A Better World (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1920. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II THE LEAGUE AND A CHANGING WOBLD i THE LEAGUE AS A LIVING THING The only ground on which the League of Nations can claim the moral support of enlightened conscience, in view of the atmosphere of moral compromise in which it and the Treaty of Peace were born, is that the League is to be the living thing -which President Wilson called it, regarding both itself and the affairs of the world as moving, not static. Before outlining in later chapters how Christian public sentiment may vitalize the new international relationships, we wish to indicate with plainness the equally great possibilities of ossification with which the League of Nations is threatened. If the League actually becomes, as some of its liberal critics say it will, an effort to put the final seal of approval upon settlements which are iniquitous and plainly dishonest, with a view to suppressing every effort to correct the mistakes which have been made, armed efforts if necessary; if the League regards itself and the world as static, it will not last very long. If, on the other hand, the League regards itself, or rather if its component parts regard it, as an agency the traditions and spirit of which are yet to be established, it is compelled by the same logic to look both at home and abroad, to survey its weak foundations and immediately initiate the efforts to strengthen them. The signatories of the League of Nations are hardly farther apart in political, social, economic and religious ideals than were the original signatories of the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Every cooperative movement entails the voluntary restriction of some of the individual liberties of the cooperators and nowhere is the willingness to compromise more necess...