THE FUTURE OF THE LEAGUE

The first meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations has come to an end. Its crowning achievement was the fact that it actually worked for five continuous weeks. Those who asserted that the League was dead will have to admit a resurrection; those who saw in Argentina's haughty withdrawal the beginning of the end will have to confess their error. For five weeks delegates from forty-one states sat at Geneva and accomplished more than any other Congress in that time; they proved that cooperation was possible. No one can doubt any longer the reality of a working League of Nations.

When the Assembly next meets, one vital question is sure to arise: the relations of the Assembly to the Council. Those who designed the League adopted the theory that the five Powers must be given special privileges and authority if they were to become members; at the same time it was thought that the smaller nations would feel so grateful for remaining intact after the War that they would willingly concede this power. No sooner had the session begun, however, than it was evident that these lesser nations were bent on making the Assembly, instead of the Council, the leading body in the League. Their attack was supported vigorously by such men as Lord Robert Cecil of South Africa and N. W. Rowell of Canada.

Half of the reasoning which prompted the founders of the League of Nations, was correct. England, France, Italy and Japan will never agree to decisions which are made entirely by small nations. They must have enough power to maintain their superiority--not enough to abuse it. How can the lesser States be brought to accept this proposition? How can natural jealousy be banished and universal justice practiced?

No other country can do more to answer these questions than the United States. We have the confidence of the greatest and smallest nations to a degree unheard of in the world's history; we can enter the League at any minute and on any terms we please. If our presence was sorely missed at the first meeting of the Assembly, at the next it may be indispensable. We must realize our responsibility and then render a decision.