Man


Here in a thimble
seed of Man
enough to fill every womb in the land
womb within womb
seed within seed
all in a thimble
Say
what shall we say
of Man?

Myriad myriad
seed of Man
born and dead and back in the land
myriad myriad
still to be sown
and then one day Man shall be grown
Man who shall be
finally free
Then he shall say
              who he is
              why he is
              all he is
              Man.


ANNEXES


Annex 1: Illustrative Constitution


The draft constitution that follows is meant to make the proposed Union
clearer by illustrating how the democracies might unite. This draft is
not intended to be a hard and fast plan. Practically all of its
provisions, however, are time-tested.

The draft is drawn entirely from the Constitution of the American Union,
except for (1) a few provisions that, although not drawn from it, are
based on American practice (notably Art. II, sections 1, 2, 4, 5), and
(2) a few innovations: These latter are given in italics so that they
may be seen at once. Most of the draft taken from the American
Constitution has been taken textually, though its provisions have
sometimes been re-arranged with a view to greater clarity and
condensation, and once or twice they have been made more explicit and
somewhat expanded. The Preamble is the only serious example of this
last. In the American Constitution the Preamble reads:

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.

No important element in the American Constitution has been omitted. The
draft follows:

ILLUSTRATIVE CONSTITUTION

We the people of The Union of the Free, in order to secure freedom
equally to every man and woman now and to come, to lessen ignorance,
poverty, and disease, to insure our defense, to promote justice and the
general welfare, to provide government of ourselves, by ourselves, and
for ourselves on the principle of the equality of men, and to bring
peace on earth and union to mankind, do establish this as our
Constitution.

PART I

THE RIGHTS OF MAN

ARTICLE I. -- IN THE INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM THIS CONSTITUTION IS MADE TO
SECURE WE INCLUDE:

1. Freedom of speech and of the press and of conscience.

2. Freedom to organize ourselves for any purpose except to change by
violence this Constitution and the laws made under it; freedom to
assemble peaceably and to ask redress of grievances and make proposals.

3. Freedom of our persons, dwellings, communications papers and effects
from unreasonable searches and seizures and from warrants unless issued
upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be
seized.

4. Freedom from ex post facto law and from bills of attainder.

5. Freedom from suspension of the writ of habeas corpus except when
public safety may temporarily require it in case of rebellion or
invasion.

6. Freedom from being held to answer for a capital or infamous crime
except on indictment of a grand jury -- save in the armed forces in time
of war or public danger -- and from being twice put in jeopardy of life
or limb or liberty for the same offence, and from being deprived of
life, liberty or property without due process of law and from having
property taken for public use without just compensation.

7. The right when accused of any crime to have a speedy public trial by
an impartial jury of the country and district wherein the crime shall
have been committed, as previously ascertained by law, and to be
informed in good time of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be
confronted with the witnesses against one, to have compulsory process
for obtaining witnesses in one's favor, to be under no compulsion to be
a witness against oneself, and to have the assistance of counsel for
one's defense.

8. Freedom from excessive bail or excessive fines or cruel and unusual
punishments.

9. Freedom from slavery, and from involuntary servitude and forced labor
except in legal punishment for crime.

10. The right to equality before the law and to the equal protection of
the laws.

11. The preceding enumeration is not exhaustive nor shall it be
construed to deny or disparage other rights which we retain.

PART II

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION

ARTICLE II. -- THE PEOPLE OF THE UNION.

1. All persons born or naturalized in the self-governing states of The
Union are citizens of The Union and of the state wherein they reside.
So, too, are their children, wherever they may be born. All citizens
above the age of 21, except those in institutions for the feeble-minded
or mentally deranged or in prison, are entitled to vote in all Union
elections, and to hold any Union office for which their age qualifies
them.

2. All other persons in the territory of The Union shall enjoy all
rights of citizens except the right to vote in Union elections. The
Union shall seek to extend this right to them at the earliest time
practicable by helping prepare their country to enter The Union as a
self-governing state.

3. The self-governing states of The Union at its foundation are
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Union of
South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

4. The non-self-governing territory of these states and of all states
admitted later to The Union is transferred to The Union to govern while
preparing it for self-government and admission to The Union.

5. Before casting his or her first vote each citizen of The Union shall
take this oath in conditions to be prescribed by law: "I do solemnly
swear (or affirm) that I will preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of The Union of the Free against all enemies, foreign and
domestic."[1]

6. Treason can be committed only by citizens against The Union and can
consist only in levying war against it or in adhering to its enemies,
aiding and comforting them. No one shall be convicted of treason unless
on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession
in open court.

ARTICLE III. -- RIGHTS OF THE UNION AND OF THE STATES.

1. The Union shall have the right to make and execute all laws necessary
and proper for the securing of the rights of man and of The Union and of
the states as set forth in this Constitution, and to lay and collect
income and other taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, provided these be
uniform throughout The Union, and to incur and pay debt, provided that
no money shall be drawn from the treasury except by lawful appropriation
and that an account of all receipts and expenditures be published
regularly.

2. The Union shall have the sole right to

a. grant citizenship in The Union, admit new states into The Union and
regulate immigration from outside states and from the non-self-governing
territory of The Union;

b. treat with foreign governments, provide for The Union's defense,
raise, maintain and control standing land, sea and air forces, make war
and peace, regulate captures, define and punish piracies and felonies
committed on the high seas, call forth the militia to execute the laws
of The Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions, organize, arm,
discipline, and govern such part of the militia as The Union may employ,
and punish treason;

c. regulate commerce among the member states and in The Union territory
and with foreign states;

d. coin and issue money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign
money, provide for the punishment of counterfeiting, fix the standard of
weights and measures;

e. own and operate the postal service and own, operate or control all
other inter-state communication services;

f. grant authors and inventors exclusive right to their work for limited
periods;

g. provide uniform Bankruptcy laws throughout The Union;

h. govern any district The Union may acquire for its seat of government
or for forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful Union
plant.

3. The Union shall have no right to establish a Union religion, grant
hereditary or noble titles, levy any tax or duty on inter-state
commerce, subject vessels bound to or from one state to enter, clear, or
pay duties in another, grant preference by any regulation of commerce or
revenue to one state over another.

4. The rights not expressly given to The Union by the Constitution nor
forbidden by it to the states or the people are reserved by it to the
states respectively, or to the people.

5. The Union shall guarantee to every state in it a democratic form of
government and shall protect each of them and all the territory of The
Union against invasion; and on application of the state legislature or
executive The Union shall protect each state against domestic violence.

6. Each state has the right to maintain a militia and a police force,
but may engage in war only if actually invaded or in such imminent
danger as will admit of no delay.

7. Each state has the right to guarantee to the people in it greater
rights than those enumerated in this Constitution.

8. No state has the right to

a. abridge the rights, privileges and immunities of citizens of The
Union;

b. exercise, except temporarily by consent of The Union, any of the
rights given by this Constitution to The Union alone;

c. raise any barriers to inter-state commerce or communications without
the consent of The Union;

d. adopt any law impairing the obligation of contracts;

e. enter without the consent of The Union into any pact or agreement
with another state or foreign power.

9. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public
acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state in The
Union.

10. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several states.

11. A person charged in any state with crime who shall flee and be found
in another state shall on demand of the executive authority of the state
from which he fled be delivered up to it.

ARTICLE IV. -- THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

1. The legislative power of The Union is vested in the Congress, which
shall consist of a House of Deputies and a Senate. Each shall choose its
own officers, judge the elections returns, and qualifications of its own
members, determine its rules of procedure, have the power to punish its
members for disorderly behavior, to compel their attendance, and to
expel them by two-thirds majority; keep and publish a record of its
proceedings, meet and vote in public except when two-thirds shall ask
for a private meeting on a particular question, vote by roll call when
one-fifth of the members ask this, form with a majority a quorum to do
business though fewer may adjourn from day to day, act by majority
except where otherwise stipulated in this Constitution.

2. The Congress shall meet at least once a year at a regular date it
shall fix. During a session neither branch shall adjourn more than three
days or to any other place without the other's consent.

3. Members of Congress shall not be questioned outside their branch of
it for anything they said in it, nor shall they be arrested on any
charge except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, during attendance
at a session of Congress or while going to and from it.

4. No member of Congress shall hold other public office in The Union or
in a state during his term, except in the Cabinet.

5. The Deputies shall be at least 25 years old, and shall be elected
directly by the citizens every third year.

The number of Deputies from each state shall be determined according to
population, a census being taken at least every ten years, and shall not
exceed one for every 1,000,000 inhabitants or major fraction thereof,
though each state shall have at least one.

6. Senators shall be at least 30 years old, shall have resided since at
least 10 years in the State by which elected, and shall be elected at
large from each state directly by the citizens every eight years, except
that in the first election half the Senators of each state shall be
elected for only four years. There shall be two Senators from each state
of less than 25,000,000 population, and two more for each additional
25,000,000 population or major fraction thereof.

7. To begin with the apportionment of Deputies and Senators shall be:

Australia ............  7   2
Belgium ..............  8   2
Canada ............... 11   2
Denmark ..............  4   2
Finland ..............  4   2
France ............... 42   4
Ireland ..............  3   2
Netherlands ..........  8   2
New Zealand ..........  2   2
Norway ...............  3   2
Sweden ...............  6   2
Switzerland ..........  4   2
Union of So. Africa ..  2   2
United Kingdom ....... 47   4
United States ........129  10


 Totals ..............280  42

8. To become law a bill must pass the House and the Senate and be
approved and signed by a majority of the Board.[2] If a majority of the
Board shall return the bill with its reasons for not signing it, the
bill shall become law only if passed again by House and Senate by
two-thirds roll-call majority, and if a member of the Board shall ask to
be heard by House or Senate during its debate thereon he shall be heard.
A bill not returned by the Board within fifteen days (holidays and
Sundays excepted) after presentation to it shall be law, as if signed,
unless adjournment of Congress shall have prevented its return. This
shall also apply to every order, resolution, or vote to which the
concurrence of the House or Senate may be necessary, except on a
question of adjournment, and to every expression of The Union's will,
unless otherwise provided herein.

9. The Congress shall have the power to declare war, make peace, and
exercise all the other rights of The Union unless otherwise provided
herein.

10. The Congress shall have the right to admit new states into this
Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the
jurisdiction of any other state nor any state be formed by the junction
of two or more states or parts of states without the consent of the
state or states concerned.

ARTICLE V. -- THE EXECUTIVE POWER.

1. The executive power of The Union is vested in the Board. It shall be
composed of five citizens at least 35 years old. Three shall be elected
directly by the citizens of The Union and one by the House and one by
the Senate. One shall be elected each year for a five-year term, except
that in the first election the citizens shall elect three, and the House
shall then elect one for two years and the Senate shall then elect one
for four years, and the Board shall then by lot assign terms of one,
three, and five years respectively to the three Members elected by the
citizens.

2. A majority of the Board shall form a quorum, and it shall act by
majority thereof unless otherwise provided herein.

3. The Board shall establish a system of rotation so that each Member
may be President of it one year.

4. The Board [3] shall be commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of
The Union, shall commission all officers of The Union and appoint
ambassadors, ministers and consuls, may grant reprieves and pardons for
offences against The Union, shall have the power to make treaties by and
with the advice and consent of the Premier and Congress,[4] and to
appoint with the advice and consent of the Senate the justices of The
High Court and of all lower Union Courts, and to make any other
appointments required of it by law.

The Board [3] shall from time to time report to the people and Congress
on the state of The Union, its progress toward its objectives, and the
effects and need of change, and shall recommend to their consideration
such policies and measures as it shall judge necessary and expedient; it
may require the opinion of any one in the service of The Union on any
subject relating to the duties of his office.

The Board [3] may convene extraordinarily Congress, adjourn it when its
two houses cannot agree on adjournment, or dissolve it or either branch
of if for the purpose of having it elected anew as shall be prescribed
by law.

The Board [3] shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers.

5. The Board shall delegate all executive power not expressly retained
by it herein to a Premier, who shall exercise it with the help of a
Cabinet of his choice until he loses the confidence of House or Senate,
whereupon the Board shall delegate this power to another Premier.

ARTICLE VI. -- THE JUDICIAL POWER.

1. The judicial power of The Union is vested in a High Court, and in
such lower courts as The Union may from time to time establish by law.
All Union judges shall be appointed for life. The number of High Court
judges shall be fixed by law, but shall not be less than 11.

2. The judicial power extends to all cases in law and equity arising
under this Constitution, the laws of The Union, and treaties made by it;
to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls;
to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies
between two or more states; between a state and citizens of another
state; between citizens of different states, and between a state, or
citizens thereof, and foreign states, or persons.

3. The High Court shall have original jurisdiction in all cases
affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in
which a state or a foreign state shall be party; in all the other cases
before-mentioned it shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law
and fact, under such regulations as shall be made by law.

ARTICLE VII. -- THE AMENDING POWER.

1. The power to amend this Constitution is vested in the citizens of The
Union acting by a majority of those voting on proposals made by
two-thirds majority of the House and of the Senate with the approval of
three-fifths of the Board, or by two thirds majority of either House or
Senate with the unanimous approval of the Board, or by a special
constituent assembly established by law, or by petition signed by at
least one-fourth the voters in one-half the states. No state, however,
shall be deprived without its consent of its right to have its own
language and its own form of democratic government.

ARTICLE VIII. -- GENERAL.

1. This Constitution, and the laws of The Union which shall be made in
pursuance thereof; and all treaties which shall be made under the
authority of The Union, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the
judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the
Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

2. All persons in the service of The Union, and the legislative members
and executive and judicial officers of each state, shall at the
beginning of each term renew their oath to support this Constitution.

3. All Union elective offices, unless otherwise stipulated herein, shall
be filled on the same day throughout The Union, to be fixed by law; the
exact date when their terms shall begin and end shall also be fixed by
law, as well as the manner for filling vacancies.

4. All persons in the service of The Union shall be paid from The Union
treasury as shall be fixed by law, but the compensation of no judge
shall be decreased during his term nor shall that of any elected officer
of The Union be increased during the term for which he was elected.

5. Any one in the service of The Union, on impeachment for and
conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes, shall be removed
from office and may be disqualified from holding office again, and if
convicted remains liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment
according to law.

The House shall have the sole power of impeachment and the Senate the
sole power to try an impeachment, and it shall convict only by
two-thirds majority of the Senators present sitting under oath or
affirmation. The Chief Justice shall preside when a President or Member
of the Board is tried.

6. No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office
or public trust under The Union, nor shall there be any official Union
religion.

ARTICLE IX. -- RATIFICATION.

1. The ratification of this Constitution by ten states, or by France,
the United Kingdom, and the United States, shall suffice to establish it
among them.

____

1. The American Union requires this oath only of naturalized citizens or
of citizens entering the Union service or applying for a passport.

2. The executive, see Art. V. The United States Constitution gives to
the President the powers this paragraph gives to the Board.

3. President, in the United States Constitution.

4. Senate, in the United States Constitution.

____

Annex 2: My Own Road to Union

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted
upon the tested foundations of political liberty. -- President Wilson,
April 2, 1917.

It may be useful to retrace briefly the road by which I have come to
dissent now when "it is generally conceded that we should not have
entered the last war," and were duped into it mainly for economic
motives, when it is the fashion to jest bitterly of "making the world
safe for democracy," as if it were "a matter of no overwhelming
importance to the United States" -- when "my brethren," as in the time
of Job, are "ashamed because they had hoped." If I can not accept the
basic premises and conclusions of this school it is not from failure to
give its arguments consideration. It is rather because I happened to go
through long ago the evolution which many have undergone only recently,
and because I have had more time and been under greater pressure to
evolve further.

On April 4, 1917, the Associated Students of the State University of
Montana where I was then editor of the college paper, Montana Kaimin,
sent this telegram to President Wilson:

Monster patriotic demonstration today by students of State University. A
united Student body, who, having faith and confidence in your wisdom and
judgment, pledges its enthusiastic support of your every undertaking.

The next day the college paper published under my signature the
following:

BLIND DEMOCRACY

I have been asked why I voted against sending the telegram to President
Wilson which was to say that the University students "stand behind him
in whatever he undertakes." I was opposed to it because I object to the
all-inclusiveness of the wording which I have just quoted.

When the war first began we condemned that very attitude among the
Germans. We criticized severely their blind obedience to the Kaiser. Now
at the first shadow of war, although we are not in the danger the
Germans were with hostile countries on both sides shall we lock up our
brain and throw the key away?

To say that we are behind the President in everything he undertakes,
especially at this stage of the international situation, is to undermine
the very foundations of democratic government. It is an indication of
mob-mindedness and is least to be expected and most to be deplored when
found in our colleges.

Instead of being a "glittering generality" the telegram should have said
something definite. If it had said, "We are behind you in every move you
make to aid the cause of democracy against autocracy, and we urge you to
make the entrance of the United States into the war dependent upon the
definite agreement of the allies to establish a league to enforce peace
after the conflict is over and while overpowering the German government
to oppose dismembering and economically crushing that nation and thus
sowing the seeds of future warfare" -- if the message had been of that
order, I would have been among the first to say aye.

When the college term ended I volunteered in June, 1917, in one of the
engineer regiments which Marshal Joffre on his visit to Washington urged
the United States to organize and dispatch at once to France; it was
called at first the 8th and later the 18th Railway Engineers. (I had
been working summers as transitman in the United States Public Land
Surveys in Alaska and the Rockies.) Six weeks after the regiment was
organized we were sent to France where I remained until discharged from
service June, 1919. In June, 1918, I was transferred to the Intelligence
Service (G.2, S.O.S.) and in December was attached in a confidential
position to the American Peace Commission in Paris where I remained for
six months.

I had access there to many highly secret official documents, not only
the daily record of the secret meetings of Wilson, Lloyd George,
Clemenceau, etc., but daily despatches between the President and
American generals on all fronts, our diplomats, and Washington (on the
home and Senate situation). I was in an unusual position to see daily
what was really happening, and how little the press or public knew of
this, and to see, too, from the inside how propaganda was being handled
abroad and at home. I was also one of those chosen to guard President
Wilson on his return to Paris from Washington until the secret service
men he brought with him could take over, my job being mainly to "smell"
the bouquets sent him to see they hid no bombs. I mention these details
to show the degree to which my functions encouraged a skeptical attitude
-- in one already born a Missourian.

My mental evolution during the war and armistice period does not need to
be reconstructed now from memory; it can be followed in these excerpts
from what I wrote then:

March, 1918. [Letter published in the Missoulian, Missoula, Mont.]

"I can not understand the wave of intolerance, with its determination to
suppress the least expression of non-conformity, which seems to have
spread over the country which has always acclaimed its freedom of speech
and press," writes Private Clarence K. Streit, formerly of the
Missoulian staff, from "Somewhere in France." "I suppose the country is
only going through the same psychological stage as that experienced by
England and France at the beginning of the war. May they pass through it
quickly. When they have, they will realize that in a country fighting to
make the world safe for democracy, intolerance, hate and forced
conformity are among the enemies of the cause."

Oct. 26, 1918. [Letter]

It is going to be mighty easy to lose this war in winning it. By that I
mean that I think the war will have been lost to democracy no matter
what the decision on the field if the prime motive in the making of
peace is not the safe-guarding of the world against another catastrophe
such as this war. If only a quarter of the zeal paid in each country to
the protection of its "national interests" were devoted to the interests
of humanity!

Dec. 22, 1918. [Paris, Letter]

I reached Paris about 9 a.m. Saturday Dec. 14th.... Soon came the boom
of a cannon. The President had arrived.... I arrived at the Champs
Elysees just in time to hear the cheers and see the handkerchiefs and
hats waving.... He received a magnificent reception. ... The French
recognize the greatness of Wilson, even if a portion of the American
public, perhaps too close to him and certainly too far distant from the
late front, can't seem to appreciate him....

Dec. 23, 1918. [Diary, Paris, Record Room, American Peace Commission]

I made the usual inspection to see what important papers had been left
out. Found a great deal of valuable information lying around. Also all
the keys to the filing cabinets. Among other things, a document dated
Nov. 29, 1918, from the French Republic to the U.S. Government giving
plans for Peace conference drawn up by French Govt.

One learns a great deal at this station. Surprising the way things are
left accessible. This record room contains all the files and documents
of the Peace Commission.... It is enough to give one an idea of the
immensity of the problems confronting the coming conference -- to see
the universal scope of the documents and books in this room.

Jan. 9, 1919. [Diary, Paris]

So many diverse peoples of the world are expecting so many diverse
benefits from Wilson and America at the Peace Conference that the many
inevitable disappointments are likely to have a boomerang effect in the
world's opinion of the U.S. There is such a thing as setting up too
great expectations.

Before the Armistice the Allied press was filled with stories of the
lack of food and raw materials in Germany, paper suits, etc. Since the
Armistice the press is filled with stories of the comfortable situation
of the Germans, of the plenitude of food in Germany, and no one has yet
spoken of seeing a paper suit. The answer is -- Propaganda. Germany is
menaced by famine, yet the idea of feeding their enemies grates upon
some Christian folk and they try to prove that said enemies need no
food....

No doubt German historians will prove the war was a victory for Germany
or, at least, that she was not beaten. And millions of Germans will be
brought up to believe that. Just as millions of other children will be
brought up to believe another "truth." Each group of belligerents used
its press for four years to instill into the majority of its people its
own particular "truths," these "truths" being as absolutely opposed to
each other as the soldiers of the two camps during a bayonet charge.

It would be idle to suppose that the effects of this persistent
propaganda should die out with the Armistice and that now Truth should
shake off her shackles, reveal herself to all people of the world so
that no one could longer doubt her identity. Even in times of continued
peace we cannot decide just what is this much referred to "Truth." What
chance is there for her to be recognized now?

Jan. 18, 1919. [Diary, Paris]

The grand conference of Paris has at last opened, ushered in with some
well chosen platitudes from the mouth of President Poincare ....
Surround the peace conference with a halo of high and noble thoughts,
and then do your dirty work behind closed doors. Same old scheme that
they worked in Vienna in 1815.... Read the stenographic report of the
afternoon's session.

Jan. 25, 1919. [Diary, Paris]

Gave the peace conference the once over ... from the outside. Populo is
not very popular with the peace commissioners. He is useful as a
background for the splendid limousines which roll by and up to the door
of the Quai d'Orsay, carrying his "servants." ... There were two or
three hundred of populo, representing most of the Allied nations, many
soldiers anxious to see the "fathers of the victory," the "premier
poilus," the select few who "won the war."

Many of them, I gathered from phrases overheard, were waiting especially
to see Pres. Wilson.... I recognized Balfour, and I think I saw Winston
Churchill. ... Marshal Foch ... drew a cheer.... The President ... also
drew a cheer, and the crowd pressed to the fence to see him descend from
his car.... They could only get a glimpse of him. Cold weather, nipping
wind. But crowd stuck. I see in the morning papers that Pres. Wilson
made an important speech on the Society of Nations at this session.

Feb. 19, 1919. [Paris, Letter to a French girl]

President Wilson's speeches were all that reconciled me in the least
toward this war as a war. The patriotic speeches only disgusted me. The
men who were the strongest supporters of the United States entering the
war "for democracy," why, they were all the worst reactionaries in
America, men who all their lives had bitterly opposed democracy at home.
And the men, most of them at least, who protested against our entering
the war and were called traitors and maligned in the press -- they were
the men who had been abused for years by the same press because they
advocated democratic reforms.

I detested the German government and the German idea, wherever I found
it. And I found plenty of Prussianism in the U.S. I put little faith in
the Allied protestations of democracy. And, in the last three months, I
have seen enough of the secret inside workings to know that the heads of
the Allied Governments are not sincerely democratic, they are only as
democratic as they feel compelled to be by public opinion. Some of them
are cynically un-democratic, though in their public speeches they
usually hide this.

[I would here give a general warning to the reader. I was only 21 when I
enlisted and had never been east of the Mississippi. I was much
impressed in Paris by the fact that I was then in a better position to
judge what was really going on than most contemporaries, more impressed
by this than by the facts that the picture was, even so, very incomplete
and that I was young and inexperienced.

Nor did I then realize what strange chameleons documents are. A passage
in a document read when it is fresh and in the light of one's impression
of the whole situation then may seem to one cynical and significant,
while if read years later when quite removed from the context of events
it may seem innocent and ordinary. Conversely, documents that raised no
eyebrows when written can take on a most sinister meaning when read
years after the contemporary atmosphere has gone, and facts not common
knowledge then have come to light, or viewpoints have changed.

We tend to assume that the picture we get of a given event will be the
one the future will get of it or that the past got. Yet how many of the
factors that influenced President Wilson and other leaders of his day
are lost to us, and how many factors that we know now were unknown to
them?]

March 3, 1919. [Paris, Letter]

Part of the Louvre museum is now open.... I've visited it twice. What
did I go back to see the second time? Especially the Venus de Milo. And
also the Victory of Samothrace.... The Victory of Samothrace has no
head. Did Victory ever have a head? Perhaps. But it always loses it....

No doubt these letters of mine from Paris are rather disappointing to
you. So little about this epoch-making Peace Conference -- this great
historical assembly...

I might say, however, that this is not a Peace Congress but an
inter-allied Victory meeting, with indignation as the guiding general
force and Individual Economic Interest as the chief counselor of each
nation. If you want to cling to your opinion of the greatness of a
number of gentlemen much in the public's eye why, stay home and read the
newspapers. Don't hang around here.

But still, this conference is an enlightened body compared to some of
the vociferous Senators back home, for whom political thinking ended
when the Constitution was written and the Monroe Doctrine enunciated.
The world is moving mighty fast these days, but just where it is going I
would not venture to say. Ah, these piping days of -- the armistice.

But I'll re-iterate that President Wilson, in my opinion, is far ahead
of the others. But he is handicapped by lack of support at home and I
doubt if he will be able to accomplish much.

March, 1919. [Paris, Letter]

The opinions of the American press these days show a lamentable
ignorance of world conditions. To read the papers, and the speeches of
... [various] ... senators, one would think that they have been asleep
for the last five or ten years. They talk about ... keeping out of
European affairs. Were we able to keep out of this war? The world isn't
as big as it used to be. And it is getting smaller all the time.

I don't think the proposed League of Nations is by any means perfect....
What discourages me with so much of American criticism of the League --
it is so plainly caused by nothing more than personal or party hostility
to the man Wilson. Or it is urged by a selfish nationalism. It is not
helping the cause of future world peace.

March 20, 1919. [Paris. Letter to a French girl]

I think parents are rather under obligation to the child. The same
reasoning I apply to man's relation to the state. A man owes a state
nothing because of the fact that he happened to be born in it. It was
through no choice of mine that I am an American. I could be naturalized
now as citizen of some other country? True, but the state, in educating
me, was fitting me for a life within that state, its object was to train
me into being a good citizen of it. And the very accident of birth gave
me dear associations, friends, memories in America, made me prejudiced
in her favor. I would not change. With all her faults, I prefer America
to any other country.

But -- had I been born in Prance, say, of French parents -- I would no
doubt prefer to be French, would be proud of my French nationality just
as you are. And if the fates had willed that I should have been born an
Englishman, a Russian, a German, a Chinaman, a Turk or any other
nationality, I would undoubtedly be just as happy in my state and prefer
it to any other.

And yet, this simple accident of birth under one flag instead of another
colors the mental attitude and distorts the intellectual processes of
most men, including most of the men whom I used to look up to as
intellectuals, men of science and philosophy, men whose sole concern was
the truth. This war showed the stuff of which the world's "elite" or
"intelligenzia" is made -- and it a sight enough to make one despair.

For my part, I love America -- aside from the accident of birth --
because of the ideals on which the Republic was founded (not all of
them, however), I love American life for its boundless energy, its
freedom from tradition, because it is facing the future and not the
past. But that isn't going to keep me from trying to see things as they
really are. I am an intelligent man first, an American afterwards. The
United States is now undoubtedly the most powerful single nation on the
globe. All the more need then for men in America whose allegiance is to
the human race.


MY EVOLUTION AFTER 1919

My evolution, then, has not been from unthinking acceptance of the war
to disillusioned belief that it was a monstrous mistake into which we
the people were led through no fault of ours but through sinister
influences. My evolution has been from doubtful acceptance of the war as
being, on balance, more right than wrong, to a bitter feeling as early
as 1919 that it had been botched. After this interlude of
disillusionment I have slowly grown to the deep conviction that with all
their mistakes Wilson and the American people chose the lesser evil in
all their essential choices.

Though I went into the war favoring a league to enforce peace, I thought
of it then only vaguely. When President Wilson talked of making the
world safe for democracy I did not then understand that the real problem
was not that of doing justice at once, but of providing the means of
doing justice, the machinery of world self-government. I lost interest
in his League in 1919 because it was coupled with so bad a treaty and
because I thought it was too weak. I have since become convinced that,
considering all he had to face and choose between, President Wilson
showed high statesmanship in tying the Covenant to the Treaty of
Versailles, and that he got as strong a world organization founded as
was practically possible then. Though I have since come also to believe
that the League is no solution for us because its basic working
principle -- which I never questioned then -- is wrong, I am nonetheless
convinced that this League was practically essential for the necessary
transition to world organization on a sound basis. But when I left the
army I was so disappointed with Woodrow Wilson and his works, and so
opposed to the irreconcilables, that I took no part in the ensuing fight
over the League at home.

I went to work as a reporter and then in January, 1920, returned to
Europe as a Rhodes Scholar. After covering the Turco-Greek war, during
vacation, for the Philadelphia Public Ledger, I left Oxford in the Fall
of 1921 to become the Ledger's Rome correspondent. My interest in the
League had so ebbed that though I was in Lausanne for months in 1922-23
reporting the Turkish peace conference I never bothered to make the trip
of only one hour needed to visit Geneva. I never saw the League in
action, in fact, before The New York Times sent me in 1929 from New York
to Geneva to be its correspondent there. Meanwhile, however, my life and
work in many parts of Europe and especially in the territory of the
Central Powers had helped persuade me that we had not made a mistake in
entering the war.

The reasons that split Americans for and against the League in 1920
were, of course, paper reasons, for the League then existed only on
paper. Yet to this day only a relative handful of Americans have had or
taken occasion to test their theories by studying on the spot how the
League of Nations really works in practice. Most of the leading American
opponents of the League have such faith in pure theory that they have
never so much as laid eye on a League meeting. My own theories about the
League have had to face the facts.

Unlike most of those who have been in close contact with the League and
its problems, I have never been responsible for any part of the League
machinery or for producing results in any of its fields for any
government. My responsibility, instead, has been that of reporting
objectively, accurately and understandingly to all who cared to read
what these others were doing. This function required close continual
contact with the permanent officials of the League, I.L.O. and Bank,
with the policies and special problems and delegations of all important
member and non-member countries, and with all big world questions,
political, economic, monetary, social -- and yet sharp detachment always
from each of these. No one present but the reporter had this function.
Nor was any one under more pressure to see each day's development in
every field in terms of living men and women, and to judge correctly the
essentials in it interesting laymen and experts far removed in distance
or occupation. I have enjoyed the further and immense advantage of
reporting for The New York Times. Mr. Ochs said to me, as my only
instructions on being appointed League correspondent in early 1929:
"Remember always to lean backwards in being fair to those whose policies
The New York Times opposes."

Such, briefly, was the road which I took at the age of 21 and by which I
have come in 21 years to propose Union now.


Last Word

On all great subjects much remains to be said. -- Mill.

One must not always finish a subject so completely as to leave nothing
for the reader to do. The object is not to make others read but to make
them think. -- Montesquieu, De l'Esprit des Lois.

When Aristide Briand proposed his European Federation the similarity of
many of the responses impressed me. They applauded, they said: "This is
noble, this is what we all want," and they added, "But there is this
difficulty and that difficulty, and how is he going to meet them?" They
acted as if the veteran French statesman, though in a much better
position than they to see the difficulties his proposal faced, had not
foreseen them and needed their help in seeing rather than in solving
them. They implied that all these difficulties were for him to overcome;
they assumed the role of spectators who would not be affected if his
project came to naught through his failure to overcome every difficulty
himself. These waiters-for-a-perfect-plan could not see that in this
enterprise they were willy-nilly involved, that they too would be
punished -- swiftly, mercilessly, increasingly -- for failure to solve
in time the problems on which Aristide Briand had made so brave a
beginning.

I am aware of many of the difficulties confronting The Union, and I have
no doubt that there exist more than I realize. I know that this book has
led me into fields where others have a much greater knowledge than I. No
one needs to take time to convince me that this book falls far short of
what it should be, that it is weak indeed compared to the great
enterprise it would promote. I regret that this book is not as clear,
short, complete, well-organized, free from error, easy to read and hard
to controvert on every page as I -- perhaps more than any one -- desire
it to be. I feel, however, that I have reached the point of diminishing
return for isolated work on its problem, and that time presses for an
agreed if imperfect answer. My hope is that the book can now make at
least the friends it needs, for if it can then I am sure that they can
do far more than I to correct its faults and advance its purpose.

One can not believe as I do in democracy and fail to believe that the
surest way to bring out the true from the false and to accomplish any
great enterprise is to get the greatest number of individual minds to
working freely on it. The variety in our species is so rich that one can
be sure in any such undertaking that one can do almost no detail in it
so well as can some one else.

Democracy taps this rich vein. It recognizes that Man can not foresee
which obscure person or lowly thing may suddenly become of the greatest
value to Man. And so it sets an equal value on every man and on every
thing, and seeks to give equal freedom to every man to do the thing he
best can do and trade it in the commonwealth for all the billion things
he can not do so well. That is the meaning of democracy's great
declaration, All men are created equal, and the reason why the rise of
democracy has led to the discovery of more and more truths and to the
doing of greater and greater enterprises.

And so I ask you not merely to make known any error you have found in
this book but to try yourself to solve the problem that it leaves. Since
it was you who found the fault how can you know that you are not the one
who can overcome it better than I, better than anyone?

After all, are not your freedom, your prosperity, your security, your
children at stake as well as mine? Is not the problem of world
government your individual problem as well as mine? Can I alone organize
the world for you any more than you for me? Can any dictator do it for
us? If you and I and the other man and woman working freely and equally
together can not gain our common end, then how on earth can it be
gained?

For Man's freedom and vast future man must depend on man. It is ours
together, or no one's and it shall be ours.

