hat the League would be improved as the country and the world became
better educated.

CHAPTER XIV

CONCLUSION

By the accident of history the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, which he
designed to utilize for a series of social reforms, was characterized by
the supreme importance of foreign affairs. Whatever the significance of
the legislative enactments of his first year of office, he will be
remembered as the neutrality President, the war President, and the peace
President. Each phase of his administration represents a distinct aspect
of his policy and called into prominence distinct aspects of his
character. It is the third, however, which gives to his administration
the place of importance which it will hold in history; not merely because
of the stamp which he attempted to place upon the peace, but because the
two earlier phases are in truth expressive of his whole-hearted devotion
to the cause of peace. The tenacity with which he held to neutrality in
the face of intense provocation resulted less from his appreciation of
the pacific sentiments of the nation, or a desire to assure its economic
prosperity, than it did from his instinctive abhorrence of war. When
finally forced into war, he based his action upon the hope of securing a
new international order which would make war in the future impossible or
less frequent. In his mind the war was always waged in order to ensure
peace.

Whatever his mistakes or successes as neutrality President or war
President, therefore, it is as peace President that he will be judged by
history. Inevitably future generations will study with especial attention
the unfolding of his constructive peace policy, from his declaration of
the Fourteen Points to the Peace Conference. In reality his policy of
international service, to be rendered by the strong nations of the world
in behalf of peace and of absolute justice toward the weaker nations, was
developed all through the year 1916. It was then that he seized upon a
League of Nations as the essential instrument. But the true significance
of this policy was hardly perceived before the speech of the Fourteen
Points, in January, 1918. That speech gave to Wilson his position in the
world, as preeminent exponent of the new ideals of international
relations.

What the President demanded was nothing new. The principle of justice, as
the underlying basis of intercourse between nations, has received wide
support at all epochs of history