Miami News-Record from Miami, Oklahoma • 6

i World War at of nations dlllllllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIh controversial And these the League II all of Howoartoon ists in four European nations view the League A Berlin newspaper sees it as a nutcracker operated by a complaining Angel of Peace can crack ever nut except dis armament" a I i a UN Al Veneva assemblyoi nations has Justified its creation and annual expenses of five million dollars is here answered through a simple summary of jiist what supporters of the league claim it Chas? WcpmpUshedl 1 i A I A 2 since its first meeting tit Paris in 1920 "SJIIIIillllllB ri 1 syv i 3 si birthday of' the League of Nations 1 hw child was born ot i the famous treaties 'of Deace drawn un at the close of the At that time the world was in the denth of black despair Nations had fought each other for tour lone years while the Allies finally won the war it was a pyrrhic victory 'Their blood had been shed and their fortune had been expended to nearly as great 'an extent as in the case of the Central Powers It was natural human nature being what it is that the Allied governments! should have for gotten about all of the fine ideals for which they had been supposedly fighting And when the peace conference came they attempted' to wreak revenge upon the German people and to walk off with as much lucre as they could con Their demands were resisted by a president of the' United States Woodrow Wilson by name And while he finally accepted many vindictive provisions in the peace treaties it was only on condition that an organization called the League 'of Nations should be established This League would in the eyes of President Wilson gradually remove the defects of the peace treaties gradually bring together the ene mies of the World War gradually build up a world community in which nations would for good'' In Wilson's view the vindictive provisions of the peace treaty were to be temporary but the processes of international co operation em bodied in the League of were to be permanent THE League of Nations was officially born on the 10th of January 1920 Only 24 Rations were present at the birth The representatives of these nations were good but unimportant men No government then took the League seriously Many people thought the child would soon die The father of the child the United States had disowned its offspring the League was a foundling upon the doorstep of Europe During the first few years a number of gov ernments failed to pay their dues and the League nearly went bankrupt It did not even have enough money to print the records of some of its most important committees It is need less to add that when the League was first es tablished none of the defeated powers was in vited to become a member During the last 10 years the League has thrown off its swaddling clothes And al though 10 years is not a long time today the League has nearly become a man Its mem bership has grown urtil it now includes 54 states located in every corner of the world It is a mistake to think of the League as a European organization since 29 of its mem bers consist of non European states The cosmopolitanism of the League is shown by the fact that the president of the Council today is a His Highness Moham med Ali Khan aroughi The president of the last Assembly was a distinguished Latin American diplomat Dr Guerrero of Salvador The growing importance of the League is also shown by the fact that whereas govern ments originally sent comparatively obscure men to the meetings at Geneva today these govern 1 ments send their most distinguished representa tives Tbus 22 out of the 26 foreign ministers of Europe and seven prime ministers including Ramsay MacDonald were present at the last Assembly Most important of all the League now in cludes those countries defeated in the last war Germany was admitted in 1 926 and since then has been as active as any other state in the world in advancing the interests of peace The League is simnlv a bodv working together to promote common ends by co operative means The League has no flag it has no army it has no power to tolled any taxes It is just a group of the governments of the world who come together to do things which they cotild not do separately No state is obliged to join the League and any state may resign from it simply by giving two years' notice These different organizations of the League havftwo main purposes: one is to settle disputes peace fully 'which otherwise might lead to war tire second is to remove underlying causes of disputes which have led to international troubles in the past Members of the League take an oath that when they become engaged in a quarrel they will not go to war but will send their quarrel cither 'to the' World Court or to the League Council It is generally recognized however that the World Court must confine itself to legal to disputes in which some principle of international law is involved The Trench cress posed entry into the League she get in without upselling the asked 4 hti 4Ij 1 Iff 4 cl been the aggressor and should pay damages to Bulgaria and Greece loyally paid the bill Altogether the Council by such procedure has been successful in preventing half a dozen wars from breaking out 'An imposing record for so short a time as 10 years vs: While these activities in preventing states from going" to war are important the more fun dmental if more quiet and more difficult ac tivftiMof the League' relate to removing the underlying causesof disputes Why is it that nations fight? Do they fight for the fun of it or do they fight because they believe some vital interest is at stakg? If you study the great wars of history you will find that nations do not fight for the fun of it' but they fight in order to safeguard what tney regard to be national weltare ana inde pendence A cynical Italian view of internationalism they speak of peace above board at Geneva under the table they constantly kick one lHE great causes of war today are disputes I arising out oi economic questions sucn as tariffs debts struggles for foreign markets and concessions of the mistreatment of foreign ers and minorities of unjust boundary lines and of armaments 1 If the League of Nations is to succeed in its task of securing world peace all these problems must be? tackled and they must be solved In its eafly years the League steered clear of con troversial issueslt not strong enough to intervene for example between Germany and the Allies in their dispute over reparations Until 1926 at any rate the League wasli underk controhof the 'Allied powers who were 4 interested primarily in maintaining the status Hi quo established in J9l9z Nevertheless within recent years the League has proved more active in ns aesire to remove me underlying causes or war' Through its work in the financial reconstruct tion of Austria and Hungary the League has brought about a vast improvement in the politi cal conditions of Central Europe It has been? the existence of the League which has made possible the gradual decline of the hatred between rance and Germany League held an important economic confer enccin 1927 and'it has called another such conference for 1930 Generally speaking the 'League has al ready accomplished a great deal in the for 1 mulation of new international law Under auspices about 75 new have been" signed regulating the conduct of nations' Extent of the work of the Councilmay be indicated by the fact that during its first 53 sessions it transacted 2400 items of business or the first time in history' weL haye continuously functioning interna is tional machinery out of which a world con science may gradually be evolved TPONthe tenth birthday of this unique international institution it should be poinjed out that the League has not beent the failure predicted for it mies' nor has the League achieved as many successes as its friends have desired Nevertheless during these first 1 0 years tlib League has solidly established itself as a factor in international life As one im portant statesman said the other day if this League were to be destroyed the nations would immediately have to construct another a result of the conference 'system es tablished by the League' the habit of holding discussions has gradually come to take the place of the old habit of sending ultimatums As a result of these discussions 'the founds tions Are being laid for tire establishment of an international 'society vfrom which war will be definitely banned This society has not yet arrived But its foundations have been laid during the last 10 years The erection of'the superstructure is the task of the future HERE 'briefly and in tabulated form are some of the more important tilings that have been accomplished by the League during its first 10 years 1 Brought about the establishment of the World Court 1920 2 Prevented possible war between Swe den and inland over the Aaland Islands 1920 3 Settled disputes between the Allies and Germany over Upper Silesia and Me mel 1922 I 4 Made Italy evacuate Corfu 1923 1 5 Prevented Poland and Lithuania from going to war over 6 Stopped the war between Greece and Bulgaria 1925 7 Co operated with the Pan American Arbitration Conference in stopping a war between Bolivia and Paraguay 1929 8 Saved Hungary and Austria from bankruptcy 1922 23 i 9 Stopped the sufferings of millions of ref ugees provided them with work 1 0" ought epidemics and promoted health around the world 1 1 Established and supervised the mandate system of ruling primitive peoples 1 2 Organized international economic con ference 1927 1 3 Made treaties to improve labor condi tions "around the world 14 'Made other treaties to facilitate travel between countries 15 Started the codification of international law? 5 7 16 Organized a campaign against slavery and forced labor 1 7 Improved the condition of European minorities 18 Published about 1 800 treaties thus doing away' with secret treaties rpHE two great world powers who do not belong to the League 'today are Soviet Russia and the United States Both of these governments have however come to co operate whole heartedly with the League of Nations in many of its activities As long aS the Commuinst party is in control in Moscow no one may predict whether or not Russia will eventually enter the League upon the basis of the capitalist powers There are however many students who be lieve that the United States sooner or later will become an member of the League that is' the United States will eventually send representatives to the Assembly and the Council to aid 'these bodies in conciliating disputes which thi eaten to violate the anti war pact and also to participate in the formulation of new law When another birthday of the" League rolls around it may' be that this sort of relationship between tfye United States and the League will have been established If this prophecy proves true the strength of the international movement to ban war from the earth will have been im WHAT do these men do at Geneva? In other words how is the League organ ized aiid what are its objects? The largest wheel the League machine is the As sembly which consists of representatives of every member state This body meets every September Geneva Its duties are many supervises the work of the other organizations the League and it discusses any question affecting the peace of the world In some ways the As sembly resembles the World Parliament of which philos ophers and poets have dreamed in the past Through its annual meet ings several hundred of the most important political and intellectual people from nearly every country in the world come in to personal contact at Geneva One of Ae greatest functions of the Assem bly is that it helns one nation to understand each other by creating personal contacts About wu journalists representing important papers from all over the world including the United States follow in detail the debates at Geneva When a statesman speaks at the Assembly he knows that he has a world audience JSimply as a forum for discussion the Assembly has a powerful educational influence upon world opinion The second body of the League smaller in membership and more active when it comes to administrative detail is the Council This body now consists of 14 members: rance Germany Great Britain Italy and laoan are nermanent members ind nine other niembers are chosen every three years by the Assembly 1 he Council hereafter will meet three tunes 1 year while special sessions may be called lambonn shows Uncle Sam and Snvie1 Russia lone League holdouts as wall flowers at the League of Nations ball BUT the most important and disputes are disputes are placed before CfHinril A An example of how the Council' acts is as follows: In October 1 925 a Greek soldier was killed by a Bulgarian sentryGreece started to march an army into There was a danger that a new Balkan war would break out Instead of resisting invasion Bulgaria sent a telegram to the League of Nations asking for help The League Council hurriedly met in Paris and at once sent telegrams to Greece and Bul garia to stop fighting and to withdraw their troops from the frontier These governments both agreed to do so and a commission of mil itary officers appointed by the League Council investigated the situation and reported that the promise had been kept Having thus induced these two' states to stop fighting the Council then proceeded to decide who had been responsible for thefighting or this purpose it sent another commission to in vestigate the affair on 'the spot This commis sion after careful inquiry ruled that Greece had il'i pyrlght 1930 By EveryWfek Printed In A) 4 LESLIE KI El be the annual meeting of the t' a stockholders while the Coun Research Drrector ofeign cij is lhe Board of Policy Assoaaltorr Underneath the Council Nare a oLcommitteesand technical organizations Thui there is an organization for Com municatioh and 'Transit whose job is to make it easyto travel from one country to another There is a Health organization which is work ing out international means for fighting disease especially epidemics There is the Economic and inancial Or ganization which has 'arranged loans which have rescued Austria' and Hungary from bankruptcy and which has brought substantial aid to other statef such as' Bulgaria and Greece There is an important commission on Man dates which watches over the administration of 1 4 different areas taken from Germany and Turkey The purpose of this commission is to see that in these various terri tories are foremost npHERE isai commission on opium which is trying to stop the illicit habit There is a White 'Slave Commission which has appalling conditions in regard to the traffic in prostitutes in various parte of the world There haS been also a commis sion on the Black Slave Traffic which is work ing hard to bring an end to slavery in Africa We should not moreover forget that a League Commission lias during the last1 10 years been governing the Saar errifory and that a League commissioner has been in charge of the port of Danzig inally mention should made of' theLeague Secretariat This is an international civil service composed of about 600 officialsfrom 36 nationalities These' people are per manent employes of the League Their job is to keep the whole League machinery oiled Alongside of'the League of Nations there has also grown up during the last 1 0 years a World Court located at the Hague and the International Labor Office located near the League Secretariat at Geneva The latter' organization brings together representatives of employers and employes with the purpose of improving world labor conditions As a re sult of the efforts of this office a numbet of important international labor treaties have been made i i HOW much does it cost to run this organ ization? The paltry sum of $5000000 a year wThis is the price of one fortieth of a battleship the cost of a single submarine As the' above figures show the way of peace is tlie only real way of economy Such are the manifold organizations which hyve come into existence during the first 10 years of the League of Nations Their work is all tied together by the Council and by the Assembly But the League of Nations is not a superstate Except' in minor matters no ac tion of the Assembly or Council may bind any government without its consent Ten Yeors of the Leooue 'woHk V' cornered Xoa coomtion TllC 'IH'ddt 011600 Of Whether OIlOt tile generally op "Can she get in the cartoon below' in Petit Provencal gif X'iiiiiiyiiiihiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijiiiiHiiiiiii 1 S2 A 4 ft ill 4 fi i 111 I 6 CS sss EE 1 A I Ip i I i is I Xeii I ft' I I 1 3 ZX i bs 1 1 Ji a 1 l'l 31 1 1 measurably strengthened Cy XX I pZ'pP P'X 'I 7 1'1 5 wiMiiium iiiiBiiuiuiiiiiiiiniiiiiiuHB fc? ft 7 1 4 llfll nil 1 akd WT" kov i I'" WwfW mwjlf I 11 WTWawl 1 I IX Mfl' I i a IP I fir Jz I i I I uf ff 'wj 'jesjt'w I a.