Page 51 - 1926 February - To Dragma

214 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

formulated or approved by the League of Nations, strictly limiting theif
control and requiring that each year they shall make a full report to the
League of their stewardship. The League has set up a commission to
examine these reports and to in turn report its opinion to the Council as
to whether the administration conforms to the mandate and is conducted m
a manner to promote that well-being and development of the people occupy-
ing the territory which is declared to "form a sacred trust of civilization."
The nations have united in declaring; that freedom of conscience and of
religion shall be guaranteed in such lands; that the slave trade, arms
traffic, and the liquor traffic, shall be prohibited therein; and that equal
opportunities shall be given all members of the League to trade with the
inhabitants of such territories. A l l this is a social and political process
new to the world and it constitutes an advance in civilized method which
should result in the abolition of what has been one of the most fruitful
sources of war in the past.

There are those of us who think that our country should have a share
in this progress toward a higher and better international life.

Dealing ivith Disease

Disease has no respect for international boundaries, and no one
nation can protect itself f r o m epidemic diseases originating in neigh-
boring states.

For the first time in history a comprehensive plan for reporting epidemic
disease wherever it may appear, and for taking action to prevent its spread
has been organized at Geneva through a union of the League of Red Cross
Societies and a commission set up by the League of Nations. The organi-
zation is in charge of medical experts of the first rank, it is comprehensive,
ready for instant action, and with the assistance of many nations it now
covers almost the entire globe. I t has already saved western Europe and
perhaps America from an epidemic of typhus which swept over Russia
and has rendered great service in confining within narrow limits, outbreaks
of yellow fever and plague and smallpox. Its studies extend to malaria,
cancer and tuberculosis. This is universally regarded as one of the most
useful undertakings of the League of Nations and while several Americans
are unofficially assisting in it, its value would be greatly increased by
official participation by the government of the United States.

For Preventing War

I have selected these five from many of the activities of the League of
Nations because they are so entirely different from anything which the
statesmen and politicians critical of the League in 1920 thought could pos-
sibly engage its attention and yet each of these obviously makes for better
understanding, and so for peace, among the nations.

Likewise when we turn to the agencies thus far specifically devised and
depended upon by the League, for the prevention of war, we find that these
also are wholly different from what our timid statesmen in 1920 thought
they would be. They consist i n ; delay, that war passions may have tim?