would save the
League from being still-born and would so interweave it with the
terms of peace that to eliminate it would be to open up some
difficult questions.

"Of course the League of Nations as originally planned had one
supreme object and that was to prevent future wars. That was
substantially all that it purposed to do. Since then new functions
have been gradually added until the chief argument for the League's
existence has been almost lost to sight. The League has been made a
convenient 'catch-all' for all sorts of international actions. At
first this was undoubtedly done to give the League something to do,
and now it is being done to save it from extinction or from
being ignored.

"I am not denying that a common international agent may be a good
thing. In fact the plan has decided merit. But the organization of
the League does not seem to me suitable to perform efficiently and
properly these new functions.

"However, giving this character to the League may save it from being
merely an agreeable dream. As the repository of international
controversies requiring long and careful consideration it may live
and be useful.

"My impression is that the principal sponsors for the League are
searching through the numerous disputes which are clogging the wheels
of the Conference, seizing upon every one which can possibly be
referred, and heaping them on the League of Nations to give it
standing as a useful and necessary adjunct to the Treaty.

"At least that is an interesting view of what is taking place and
opens a wide field for speculation as to the future of the League and
the verdict which history will render as to its origin, its nature,
and its real value."

I quote this memorandum because it gives my thoughts at the time
concerning the process of weaving the League into the terms of peace as
the President had threatened to do. I thought then that it had a double
purpose, to give a practical reason for the existence of the League and
to make certain the ratification of the Covenant by the Senate. No fact
has since developed which has induced me to change my opinion.

In consequence of the functions which were added to the League, the
character of the League itself underwent a change. Instead of an agency
created solely for the prevention of international wars, it was
converted into an agency to carry out the terms of pe