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Issued January, 1925
Potential causes of war confront us on every hand.Peace has not come. Our military men tell us that gettingready for war is the way to peace. It is their duty toprepare the nation for war. This method, however, willnot bring peace. It will only hasten another world war,and that would fatally weaken our white civilization.
To possess peace with justice and security, we mustbuild machinery adequate to settle all internationaldisputes that might cause war, and we must create behindthe machinery a world opinion so strong that no nationwill defy it. Small national armed forces theoretically cansupplement world opinion, but the reliance must be onworld opinion. Competitive armaments, the result offear or ambition, must be progressively abolished byinternational agreement. International understanding andgoodwill must be consistently cultivated beginning in theschools. The road to peace is a long uphill road.
For machinery we shall require a court for our legaldisputes and a town meeting of the world for the rest.I favor immediate adherence to the existing World Courtwith the Hughes reservations. For the world town meeting,I believe that we should join the existing League ofNations with reservations on Articles X and XVI in orderthat we may avoid both legal and moral commitmentsto use either military or economic force. These seem to meto be the first two steps towards peace.
The third step is the outlawry of war. Since this willinvolve sacrifice of sovereignty in certain respects for thesake of peace, with a voluntary agreement to submit tothe proper tribunal all disputes that threaten war, itrequires a higher development of the will to peace thandoes the creation of the Court and League. It will failif attempted as a political device to perpetuate the statusquo. It can succeed only when the nations, and especiallythe great powers, are willing to be just, have a reasonableappreciation of one another’s problems, and are actuatedby a fair degree of goodwill.
The Geneva Protocol for the Pacific Settlement ofInternational Disputes and Senator Borah’s proposal forthe outlawry of war should be studied together in the lightof the concrete problems to be solved, especially thepolitical and human problems. I believe that the provisionfor “sanctions” to be automatically applied isimpracticable.
A conference for the reduction and limitation of land,sea, and air armaments is imperatively needed in theinterest of economy and world peace. No one knows howsoon such a conference can be held with reasonable assuranceof even partial success. All nations must participate.I believe that a c