general principles of the
proposed organization and the way in which the President intended to
apply them.

After the Colonel and his party had sailed for France and in expectation
of being consulted on the subject by President Wilson, I put my thoughts
on the League of Nations into writing. In a note, which is dated October
27, 1918, appears the following:

"From the little I know of the President's plan I am sure that it is
impracticable. There is in it too much altruistic cooperation. No
account is taken of national selfishness and the mutual suspicions
which control international relations. It may be noble thinking, but
it is not true thinking.

"What I fear is that a lot of dreamers and theorists will be selected
to work out an organization instead of men whose experience and
common sense will tell them not to attempt anything which will not
work. The scheme ought to be simple and practical. If the federation,
or whatever it may be called, is given too much power or if its
machinery is complex, my belief is that it will be unable to function
or else will be defied. I can see lots of trouble ahead unless
impractical enthusiasts and fanatics are suppressed. This is a time
when sober thought, caution, and common sense should control."

On November 22, 1918, after I had been formally designated as a Peace
Commissioner, I made another note for the purpose of crystallizing my
own thought on the subject of a League of Nations. Although President
Wilson had not then consulted me in any way regarding his plan of
organization, I felt sure that he would, and I wished to be prepared to
give him my opinion concerning the fundamentals of the plan which might
be proposed on behalf of the United States. I saw, or thought that I
saw, a disposition to adopt physical might as the basis of the
organization, because the guaranty, which the President had announced in
Point XIV and evidently purposed to advocate, seemed to require the use
of force in the event that it became necessary to make it good.

From the note of November 22 I quote the following:

"The legal principle [of the equality of nations], whatever its basis
in fact, must be preserved, otherwise force rather than law, the
power to act rather than the right to act, becomes the fundamental
principle of organization, just as it has been in all previous
Congresses and Concerts of the European Powers.

"It app