1. The United States should maintain the Monroe Doctrine.
2. The United States should recognize a Japanese “Monroe Doctrine” in the Far East.
3. The United States should not participate in international conferences dealing only with European questions.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE UNITED STATES AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
The purpose of this chapter is to describe the relations of the United States to the most ambitious experiment in government that the world has ever attempted.
The Desire to End War.—Since the dawn of human history mankind has been divided into independent tribes and nations ready to hurl themselves upon one another in warfare. No mind can comprehend the immeasurable suffering which war has brought upon the human race during the past three thousand years. From the days when the Assyrian charioteers crushed their enemies under horse and wheel to those tragic years of yesterday when the hospitals of Europe were filled with the victims of high explosive shells and poison gas,—in all this long interval there has been no cessation of warfare among men and no era of peace on earth.
Small wonder it is, therefore, that in the anguish of the World War men of all races should have cried out for some such settlement as would put an end to war and all its horrors forever.[[301]] |The cry for a permanent peace.| Soldiers in the ranks called it a “war to end war“ and gave up their lives unflinchingly in the hope@@ that future generations would be spared a repetition of the world-wide misery. But how might such a blessing be obtained for future generations of mankind? That was one of the great problems which the soldiers bequeathed to the statesmen.
How strife between individuals has been diminished.
Can this Desire be Realized?—Now it is believed by many that war can never be permanently abolished except by applying to nations a principle which men have applied to themselves as individuals, that is to say, by establishing an organization whereby all controversies can be settled without resort to force. Treaties of amity and arbitration among nations are valuable so far as they go; but so long as there is no high authority with power to administer justice between nation and nation each must look to its own self-preservation. This means that each feels obliged to regard war as a possibility and to be prepared for it. Without sufficient assurance against the possibility of war it is idle to expect that nations will wholly disarm. And when interests clash and the passions of men are aroused they will use the weapons which are at hand.
The motive behind the League of Nations.