It must be a league
of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals
away; the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they would
and render account to no one, would be a corruption seated at its very
heart. Only a free people can hold their purpose and their honor
steady to a common end, and prefer the interests of mankind to any
narrow interest of their own."
These are admirable words of truth and of philosophic depth, words
which deserve to be graven in stone. No autocracy, then, in the League
of Nations, no German militarism nor Austrian imperialism in it. No
universal league of nations, even, but a limited society, a society of
democracies!
Certain hasty critics have observed neither the same prudence nor
logic as President Wilson. They have been farther from the truth, much
farther from the truth. They have falsified his text, as do all
commentators. They have desired to build complete in all details the
League of Nations, which only existed in outline. They have succeeded
in showing how difficult the construction would be, and they have only
been able to set up a house of cards which the first breath of wind
would knock down.
For example, this is how one of the most eminent French socialists, M.
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