JUDGE CLARKE SAYS LEAGUE IS NOT DEAD

"So far as the Covenant of the League of Nations is concerned there are only two kinds of people, those who are opposed to it and those who have read it" said Judge John Hessin Clarke in his speech on the League of Nations at the Union last night. Judge Clarke, former justice of the Supreme Court and a leader of the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association, then went on to point out that unless our civilization finds some method of ending war, our civilization will end. The perfection of war and its weapons makes it a certainty. The speaker declared that we are not being urged to enter the League as it was or as it is but as it shall be with our amendments. The League is not perfect. It has done many things that are wrong, he added, and it has done many things that are right, "but it has never attempted to do anything that it has not done well." The support of the United States will make it all-powerful. Germany, Russia, Equador, The Dominican Republic, Mexico, Turkey, Afghanistan, and the United States are the only nations outside of the League.

All Treaties Filed at Geneva

Judge Clarke showed how the League has gone about the prevention of war. No nation in the League may make war before arbitration and investigation, thus giving an opportunity for "cooling off" and for world opinion to be focused. All national treaties must be filed at Geneva, thus preventing secret treaties. The League formed the International Court of Justice, the first permanent institution of the kind, to provide for the reduction of armament. The League will boycott any nation making war without obeying these laws.

Other Attempts to Stop War Futile

Here is a good attempt at stopping wars, said Judge Clarke. Our own government admits the futility of any other movement for world peace. "Why not try the experiment?" he asked. "Any nation may withdraw at any time by giving two years notice."

The League has already settled many serious disputes, according to the speaker. "It has cooperated with the nations in time of peace to make such headway as single nations never made before against starvation, disease, moral evils, financial troubles, and political disorganizations. And yet we hold out!"

One should always look at both sides of the card. Upon examination of the opposition it is found to consist of ill informed people led by certain politicians and pressmen, he stated. Only a little group of Senators oppose it and are bound to smother the question.

Judge Clarke closed by asking the students of Harvard to organize and join the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association.

His last words, the signal for an enthusiastic ovation, were, "Let us keep faith with our dead."