Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/203

LEFT PEACE MOVEMENT 151 PEACH ■Mexico to send to the Tribunal the so- called "Pious Fund Case." Roosevelt also referred to The Hague the Venezue- lan case which had been sent to him for arbitration. The United States was also instru- mental in calling the second Hague Peace Conference which finally assembled, again upon the invitation of the Czar of Russia, on June 15, 1907. This time forty-four nations were represented. "Here for the first time practically the whole world met together under one roof and for world business." If the practi- cal results were disappointing, the con- ference nevertheless adopted some im- portant conventions looking to the pacific settlements of international disputes; to limitations upon the use of force for the collection of debts, and to the regulation of explosives in time of war. At this conference preliminary steps were taken for the summoning of a third Confer- ence in 1915; but of course the World War (1914-1918) effectively interfered with the undertaking. The World War also ended for a while the peace propaganda in the belligerent countries, although it accentuated the need of a better world organization. In 1914 there was started in England a movement to do away with secret di- plomacy under the name of the Union for Democratic Control. In 1915 in the United States there was organized the League to Enforce Peace, having for its object the formation of a league of na- tions bound by treaty to arbitrate all disputes and to use joint military force to coerce recalcitrant members. Of this league ex-President Taft was president. It won a good deal of popular support and was particularly active in the days of the Paris Conference which met at the end of the war. Since 1918 most of the discussion of the Peace Movement has centered about the League op Nations (q. v.). The ob- jects of the League as stated in the pre- amble are : "To promote international co-operation and to secure international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just and honorable relations be- tween nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among governments and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of or- ganized peoples with one another." r The Covenant of the League of Na- tions was made an integral part of the Treaty of Versailles which during the year 1919 was ratified by all the leading nations of the world with the exception of the United States. The League was formally organized in 1920 with a per- manent Secretariat seated now in Ge- neva, Switzerland. The Council of the League consisting of representatives of nine powers, including the United States, held two sessions without, however, the presence of any representative of the United States, and the Assembly of the League, consisting of representatives of all the nations that have ratified the Covenant, met in September at Geneva. In the United States the rejection by the Senate of the Treaty of Versailles with the Covenant of the League was un- doubtedly a disappointment to many who were eager for world peace. Others, however, felt that the Covenant had many faults and that the United States could contribute more by forming an- other less rigid association of nations or by holding to its traditional aloofness from European affairs. In the campaign of 1920 both great political parties as- serted interest in the cause of world peace, the Democrats indorsing without reserve the Covenant of the League, and the Republicans advocating measures that would promote world peace without committing this country to all the obli- gations of the League. Since the election of Mr. Harding there has been continued discussion of the best methods to promote peace. The World War has had great influence upon the whole peace movement, on the one hand by showing the fallacies of pacificism, and on the other hand by em- phasizing the need of better world or- ganization. It needs no prophet to as- sert that in the coming generation the peace movement will develop along the lines of a league to enforce peace, an international court and limitation of armaments. PEACE TREATY. The treaty of peace between the United States of America, British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, and other allied coun- tries with Germany, were signed at Versailles, on June 28, 1919. This treaty formally ended the World War. The combined provisions for cession of terri- tory belonging to Germany, for repara- tion, for the payment by Germany of the costs of occupation of its territory by the forces of the Allied Powers, and pro- visions for the reduction of armament by Germany. Commissions were ap- pointed to enforce the terms of the treaty which is known as the Treaty of Versailles. See Treaty of Versailles. PEACH, the delicious fruit of Amyg- dalus Persica, the peach tree, genus