8.3. The League of Nations Debate http://www.ck12.org
8.3 The League of Nations Debate
After the end of World War I, in January 1919, the Allied Powers met at the Paris Peace Conference to decide on
the terms of the treaty that would be presented to the defeated Central Powers. The Allies also created the League of
Nations, an inter-governmental organization charged with peacefully resolving disputes between nations, promoting
disarmament, and protecting human rights.
After the Paris Peace Conference, President Woodrow Wilson returned to the U.S. and tried to persuade Congress to
ratify the treaty and join the League of Nations. The first document below is a speech given by Wilson in support of
the League. The second is a speech by Republican senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who opposed the league.
League of Nations Speech –Woodrow Wilson
Source: Speech given by President Woodrow Wilson in Pueblo Colorado, September 25, 1919. Wilson toured the
country to rally popular support for the treaty of Paris and the League of Nations.
My fellow citizens, as I have crossed the continent, I have perceived more and more that men have been busy creating
an absolutely false impression of the treaty of peace and the Covenant of the League of Nations.
At the front of this great treaty is the Covenant of the League of Nations. Reflect, my fellow citizens that the
membership of this great League is going to include all the great fighting nations of the world, as well as the weak
ones.
And what do they unite for? They enter into a solemn promise to one another that they will never use their power
against one another for aggression; that they never will violate theterritorialintegrity of a neighbor; that they never
will interfere with the political independence of a neighbor; that they willabide by the principle that great populations
are entitled to determine their own destiny; and that no matter what differences arise between them they will never
resort to war without first submitting their differences to the consideration of the council of the League of Nations,
and agreeing that at the end of the six months, even if they do not accept the advice of the council, they will still not
go to war for another three months.
I wish that those who oppose this settlement could feel the moral obligation that rests upon us not to turn our backs
on the boys who died, but to see the thing through, to see it through to the end and make good theirredemption of
the world.
For nothing less depends upon this decision, nothing less than liberation and salvation of the world.
You will say, “Is the League an absolute guaranty against war?” No; I do not know any absolute guaranty against the
errors of human judgment or the violence of human passions but I tell you this: With a cooling space of nine months
for human passion, not much of it will keep hot.
We have accepted the truth of justice and liberty and peace, and this truth is going to lead us, and through us the
world, out into pastures of quietness and peace such as the world never dreamed of before.
Vocabulary
Territorial integrity
borders of a country