Machinery will not save the world. It is dead by itself. When
legislation gets too far ahead of public opinion, we have trouble in
enforcing our laws. Similarly the weakness of the League of Nations
has been mainly the weakness of the public opinion behind the League.
It will be remembered that the League was set up at a time when to a
considerable degree the world was skeptical of its practicability.
Press opinion in France scoffed at “Wilson’s ideology.” Lloyd George
exacted payment for his support. Our Senate rejected the League through
the efforts of a determined minority of doubters. Puny and unwelcome,
it lived by the faith of a few men until Italy last year, by defying
it, proved to the small nations its vital worth.
Now the terrors of the future have made the League the cornerstone of
the foreign policy of several states including France. It is flouted
still by the nationalists of every country when it stands in their way;
but even they do not dare try to destroy it. Without it no one sees any
hope ahead――nothing but universal warfare and wholesale extermination
until the end.