jan 10, 1920 - League of Nations Founded

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Woodrow Wilson and world settlement by Baker, Ray Stannard, 1870-1946

"No collection of documents among all those the President brought back with him from Paris is more complete, or important, or interesting, than those dealing with the League of Nations. Here are all the various drafts, correspondence, memoranda; nearly the complete equipment of the President's mind. Here are his own tentative notes on shorthand, or written on his own typewriter-- he never discarded a scrap of paper--giving strangely the impression of one thinking not aloud, but in notes and memoranda. These documents not only deal with the origin of the League during 1918 and early 191, but illuminate the discussions of the entire Conference.
One fact arises above all others in studying these interesting documents: PRACTICALLY NOTHING--NOT A SINGLE IDEA--IN THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE WAS ORIGINAL WITH THE PRESIDENT. His relation to it was mainly that of editor or compiler, selecting or rejecting, recasting or combining the projects that came in to him from other sources. He had two great central and basic conviction: that a league of nations was necessary; that it must be brought into immediate existence. In voicing these be felt himself only a mouthpiece of the people of the world."

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