W H Y A L E A G U E O F N A T I O N S

I S N E C E S S A R Y

1 9 1 9

–––––––––––––––––––––– Woodrow Wilson –––––––––––––––––––––

…We are assembled under very peculiar conditions of world opinion. I may

say without straining the point that we are not representatives of governments,

but representatives of peoples. It will not suffice to satisfy governmental circles

anywhere. It is necessary that we should satisfy the opinion of mankind. The

burdens of this war have fallen in an unusual degree upon the whole population

of the countries involved.…

It is a solemn obligation on our part, therefore, to make permanent

arrangements that justice shall be rendered and peace maintained. This is the

central object of our meeting. Settlements may be temporary, but the action of

the nations in the interest of peace and justice must be permanent. We can set

up permanent processes. We may not be able to set up permanent decisions.

Therefore, it seems to me that we must take, so far as we can, a picture of the

world into our minds.

Is it not a startling circumstance, for one thing, that the great discoveries of

science, that the quiet studies of men in laboratories, that the thoughtful

developments which have taken place in quiet lecture rooms, have now been

turned to the destruction of civilization? The powers of destruction have not so

much multiplied as gained facility. The enemy whom we have just overcome

had at his seats of learning some of the principal centers of scientific study and

discovery, and he used them in order to make destruction sudden and

complete; and only the watchful, continuous cooperation of men can see to it

that science as well as armed men are kept within the harness of civilization.

In a sense the United States is less interested in this subject than the other

nations here assembled. With her great territory and her extensive sea borders,

it is less likely that the United States should suffer from the attack of enemies

than that many of the other nations here should suffer; and the ardor of the

United States—for it is a very deep and genuine ardor—for the society of nations

is not an ardor springing out of fear or apprehension, but an ardor springing out

of the ideals which have come to consciousness in this war.

In coming into this war the United States never for a moment thought that she

was intervening in the politics of Europe or the politics of Asia or the politics of

any part of the world. Her thought was that all the world had now become

conscious that there was a single cause which turned upon the issues of this

war. That was the cause of justice and of liberty for men of every kind and

place. Therefore the United States should feel that its part in this war had been

played in vain if there ensued upon it a body of European settlements. It would

feel that it could not take part in guaranteeing those European settlements

unless that guarantee involved the continuous superintendence of the peace of

the world by the associated nations of the world.

Therefore, it seems to me that we must concert our best judgment in order to

make this League of Nations a vital thing—not merely a formal thing, not an

occasional thing, not a thing sometimes called into life to meet an exigency, but

always functioning in watchful attendance upon the interests of the nations.…

And if we do not make it vital, what shall we do? We shall disappoint the

expectations of the peoples. This is what their thought centers upon. I have had

the very delightful experience of visiting several nations since I came to this side

of the water, and every time the voice of the body of the people reached me

through any representative, at the front of the plea stood the hope for the

League of Nations. Gentlemen, the select classes of mankind are no longer the

governors of mankind. The fortunes of mankind are now in the hands of the

plain people of the whole world. Satisfy them, and you have justified their

confidence not only but established peace. Fail to satisfy them, and no

arrangement that you can make will either set up or steady the peace of the

world.…

You can imagine, gentlemen, I dare say, the sentiments and the purposes

with which the representatives of the United States support this great project for

a League of Nations. We regard it as the keystone of the whole programme,

which expressed our purposes and ideals in this war and which the associated

nations accepted as the basis of the settlement. If we return to the United States

without having made every effort in our power to realize this programme, we

should return to meet the merited scorn of our fellow citizens. For they are a

body that constitutes a great democracy.

They expect their leaders to speak their thoughts and no private purpose of

their own. They expect their representatives to be their servants. We have no

choice but to obey their mandate. But it is with the greatest enthusiasm and

pleasure that we accept that mandate; and because this is the keystone of the

whole fabric, we have pledged our every purpose to it, as we have to every item

of the fabric. We would not dare abate a single item of the program which

constitutes our instruction. We would not dare compromise upon any matter as

the champion of this thing, this peace of the world, this attitude of justice, this

principle that we are the masters of no people but are here to see that every

people in the world shall choose its own masters and govern its own destinies,

not as we wish but as it wishes.

We are here to see, in short, that the very foundations of this war are swept

away. Those foundations were the private choice of small coteries of civil rulers

and military staffs. Those foundations were the aggression of great powers upon

small. Those foundations were the folding together of empires of unwilling

subjects by the duress of arms. Those foundations were the power of small

bodies of men to work their will and use mankind as pawns in a game. And

nothing less than the emancipation of the world from these things will

accomplish peace.…

…As I go about the streets here I see everywhere the American uniform.

Those men came into the war after we had uttered our purposes. They came as

crusaders, not merely to win a war, but to win a cause; and I am responsible to

them, for it fell to me to formulate the purposes for which I asked them to fight,

and I, like them, must be a crusader for these things whatever it costs and

whatever it may be necessary to do, in honor, to accomplish the object for

which they fought.

I have been glad to find from day to day that there is no question of our

standing alone in this matter, for there are champions of this cause upon every

hand. I am merely avowing this in order that you may understand why,

perhaps, it fell to us, who are disengaged from the politics of this great

continent and of the Orient, to suggest that this was the keystone of the arch and

why it occurred to the generous mind of our president to call upon me to open

this debate. It is not because we alone represent this idea, but because it is our

privilege to associate ourselves with you in representing it.

I have tried in what I have said to give you the fountains of the enthusiasm

which is within us for this thing, for those fountains spring, it seems to me, from

all the ancient wrongs and sympathies of mankind, and the very pulse of the

world seems to beat on the surface in this enterprise.

Source: Woodrow Wilson’s Case for the League of Nations, edited by Hamilton

Foley (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1923), pp. 211–219.