NATIONS A DOCUMENT PREPARED TO STIMULATE COMMUNITY EDITED BY HENRY E. JACKSON SPECIAL AGENT IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION, war. "This must be a people's peace, because this was a people's PRENTICE-HALL, INC. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PREFACE This book was prepared to stimulate the intelligent practice of citizenship in regard to a question of paramount national importance. Apart from the formation of the Federal Union in 1789 and the preservation of the Union in 1860, the most important question ever submitted to the American people is the proposed Covenant for a League of Nations. Just as once to Americans of the eighteenth century was given the pioneer privilege of forming their own government, so now to Americans of the twentieth century is given the enlarged pioneer privilege of sharing in the construction of a new world order. The performance of such a task is the kind of opportunity which knocks but once at a nation's door. This opportunity is big with consequences for human welfare. Whether the proposed covenant is accepted or rejected, the influence of America's action will be profound and farreaching. It becomes every citizen's bounden duty to acquaint himself with the issues involved. He should work with unstinted zest and unremitting toil to assist his fellow citizens to understand them. He should help his community through public discussion to organize and make effective its public opinion. This can best be accomplished through community meetings for free, orderly discussion. This book is written both to stimulate the organization of public meetings for full and free discussion and to serve as an illustration of the kind of document, which the Government might fittingly issue directly to local communities-not only to inform the people but also to ascertain their opinion on proposed policies of national importance. The great debate now in progress on The League of Na |