Certainly, this helmet of Mambrinus suffered numerous bruises, as happens to all generous dreams when they come into contact with selfishness or with the consuming breath of the passions of the moment; let us have faith, however, in that saintly philosopher who teaches, on the contrary, that the perfect being is he who passes from understanding to reality, and let us hope that it will evolve toward superior forms.
Let us hope that such a helmet will not prove to be the shaving dish of a barber.
The purposes of the League are condensed in its admirable preamble:
"The High Contracting Parties,
In order to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just and honorable relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organized peoples with one another," and so on.
In order to realize these purposes, it is necessary to establish means which will enable nations to settle their differences without having recourse to war. It is necessary to reduce present armaments and to eliminate for the future this burden which weighs upon modern peoples as the hateful war tributes of antiquity, and which is nothing less than a resurrected form of slavery. In order to obtain this, the Council of the League is charged with the work of formulating a program for the reduction of armaments, based upon the inquiries and decisions made by the respective governments, and with the purpose of keeping under control the manufacture of ammunition.
Regarding the first point, a set of measures already established by international law is ordered, and strongly sanctioned by provisions of the Covenant.
The states between which disputes or conflicts may arise will have recourse to the Council or to the Assembly, or will submit their cases to arbitration. They are forbidden to resort to war until three months have elapsed after the decision of the Council or the Assembly or of the third state to which they may have recurred; all this with the purpose that the counsels of prudence, the strength of just decisions, and that the calming and tranquilizing action of time itself may have their effects on the irritated feelings of men.
In order to obtain its principal object, the Covenant also provides for the creation of a permanent Court of Arbitration, an institution which, with the economic sanctions established in the same Covenant, will be the most effective instrument of its civilizing action, for we know well that peace will never exist among men while justice is denied.