AND THE RECURRENCE OF WAR. 279 



an international force to insure peace among the nations which was 

 launched last year here in Philadelphia in our old Pennsylvania State 

 House, only a stone's throw across the square from this hall. That 

 League to Enforce Peace was organized on June i6 and ly last.^° 

 The most important object of the league in its purpose to form a 

 league among the nations for the preservation of peace is described 

 in a brief paragraph as follows : 



"The signatory powers shall jointly use forthwith both their 

 economic and military forces against any one of their number that 

 goes to war, or commits acts of hostility, against another of the 

 signatories before any question arising shall be submitted " either to 

 an international judicial tribunal or to a council of conciliation. 



The idea of the league embodied in the above resolution is not to 

 form a league to make war in order to maintain the peace of nations 

 upon a power not a member of the league, but merely to restrain a 

 member of the league from attacking another member state without 

 first having submitted legal cases of quarrel to an international court 

 or political disputes to a council of mediation. That proposal is a 

 first step, if it can be carried successfully into effect, towards the 

 formation of either a World Federation, or at least a federation of 

 a great part of the world. The difficulties in the way are enormous. 

 Nevertheless, C'est le premier pas qui coute, the bishop told the 

 King of Paris when the latter was thinking of adding by conquest 

 to his domain the little town of Saint Denis a few miles to the north 

 of Paris. Perhaps the step taken in the historic Colonial State 

 House of Pennsylvania last June, may possibly be the first step 

 towards the formation of a great international force that will up- 

 hold the peace of nations. 



As upon the ending of the present Great War, a great deal will 

 possibly be heard of substituting international justice for inter- 

 national war in settling the differences of nations, and indeed already 

 much has been said on that subject in the Americas since the war 

 began, it will be well not to forget the stern realities that the world 

 must face in seeking to accomplish such a beneficient object. 



A study of the history of the world, more especially since the 



^° " League to Enforce Peace," printed by the League to Enforce Peace, 

 Fifth Avenue, New York, 191 5. 



