—s 
 
 | 
 
 WOMAN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE 
 | LECTURE BY 
 DR. GEORGE W. NASMYTH 
 MARCH 25th, 1919 
 
 SUBJECT: - "Colonies and Rackward Areas," 
 
 We are living in a very interesting period, The news 
 
 today that Hungary has gone over to the Bolsheviki Revolution and 
 has thrown in forces with revolutionary Russia is of immense sig- 
 nificance because it brings the first break in the cordon that was 
 
 established to prevent the spread of revolution, and it may mean 
 that the Peace conference at Paris has delayed too long while it 
 
 has 
 
 been fightirg about the disposition of the left bank of the Rhine 
 and the Saar Valley and Dalmatia and Fiume, and while it has been 
 trying to decide whether any food should be allowed to go into the 
 enemy countries, or the embargo should be lifted in order to allow 
 taw materials to go in, and what method should he used to pay for 
 these things - if it should be allowed. Starvation and unemployment 
 have begun to break down all of southeastern Rurope, and unless the 
 Peace Conference can move much more rapidly in the future than it has 
 in the past, and decide some of these things and decide them right 
 and very quickly get processes of peace established, - food supplies, 
 
 raw material supplies, start the factories in operation, etc., - 
 unless they can do that we may have that revolution extending to 
 houmania, the Czecho-Slovak nation, Poland, and pessibly also to 
 Germany, if a more statesmanlike course is not pursued there, on 
 
 into 
 
 Italy where economic conditions have been very bad, and imperialism 
 
 on the part of the government has brought despair to the mass of 
 people; - on into Spain where you have had this series Of Gr7Ses 
 
 the past years, + into France - into England, where labor unrest 
 
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 nows how far, and it is a race between the Wilson peace with 4 
 eague of Nations based upon justice and a Bolshevist Hurope. 
 
 I want to try to pic#ure to you, if I can, what has 
 
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 tappened in the world war because it is important if we would try 
 to understand the situation as a whole - if we are to formulate a 
 
 policy of liberalism, a constructive policy for dealing with the 
 
 new world situation. If we could have looked at the world pefore 
 
 the war from far enough away to get a perspective - from the planet 
 Mars or some place like that - we should have seen it all bristling 
 With bavonets, every nation militaristic and imperialistic, the danger 
 
 of aggression from neighboring nations leading each nation to 
 
 €normous increases in its armaments, and this armament race leading 
 
 to a breakdown and the war, aS all armament races inevitably end. 
 
 I remember going through the countries of Furope at the 
 time of the last wave of armaments, JI was in Germany in 1912 when 
 
 they had a great preparedness agitation there, The agitation at 
 
 that time was for an appropriation of §250,000,000, and an increase 
 6f the standing army by 160,000 men, and the basis of the argument 
 
 of the militarists was that this was a necessary defensive measure, 
 The great slave peril on the east was threatening them, they were 
 told, and therefore the German people had to consent to this enormous 
 armament increase for purposes of self-defense, There was of course 
 2 good deal of a fifigial provaganda mixed io Beas that ¢. Laremem Ger 
 
 ce ing in visitors’ gallery of the Reichs 
 
 g one day when a man 
 
 whom I came to look upon afterwards as one of the moral heroes of 
 the war stood up and said that his agitation about the slave peril 
 
 was being artificially worked up by the krupp and other armament 
 firms of Germany, anc when he was called to order by the vice- 
 
 president of the Reichstag he turned on the vice-president and he 
 
 said: "you too are a stockholder anda director gn the Krupp 
 
 armament firm. The Kaiser, he had charged, owned a quarter of the 
 
 stock, and he was cailed to order for bringing the Kaiser's name 
 
 in’. 
 
 Wevertheless there was enough of fear in the situation ~ the inter~ 
 
 national situation - a nightmare of fears that brooded over all 
 
 Burope, so: that the milicarists with the support of the great private 
 
 armament firms got through their appropriation. 
 
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 That preparedness agitation in Germany was followed by a 
 preparedness agitation in France. JI happened to go to paris that 
 Spring and found France in the throes of a great agitation over the 
 three year conscription bill increasing the conscription in the army 
 from two to three years adding fifty percent to the French standing 
 army. ji went from there to England and found England in the midst 
 of its great naval debate, The "two keels to one" policy was adopted 
 as the result of that, and then I went to Russia and found a great 
 preparedness agitation going on there. A law was put through for the 
 building of Strategic railways down to the German frontier, increasing 
 the Russian navy and adding 600,000 men to the Russian colors. 
 
 In each of these countries the inerease of armaments in the 
 neighboring country was held up as the reason for increasing the 
 armament in thet country, so that the militarism and the imperialism 
 of all the nations before the war was supported by the militarism and 
 imperialism of the neighboring nation, The fear produced by armaments 
 which from the point of view of peoples of those nations were for 
 purposes of defense, lead to corresponding increases of armaments in 
 the neighboring country, and those increases led to fear in turn, and 
 you have a cumulative effect, That was the condition before the war,- 
 each nation fearing its neighbor and arming for defense against its 
 neighbor, that defensive armament being interpreted as a threat of 
 aggression by the neighbor and resulting. in increases in that neighbor- 
 ing nation, 
 
 ; Now with the Russian revolution a new situation appeared. 
 The imperialism and the militarism of Russia collapsed. The fear of 
 Rustria in regard to the great slave peril disappeared, fhe fear of 
 Germany in regard to an invasion of the Tartars and cossacks and other 
 things pictured to them as being associated with the great slave peril 
 disappeared. The morale of the Austrian and German armies broke down, 
 
 Now I wonder if you can see that situation looking at the 
 world again from an outside point of view. Here were all these nations 
 bracing each other up as far as their imperialism and militarism was 
 concernéd, J remember hearing a story of a man who was driving a wagon 
 with three horses attached to it. All of the horses were very thin and 
 gaunt, and somebody asked him why he was driving three horses, and why 
 he didn't take the middle horse out. "What", he said, "take out the 
 middle horse and let the other two fall down?" Well, that was the 
 situation in the world. If you had taken away any one of these imperial 
 istic and militaristic nations, the others would have toppled over; 
 they wouldn't have had this constant threat upon which to build up 
 their militarism and imperialism, So with the collapse of Russian 
 militarism and imperialism,* and the collapse of Austria Hungary 
 militarism and imperialism, and with those dangers removed must come 
 a collapse of [Italian militarism and imperialism because they no longer 
 have the Austrian peril to fear, and a collapse of French imperialism 
 and militarism because they nO longer have Germany to fear, There must 
 come a new condition all over the world, with the governments turning 
 their energies away from destructive purposes of armaments and pre- 
 paration for war, with which they have been chiefly concerned in the 
 past, and giving their attention in the future to questions of social 
 legislation, meeting the needs of the people, concerning themselves 
 with those vital things which the modern social conscience demands, 
 
 Now if that new situation is recognized; if there is enough 
 Sstatesmanship in the governments of the world, - that adjustment can 
 be made, [It means disarmament; it means a Teague of Nations © a be- 
 ginning of the organization of the world; it means the governments 
 turning aside from those questions of national differences - armies 
 and navies which have occupied from two-thirds to nine-tenths of all 
 their energies and resources in the past, - turning aside from those 
 negative non-productive purposes and concentrating their ‘energies in 
 the future upon the great constructive problems of social legislation. 
 If there is not enough statesmanship to recognize that new state of 
 affairs that we have in the world as the result of the collapse of 
 one of these great imperialistic and militaristic parties, and the 
 resulting falling over of the other militarisms and imperialisms, and 
 the entire transformation of the nature of the state and of the condi- 
 tions of sovereignty as they have existed in the past, - if there is 
 not enough statesmanship to recognize that new situation, then we shall 
 have a spread of this condition that we see in eastern Hurope, with 
 
 % came in the collapse of German wilitarism and imperialism, 
 
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 the peoples in their despair of any statesmanship on the part of-the 
 governments, in their despair at the moral bankruptcy of statesman 
 trained in the old school, taking things into their own hands, and a 
 spread of the revolution until we have a RBolshevist Rurope with which 
 you will have to live on some terms or other, 
 
 Well, that brings us to this great problem of imperialism 
 because much of the armament in the world of the past has been built 
 up to acquire or defend colonies - protectorates + concessions, 
 Spheres of influence, markets, and there has been a kind of an 
 Optical illusion in regard to the map of the world. Governments 
 have poured out millions, yes hundreds of millions, in order to con- 
 quer new colonies or new protectorates and spheres of influence, 
 and there has been a general idea on the part of peoples of the 
 nations that somehow or other the acquisition of colonies, the paint- 
 ing of the map of your country or your empire over as much of the 
 world as possible in red, meant an inerease of prosperity for your 
 country; that somehow or other trade follows the flag; that the 
 acquisition of new colonies and new spheres of influence was going to 
 bring added wealth; - the larger the empire to which you belonged 
 the more prosperous necessarily must its people be, and therefore 
 @ll these added expenses for armaments and for conquest of colonies 
 was justified. 
 
 I remember at the time of our Spanish war how the farmens 
 on the Ppacifie coast all felt that they were going to become enormously 
 rich as the result of our annexation of the philippines. It seemed 
 perfectly natural to suppose that as the result of getting these 
 ‘immensely rich islands in the Pacific the whole United States was 
 going to be prosperous, and of course the pacific coast would benefit 
 most of ald, and it was some time before they became disillusioned to 
 the fact that no farmer became a single dollar richer but all of us 
 a good deal poorer as the result of the added expenses of acquiring 
 the Philippines. And so with the immense é¢xpansion of imperialism 
 in Europe! The acquisition of Morocco by France has added enormously 
 to the burdens of the french tax-payer. The acquisition of colonies 
 by England has always been a source of expense, never a source of 
 revenue for the nation, and yet this great optical illusion of the 
 map has been so hypnotic in its effect that there has been almost _ 
 universal belief that colonies and protectorate spheres of influence 
 and added area for your country, - meant necessarily an economic gain 
 and increased prosperity. 
 
 It is difficult for us to realize how widespread the move- 
 ment towards imperialism has been. Here are a few of the figures 
 for example. The great era of imperialistic expansion was the 
 twenty years from 1880 to 1900. All of africa was divided up in 
 that time and all of the other unoccupied areas of the world. Here 
 are some of the statistics at the end of that era of expanding 
 imperialism. At the end of that time in 1900 Great Britain had 50 
 colonies, The area of the mother country was only 120,000 square 
 miles; the area of her colonies was eleven million and one-half 
 Square miles. The population of the mother country was forty 
 million people; the population of her colonies was three hundred 
 farty-five million people. France had 33 colonées. Her area was 
 204,000 square miles; the area of her colonies was three million 
 and seven hundred forty thousand square miles, The population of 
 France was thirty-eight million and one-half; the population of her 
 colonies was fifty-six millions and one-half. Germany was a late~ 
 comer in the game, She had only 13 colones. Her own area was 208,000 
 square miles; her colonies = one million and twenty-seven thousand 
 scuare miles, Germany's . population was fifty-two million at that 
 time; the population of her colonies fourteen million. The only 
 nation which had a smaller population in her colonies than in her 
 evn country was Germany. , The Netherlands, even, had 12,000 square 
 wiles in Holland; 782,000 square miles in colonies, five million 
 veople in Holland; thirty-five million people in her colonies, 
 portugal, + 36,000 miles in her own country; 800,000 miles in her 
 colonies: five million portuguese at home, nine million people under 
 portuguese domination in the colonies, and so on througgout. Italy 
 had 110,000 square miles at home; 188,000 square miles of colonies; 
 €&. population of thirty-one millions and a population of eight hundred 
 and fifty thousand in colonies. That was really before [taly came in- 
 to the imperialistic procession. After that time she annexed Tripoli 
 and other areas in africa and caught up to the rest. 
 
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 It was a universal disease of imperialism, based largel 
 on this optical illusion of the map, = the conception that Bes sses 
 of colonies, increase of area which you could paint red as belonging 
 to your country, increased the prosperity and welfare of your people. 
 
 ; Norman Angel was the first economist to explode this fallac 
 in his book - The ‘¢reat Illusion - examined from a scientific point of 
 view the question as to whether colonies were profitable, whether 
 
 War Was @ paying proposition as it was universally thought to be, 
 whether indemnities were as profitable as they were supposed to be, 
 and he proved conclusively in that book, which was translated into 
 
 @ score languages and has had an enormous sale of nearly a million 
 copies 411 over the world, that those fallacies; that colonies and 
 things of that kind did not promote the welfare of a people and did 
 not increase the prosperity of a nation. 
 
 Why is it then that this expansion of imperialism - this 
 competition for colonies went on? It was because even though the 
 acquisition of colonies did not benefit a nation or increase the 
 welfare of the people of a nation, it did benefit certain financial 
 interests in the nation, When france took over Morocco the French 
 people did not becone a single cent richer; ~ in fact’ they became 
 @ great deal poorer. They had to pay increased expenses for main- 
 taining an army of occupation’ and all sorts of things of that kind, 
 but the credit Lyonnais, and the Rothschilds and the bankers of 
 France got vaiuable iron mines in Morocco and got concessions for 
 building railways and were able to lean money to the Sultan of 
 Morocco at discounts which netted them tens of millions of dollars, 
 Financial interests did profit enormously at the expense of the 
 
 rench taxpayer - the French citizen. and so with Japan when she 
 annexed Korea, The Japanese people did not become any richer because 
 Korea was annexed, Their tax increased enormously and the burden be- 
 came Oppressive almost to the breaking point, but Japanese bankers 
 
 and Japanese railway interests, and Japanese financial interests, have 
 been profiting enormously as the result of the annexation of Korea, 
 and the new concessions that have come there, so that colonialism 
 
 is a method by which certain predatory interests in a given country 
 exploit the people of that same country through the increased taxation 
 that they put upon them in order to protect their interests abroad 
 
 and enable them to do this exploitation in the backward areas of the 
 earth, 
 
 Now that is not all there is to imperialism, and the 
 question of colonies and backward races. With economic motives of 
 this kind there are always mixed idealistic motives, sentimental 
 forces, and it is the combination of economic and emotional forces 
 that do the damage in our modern social problems. There has been in 
 the first place the white man's burden, as it was called, - the appeal 
 to go out and educate the people of the Philippines and to civilize 
 toe peoples of Asia,, Ching, India, Africa, ete., and then there is 4 
 legitimate economic motive, For example, with all the destructive 
 criticism that has been made against the export of capital you find 
 certain irresistible forces there. 
 
 Here is the world needing more oil and more gasolene to 
 run its aeroplanes and its automobiles and its tractors. Here are 
 these oil wells in Mexico that have to be developed, How is that 
 problem to be solved? you can't forbid capitalists from going out 
 and developing these oil wells and these mines and all the other 
 resources of the backward races. The problem is how to permit 
 that economic process to go on which is necessary for the welfare 
 of the human race without permitting at the same time the merciless 
 exploitation of backward races, or the profiteering of these great 
 financial powers, and the using of the financial power which their 
 great profits give them to distort the political iife and the 
 foreign policy of their countries - build up the great naval and 
 military forces and then use those naval and military forces to 
 advance and protect thein speculative interests in these areas, 
 
 We had one most flagrant instance in the case of the 
 Congo atrocities. Many of you probably heard Mr. E.D. Morrell, who 
 is the secretary of the congo Reform Asscciation, when he came to 
 this country to lecture against tae exploitation of the natives of 
 the Congo under the corrupted administration of King Leopold of 
 
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 of the Rubber companies depend upon the exploitation of the natives who 
 were killed by the hundred thousands and mutilated and used up in this 
 merciless process of exploitation that went on, that when that thing 
 was exposed and the conscience of the world was brought to bear upon 
 that Congo situation, the shares of stock in the Comgo companies 
 which had been worth about a thousand dollars a share fell to a value 
 of $25 a share, When those processes of merciless exploitation of 
 
 the backward races were no longer possible, all of this profit dis-~- 
 appeared, and you can imagine how bitterly Mr. Morrel was fought 
 
 and the Congo Reform association was fought, and what tremendous 
 pressure @ great finanetal power like that would bring upon the 
 government, the Department of Poreiagn affairs and all the interests 
 which control international policy, in order to protect enormous 
 interests of that kind, — : 
 
 ; Something of the same situation bbtained in the diamond 
 mines of South Africa and nearly all Englishmen are agreed today that 
 the South African war was brourht on by those great diamond mine 
 owners in order to prevent the interference of the boors of South 
 Africa with the process of exploitation that they wanted to carry on, 
 And so there have been the atrocities among the Indians of prazil 
 and Peru and exploitation of this kind going on in China and asia 
 wherever there is a great mass of unorganized labor unable to pro- 
 tect itself, open to exploitation of this kind, and offering this 
 Opportunity for tremendous profits, as long as these abuses can be 
 kept from the light of publicity and social conscience. 
 
 Well, the problem for the future then is how can this 
 Situation be changed;- how can the unexploited natural resources of 
 the world be brought into the use of humanity and at the same time 
 these great abuses of the backward races of the world be vrevented? 
 How can the exploitation of peoples just coming into the civilized 
 life of the world be prevented? 
 
 The League of Nations had developed the plan of mandatories 
 to meet this problem, There were three possibilities. One was 
 international administration of backward areas and backward races 
 and of colonies, The second was the system of trustee nations or 
 Mendatories, The third was a system that has obtained heretofore 
 of national ownership just handing over colonies to the different 
 nations. The system of international commissions is the ideal one, 
 of course, but very difficult to apply especially without many pre- 
 cedents to guide in the work, ‘you can imagine how difficult a task 
 it would be if an international commission composed of, let us say 
 English, French, portuguese, Italian, American, and German delegates 
 should be entrusted with the task of administering the congo Basin 
 area in Afsica or liesopotamia or some country like that. The differ- 
 ence in national ideals, the difference of method in dealing with 
 backward races, the difference in concerction of moral responsibility 
 in regard to helpless races, - all would make it very difficult to 
 have a unified policy or to get agreement in regard to things that 
 ought to be done, and there would be the danger of such an inter- 
 national commission breaking up and not being able to carry through 
 things that would have to be done. 
 
 tin view of the light therefore of anything like an inter- 
 national school for colonial administration and common international 
 ideals which do not yet exist but are rapidly coming into existence 
 for dealing with backward races, this compromise plan of mandatories 
 has been included in the draft of the League of Nations. Under the 
 system of mandatories the colonies will be under international con- 
 trol. They will belong to them or to the League of Nations, but 
 they will be entrusted to certain definite nations to develop and 
 to have the moral responsibility for the welfare of the peoples in 
 those areas, 
 
 Now there are certain safeguards that ought to be thrown 
 around these mandatory powers of the League if they are to be en- 
 during - if they are to be based upon justice, because it becomes 
 more and more apparent that this treaty of peace that is being 
 framed now can endure only as it is based upon justice - only as 
 it is self-enforcing. 
 
She, 
 
 . Take, for example, the question of Piume claimed by the 
 Italians from strategic and military reasons but naturally belonging 
 to the new Jugo-Slav nation, - practically their only great seaport. 
 Suppose it is given to Italy against the wish of the majority of the 
 population of Fiume and certainly against the passionate aspirations 
 of all the people of the hinterland, upon whom the prosperity of Fiume . 
 depends, - how long will #iume remain [Italian against the pressure of 
 that great Jugo¢Slav nation around it and needing it vitally while 
 Italy needs “it only from sentimental reasons. Well, it would last 
 until the first great crisis came in [Italian affairs; until there was 
 a great labor uprising or strike or revolution in Italy, and then in 
 the midst of the Italian confusion the Jugo-Slav people would quietly 
 take possession of their seaport city of piume, and unless the League 
 of Nations is going to have an immende army prepared to see that every- 
 one of its decisions all over the world is carried out for the next 
 fifty or one hundred years, these questions are going to be settled 
 in accordance with the wishes of the people immediately concerned and 
 the vital interests of those people, and not according to imperialistic 
 desires or sentimental interests of people with no vital interests 
 there. So the treaty has to be self-enforcing. If you give Fiume 
 to the Jugo-Slavs to whom it naturally belongs by racial and commercial 
 interests, it will stay there no matter what becomes of the rest of the 
 world and of the League of Nations. If you give Fiume to [taly, it 
 will stay there only so long as Italy can sit on the lid and prevent 
 the people from taking possession of it. ; 
 
 And so with all the other problems of settlement. If they 
 
 are based on justice they will stay settled, and if they are not 
 based on justice they will Stay settled only so long as there is 
 inilitary power enough in the world to hold them in place and sit on 
 the lid, and with the tremendous changes going on every day that will 
 not be very long, 
 
 Now in regard to these mandatory nations and these mandates 
 for colonies and backward races - what conditions can be laid down 
 Which will assure their settlement on a basis of justice and therefore 
 of permanent peace? The first thing that occurs to us as we study 
 the situation is that these mandatory solutions that aré proposed are 
 curiously like the secret treaties that were made during the war, In 
 those secret treaties, for example, Italy was to have Dalmatia and 
 Peume; control over Adbania, the city of Aviona, Guif of Adalia in 
 Asia liinor, the Greek islands end Lytia in Africa, etc., etc.; Japan 
 was to have the Islands of the pacific north of the equator, and also 
 the Shantung Penninsula in China, England was to have Mesopotamia, 
 The provisions of that Asia ]flinor treaty are especially interesting. 
 Great Britain was to have the southern part of Mesopotamia with RBag- 
 dad, and reserves for herself in Syria, the ports of Jaffa and Acre, 
 Pranee was to receive the coast strip cf Syria, the; adensk (?) 
 District and part of what is apparentiy the southern part of: Armenia, 
 Russia was to have the northern part of Armenia and by agreement 
 between France and England the territory in the zones between the 
 French and English territories shail be formed into a confereration 
 of Arabian governments or an independent arabian government, the zones 
 of influence over which is herewith defined, etc, 
 
 A most interesting situation has arisen in that con- 
 nection, - 4 conflict apparently between the English and French over 
 Syria and palestine, with Bngland trying to prevent France from 
 getting too great an influence there that might mean, as her route 
 to tndia has led apparently to a development of the Bnglish plan for 
 encouraging the Hedjaz to become independent, - the Arabian people in 
 that Penninsula Sinai, just sast of Heypt - and that encouragement 
 by the English of arabian demands for independence with the purpose 
 of limiting French control and-interest has had an unexpected reaction 
 in that it has stimulated Heyptian demand for independence so that a 
 revolution has been going on there in the past week, and has immensely 
 stimulated.the movement for independence among the ]iohammedans of 
 tndia, - a situation, I suppose, something like the very serious prob- 
 lem that we are confronting in our southern states at the vresent 
 time where the employers are inciting the negroes to refu#®® to join 
 the white man's union as they call it. They are trying to oreak up 
 the co-operation that now exists between white labor and negro labor 
 in the mines, for example, of Birmingham, Alabama, and encouraging 
 
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 the negro to split with the white man and sta . 
 
 nd up for his own con- 
 ception of Justice, with the result that a great race war is pending 
 a the Suicidal policy that is being followed blindly by the capitalis. 
 in order to split the combined forces of white and negro labor, 
 
 Well, Something of the same blindness has been shown by 
 these great imperialistic powers competing against each other to 
 limit Spheres of influence and stirring up revolts and demands for 
 independence which spread much further than they had intended when 
 they originally began these demands, 
 
 ‘The first thing that strikes you in examining the plan for 
 mandatories is that they are curiously like these secret treaties; 
 that they are ways for putting into effect under the sanction of the 
 League of Nations the agreements and the bargains that were made 
 during the war in these secret treaties which are some of the most 
 unashamed imperialistic deals that the world has ever known, 
 
 if the system of mandates is to be a just one or as just as 
 we can expect under the present condition of the governments of the 
 world, and the forces that control them, modifications have got to 
 be made in those secret treaties. Some of them are very clear, for 
 example - the things that Russia was to have in Armenia, the upper 
 part of Mesopotamia, etc., the City of Constantinople that was pro-' 
 mised to Russia, or no longer claimed - Russian imperialism is dead, 
 but in Syria which was to be just a French province much more attention 
 has got to be paid to the wishes of the people concerned and their 
 interests. In China much more attention has got to be paid to the 
 future peace of the world than was involved in Simply handing over 
 Chow, Shantung, etc., to the Japanese. The whole question of the 
 secret treaties has got to be brought out into the light of day. and 
 subjected to the power of the public opinion of the democracies of 
 the world before any settlement that will be stable or that will 
 help to secure the peace of the world can be reached. 
 
 The second thing is that the mandates must be given for a 
 limited term of years and nbt indefinitely or in perpetuity. If 
 they are given for ten years at a time, let us say, then at the end 
 of each ten years the nations which have the guardianship over these 
 backward races can be called to account - can be asked to give an 
 accounting of their trusteeship and there will be a court of appeal 
 at least to the public opinion of the world against abuses and ex- 
 ploitations that they might otherwise be tempted to allow, 
 
 In the first place the nations entrusted with these mandates 
 ought to be given definite tasks, For example, if Italy is given 
 Albania as a mandatory she ought to be told that her task is to pre- 
 pare the Abbanian people for self-government. If England is given 
 Palestine, it ought to be with the definite understanding that she 
 is to prepare a home for the Jews there, and so with all the other 
 backward races of the world, They ought not to be handed over sizply 
 with a carte blanche for exploitation, but they ought to be handed 
 With definite tasks for which the nations will morally be responsible, 
 
 In the fourth place there ought to be safeguards against 
 colonial militarism, We have had some very ominous beginnings of 
 colonial militarism during the war, Just recently two regiments of 
 french negroes have been Sent to Odessa to fight against the Bol- 
 sheviki,. That means that the capitalist class is using negro soldiers 
 to fight against revolution, to fight against the workers - a very 
 ominous thing, - one of those things that it seems incredible that 
 government should be so shortsighted as to begin, because if you 
 train in the use of arms the hundreds of millions of people of Africa, 
 organize them and teach them military methods, you are preparing 
 30me very serious times for the white colonics of south Africa and 
 for all the rest of the world. the safety of the world depends upon 
 not militarizing these backward races of the world, and on the 
 other hand protecting them against militarization as well as pro- 
 tecting them against exploitation by industrialism when it enters into 
 these new areas - undeveloped areas of the world. 
 
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 _, In the fifth place there ought to be enlightened:labor 
 legislation to protect these backward races. If’ you think of the way 
 our uns killed labor, for example, has been exploited, - anyone who 
 goes down into the steel regions of Pennsylvania or the mining regions 
 of the United States and studies the way in which our unskilled and 
 unorganized laborer has been almost mercilessly exploited, and the 
 suffering that has caused, and then thinks of the possihility in a 
 country like China where great steel industries are JUeRAPOIsige in, 
 where all these hundred millions of laborers are Subject to ex- 
 ploitation, - the terrible abuses and misery that might be caused by 
 an unscrupulous exploitation of great masses of pecple ,of that, kind, 
 and the things that that would lead to, -- it is time for us to read 
 again Edward Markham's - "Man with a Hoe" - in the light of what is 
 happening in parts of BRurope today. If we have any regard whatever 
 for the future of civilization in the world and welfare of the 
 generations that are to.come after us, we have got to protect these 
 peoples against exploitation by enlightened labor legislation, 
 
 I have been reading with deepest interest the conclusions 
 of the International Tabor and Socialist conference that has been 
 meeting at Berne these past months while the peace conference has 
 been meeting at Paris, and they have issued an international labor 
 charter that is one of the most enlightened statesmanlike documents 
 that I have found anywhere. They demand that the following minimum 
 requirements which are already carried out in part in some countzies 
 Shall be converted into a code of international law by the Teague of 
 Nations on the conclusion of peace. Their first demand is that 
 primary education should be compulsory in all countries and a system 
 of technical education establisned. Higher education should be 
 - established in all countries and be free and available for all, 
 Capacity and aptitude should not be thwarted by the mere conditions 
 ‘in which a young person lives, Children under fifteen years of age 
 Shall not be employed in industrial occupations. Then there is a 
 geries of regulations concerning child labor. Third, the hours of. 
 work for women workers - they shall not be employed at night; they 
 Shall not exceed four hours on Saturday; the employer shall not 
 give women work to do at nome after their regular day's work; women 
 Shall not be employed in especially dangerous trades which are im- 
 possible to make healthy, nor mines wither above or below ground; 
 women shall not be allowed to work for ten weeks altogether before 
 and after childbirth, six weeks of which'shell be taken after the 
 confinement. In every country a system of maternity insurance shall 
 be introduced providing compensation at least equal to the sickness 
 insurance benefit payable in the country concerned. Women shall re- 
 ceive the same pay as men for the same work; night work between the 
 hours of 8:90 P.M, and 6:00 A.M. shall be prohibited by law, etc,, 
 etc, Sixth, with a view to protection of health and prevention of 
 accidents the daily hours of work shall be reduced below eight hours 
 in dangerous trades; the use of poisonous :uuterials shall be pro- 
 Nibsced in aliccases where it-is possipie. to procure substitutes for 
 them, The use of white phosphorous in the manufacture of matches 
 and of white lead in painting and decorating work both indoor and 
 cutdoor shall be prohibited immediately. Railway cars of all countries 
 must within five years be fitted with automatic couplings adapted 
 to all cars, Seventh —- all laws and orders dealing with the pro- 
 tection of workers shall apply in principle to home industries; social 
 insurance laws shall be extended to home industries; home work shall. 
 be prohibited ~ (a) in the case of work liable to give rise to serious 
 injury to health or poisoning - (bd) in food industries including the 
 making of bags and cardboard boxes for packing articles. of food. 
 Highth - the workers shall have the right of free combination and 
 association in all countries. Ninth - wmigration shall not be pro- 
 hibited - (a) immigration shall not be prohibited in a general way. 
 This rule shall not affect the rignt of any state to restrict 
 immigration temporarily in a period of economic depression, nor to 
 protect the workers of that country as well as the foreign immigrant 
 workers. (bv) The right of any state to control immigration in order 
 to protect the public health and to prohibit emigration for the time 
 being. (c) The right of any state to require that the immigrant 
 shall come up to a certain minimum standard in reading and writing 
 his native language so as to maintain tne standard of popular 
 education of the state in question, to enable labor legislation to 
 pe effectively applied in the branches of industry in which the 
 immigrants are employed. Tenth - in cases where the average earnings 
 of the workers whether men or women are insufficient to provide a 
 
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 proper standard of living, the government shall set up wages boards, 
 on which employers and workers shall be equally represented, with the 
 object of fixing legal minimum rates of wages. Eleventh - in order 
 to reduce unemployment and to facilitate insurance against unemploy- 
 ment, existing labor exchanges in every country shall be linked up 
 in such @ manner that they can provide as far as possible prompt 
 
 and complete information as regards the demand for the supply of 
 labor; a system of unemployment insurance shall be set up in every 
 country. Twelfth - all workers shall be insured by the state against 
 industrial accidents, Thirteenth - a special international code of 
 laws for the protection of seamen shall be established; this code 
 shall be drawn up with the colleboration of the Seamen's ynions. 
 Fourteenth - the enforcement of these provisions shall rest with 
 
 the labor departments of each state and their industrial inspectors; 
 the trade unions shall assist in the effective enforcement of the 
 labor laws, Fifteenth - with a view to carrying out this treaty and 
 a further promotion of international labor legislation, the con- 
 tracting states shall appoint a permanent commission consisting in 
 equal parts of the representatives of the states which are members 
 of the League of Nations and of the International Trade union Peder- 
 ation; this permanent commission shall co-operate with the inter- 
 national labor office in Brazil and the International trade union 
 ¥ederation, | 
 
 That is one of the most statesmanlike documents that has 
 appeared during these months that the Peace conference has been 
 meeting, and the necessity for international labor legislation of 
 that kind will be increasingiv apparent as the labor movements be- 
 come more powerful. At present, of course, the great obstacle to 
 high labor standards is the competition of places where those 
 Standards do not-prevail. When we try to prohibit child labor in 
 Massachusetts or in Pennsylvania, we are met with the argument on 
 the part of the employers that as long as child labor is permitted 
 in the industries of the south they cannot meet the competition with- 
 out child labor in the north, and the only way to answer that is to 
 pronibit child labor in the south as well, and we have done that in 
 the new revenue law after the child labor law Was declared un- 
 constitutional, But the argument goes still further. -It is im- 
 possible to maintain high standards of labor legislation in one 
 country if child labor and night labor of women, exploitation by over 
 work, etc., iS permitted in other countries, and so it becomes 
 necessary to protect the health and the welfare of our own labor, 
 
 Our working classes upon whom the productivity and therefore the 
 progperity and welfare of the country depends. fit becomes necessary 
 
 ta see that labor in other countries is protected against exploitation, 
 so that international labor iegislation is one of the essential elemerts 
 that must be included in mandatory provisions of the League of Nations, 
 
 Sixth = is the principle of the open door. That is one 
 great advantage, of course, that the mandatory system will have over 
 a straight ownership system. If, for example, Japan takes the 
 colonies that were Germany'ts in the Pacific Ocean - if she took them 
 as her own colonies she would probably be justified in including 
 them within her own tariff wall and preventing any other nation from 
 trading there. If she takes them as a mandatory for the League of 
 Wations, however, she will be under obligation - she ought to be under 
 Obligation if the mandatory principle is framed fight - to permit the 
 commerce of all nations to go into those islands on equal terms, 
 
 Seventh and last comes the question of concessions, There 
 we are up against a very difficult problem. All we can do perhaps 
 now is to just outline the problem. Take for example the question of 
 jesopotamia, There are oil wells in Mesopotamia rich enough to pay 
 the whole cost of this war as far as England is concerned, for exampler 
 tens of billions of dollars. To whom should that wealth go? There 
 are three or four possibilities. [{t might conceivably go to the 
 people who own that land at the present time. ft belongs to wandering 
 arabs, Sheiks and Turkish governors, but it hardly seems to be a 
 satisfactory solution. It might conceivably go to the trusts and 
 the big business corporations that will exploit it. The ones that 
 get in there and get a concession and buy up the land for $10 an acre 
 or $0, Will be able to make tens and hundreds of miilioys of dollars 
 from these oil wells, and that hardly seems to be a satiSfactory solu- 
 tion in accord with our modern ideas in regard to profiteering, etc. 
 It might conceivably go to the nation which 1s given a mandatory 
 power, but that again is a moot question, 
 
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 The fourth possibility is that it migi 
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 for constructive nt anata ensk eres E Leag of Nations 
 
 4 é The question is too new in all its aspects to make it 
 possible to frame a definite policy, but at least there are tremendous 
 problems looming up on the horizon, of which Mesopotamia is a concrete 
 illustration, that we ought to be studying and that the world will 
 have to solve in the near future. 
 
 I have tried to take a rapid survey of this whole 
 question of colonies and backward races. the problems are tremendous, 
 rhe provision of the League of peace covenant defining the mandatory 
 principle 1S capable of working out into a constructive solution of 
 this problem, or it is capable of being an instrument of abuse and 
 exploitation and evil and friction in the world. one of. the essential 
 features of it, however, is this. Just as the assigning of the North- 
 vest territory to the Federal Government immensely strengthened that 
 Tederal government when Virginia gave up its claim to the Northwest 
 territory, and New york and connecticut and }Ifassachusetts and all the 
 other states which had claimed that immense territory of the North- 
 west gave over their claims to the federal government, it transferred 
 immense economic interests from those competing states to the co- 
 operating federation, and it immensely strengthened the United States, 
 and enabled a larger area of co-operation and a higher patriotism than 
 nerely state patriotism to grow up and have a powerful economic 
 foundation, And so the control over these undeveloped areas and back- 
 vard races of the world by a League of Nations, to which powerful 
 financial interests will have to look for the defense of their inter- 
 ests and their rights instead of looking back to their own governments 
 aad to their own foreign offices which would inevitably lead to 
 triction, - their being compelled to look to the League of Nations for 
 their concessions and for protection of their legitimate interests, 
 etc., will immensely strengthen the power of the League and will con- 
 tribute very materially towards its growth and to a real world organi- 
 “ation, 
 
 “go that if these seven conditions that I have mentioned 
 here as essential to a mandatory principle that will work for the 
 bermanent peace of the world and for conditions of essential justice, 
 are carried out, the question of colonies and backward races and the 
 powers of mandatory principle that are included in the League of 
 jations Covenant may turn out to be one of the most important and 
 constructive parts of the document and of the work of tne Peace Con- 
 ference. 
 
 I am afraid this has been rather dry and technical and 
 uninteresting, but if there is anybody that isn't exhausted with the 
 subject so far and has any questions to ssk, f Will be glad to answer 
 them in the time remaining. 
 
 QUESTION - I would like to *sk in the matter of de- 
 veloping the oil wells and turning over the profits to the League of 
 --ations, - what woijild the ultimate disposal of profits be by the 
 ~eague of Nations? 
 
 DR, NASMYTH - There are very impartant things that the 
 Teague has to do. For example, the Danube river will be declared an 
 international river and has to be dredged and its harbors improved, 
 stc. Wo single nation can do that because all the nations will get 
 the advantage of it. The League of Nations could do it just as the 
 federal government improves the Mississippi river and other inter- 
 state rivers in America. There will be tremendous irrigation work to 
 he built in Mesopotamia. If the League of Nations should get an 
 immense revenue from the oil wells in Mesopotamia and use that for 
 puilding these great irrigation works as England has built irrigation 
 works in Egypt, that would be a legitimate use to make of these 
 sroceeds. There 2re immense tasks of that kind waiting to be done in 
 che world, which will contribute not only to the weifare and pros- 
 perity of those undeyeloped regions and backward races but to the 
 
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 Peters OF the whole world, and the League of Nations could do those 
 things with profit to humanity in a much better way than a single 
 corporation could do it with profit to his own stockholders, 
 
 QUESTION - Mesopotamia might feel that the major icy. or 
 that ought to go to their own enrichment? : 
 
 ‘DR. NASMYTH - There are practically no people in Meso- 
 potamia; it is almost a barren desert. It was of course one of the 
 garden spots of the World while those irrigation systems were in 
 existence, and then with the wars that raged between the Babylonians 
 and the people of Nenevah and the Medes and persians, the govern- 
 ment was broken down and irrigation systems went to ruin and the 
 water ceased to come and the people died and starved to death, and 
 it became a great sandy desert, but it is a wonderfully fertile 
 country and can be restored again to one of the garden spots of the 
 world, It is simply the jealousy and the rivalry of the great 
 nations that has prevented the putting into effect plans that have 
 been ready for half a century, in order to make that again one of 
 the garden spots of the world. 
 
 QUESTION - Has there been any plan to finance the League 
 of Nations - any definite plan? 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - It is provided in the covenant itself 
 that each of the nations which are members of the Teague shall make 
 contributions in the same proportion that they muke them to the 
 Universal Postal Union, The postal Union at Berne has assigned 
 portions of its expense to the United States, England, France, 
 €tc., based upon the quantity of mail that is posted. Tt is 
 really quite a convenient index; it depends on population - the 
 more people the more letters written; it depends upon civilization, 
 upon iiteracy, upon economic resources, etc., so it makes a rather 
 convenient method of solving an otherwise very thorny problem, 
 
 QUESTION - is that International Danube Commission still 
 in existence? e 
 
 DR, -NASMYTH ~ yes, that is a very fascinating study and 
 it shows some essential principles of international administration. 
 There were two international commissions of the Danube, - one was 
 the Riverain Commission, composed of representatives of the six 
 nations which live along the bank of the Danube. That was supposed 
 to be the: permanent commission wnich would develop the Danube 
 navigation and open it and expand its harbors, etc., and then there 
 was another international commission composed of all the Huropean 
 nations as well as these six living on the banks, which was to be 
 only a temporary commission and have limited powers. The way it 
 worked out was this, - that little commission of the six nations 
 directly interdsted fought among themselves so much and were so 
 jealous of each others powers that it never was able to do anything, 
 and this other international commission which had disinterested 
 nations as well as tne directly interested nations in its member- 
 Ship, although it had little power and was supposed to be only a 
 temporary commission, went ahead and dredgeec the river, removed 
 the sand-bars and derelicts and shipwrecks, built lighthouses and 
 made it a great navigable river, because that work had to be done 
 even though they had no authority to do it, The superior working 
 of a really international cormission instead of that narrow diractly 
 interested Riverain Commission showed that that was the true 
 principle, and then during the war that international commission 
 kept on functioning and at present there are steamboats sailing up 
 and down the Danube, and a battleship is threatening ta bombard 
 Budapest because that international commission has been in existence, 
 
 QUESTION - I wonder why the League of Nations didn't 
 get some light from the administration of that? 
 
 DR, NASMYTH - Well, it could have done so. It is simply 
 the imperialistic greed in a large part based on this illusion of the 
 map, and the desire to get territory for premier Hughes of Austr alia 
 
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 and for Japan and other nations of that «ind, that has made it an 
 impractical way at the present time; - not because it won't work but 
 because the nations won't consent to it. 
 
 There is a very interesting book by L.S. Woolf - "The 
 Future of Constantinople", in which he proposed an international 
 eommission to govern Constantinople, and he goes into the history 
 of these two Danube comnissions to show the kind that will and 
 will not work, 
 
 QUESTION - How do you account for the fact that America 
 has had so much difficulty in getting labor legislation thru? 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - Even though we were so far removed from 
 these storm centers of Hurope, even our nation before the war had 
 to devote more than two thirds of its revenue for war purposes; it. 
 was a part of the system of international anarchy in which we lived, 
 Great debates went on in Congress over apvropriations for war and 
 the army and navy, etc., etc., and very little time was left over 
 for child labor legislation and social insurance, and things of that 
 kind. 
 
 QUESTION - Why did Germany lead in social legislation when 
 she was developing her great military system? - 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - The two were bound together. She could 
 never have endured the tremendous strein of that military burden un- 
 less she had distributed the burden and cared for the welfare of her 
 people, i suppose Germany is the only country in the world where men 
 and women were treated at least as well as cattle were. If she had 
 neglected them the way England and America has in centers of great 
 industrial unrest, she would never have endured that tremendous 
 economic strain. In part,of course, the answer to the other 
 question is the intense individualism of American social philosophy,- 
 something that we have got to get over. It has been going through 
 ‘a process of concession during the war, but it still is Standing in 
 the way of our making a real attempt to solve this tremendous prob- 
 lem of unemployment. ; 
 
 QUESTION - I was struck with that program you read of the 
 Berne Conference. It seems to me almost all of those questions have 
 been brought up by the social legislation league, - whatever that. 
 association is, - and there doesn!t seem to be anything very new in 
 that. 
 
 DR. NASMYTH =- No, the new thing would be its application 
 +o China and Africa and ean international standard of labor legislatinn- 
 that would be the new thing - to protect workers in countries where 
 they are fairly well organized. 
 
 QUESTION - All this legislation would be applied to foreign 
 countries but not at home*- lize missionary work. 
 
 DR.NASMYTH - Well, there is always a tendency of course to 
 see the mote in our brother's eye and neglect the beam in our own, 
 hut the project here would be not to admit into international 
 commerce products that were produced by child labor or violations 
 of these things. Tney would be shut out from international trade 
 instead of the present tariff system. | 
 
 QUESTION - You mentioned last week about difficulties 
 veing settled by economic pressure - is that to be included in the 
 weague of Nations - to be resorted to first before the military -- 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - That is one of the definite provisions. 
 There is a very powerful erticle on the economic sanctions of the ; 
 ysague, and what I am vorrying about is that that tremendous economic 
 ‘cower may be used to suppress revolutions, suppress democracy, that 
 eoesn't happen to be the kind that we believe in - instead of being 
 used for its legitimate purpose - to prevent war and to establisn the 
 peace of the world, If it is used as an instrument of repression it 
 will fail; if it is used as an instrument of peade it will succeed, 
 
 UBSTION = Could it be used between Italy and the powers 
 that it wishes to -- 
 
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| Ding DR. NASWYTH = Yes, it was used very powerfully last mon 
 Sate euaes broke out between the Jugo-Slavs and ealtane qe ee 
 whereupon the ttalians stopped foodstuff from going into Serbia and , 
 Austria, whereupon the allies stopped foodstuff going into Italy 
 whereupon Italy immediately raised the blockade on the Slav nation 
 rhe we raised the blockade on italy, It works quickly and sharply. 
 
 he trouble 1s it has been working in the wrong direction; by shutting 
 Ss food from Hungary we produce this Situation, If we continue 
 uo oe out food from Germany and are governed by passions of war 
 instead of statesmanlike i us i i 
 cies Rea Baan rma cea taba we are using a very powerful 
 
 * UBSTI toes ¥ 4 Tt % fe 2 : 
 Peni ante BP eson ouami ee. ieee ete pe ve buy the oil from the in- 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - Yes, - but suppose some trader goes in there 
 with a handful of brass beads or something of that kind, : new See ae 
 of a firearm or toy - and he buys an oil well for S10 worth: of 
 trinkets, etc., that is going to produce $10,000,000 worth of oil -- 
 is it socially the best policy to say that that is the best thing for 
 the future of the world, or should we develop a new social policy in 
 regard to these immense riches? they run up into forty billion 
 dollars worth of wealth in iwesopotamia, and things of that kind. 
 
 Snall we let a few people become so wealthy that they don't know what - 
 to do with their wealth, while part of the world is starving to death, 
 or shall we try to socially distribute that wealth? 
 
 a QUESTION =- Those people would profit by it incidentally, 
 wouldn't they, = in any case? : 
 
 DR, NASMYTH - Oh yes, they would get a job at $2 a day in 
 the 011 wells and have the benefits of modern civilization, and have 
 tenements arising in their cities, ete. 
 ren QUESTION = It is going back to national boundaries, isn't 
 
 it - to limit it to Mesopotamia, - the idea of giving it over to 
 the inhabjtants? 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - Yes, 
 
 QUESTION - Of course that doesn't mean that you would 
 ruthlessly take it away from the inhabitants, 
 
 DR, NASWYTH - Wo, but suppose we use it for the benefit 
 of Mésopotamia and develop great irrigation systems there and 
 public works of all kinds, and make that again a garden spot of the 
 - world, and had great orchards and fruit trees 2nd publie libraries, 
 and things of that kind, wouldn't that be a better way than to have 
 the Mesopotamians having a nalf dozen chauffeurs and Packards and 
 limousines driving around with their Little Bédouin children? 
 
 QUESTION - No matter what way it is done, if it is done 
 Monestly and squarely it is all right -- that would be the question 
 that is the ultimate test anyway, wouldn't it? 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - And that depends upon democracy focussing 
 its attention upon them instead of leaving them to secret diplomacy 
 and invisible government of powerful financial interests. 
 
 QUESTION = Do you think this mandatory power hss any 
 chance of being administered so it won't be a menace, according to 
 the present covenant? 
 
 : -DR. NASMYTH - Not if the present governments of the 
 world were to continue in power indefinitely. The old order is 
 enthroned in all the govdrnments represented in Paris, or nearly all, 
 and imperialism is rampant. Narrow selfishness seems to be dominating 
 the Conference, One or two delegations there pointing always to the 
 unrest outside and the demands of the democratic forces of the world, 
 seem to be the only check on shortesighted:suicidal policies, but 
 this unrest itself is going to produce sweeping changes. It may come 
 by a process of peaceful evolution, - I nope it will, it ought to 
 in England where they have channels of political democracy through 
 -hich it can flow, in that case if the labor party of England comes 
 iato power as it quite possibly may in the next election, a few months 
 
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 from now, it has a very clear policy toward Ireland, towards Egypt, 
 and towards India, The mandatory principle would be administered on 
 the hignest plain, 1 believe, by the British labor party if it took 
 possession of the government of England. 
 
 QUESTION -~ Would it give the Irish the government that 
 taey want - not simply home rule but what they are askim for now? 
 
 DR. NASMYTH »- Yes. 
 QUESTION - And Bgypt? 
 DR. NASWYTH - Egypt and India. 
 
 QUESTION = Some countries now have so many colonies, and if 
 in the future no country is to be allowed to have any new colonies, 
 “on't there be trouble? Isn't there going to be friction between 
 tiose that have fewer colonies and those that have more control? 
 
 DR, NASMYTH - You mean the danger of revolution and uprising 
 in these colonies themselves? 
 
 QUESTION - No, I mean among the governments? 
 
 DR. NASMYTH - Yes, there will be as long as peoples believe 
 that the possession of colonies gives advantage to the people as a 
 whole, When they can explode that great illusion and show that it 
 doesn't give adgantage to the people as a whole but gives advantage 
 suly to certain big interests which use them as opportunities for 
 exoloiting the people, there won't be such a great demand for colonies 
 o1 the part of democracy. } 
 
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