No nation can agree not to make war and retain the right
to make it. No nation can agree to submit to arbitration and re
tain the right not to arbitrate. None can agree not to fight
until within three months after decision and retain the right to
fight earlier.
The sovereignty of a nation, its right to do exactly as at
any moment it pleases, is impaired by whatever it yields, and
must be so impaired.
- There can be no such thing as contract of world peace
which leaves with each nation the right to do as it pleases
about war. Sovereignty is and must be impaired, to the extent
of what is yielded.
To talk of a league of peace as being r,n abolition of the
sovereignty of America is a stupidity. The Covenant touches
a very few of the multitude of things a nation may do, to bring
those things into the League of Nations, precisely as the col
onies funded portions of their powers into the United States
of America.
We may he sure that if a League of Nations is established
to have control of certain international affairs, its powers will
at last extend to all of those interests which the world has in
common which in some way need to be settled, and each state
will part with its right to settle the affairs of the world, in fa
vor of a settlement of such affairs by the world.
The delightful desire to do exactly as one pleases is no
longer a rule of action by which individuals or peoples may live
to the best advantage.
S
times, and always will be in the world.
