AMERICAN COÖPERATION WITH THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS1 By MANLEY O. HUDSON BEMIS PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW The United States has not "joined" the League of Nations. At any rate it is clear that the American Government has not become a party to the Covenant. But it is not so clear that America is wholly out of the League. With fifty-four peoples of the world coöperating to deal with the world's common affairs, it would be indeed strange if America had no part. President Harding voiced this when he wrote to Bishop Gailor, in 1923, "I do not believe any man can confront the responsibility of a President of the United States and yet adhere to the idea that it is possible for our country to maintain an attitude of isolation and aloofness in the world." The truth is, that in spite of our efforts, in spite of our Government's attitude, in spite of the fulminations in the Senate, the United States has not seceded from the organized world. It has not kept out of the activities of the League of Nations. Individual Americans first became engaged; then American philanthropic organizations; and then the Government. The result is that many of the League's activities are today manned from this side of the Atlantic. The whole story needs to be told. Part of the record may be found in the Manchester Guardian Weekly, of February 29, 1924. When the Council of the League held its twenty-eighth session in Geneva, in March, 1924, some Americans were probably surprised to read the New York Times despatches of March 10 and March 23, about the prominent rôle of Americans in the current work of the Council. But the coöperation extends through the 1 1 Reprinted with slight additions from the New York Times of April 6, 1924. whole period since the Covenant was promulgated as a part of the treaties of peace. 1. Organization of the League. The formal beginning of the League's work dates from the coming into force of the Covenant on January 10, 1920. It was at the call of President Wilson that the Council held its first session a week later. Colonel Edward M. House, of Austin, Texas, had represented the United States during 1919 as a member of the organizing committee which made the plan for launching the machinery. During 1920, a serious question was raised as to moving the headquarters of the League to Geneva, but President Wilson's firmness in calling the first Assembly to meet at Geneva on November 15, 1920, put an end to the uncertainty. 2. International Court. The first task undertaken by the Council of the League was to set up a Commission of Jurists to draft the Statute for the Permanent Court of International Justice. Mr. Elihu Root, of New York, formerly Secretary of State, accepted an invitation to be a member of this Committee, and on arriving at The Hague in June, 1920, he became one of the leaders in its work. He was assisted by Dr. James Brown Scott, of Washington, Director of the Division of International Law of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. When the first judges of the Court were elected in September, 1921, the names of four Americans were on the list of nominees eligible to election: Prof. John Bassett Moore, of Columbia University, nominated by the Italian group in the Permanent Court of Arbitration; Dean Roscoe Pound, of the Harvard Law School, nominated by the Siamese group; Mr. Elihu Root, nominated by the Bolivian, Brazilian, French, Uruguayan and Venezuelan groups; and Dr. James Brown Scott, nominated by the Haitian group. Mr. Root declined to accept if elected, and Professor Moore was elected and at once accepted. As a judge of the Court Professor Moore has been present at four of the five sessions held during 1922 and 1923. One of the Siamese group which nominated Dean Pound was an American, Mr. Eldon R. James, of Cincinnati. The American group in the Permanent Court of Arbitration— Messrs. George Gray, John Bassett Moore, Elihu Root and Oscar S. Straus-were invited in June, 1921, to make nominations as provided by the Statute of the Court. The invitation got |