speeches if you have the money and circulate them if you have the money and your friends take them and put them in a pigeon hole for future reference. They are not drawn out again until the circumstances require a consideration of that as a practical solution of a real situation. That is the way that most institutions are brought into the world. The circumstances make it necessary. It is like a house beginning with a small family that is increasing and every time they need a room, they put on an "L." It does not add to the architectural beauty of the house but it has this advantage—that every part of the house was put on for practical use at the time it was built. And this is the way the British constitution was built. The Habeas Corpus Act and all other adjective processes making the bill of rights were introduced into the British constitution to meet an existing and pressing abuse.
That is the way institutions that are permanent in the world are created. That is the reason this League of Nations will be created, by the force of circumstances, that required it. You cannot get along without it.
I do not refer to a league of world nations, but I mean the League of Nations that is engaged in enforcing this treaty. The first thing is to keep Germany on her knees, to keep her in that graceful, useful posture until she brings forth works meet for repentance. Then we can take her into the League and give her the same treatment that other nations have. But we have got to maintain the power to keep that status until the time comes, and you can get no such power without the League of Nations.
Read Senator Lodge's speech made shortly after the armistice, describing what the peace was that had to be made. It is a luminous exposition. You can leave out the latter part where it argues against the League of Nations because that was academic. There was no covenant at the time. But take up that exposition and you will see how the treaty shaped itself reasoning from the armistice and its terms, and following the principle of self-determination. There are four independent, strong, powerful states, if they are allowed to develop, Finland and the Baltic provinces, Poland and Ukrania which are created between Russia and Germany. What for? For strategical purposes—to keep Germany out of Russia. She has been trying to get in there for years. She forced that treaty of Brest-Litovsk for the purpose of taking over Russia. These nations are created for the purpose of keeping her out.
Then she had a dream of a Central Empire, of all the central countries of Europe down to the Bosphorous and then across in Asia Minor, uniting
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