American Objections to the Covenant.—When the provisions of the covenant were finally adopted by the Peace Conference, objections were urged in various countries, but more particularly in the United States. To what features was objection made? Some objected to the provision which gives the British Empire six votes in the Assembly of the League while the United States had but one.[[305]] Article X of the covenant, by which the nations who enter the League must guarantee one another’s territory and independence against outside aggression was also objected to, for it seemed to pledge the United States to defend boundary lines in all parts of the world. Many feared that this provision would some day require the use of American soldiers in distant places. Objection was also raised against certain provisions of the peace treaty, such as that which turned over to Japan the territorial and other rights in the Chinese province of Shantung, which had been held by Germany.[[306]] And in general there was a feeling that if the United States were to enter the League, this action would involve a continual entanglement in European affairs and a complete abandonment of America’s traditional policy.
The proposed reservations.
It was at first believed that by making reservations on these various points the United States could overcome the more important objections, ratify the treaty, and enter the League. But President Wilson declined to accept such reservations and in the end the whole document, treaty and covenant together, failed to receive the requisite two-thirds vote in the Senate.
The presidential election of 1920 was fought out on this issue. The Democratic candidate declared in favor of entering the League with suitable reservations, while the Republican candidate made no explicit pledge as to what course he would pursue although he seemed for a time to favor the formation of a new association on a somewhat different basis. |The ultimate decision.| After the election, which resulted in a decisive Republican victory, President Harding announced that the United States would not enter the League; the project of a new association was quietly dropped; and a separate peace with the new German republic was concluded.
The League at Work.—The refusal of the United States to assume membership was a severe, and possibly a fatal, blow to the strength and prestige of the League. It is as though the state of New York, a century and a quarter ago, had declined to ratify the constitution, leaving the other twelve states to form a union by themselves. |What the League has done.| Nevertheless, the League of Nations seems to be a going concern; it has established headquarters at Geneva; its Secretariat has been organized; its Council has held many sessions; its Assembly has been twice convoked; its court has been established; labor conferences have been held; mandates have been allotted; commissions have been appointed; and a good deal of important business has been transacted. Its members are very anxious to have the United States join with them and would doubtless go a long way in accepting whatever reasonable reservations this country might choose to make. But there is no immediate probability that America will become a member on any terms. The problem which now engages the attention of the American government is that of arranging, through treaties and conferences, for the removal of the various dangers to peace in the future.
Can the work be done by a series of conferences?
The League and the Washington Conference.—The calling of the Washington Conference was the first step in this direction. The agreements reached at this conference represent a very substantial step in the direction of avoiding future wars but they do not cover the whole field of possible controversy. They leave untouched the whole question of land armaments and deal with none of the chief European problems. It is taken for granted that other conferences will be called from time to time, each for the purpose of dealing with some specific set of international questions, and there are many who believe that the primary purposes which the League of Nations was intended to fulfill can be served in this way. One advantage of the conference plan is that it allows each nation to retain greater freedom of action; but this is also a defect, for it permits any single country to block progress by merely declining to join with the others when a conference is called. The Washington Conference demonstrated how easy it is to reach agreements in the common interest when nations come together for a free and frank discussion.
A lost opportunity.
Will the League of Nations Live?—Will the League slowly acquire strength despite the failure of the United States to become a member? Or will the League gradually lose all its reason for existence, save as an agency for carrying out the terms of the peace treaty, and when these terms are fulfilled, pass out of existence? These are questions which no one can answer today. The close of the war gave the world its greatest opportunity to devise a plan which would forever put an end to the curse of war and usher in a long era of international amity. Men labored long and diligently to provide such a plan, but they failed to achieve a full measure of success.
Where the blame for this partial failure belongs is not a matter that it can profit the world much to discuss. The opportunity came and has gone. Whether the partial failure can ever be retrieved, whether the League devised at Paris will survive the severe setback given to it by the action of the United States, are things which only the next generation can determine. In spite of its handicap, however, the League must strive to maintain its existence, for its continuance is essential to the enforcement of the peace treaty. Those nations which are interested in seeing the provisions of the treaty fulfilled must either use the League, or provide other machinery in its place, or else revise the terms of peace, and on the whole, the first alternative seems to be the easier one. To the exhausted nations of Europe it offers some hope of relief from the burden of great armaments, and to small countries throughout the world the League stands as a means of obtaining a fair hearing for their grievances. It is easy enough to pick flaws in the covenant; but is there any likelihood that a different document would gain the adhesion of fifty-one states? No such number ever agreed to anything of the sort before.