England, and a very full and thorough book; and
Hobson's "Towards International Government" is a very sympathetic
contribution from the English liberal left; but the reader must
understand that these two writers seem disposed to welcome a peace
with an unrevolutionized Germany, an idea to which, in common with
most British people, I am bitterly opposed. Walsh's "World Rebuilt" is
a good exhortation, and Mugge's "Parliament of Man" is fresh and sane
and able. The omnivorous reader will find good sense and quaint
English in Judge Mejdell's "_Jus Gentium_," published in English by
Olsen's of Christiania. There is an active League of Nations Society in
Dublin, as well as the London and Washington ones, publishing
pamphlets and conducting propaganda. All these books and pamphlets I

have named happen to lie upon my study table as I write, but I have
made no systematic effort to get together literature upon the subject,
and probably there are just as many books as good of which I have
never even heard. There must, I am sure, be statements of the League
of Nations idea forthcoming from various religious standpoints, but I
do not know any sufficiently well to recommend them. It is incredible
that neither the Roman Catholic Church, the English Episcopal Church,
nor any Nonconformist body has made any effort as an organization to
forward this essentially religious end of peace on earth. And also there
must be German writings upon this same topic. I mention these diverse
sources not in order to present a bibliography, but because I should be
sorry to have the reader think that this little book pretends to state the
case rather than a case for the League of Nations.

CONTENTS
I. THE WAY TO CONCRETE REALIZATION
II. THE LEAGUE MUST BE REPRESENTATIVE
III. THE NECESSARY POWERS OF THE LEAGUE
IV. THE LABOUR VIEW OF MIDDLE AFRICA
V. GETTING THE LEAGUE IDEA CLEAR IN RELATION TO
IMPERIALISM
VI. THE WAR AIMS OF THE WESTERN ALLIES COMPACTLY
STATED
VII. THE FUTURE OF MONARCHY
VIII. THE PLAIN NECESSITY FOR A LEAGUE
IX. DEMOCRACY
X. THE RECENT STRUGGLE FOR PROPORTIONAL
REPRESENTATION IN GREAT BRITAIN
XI. THE STUDY AND PROPAGANDA OF DEMOCRACY

IN THE FOURTH YEAR
THE LEAGUE OF FREE NATIONS

I
THE WAY TO CONCRETE REALIZATION
More and more frequently does one hear this phrase, The League of

Nations, used to express the outline idea of the new world that will
come out of the war. There can be no doubt that the phrase has taken
hold of the imaginations of great multitudes of people: it is one of those
creative phrases that may alter the whole destiny of mankind. But as
yet it is still a very vague phrase, a cloudy promise of peace. I make no
apology therefore, for casting my discussion of it in the most general
terms. The idea is the idea of united human effort to put an end to wars;
the first practical question, that must precede all others, is how far can
we hope to get to a concrete realization of that?
But first let me note the fourth word in the second title of this book.
The common talk is of a "League of Nations" merely. I follow the man
who is, more than any other man, the leader of English political thought
throughout the world to-day, President Wilson, in inserting that
significant adjective "Free." We western allies know to-day what is
involved in making bargains with governments that do not stand for
their peoples; we have had all our Russian deal, for example,
repudiated and thrust back upon our hands; and it is clearly in his mind,
as it must be in the minds of all reasonable men, that no mere "scrap of
paper," with just a monarch's or a chancellor's endorsement, is a good
enough earnest of fellowship in the league. It cannot be a diplomatist's
league. The League of Nations, if it is to have any such effect as people
seem to hope from it, must be, in the first place, "understanded of the
people." It must be supported by sustained, deliberate explanation, and
by teaching in school and church and press of the whole mass of all the
peoples concerned. I underline the adjective "Free" here to set aside,
once for all, any possible misconception that this modern idea of a
League of Nations has any affinity to that Holy Alliance of the
diplomatists, which set out to keep the peace of Europe so disastrously
a century ago.
Later I will discuss the powers of the League. But before I come to that
I would like to say a little about the more general question of its nature
and authority. What sort of gathering will embody