Pamphlet No
n
a
America’s Peace Aims
A Committee Report
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION FOR
INTERNATIONAL PEACE
1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W.
Washington, D. C.
^^PPRECIATION is expressed to Rosary
College, River Forest, 111., for sponsor-
ing the publication of this pamphlet, there-
by helping to promote that condition and
aim of peace described by His Holiness,
Pope Pius XII:
“The more Christian justice, fraternity
and charity animate and guide individuals
and groups, so much more also is estab-
lished among nations, a spiritual atmos-
phere making possible, indeed easy, the
solution of many problems which today
appear, or really are insoluble.”
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
A COMMITTEE REPORT
PRICE 10 CENTS
THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION FOR
INTERNATIONAL PEACE
1312 Massachusetts Avenue NW. Washington, D. C.
THE PAULIST PRESS
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New York
THE REPORT
“America’s Peace Aims” is a Report of the following
Committees and Sub-Committees of the Catholic Asso-
ciation for International Peace: Ethics, International Law,
International Organization, Economic Life, Social Welfare,
Europe, Latin America. Preceding a discussion meeting of
C. A. I. P. members in and around New York, held at the
Fordham University Law School, November 9, 1941, the
President of the Association, John L. McMahon, announced
that representatives of C. A. I. P. committees would be
appointed to consider the formulation of a report, predicated
on the assumption that Germany would not be finally vic-
torious, which would attempt to apply the Five Conditions
of a Just Peace” enunciated by Pope Pius XII to the fol-
lowing points:
(a) An American offer of acceptable and somewhat fair
terms of peace.
(b) An American offer of a plan of world economic or-
ganization to help the “fulfillment of the needs and
just demands of peoples.”
(c) American co-operation in a political world organi-
zation to improve the terms of peace, help secure
world economic co-operation, and prevent war.
The whole membership of the Association was circu-
larized for suggestions in regard to the proposed report,
and the appointed Committee met in New York on January
26, 1941, to consider these suggestions and to decide in
more detail the scope and content of the Report. Before
the first draft was formulated, the subject was discussed at
a meeting of the Boston members of the C. A. I. P., held at
the Boston-in-Town College, February 15, and at two in-
formal discussions in Washington. The first draft was sub-
mitted to all the members of the special Committee ap-
pointed for the purpose and revised in the light of their
comments and criticism. The revision was sent to the
above-mentioned Committees and to all members of the
C. A. I. P. for comments and suggestions and formed the
basis of discussion at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of
the Association, Trinity College, Washington, April 14-15.
An Editorial Committee appointed at the Conference re-
vised the report again to take care of points agreed upon
in the Conference discussion. This revision was sent to
the Chairmen of the interested Committees for final ap-
proval, after which it was presented to the Executive Coun-
cil of the Association, which ordered it published. The
Appendices to the Report, unless so designated, are not
Committee productions.
3
4
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
COMMITTEES ISSUING REPORT
Chairman, Right Rev.
Rev. J. C. Bartley, O.S.A.
Rev. Harold Bolton
Emmanuel Chapman
Right Rev. Alcuin Deutsch, O.S.B.
Rev. Cyprian Emanuel, O.F.M.
Rev. Gregory Feige
Rev. Adolph D. Frenay, O.P.
Rev. Leo C. Gainor. O.P.
Right Rev. Msgr. Michael J. Grupa
Rev. Linus A. Lilly, S.J.
Ethics
Mscr. John A. Ryan
Rev. Donald A. MacLean
Francis E. McMahon
Very Rev. James H. Moynihan
Kathleen E. Murphy
Rev. Carroll J. Noonan, S.S.
Rev. J. A. O'Brien
Robert Pollock
Miriam T. Rooney
Rev. John K. Ryan
Right Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen
International Law and Organization
Chairman, Charles G. Fenwick
Sub-Committee on International Law
Chairman. Harold T. Tobin
F. A. Arlinghaus
Brendan Brown
Rev. J. L. Burke, S.J.
Maurice I. Hart
Mary G. Huschle
Jerome G. Kerwin
Richard P. Lydon
Clarence E. Martin
Rev. James H. McConnell
Charles N. R. McCoy
John L. McMahon
Charles P. O’Donnell
Sister Grace, O.S.B.
Richard L. Sullivan
Richard M. Tobin
James T. Vocelle
Frank P. Weberg
Walter L. Willigan
Sub-Committee on International Organization
Chairman, Charles G. Fenwick
Marie J. Carroll
Robert H. Connery
Minnie Mae Fleming
Sylvester J. Hemleben
Mother Mary Lawrence, S.H.C.J.
Rev. Geoffrey T. O’Connell
Rev. James A. Reeves
William Ryan
Mrs. F. J. Sisson
Sister Fides Shepperson
Sister Rose de Lima
Edward S. Skillin, Jr.
William C. Smith
Rev. Herman I. Storck. S.J.
Economic and Social Relations
Chairman, Elizabeth M. Lynskey
Sub-Committee on Economic Life
Chairman, Rev. John F. Cronin. S.S.
Rev. William Bolger, C.S.C.
Anthony J. Beck
Mrs. J. W. Bishop
Linna E. Brcsette
Rev. Edmund Brock
Rev. Harold V. Campbell
Rev. Thomas F. Divine, S.J.
Mary Lee Evans
James E. Hagerty
William S. Houck
Rev. Joseph Husslein, S.J.
Edward Keating
Frederick P. Kenkel
Paul Kinicry
Most Rev. Robert E. Lucey
Edward S. Lynch
M. L. Madden
Clarence J. McCabe
Rev. R. A. McGowan
Constantine E. McGuire
Austin Murphy
P. A. O’Connell
Rev. Joseph V. O'Driscoll. C.M,
August Reisweber
Bernard J. Rothwell
Sister M. Barbara
Sister M. Ignatius, S.N.D.
Ethel C. Syford
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
5
Sub-Committee on Social Welfare
Chairman, Elizabeth M. Lynskey
Rev. Jules A. Baisnee, S.S.
Elizabeth B. Carey
Rev. William R. Clark, O.P.
Clarence J. Enzler
Rev. Joseph B. Koncius
Rev. John LaFarge, S.J.
Louise McGuire
Rose J. McHugh
Arthur Murphy
Mrs. George L. Reynolds
Rev. Alphonse Schwitalla, S.J.
Sister Mary Ambrose, B.V.M.
Sister M. Benedictus. C.S.C.
Sister Mary Canisia. S.S.N.D
Sister Evangela, B.V.M.
Joint Policy
Chairman, James M. Ecan
Sub-Committee on Europe
Chairman, James M. Ecan
William George Bruce
Rev. John K. Cartwright
Marie J. Carroll
William de Groot
W. M. T. Gamble
Rev. Victor J. Gellhaus. O.S.B.
Joseph E. Hansbery
Marion Hansbery
Mary T. Loughlin
Mary C. McGinnis
Robert C. Murray
Daniel Sargent
John Schuler
Sister M. Rosalie
Sister M. Rosalita. I.H.M.
Sister Raphael. S.N.D
Sister St. Ignatius, G.N.S.H.
Sub-Committee on Latin America
Chairman, Anna Dill Gamble
Rev. William F. Blakeslee, C.S.P.
Manoel Cardoza
Carlos E. Castaneda
Mrs. Peter L. Collins
J. deSiqueira Coutinho
Mary P. Holleran
Catherine Kirwan
Elizabeth W. Loughran
Marie R. Madden
Rev. James A. Magner
Rev. Vincent Marinaro
Rev. Edward J. McCarthy O.S.A.
E. Francis McDevitt
Rev. R. A. McGowan
William F. Montavon
Mary S. Murphy
Paul V. Murray
Anne M. Nicholson
Richard Pattee
Mrs. Robert M. Patterson
Rev. Edward Peters, C.S.P.
William A. Prendergast
Louis S. Rosenthall
Rev. David Rubio
Rev. Edwin Ryan
Sister Mary St. Patrick McConville
Sister Monica
Rev. Francis Borgia Steck, O.F.M.
PREFACE
“Five Conditions of a Just Peace ” 1 — Guide for “America’s
Peace Aims”
“We believe those who with watchful eyes consider these seri-
ous potentialities and the possibility of such an evolution of events
will, notwithstanding war and its horrible accompaniments, hold
themselves wholly prepared to define clearly, so far as they them-
selves are concerned, the fundamental points of a just and honor-
able peace at the opportune moment; and that they would not
flatly reject opportunity for negotiations, whenever the occasion
presents itself, with the necessary guarantees and security.
“First. A fundamental condition of a just and honorable
peace is to assure the right to life and independence of all na-
tions, large and small, strong and weak. One nation’s will to
live must never be tantamount to a death sentence for another.
When this equality of rights has been destroyed, injured or im-
perilled, the juridical order requires reparation whose measure and
extent are not determined by the sword or selfish, arbitrary judg-
ment, but by the standards of justice and reciprocal equity.
“Second. That order, reestablished in such a manner, may be
tranquil and durable — the cardinal principles of true peace — na-
tions must be liberated from the heavy slavery of the race for
armaments and from the danger that material force, instead of
serving to protect rights, become the tyrannical violator of them.
“Conclusions of peace which failed to attribute fundamental
importance to disarmament, mutually accepted, organic and pro-
gressive both in practice and spirit, and failed to carry out this
disarmament loyally, would sooner or later reveal their incon-
sistency and lack of vitality.
l See “Christmas Message, 1939” in Pope Pius XII and Peace, 1939-40, pp. 38-40
(National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington D. C.); also The Pope’s Peace
Program and the United States, J. M. Eagan (The Paulist Press, New York). For
earlier papal statements and action see: Peace Action of Pope Benedict XV, History Com-
mittee; The Church and Peace Efforts, History Committee; A Papal Peace Mosaic,
1879-1936; Permanent Peace Program of Pope Benedict XV. Donald A. MacLean
(Catholic Association for International Peace, Washington, D. C.).
6
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
7
“Third. In any reordering of international community life it
would conform to the rules of human wisdom for all parties
concerned to examine the consequences of the gaps and deficiencies
of the past; and in creating or reconstituting the international in-
stitutions, which have so lofty a mission and at the same time one
that is so difficult and full of the gravest responsibilities, they
should keep present before them the experiences which poured
from the inefficacy or defective operation of similar previous
projects.
“And, since it is so difficult — one would be tempted to say
almost impossible — for human weakness to foresee everything and
assure everything at the time of the drafting of treaties of peace
— when it is difficult to be entirely free from passions and bitter-
ness— the establishment of juridical institutions, which serve to
guarantee the loyal and faithful fulfillment of terms and, in case
of recognized need, to revise and correct them, is of decisive im-
portance for an honorable acceptance of a peace treaty and to
avoid arbitrary and unilateral ruptures and interpretations of the
terms of these treaties.
“Fourth. A point which should draw particular attention if
better ordering of Europe is sought, concerns the real needs and
just demands of nations and of peoples as well as of ethnical
minorities: demands which, if not always sufficient to form a strict
right when there are recognized or confirmed treaties or other
juridical titles which oppose them, deserve at all events benevolent
examination to meet them in a peaceful way and, where it appears
necessary, by means of equitable, wise and harmonious revision of
treaties.
“Once true equilibrium among nations is thus brought back
and the basis of mutual trust is re-established, many of the incen-
tives to resort to violence would be removed.
“Fifth. But even better and more complete settlements will
be imperfect and condemned to ultimate failure, if those who guide
the destinies of peoples, and the peoples themselves, do not allow
themselves to be penetrated always more and more by that spirit
from which alone can arise life, authority and obligation for the
dead letter of articles in international agreements — by that spirit,
namely, of intimate, acute responsibility that measures and weighs
8
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
human statutes according to the holy unshakable rules of Divine
Law; by that hunger and thirst for justice which is proclaimed
as a Beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount, and which has, as a
natural presupposition, moral justice; by that universal love
which is the compendium of and most comprehensive term for the
Christian ideal, and therefore throws across also a bridge to
those who have not the benefit of participating in our own
Faith.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE — Five Conditions of a Just Peace — (From Pope Pius XII) 6
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
I. Obligations of the United States 11
II. A United Europe 12
III. World Organization IS
IV. Functions and Forms .. 17
APPENDICES
A. Totalitarianism — (From Pope Pius XII) 21
B. Economic Aspects of the Passing Era — (From Ethics and Eco-
nomic Relations Committee, C. A. I. P.) 22
C. An International Bill of Rights — Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J. 23
C A New Europe? — (From Pope Pius XII) 24
D. A New Economic Order — (From Ethics and Economic Rela-
tions Committee, C. A. I. P.) 25
E. Forms of European Organizations
I. European Federation — Rev. Gregory Feige 27
II. European Organization — James M. Eagan, Ph.D 32
III. Steps Towards the Formation of a United Europe —
Rev. Patrick J. Higgins, S.J. 34
F. I. Christian Unity — Statement of English Churchmen 35
II. A Just and Durable Peace — (Federal Council of Chuches) 37
G. The World Society — (From Pope Pius XII) 37
G '. Migration and Economic Justice — (From Pope Pius XII) 38
H. Inter-American Co-operation — (From Latin America Commit-
tee, C. A. I. P.) 39
I. International Boycott Agreement — (From Committees of the
C. A. I. P.) 39
J. Forms of World Organization
I. An Outline for World Organization — Marie J. Carroll 40
II. Plan for a World Organization — Charles G. Fenwick,
Ph.D 46
K. American Catholics and Peace Aims — (From N. C. W. C. Ad-
ministrative Committee Statement) 47
L. Student Peace Federations Resolution 48
9
.
■
AMERICA'S PEACE AIMS
I
Obligations of the United States
Responsibility. When this war can end, the United States
must try to secure a just and charitable peace.
The United States must do this: 1. As an obligation to
defend itself and its people, for two world wars in one genera-
tion must not be followed by a third; 2. In justice to Europe,
for the United States has long influenced Europe’s fate and
a decision of the United States to ship supplies in war-time
to a disunited Europe perhaps determines victory by the domi-
nant countries of Western Europe and a decision not to ship
determines victory by the dominant countries of Eastern Europe
and Central Europe; 1 3. In social justice, since world welfare
and American welfare demand such a peace; 4. In charity to a
stricken world.2
A New Era. The peace must be more than an armistice. It
must help to create a new and a better era. The old era was
bad. A worse period threatens, which, by no coincidence, has
its origins in Central Europe and Eastern Europe. This threat-
ening new era 3 means enslavement of peoples to governments,
wars of conquest, paganism and the subjection of religion. The
era that is passing is one not only of European but of world-
wide nationalism,4 of imperialism and systematic individual
greed.5 and of the philosophical and religious systems which have
produced these evils — the disruption of Christendom, rational-
ism and that distortion of Catholicism by Catholics who permit
Christ to rule only part of life. The peace which follows this
war must help to create a good era.
1 The countries on the Atlantic from the Netherlands and Great Britain to Spain
rely on us and must, while the others up the inland seas — Germany, Scandinavia, the
Slav, Baltic, and Balkan countries, and Italy — do not rely on us so much and perhaps
now do not need to do so. See Ch. VIII, Europe and the United States, Europe Com-
mittee. C. A. I. P. See Chs. I, VII, IX for fuller treatment of our influence on Europe.
2 See The Obligation of Catholics to Promote Peace, Ethics Committee, C. A. I. P.
3 See Appendix A. (Quotation from Summi Pontificatus.)
■» See Patriotism, Nationalism and the Brotherhood of Man, National Attitudes Com-
mittee, C. A. I. P.
5 See Appendix B. (Quotation from International Economic Life.)
11
12
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
After the first world war the United States sought to wash
its hands of the responsibility for world justice and world peace
that comes from its power. Another world war has followed
quickly and the last twenty years have proved to be only an
armistice. The responsibility must not be shirked again.
If the totalitarian states win this war, hope of a right peace
will be blasted for a long, long time. Yet victory by the British-
American quasi-alliance and its allies will not automatically en-
sure peace based on justice and charity. Peace must be planned.
The Alternatives. This war may continue so long that the
peoples of Europe become mentally sick. In any case totalitarian
states may still survive at the end of the war— -Russia, perhaps
a Nazi Germany under another name, perhaps Fascist states
elsewhere under other names. For in this age either the totali-
tarian state or anarchy is the alternative to an order of co-
operation between government and freely organized groups; and
free organizations have been all but destroyed on the European
continent.
Therefore, at some time during this war (providing Germany
is not victorious at the time) the United States should insist
on peace, suggest terms of peace and prepare to help Europe
keep and improve the terms.
II
A United Europe
European Union. Some kind of voluntary European union is
a primary need.0 The United States has a right to insist on such
a union, since Europe’s nationalism is destroying Europe and
endangering the United States and the world.7
Proposals for European union, up to this time, have been
useless ever since the discovery of the Americas. The opportuni-
ties of an expanding Europe and an expanding world successfully
tempted the individualistic greed of the separate countries. Such
opportunities are passing as the era which divided Europe col-
8 See Appendix C'. (Quotation from Pope Pius XII's 1940 Christmas Message.)
7 See Chapters II-VI of Europe and the United States tor the background of Euro-
pean disunity.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
13
lapses. The great barrier to free and sound union, especially
now that the physical unity of Europe has advanced so far, is a
union hammered out by a conqueror.8
The Rights of Man. First, the rights of man and of peoples
must be defined and recognized, and an institutional way estab-
lished to ensure human rights. See Appendix C for an enumera-
tion of these rights,9 respect for which should be secured not only
by European union but by world union as well.
National Autonomy. Within a united Europe the principle
of local and national autonomy can and must be established,10
and a way can and must be found to form regional groupings 11
and redraw the lines of autonomy as the facts change.
European Economic Organization. Unless Europe organizes
its economic life,12 unemployment, poverty, crisis and war will
be permanent. A mere customs union is insufficient for a conti-
nent so dependent on outside resources and markets, so indus-
trially and commercially developed and so unequally developed.
All the rules of economic morality must be enforced through
proper organization and institutions.
The totalitarian states organize and direct economy; but
Catholic social teaching proposes a free self-directed economy,
in which free organizations of the industries and professions, la-
bor unions included, co-operate with one another and with gov-
ernment.13 This is what is needed. One of Europe’s gravest
problems, however, is restoring enough free organization to make
the beginning and the transition to a new economic era.
The longer the war lasts, the more wreckage it causes, the
more plant and people are transferred to war purposes and the
closer the economic life of Europe is tied to Berlin during the
war, the more necessary and important after the war will be a
free, Europe-wide economic organization working with a Europe-
8 Probably the Soviet Union should be excluded from a united Europe because so
much of its territory is Asia. Probably Asia Minor and Egypt should be included as
part of the Mediterranean area. The imperial countries should be included and their
overseas empires treated as a special problem.
9 See also The Rights of Peoples, Ethics and Joint Policy Committees. C. A. I. P.,
and The Church and the Jews, C. A. I. P.
10 See Preface: Point I of Pope Pius XII's 1939 Christmas Message.
11 £. g., Danubian. Balkan, etc.
12 See Preface: Point IV' of Pope Pius XII's 1939 Christmas Message.
13 See Appendix D. (Quotation from International Economic Life.)
14
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
wide government. Such an organization will have to undertake
the rehabilitation of Europe’s economic life, represent economic
Europe in relation to the outside world, guide its production,
incomes, trade and investment and start the economic side of a
new era.
Colonies. Europe’s great mission of colonizing, Christianizing
and civilizing has been injured by disunion; indeed the national-
istic performance of this mission helped to cause disunion. Yet,
even now, the mission can be a bond of union, specifically in the
administration of the African colonies.
For obvious reasons Europe’s dominions or approximate do-
minions should not be brought politically closer to Europe; and
its American and Asiatic colonies are also of interest to other con-
tinents and to the whole world. But the African colonies are a re-
sponsibility which Europe may be able to handle by itself in
collaboration with world organization.
It is, therefore, proposed that the real colonies in Africa, or a
considerable number thereof, be transferred to a united Europe
under world supervision — perhaps with a mandate system of ad-
ministration, and certainly with general rights of access to re-
sources and markets, and with the guarantee of the rights of the
native populations.
European War Prevention. A united Europe will face the
problem of preventing war within its boundaries. The recog-
nized peaceful means of settling differences should be established
and invoked; but traditions and current problems may incite war
again.
The countries of a united Europe should, at least, agree to
throw their economic supplies and armed forces against the coun-
try that starts, or aids another in, a war in Europe.
However, with the Soviet Union at Europe’s back door, general
disarmament and total reliance upon a central police force can
scarcely be advocated at this time. Yet the separate military air
forces of Europe could well be transformed into a central air
police.14
Governmental Forms. Some Europe-wide form of government
is needed for all these purposes.15 Any one of several forms might
14 See Preface: Point II of Pope Pius XII’s 1939 Christmas Message.
15 See Preface: Point III of Pope Pius XII’s 1939 Christmas Message.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
15
offer possibilities to meet the situation. Proposals are given in
Appendix E.
European Spirit. The fear remains that European peoples and
governments lack the spirit to work together. Some countries may
still insist on the principles of the totalitarian states, others on
the old nationalism and systematic economic greed. Extraordinary
patience will be required to attain a workable union based on
human dignity and brotherhood.16
There is this ground for hope. In spite of the totalitarian states
and the previous too slow though real progress towards European
and world economic brotherhood and governmental co-operation,
the effort to build an intimately Christian civilization in Europe
has been exerted in our times more widely and intensely than for
centuries. Many Catholics stand ready to resume this effort
with fervor, training and ability.17 Many non-Catholics — of the
Protestant churches, the synagogues and of no formal religion —
hold to, and will work for, eternal principles of justice, peace and
civilized life.18
Ill
World Organization
Europe Needs World Organization. World economic and gov-
ernmental organization is needed 19 simultaneously with European
organization and for wider reasons. For example, Europe needs
world organization to keep the Soviet Union or the United States
from encouraging European disruption by giving supplies and
military help to aggressor nations in war. The United States
should insist on world organization and should offer full co-opera-
tion to keep war out of Europe and the United States out of
Europe’s wars.
World Organization and United States — Asia. The United
States needs world organization also to keep war out of Asia
and the United States out of Asia’s wars.
16 See Preface: Point V of Pope Pius XII’s 1939 Christmas Message.
17 E. g., see Catholic Organization for Peace in Europe, Europe Committee, C. A.
I. P.
is See Appendix F (Statement of English Churchmen, and A Just and Durable
Peace).
19 See Preface: Point III of Pope Pius XII’s 1939 Christmas Message.
16
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
Our geographic relation to Asia is comparable to our relation
to Europe. Only by Japan’s permission can we ship to the Soviet
Union in war-time. The Soviet Union, in turn, is always driving
toward an open Pacific port, just as in Europe Germany is al-
ways trying to correct her geographic position. Japan, for her
own profit and power and to thwart the Soviet Union, is trying
to control Asia. China, in revolution and threat of subjection,
needs our help but can obtain it only with difficulty.
A regional federation in Asia, like that proposed for Europe,
would, at this time, mean Japanese domination of China and a
Soviet drive against either Europe or Japan. The strongest sort
of world organization would be required to prevent such a catas-
trophe. Even the present situation requires some degree of world
organization to prevent a Japanese-American war, a Soviet-Japa-
nese war and a subject China.20
Organization and World Unity. World organization is needed
not only to prevent wars and the evils that cause wars; it is
needed not alone to keep war out of the world; it is needed to
gain the well-being of the world.21
Men were created to live together on this earth. Each part
of the earth has resources that people of other parts need to live
and live well. Each person and each nationality has need of
others and has abilities that others need. God made the earth
and us that way. He made us one flesh. He redeemed us all.
He left one Church.
Four centuries ago Western Europe, by discoveries and coloni-
zations, opened the way for world unity, which has since been
advanced by industry; but that unity is only physical. Indi-
vidual and national greed and pride have continually fought the
unity necessary for world welfare and, in consequence, have pro-
duced world wars, unemployment, poverty and, now, the portent
of totalitarian states. Our generation suffers the fate of living
just when physical union has reached a high pitch, and social and
spiritual union lags far behind.
20 See Manchuria: The Problem of the Far East, Asia Committee, C. A. I. P.
21 See Appendix G. (Quotation from Summi Ponti/icatus.) See also The World So-
ciety, Ethics, National Attitudes, Social, Economics and International Law and Organi-
zation Committees, C. A. I. P.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
17
Christ’s command to bring all the world under His redemption
means saving both souls and civilizations. But mankind has let
all the world come under unemployment and war, which ruin
both souls and civilizations.
The Americas in World Organization. Of the continents, Eu-
rope is at war, Asia is at war, Africa is at war or in subjection, and
the Americas are in danger. A physically united world finds
only the Americas technically at peace. Because we, the Ameri-
cas, are rich in physical and human resources and because we
lie between and face all of the old continents our peace-time poli-
cies affect them and theirs affect us; and their wars are a con-
tinual danger to us, distant though we are. Their policies and
wars were not so great a danger when the world was large and
not so industrialized. Now they are terrifying.
There is a special bond of union among the Americas. We
are parts of the same new and hopeful world; the world that
tempted Western Europe and helped to split it asunder, that later
threw off European control but remained the passive commissary
of Western Europe, and now during Europe’s disruption is West-
ern Europe’s active ally.
Not only the United States, therefore, but the American com-
munity of nations, while working for a more perfect union itself,22
should give leadership both to Europe and to the world to unite
and should take a responsibility for preserving and perfecting
the two organized unities thereafter.
IV
Functions and Forms
League Deficiencies. After the first world war the United
States proposed universal national self-determination within a
world organization, the League of Nations.23 But European dis-
union was too great a strain for a world body to bear even if
the United States, the strongest single country, had not refused
support to that body in peace or, worse, had not refrained from
indicating how it would trade in time of war. European union
22 See Appendix H (Quotat:on from Latin Ameli a anri the U. S 1
23 See Preface: Point III of Pope Pius XII’s 1939 Christmas Message.
18
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
will help to free a world organization from some of its most diffi-
cult problems.
League Achievements. The League, apart from the great gap
of European unity, followed the right road. Its effective work in
promoting international social, labor and cultural betterment
should be retained.
The League has accomplished much through its various social
welfare commissions, in the abolition of slavery, in regulating
the traffic in women, in securing agreements to cease traffic
in obscene publications, in controlling opium and other dangerous
drug traffic, in effecting improvements in child welfare, in health
work and control of epidemics. Notable among its humanitarian
activities, the like of which unfortunately will be needed again,
was the repatriation of half a million war victims in Europe and
Asia.
The autonomous and functionally operating International La-
bor Organization,24 to which all League members were required to
belong, effected improvements in labor standards and conditions
of work thoughout the world by means of conventions adopted
by member countries. In addition the economic services of the
League, such as securing international loans and countries in need
of rehabilitation, the Economic Intelligence Service for compiling
data on world economics, and the work in facilitating interna-
tional transit and communication need to be preserved in any
reconstruction of international organization.
The cultural work done by the League through its organiza-
tion for International Intellectual Co-operation remains obviously
necessary to promote liaison among international scientific and
learned bodies and co-operation between national and central
libraries and among educational organizations in different coun-
tries.
World Organization and Europe. In relation to a voluntarily
united Europe, a world organization should be primarily an ap-
peals and review body. For some time also it should furnish
Europe positive assistance in protecting human rights, redrawing
boundaries, administering the colonies of Africa and guiding eco-
24 Sec Catholics and the International Labor Organization, N. C. W. C., Washing-
ton, D. C.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
19
nomic life. Permanently, a world organization will have to co-
operate with a united Europe in world economic life and the
prevention of European war.
World Organization and the World. In these same matters
there is need of world organization for activities of a world-wide
character. It is needed specifically to watch over the colonies
in Asia and the Americas, provide mandates and correct the
colonial situation in the Far East; to expedite transfer of popula-
tion singly or in mass;25 to protect ordinary human freedom;26
to guide economic life and prevent war.
World Economic Organization. A world economic organiza-
tion working together with world governmental organization is
needed for post-war rehabilitation and for permanent guidance of
world economic life. For the permanent purpose such an or-
ganization was proposed by committees of this Association in
I933.27 The form urged was similar to that of the International
Labor Organization — participation by employers, labor (and. in
this case, farmers) and government — with the employer, labor
and farmer representatives coming from the free organizations
of these groups.
In the performance of its function to guide world economic life
for the good of the world, the world economic organization would
deal with tariffs, 2S credit, monetary policies, access to markets,
resources and areas of settlement, quantity of production,29 de-
velopment of underdeveloped areas, labor standards, price pari-
ties, the destruction of economic nationalism and imperialism
and the right distribution of wealth and income.
A break with the economic practices of the past is asked. It
cannot be a sharp break when many countries may still want
totalitarian governments and many others may want to retain
customary systems. Over and over again and patiently the at-
tempt must continually be made to end in this way the unem-
ployment, poverty and economic strains that cause war.
25 See Appendix G'. (Pope Pius XII on Migration and Economic Justice).
26 See Appendix C. (An International Bill of Rights.)
27 International Economic Life, a report of the Ethics and Economic Relations
Committees C. A. I. P. (See Appendix D.)
2S See also Tariffs and World Peace, Economics Committee. C. A. I. P.
29 See Agriculture and International Life, Agriculture Sub-Committee, C. A. I. P.
20
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
World War Prevention. War itself must be prevented wher-
ever it threatens to arise. It was proposed above that Europe
unite its economic resources and military power against the first
war-maker and any assisting country or countries within Europe’s
borders. It is here proposed that all countries, the United States
included, shall agree not to ship to the first war-maker anywhere
or to any country that ships to it.30 This proposal, which mani-
festly requires institutions, seems basic; otherwise, for example,
Central Europe might rely on the Soviet Union and go to war.
The proposal may not work; it assumes prior use of all the other
methods proposed for justice and order; 31 it assumes peace-time
pressure on countries unwilling to do justice. If it would be
put into effect from it could follow reduction of armaments and
abolition of military conscription.32 If collective responsibility
does not work we can expect wars worse than any yet seen.
World Organization Forms. The form world organization
should take under this proposal must differ from the League of
Nations so as to permit the regional autonomy of Europe.
Some forms the world organization might take are described
in Appendix J.
A New Spirit. The general lines 33 of the things which must
be done and ways to do them are not obscure. But will peoples
and governments have sufficient good will to begin and to con-
tinue 34 in these ways? Perhaps they will be moved by the horror
of war to try. There seems, besides, to be more good will than
the world tragedy would assume. Perhaps more may be done
than now seems possible. It must also be known that any good
done is one step forward from which still another step may be
30 See Appendix I. (Quotation from Boycott Statement.)
31 See Arbitration and the World Court, International Law and Organization Com-
mittee, C. A. I. P.
32 “First of all, as a fundamental principle moral right must be substituted for the
material force of arms. Out of this shall arise a just agreement for a simultaneous
and reciprocal diminution of armaments, according to rules and guarantees to be laid
down thereafter, without impairing, however, the force needed for the maintenance
of public order in each State. In place of armed force should be substituted the
noble and peaceful institution of arbitration according to regulations to be made and
penalties to be imposed upon any State which might refuse either to submit a na-
tional question to such a tribunal or to accept its decisions.” — Pope Benedict XV,
To the. Belligerent Peoples, August 1, 1917.
33 Sec International Ethics, Ethics Committee. C. A. I. P.
at See Preface: Point V. Pope Pius XII’s 1939 Christmas Message.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
21
taken. For the temptation in any such far-reaching program will
be to demand too much at once and then, in despair, when that
cannot be attained, to do nothing; as if missionaries after con-
verting a pagan tribe were to abandon it because it did not im-
mediately become nearly perfect.
American Catholic Responsibility. The peace and the new era
will depend largely on the United States and therefore on Catho-
lics in the United States.35 But we Catholics are confused. We
do not sympathize with the new totalitarian states. We are keenly
conscious of the evils of the dying era. We are exiles from Europe
and know its older evils well. Beyond most Americans we are
hopeful of the United States. Yet we still suffer from the tempta-
tion to think that religion saves only souls and not also civiliza-
tions. If we can fully withstand this temptation, we can fuse all
these factors. We can become the leaders we should be in Ameri-
can action to secure a new era of world order and world justice.
This is our responsibility as at once Catholic and Americans.36
APPENDIX A
Totalitarianism
“But there is yet another error no less pernicious to the well-being of
the nations and to the prosperity of that great human society which gathers
together and embraces within its confines all races. It is the error con-
tained in those ideas which do not hesitate to divorce civil authority from
every kind of dependence upon the Supreme Being — First Source and abso-
lute Master of man and of society — and from every restraint of a Higher
Law derived from God as from its First Source. Thus they accord the
civil authority an unrestricted field of action that is at the mercy of the
changeful tide of human will, or of the dictates of casual historical claims,
and of the interests of a few.
“Once the authority of God and the sway of His law are denied in this
way, the civil authority as an inevitable result tends to attribute to itself
that absolute autonomy which belongs exclusively to the Supreme Maker.
It puts itself in the place of the Almighty and elevates the State or group
into the last end of life, the supreme criterion of the moral and juridical
order, and therefore forbids every appeal to the principles of natural rea-
son and of the Christian conscience . . . ” — Pope Pius XII, Summi Pontifi-
catus (pp. 22-23, N. C. W. C. Edition).
35 See Appendix K. (Quotation from N. C. W. C. Bishops’ Administrative Committee
Statement, April 1941.)
36 See Appendix L. (Student Peace Federations Resolution.)
22
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
APPENDIX B
Economic Aspects of the Passing Era
“Another no less basic fact is the human rules that handle the new ma-
terial world. What human rules are in charge of the economic wealth,
unity, variety, and change? Specifically what economic and governmental
rules ?
“What the form of ownership? The rules and practices in production,
credit, hiring, buying and selling? The rules and practices upon blending
the multitudinous differences into an actual composite and upon fitting low
standard areas?
“In summary the rules are these: Concentrated and absolutistic private
ownership; a melange of competitive individualism and plutocratic mo-
nopoly; economic nationalism, economic imperialism and the international
bankers’ imperialism; and an as yet unrealized striving for some sort of
deep change at each stage in the rules.
“The underlying rule is: It is somehow good, economically wise and for
the best interests of all, ultimately, if every individual and every political
government tries, as against all other individuals and all other governments,
to become as rich and powerful as possible. Rights in ownership, produc-
tion, credit, buying, selling, and hiring are almost absolute. Rights of a
government to help its own nationals against all other nationals and gov-
ernments are likewise almost absolute and a duty. The change, variety,
interdependence and tremendous productivity are subject to the rule of
almost unlimited individual, group, and national competition. They are
treated not interdependently but anarchically for the interest of those who
can win in a world-wide struggle.
“The rule has operated with increasing vigor and clarity almost since
the first stage of the material changes in the Era of Discoveries. It was
especially clear-cut during the whole second stage, the Era of the Indus-
trial Revolution. It is dominant, though greatly questioned, in the present
stage.
“Individual and national success under this rule depend in part upon
certain of the physical elements described above. A country, for example,
of scant raw materials and power resources, of difficult communicability
with other areas, etc., etc., cannot expect to be rich and powerful, nor can
its citizens.
“Besides these physical characteristics and matters of productive tech-
nique there is the profound psychological fact that from individual to indi-
vidual and country to country ability to follow the rule varies. Not
everyone wishes to spend his fife seeking wealth in a competitive and cruel
business struggle. Not every people can develop the perfect financier. Not
every people can enter wholeheartedly upon a career of economic national-
ism, imperialism and bankers’ internationalism.” — International Economic
Life, a Report of the Ethics and Economic Relations Committees of the
Catholic Association for International Peace (pp. 4-5).
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
23
APPENDIX C
An International Bill of Rights 1
Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J.
Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C.
PREAMBLE:—
We hold these truths to be, if not self-evident, then certainly based on
that natural law which is the eternal Law of God as discovered by human
reason :
that there exists an equality of rights among all nations, large or small,
strong or weak, to life and independence;
that nevertheless the origin of the human family requires that there
be acknowledged an organic unity within which this equality of rights
finds its expression and achieves its end;
that this organic unity of nations demands that the peoples be governed
by a rule of law and not by the rule of force;
that this organic unity is broken up by the strivings of nationalism
bent on achieving its particular aims to the detriment of the common good;
that this organic unity is also disturbed by the doctrine of absolute
and unlimited sovereignty;
that “one nation’s will to live must never be tantamount to a death
sentence for another” (Pius XII) ;
that a spirit of international responsibility, of a hunger and thirst after
justice, and a universal love must be the guiding forces of relations between
nations ;
that, these things being so, all the peoples of the world enjoy the fol-
lowing rights:
BILL OF RIGHTS:—
I. The right of economic and political security in the lives, homes,
and means of decent livelihood of every person in the world.
II. The right to be delivered from the slavery of armaments which
exist either to rob others of their rights or for defense against such robbery.
III. The right to demand an equitable, wise, and unanimous revision
of treaties which impair the equality of all nations.
IV. The right to remove by common action the consequences of past
imperialist aggressions.
V. The right of free access to raw materials and of free economic inter-
course among all the peoples of the world without exception.
VI. The right of denying to powerful aggregations of capital within
the nations of an unlimited self-regulation of international economic activi-
ties not subject to any law.
VII. The right of the equal protection of law everywhere in the world
for equitable treatment of laborers, especially decent conditions of labor, a
living wage, reasonable hours, and the abolition of peonage, of child labor,
and other economic inequalities.
l Presented at the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Catholic Association for In-
ternational Peace, April 14, 1941, Washington D. C.
24
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
VIII. The right of small nations that the demands, even legitimate, of
larger nations yield before the claims of an organic order which respects
the equality of all nations.
IX. The right of all peoples to require, as a matter of international
concern, that all associated states respect the following individual rights:
the right of freedom of conscience and of worship before the State;
the right of freedom of expression within the law;
the right of free association, of free assembly, and of free petition of
grievances ;
the right of private property; and of being secure against unlawful
seizures and confiscations;
the right of freedom of education according to the wishes of the par-
ent;
the right to be tried according to the law and to be secure against
cruel and unusual punishments;
the right of ethnic and religious minorities to enjoy equal oppor-
tunities for the development of their common humanity.
APPENDIX C'
A New Europe ?
“From the impassioned polemics of warring factions concerning the ob-
jectives of the war and the ultimate peace settlements, there emerges ever-
more clearly defined, the quasi-universal opinion which contends the pre-
war Europe as well as its political structure are now undergoing a process
of transformation of such nature as to signal the dawn of a new era.
“Europe and its system of states, it is said, will not be as they were
before. Something new and better, more evolved organically, sounder, freer
and stronger, must replace the past in order to eliminate its defects, its
weaknesses and its deficiencies, which are said to have been disclosed con-
vincingly by recent events.
“In the midst of the contrasting systems which are part of our times
and dependent upon them, the Church cannot be called upon to favor one
more than another. In the orbit of universal value of the Divine law. whose
authority obliges not only individuals but nations as well, there is ample
room and liberty of action for the most varied forms of political opinion;
whilst the practical application of one political system or another depends
in a large measure and often quite decisively upon circumstances and causes
which considered in themselves are extraneous to the purpose and action of
the Church.
“As protectress and herald of the principles of faith and morals it is
her sole interest, her sole longing, to convey through educational and re-
ligious channels to all peoples without exception the clear waters of the
fountains of Our patrimony and values of Christian life, in order that every
people in its own peculiar way may enjoy Christian fellowship. Christian
ethical-religious impulses to establish a society that would be humanly
praiseworthy and spiritually elevated and a source of genuine good.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
25
BASES FOR A NEW ORDER
“Indispensable prerequisites for the search for a new order are:
“One, triumph over hate, which is today a cause of division among
peoples; renunciation therefore of the systems and practices from which
hate constantly receives added nourishment.
“Two, triumph over mistrust, which bears down as a depressing weight
on international law and renders impossible the realization of any sincere
agreement.
“Three, triumph over the distressing principles that utility is a basis
of law and right, and that might makes right; a principle which makes
all international relations liable to fall.
“Four, triumph over those germs of conflict which consist in two-sided
differences in the field of world economy; hence progressive action, bal-
anced by correspondent degrees, to arrive at arrangements which would
give to every state the medium necessary for insuring the proper standard
of living for its own citizens of every rank.
“Five, triumph over the spirit of cold egoism which, fearless in its
might, easily leads to violation not only of the honor and sovereignty of
states but of the righteous, wholesome and disciplined liberty of citizens
as well.
“It must be supplanted by sincere juridical and economic solidarity, fra-
ternal collaboration in accordance with the precepts of Divine law amongst
peoples assured of their autonomy and independence. . . . ” — Pope Pius
XII, Allocution, December 24, 1940.
APPENDIX D
A New Economic Order
“Let us quote from Pius XI’s great Encyclical Reconstructing the So-
cial Order. . . . ‘Then only will the economic and social organism be soundly
established and attain its end, when it secures for all and each those goods
which the wealth and resources of nature, technical achievement, and the
social organization of economic affairs can give.’
“A full ‘social organization’ of the ‘economic and social organism,’
which is a world organism, and a supplementary' and supervisory inter-
national governmental order must somehow come into existence if two
things are to be done: Make the international interdependence itself effi-
cient in producing all the goods that the changing variety of the world’s
resources, equipment and technique can give; distribute these goods so that
the good of all universally will be obtained. Social justice demands both.
And the emphasis lies upon a social organization that will include every
human element within the thing organized so that all will share in de-
termining production, prices and distribution of the income.
“Now one element almost everywhere is in control. It is the owners
and, increasingly, those who control credit; they are dominantly from
a few countries. A social organization of the world organism will bring
in the now subject peoples and classes. . . .
26
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
“The nature of this social organization of economic life is described
in general terms in the Encyclical. It is a joint council of all its class
organizations in each occupation, that is divided by classes, and a council
in each non-class occupation of whatever group organizations may be
necessary within it. It is also a joint council of these separate Organized
Occupations. The function of this organized economic order is a double
one: To direct production and its conditions and to direct distribution
and its conditions. It is brought into existence by government on the
basis of the free right of organization and representation within it and
operates under the supreme directing hand of government. But, without
being independent of government, it is autonomous.
“The implication of the Encyclical is that the organized economic order
is to fit the underlying economic facts of the market and the governmental
order. The economic organization would therefore exist on the regional
level within some countries and on the national level in all. It would
have a regional international organization in some parts of the world to
fit regional international economic subdivisions. It would have a world
existence to fit the world economic life and the world society which is
struggling to find for itself governmental organization.
“Here is opened up a whole new vista of possibilities and obligations,
of economic organization and government action to make the new world
economic life fit the needs of all peoples. . . .
“These under the principle are to be applied on the world level. The
proposal is this:
“To have governments set up in each country autonomous councils
of the existing employers’ associations and labor unions of each capitalistic
industry and autonomous councils of comparable organizations in non-
capitalistic lines of production and service, such as, in the United States,
the farm co-operatives.
“To have them serve as administrators both of their single industries
and services and, through federations, of all industries and services to-
gether.
“To have them so serve as autonomous but not independent arms of
government and under its supervision.
“To have these national economic councils co-operate closely on the
international field and grow into international economic councils of separate
products and services and a joint economic council of all to administer
autonomously international economic life under the close co-operation and
supervision of international governmental conferences and international
permanent governmental organization.
“Such a form of organization permits the progressive whittling away
of the two root world economic evils: Absolutistic economic rights of
individuals and absolutistic rights of governments, without rushing to the
other extreme, — denial of economic rights of individuals and denial of rights
of separate governments. It does so by bringing the organized unproper-
tied, within separate nations and on the world level, inside the frame of
economic control and by bringing governmental power out into the open
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
27
and putting strength behind it to make it represent the common good
of the consumers and the unpropertied and of all society both on the
national level and the world level. The aim would be a new distribution
of national and world income and wealth so as to meet the common good
of the world. Such organization should be provided for in its initial stages
by a world monetary and economic conference.
“Such organization is not automatic; by its very nature it is growth.
But by the very nature of the conflict that has been erected in private
and governmental economic relations between the facts and purposes of
economic life and its business and governmental rules, the growth has to be
swift.
“Tariffs, monetary policies, access to raw materials and areas of set-
tlement, development of underdeveloped areas, quantity of production,
labor standards, price parities and justice, the destruction of imperialism
in both of its major phases, the distribution of wealth and income, etc.,
etc., make up, indeed, the agenda of its work but under a new aspect,
the aspect of world common good. . . .
“Essential to its success is a new spirit. For the root of the present
world economic regime is immorality. It is the two old vices, greed and
pride. Organized economic and governmental action is necessary to fight
them inasmuch as disorganization and government inaction or government
subjection are tools of immorality. But at least a battling minority
must exist in the economic and governmental orders to lead the fight. . . .
“The social teaching and spirit of Christ can alone remake the modern
economic world. Those teachings not only strengthen the conviction that
by nature, origin, descent, blood and soul the human race is one. They
also bring in the new concept, the new gospel, that all are solidaricallv one
in their common redemption by a Person of their own nature.” — Inter-
national Economic Life. A Report of the Ethics and Economic Relations
Committees of the Catholic Association for International Peace. 1934. (pp.
44-48).
APPENDIX E
Forms of European Organization 1
I. A European Federation
Rev. Gregory Feige
New York
I
This picture of. a peace-organized Europe implies a supra-national po-
litical organization which can only be a FEDERATION consisting of indi-
vidual nations or smaller groups, each with full local administrative and
cultural autonomy, but telescoped into the larger EUROPEAN FEDERA-
TION.
l The papers which follow are digests of addresses given at the Fifteenth Annual
Conference of the Catholic Association for International Peace, Washington, D. C.,
April 14, 1941.
28
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
In order to make such a Federation a concrete reality it will be neces-
sary to formulate a CONSTITUTION, to which all must subscribe, in-
corporating the following FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES:
1. JUSTICE being the foundation of any order in Society, and Justice
being a MORAL CONCEPT, there must of necessity be a universally
acknowledged and entirely autonomous FRAMEWORK OF MORALITY ,
which will be valid for and applicable to all individuals and to all
groups, at all times and in every place.
2. The DIGNITY of the HUMAN PERSON (who is a self-sufficient end
relative to his Creator), demands the God-given right to life and liberty,
and full equality of civic rights for all.
3. The safeguards of liberty are most effective for achieving a right na-
tional development when there are some forms of democratic checks
and controls of government.
4. It is essential that the principle and spirit of CO-OPERATION, in the
social, economic and political fields, shall be fostered to the exclusion of
all tendencies towards ABSOLUTISM, DOMINATION and AU-
TARCHY.
II
With these fundamental principles as a working basis, the following
TEN POINTS should then be agreed upon, accepted and faithfully carried
out:
I. The member States of the European Federation must at once renounce
their military sovereignty and transfer it to the Federation.
This is the cardinal point for any sort of peace-organized society. No
nation can be permitted to keep an armed force or any sort of military
organization which would be strong enough to wage war against another
nation. An all-round disarmament in principle must be accepted by the
member States, similar to the various States within the U. S. A. which
are disarmed for all practical military purposes.
The FEDERATION alone is entitled to keep an armed force. This
should consist of an enlisted army of professional soldiers who are recruited
from the member States, which must also provide equipment and money
according to a quotient based on population figures and income.
Until this Federal Army has been built up the founding States shall
keep an army of protection, made up of existing fighting units on a pro-
portionate basis. This protection-force shall not be in existence longer
than one year, after which the Federal Army must replace it.
The Supreme Command of this army shall be determined by the
Federal Administration for the first ten years; after that period it shall be
held by rotation.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Federal armed forces shall be the
President of the Federal legislative body; the Supreme Command must
carry out the orders of the Federal legislative body as transmitted by the
President of that body.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
29
II. The member States must cede to the Federation full juridical juris-
diction and sovereignty in all matters which, directly or indirectly, may
affect the Federation.
The Supreme Court of Justice for the European Federation will be
based on the maxim that the Right of the Federation takes precedence
over the Right of any member State. Specifically this will involve the fol-
lowing:
The Supreme Court of the European Federation (following the model
of the International Court of The Hague) will decide all disputes among
the member States: e. g., boundary questions; property claims; income
from common measures; questions of division of assessments, etc.
International trade-laws should be brought into conformity with the
economic co-operative system of the European Federation.
A Court of Appeals to safeguard the life and the constitutional princi-
ples of the European Federation.
Criminal law is dealt with only in cases where the delicts pertain to
any national safeguards against other nations ( e . g., treason, espionage,
etc.). The Federal Legislature will extend this power in the criminal
field according to developing needs.
Criminal law should be so co-ordinated that delicts are not incurred
in some countries when they are not so considered in others.
Punishments of criminal delicts should a'so tend towards conformity
in order to establish equality before the Law for all citizens of the Euro-
pean Federation.
III. The members must be prepared to transfer (gradually) their cus-
toms— and currency sovereignty to the Federation.
Protective tariffs should be uniformly lowered as quickly as possible, and
further reductions should engage at once the attention of the legislature
of the European Federation.
Currency unity must be eventually introduced by the European Federa-
tion. Until that time, a controlled exchange must be in operation, backed
by a special banking institute of the European Federation.
IV. All questions which affect ethnic MINORITIES in Europe become
at once the rightful concern of the Federation and empower it to participate
in all decisions relating to these Minorities.
A glance at the language-chart of Europe will at once demonstrate that
Minorities exist in all parts of Europe within the boundaries of larger
units. It is unlawful to try to solve minority-problems by forced evacu-
ations and transplantation of communities. All forced population-changes
will have to be adjudicated by the Court of the European Federation as to
possible remedies or reversals.
The European Federation on the other hand demands of all minorities:
Cessation of all irridentist movements. Repudiation of the maxim
that loyalty to race (or language group, etc.) supersedes loyalty to the
national State.
Allegiance to the European Federation and to the member State within
whose borders the minority may happen to live.
30
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
The European Federation at the same time guarantees to every mi-
nority, including the Jews (inasfar as Jews wish to be considered so and
not merely a religious group) :
Protection against persecution or discrimination.
Full cultural autonomy, on the basis of the above-mentioned prin-
ciples of allegiance and co-operation with the majority-group. The right
to (minority) — schools, tax -supported like the majority-schools; the right
to use the minority-language publicly and officially (where feasible).
The problem of the “State-less” should be solved by the Court of
the European Federation or by new laws. In the meantime the place of
birth may be considered to impart the right to claim nationality in that
country.
V. All members agree to submit all disputes between them to com-
pulsory arbitration.
This compulsory clause refers both to the duty of bringing all disputes
before the Court of the European Federation and also to the peaceful
acceptance of the arbitration award.
VI. Every member State must incorporate into its Constitution or its
laws, the principles enunciated as the essential basis for the European
Federation. There should be an endeavor to aim at unity in laws, in the
spirit of the European Federation.
The FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES determine the possibility of ex-
istence for the European Federation. They are necessary to all members
and indispensable for all actions by the European Federation.
VII. ANY European State, nation or group of nations, which is ready
to accept these points and principles, is admissible to membership in the
European Federation.
The European Federation will be founded and formed by those Euro-
pean nations who will take part in the peace conference at the end of this
war, and whose heads (or their delegates) shall thereupon become the
“Constituting Assembly” for the European Federation. This Constituting
Assembly will have to call into being the Legislative Assembly of the Euro-
pean Federation and until that time, it will exercise the powers of the
Administration of the European Federation.
Every European nation is entitled (on the basis of the fundamental
principles) to send delegates to the Legislative Assembly of the European
Federation according to the number of its population; these delegates are
not appointed but are representatives of the people who must elect them
by secret ballot-vote.
A separate branch of the Legislative Assembly shall consist of repre-
sentatives of employer and labor groups. These shall have charge of all
legislation pertaining to economic and labor questions.
The SENATE of the European Federation shall be composed of mem-
bers elected on the basis of average income of the inhabitants. E. g., one
million inhabitants with an average income of 60 to 100 units, may have
two representatives, while those whose income unit is from 30 to 60 units
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
31
may send one Senator. The life-time of a term of office, in the Assembly
and in the Senate, is always for five years.
VIII. All the member States are entitled to be represented in the or-
ganization and administration of the European Federation legislative, judi-
cial and executive bodies.
The proper appointments, selections and elections of these bodies lie
within the province of the Legislative Assembly, which must set up the
Government and the full Administration of the European Federation.
The highest functionary of the European Federation is the President
of the Assembly. He is elected by secret ballot by the members of the
Assembly and shall hold office for at least two years and not more than
five years, to be determined by the members.
The European Federation shall take all necessary steps to safeguard
its existence; these may be military, economic or political measures.
IX. Member States may conclude economic and cultural treaties with
other nations or groups, provided, however, that such treaties do not go
against the principles, development or spirit of the European Federation.
All such treaties must be submitted to the European Federation for
registration. Treaties are in force only after they have been so registered
with the European Federation.
X. COLONIES: Now under the administration of member States, be-
come, in principle at least, the common responsibility of the European
Federation with an accompanying right to share in the economic benefits.
Special commissions of the European Federation will eventually deal with
the problem of colonial administration, the political rights and the develop-
ment-opportunities of the colonial-inhabitants.
The following principles will decide the future of colonies:
Colonies cannot remain the national property of any one member State.
All mandates and colonies shall become the mandate of the European
Federation.
All member-States must have access to these colonies.
All economic and customs policies will become subordinated to the eco-
nomic and customs policies of the European Federation.
The European Federation may legislate for all colonies or mandates.
The native-inhabitants of colonies must be given an opportunity to
develop educationally, economically and politically to final maturity to self-
government and incorporation into the larger European Federation.
Dominions may decide for themselves whether they shall ask for in-
clusion into the European Federation or remain an independent national
State.
32
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
II. European Organization
James M. Egan, Ph.D.
College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, N. Y.
The penalty for not working out a satisfactory plan of European organi-
zation has been World War number II.
The primary problem of any European organization will center around
the problem of what should be done with Germany, Italy, and Russia.
Since Germany is the strongest military power of these three, since its
technological advances have been so much greater, the problem of Ger-
many is the most urgent. As Thorstein Veblen pointed out, Germany
emerged into the modern world technologically advanced but with a po-
litically backward dynastic concept of the State as an organization con-
ceived especially for military conquest. Both under the second and the third
Reich, Germany was dominated by this concept of the dynastic state
which possessed the power of controlling the individual in every aspect
social, economic, political, and cultural. Such a state was a menace not
only to itself but to its neighbors as well.
The solution for Germany might be the establishment of a federal state
in which the military clique of Prussia no longer had the dominant voice.
Maritain would move the political and cultural center of gravity from
the North to the South.
Such a federal state is a necessary step to be taken in freeing the Ger-
man people from the bondage of selfish tyrants. The primary task will be
the instruction of the German people.2
If the rest of Europe can be released from the fear of German aggres-
sion, it can then turn its thoughts towards some form of international
organization in which the new Germany would have an equal share. The
most vocal of all the groups has been that calling for a union of democracies.
Streit patterns his plan along the lines of the American constitution with
the fifteen democracies of the world in the position of states in the union.
The senate of the organization would give equal representation to the fifteen
democracies while a house of deputies would be elected according to popu-
lation. The executive board of five persons would be elected by popular
vote and by legislative appointment. Every individual would be a citizen
both of his own state and of the new union. There would also be a su-
preme court to judge disputes between member states, a combined defense
force for the union, a customs-free economy within the union and a
common money and communications system. Colonies would be turned
over to the union to be governed until they should become members of
the union. Since many of the fifteen democracies are now under German
control, Streit now proposes a union of the United States and Britain as
a means of mutual defense as the focal point of a future federation.
Fundamentally, this plan has its strong points in actual reality. At present,
to all intents and purposes we have a union with Britain, though without
the elaborate machinery suggested by Mr. Streit. The chances are that
2 See Jacques Maritain. “Europe and the Federal Idea,” Commonweal, XXXII.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
33
we shall continue this unity of action until Nazi military might is crushed.
The actual formation of a “federation” however, while it has much popu-
lar and educational appeal, involves a very complicated pattern of politi-
cal relationships. It is extremely doubtful that these could be evolved in a
world shaken by the upheaval caused by this war.
The idea of a federated Europe also overlooks the diversity of inter-
ests, the heritage of bitterness, and the unevenness in the stage of social
development among the countries of the continent. A counter proposal
suggests that groups of small countries adjacent to each other are better
fitted by a community of interests to organize regionally first. Benes urged
a “kind of federative reorganization, first perhaps in certain regions (the
Danubian region, the Baltic region, the Balkans, or northern Europe).”
This might be extended later to the whole of Europe. Since 1926, the
Scandinavian powers have co-operated as the Oslo group. The Balkan
powers have from time to time been the source of the ideas of a Danubian
federation or Balkan union. A Danubian federation would reincorporate
the territories of what was formerly the Austro-Hungarian Empire along
with other areas forming part of the Danubian basin into a single asso-
ciation, allowing national, cultural, and such other autonomy as they deem
fit to the separate parts. This might include Austria, Bohemia-Moravia,
Slovakia, Hungary, Roumania and Yugoslavia. A Balkan federation would
include Roumania and Yugoslavia but would reach southward to Turkey
and the former territories of the Ottoman Empire (Greece, Bulgaria, and
possibly Albania) . Such a union might reduce the vulnerability of the
Balkans to Great Power domination. Peace in an independent and united
Balkan region would immeasurably enhance the possibility of European
peace.
Whether Europe is organized on the basis of regional units or a federal
state, there are certain international agencies which must be incorporated
in either form. There must be an international court with jurisdiction
adequate to deal with all international disputes on the basis of law. This
court must be given the power not only to deal with disputes involving
customary and treaty international law but also with disputes on a basis
of equity and justice.
Secondly, the use of sanctions must be provided for. These can be
either regional police forces or world-wide economic sanctions. Their
purpose would be to prevent aggression not by waiting until weaker
powers were attacked but rather to bolster such powers so strongly that
no Great Power would find it feasible to attack them.
Thirdly, the League furnished the example of what agencies working
in the social, economic, medical and cultural fields could do. The Bruce
Report on the Reorganization of the League of Nations recommended
that a new Central Committee for Economic and Social Questions be set
up. This would have an autonomous and separate membership similar
to that of the International Labor Organization which the United States
eventually joined. This would have the advantage of giving members and
non-members the opportunity for co-operation. Non-political problems
34
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
could be solved technically without being overshadowed by debates on
politics. Such matters as international commerce, finance, health, nutrition
and labor standards would be cared for. In the post war world, this will
be one of the primary agencies.
Some legislative body must also be set up to deal with political prob-
lems as they arise. Such a body might be composed of representatives of
states in a Senate and representatives of professional and occupational
groups in a lower House. Over all would be an executive group to co-
ordinate all activities. Among the most important of its duties would
be the supervision of minorities treaties which would grant a degree of
autonomy to all minorities, religious, racial, or economic.
Both the executive and legislative would have to adopt certain atti-
tudes towards such matters as tariffs, colonies, unemployment, and raw ma-
terials. The immediate abolition of all tariff barriers could not be ac-
complished without positive detriment to all concerned. A gradual return
to a system of free trade would be inevitable however. Such a body
would have to be wary of facile attempts at “planning” production and
distribution of goods. Much harm has been done on a national scale
by abortive attempts to regulate such matters without taking all factors
into consideration. As free trade triumphed, colonies would no longer
be sought for exploitation. The enforcement of free trade would relieve
the struggle for raw materials and the shift of populations from a region
of little employment to one of greater economic opportunity.
No matter what kind of organization evolves, limitation of sovereignty
must be a basic principle. Enforced arbitration, the right of the indi-
vidual nation to declare war or to wage undeclared war must be abol-
ished. The recognition by each nation of what President Roosevelt calls
the “Four Freedoms” must become a fundamental principle. The fanati-
cal nationalism of a National Socialist Germany or any other country must
never again be permitted to develop within a state while the other states
look on, half in apprehension, half in approval, because it means to rectify
some “wrongs.”
The machinery of such an organization, no matter how well received,
will never function unless politics once more becomes intrinsically bound
to ethics. Unless, as Maritain points out, the principles of mercy, justice,
and charity take their place, no international machinery will work.
III. Steps Towards the Formation of a United Europe
Rev. Patrick J. Higgins, S.J.
Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass.
Preamble. In the event of a future situation which would permit of
an undictated peace, and an unbiased and equitable settlement of Euro-
pean problems, the following steps towards a future unification of the
continent of Europe appear feasible.
1. First Step. If the present war ends with the great majority of the
European nations intact and viable, a Peace Conference and Economic
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
35
Conference consisting of representatives of all the European nations, except
Britain and Russia, should be convened to consider the economic rehabili-
tation of Europe.
2. Second Step. This European Economic Conference should form
itself into a permanent conference along the lines of the International
Labor Organization, to meet yearly and to have a permanent secretariat,
such as that of the International Labor Organization.
3. Third Step. This European Economic Conference should then take
steps to transform itself into a European Commission for the management
of an All-European Zollverein or Customs Union.
a. This Zollverein should be modeled after the German Zollverein of
the nineteenth century.
b. As in the earlier Zollverein. all the participating nations would re-
tain their political independence.
c. Neither Britain nor Russia would be included in this Zollverein;
Britain because of its colonies; Russia because of its Communism.
4. Fourth Step. By an irresistible attraction, as in the historical case of
the earlier German Zollverein, this All-European Customs Union will pro-
duce a European bond of friendship due to the resultant greater prosperity
for all. Thus the groundwork for further unity will be laid. A further
step, however, will be required to meet the Cartel system prevalent in
Europe. To solve this problem, the European Economic Commission should
then take steps to organize itself as a representative association of corpora-
tions from all the nations of Europe, such corporations to include equally
the representatives of the labor unions and capitalists of all European
countries participating in the European Economic Conference. As the En-
cyclical Quadragesimo Anno proposed the use of such corporations as a
feasible method for the settlement of national economic problems, so also
such a European-wide association of corporations seems to be the logical
solution for the problem of the international European Cartel.
5. Fifth Step. With the introduction of the united corporative move-
ment in all of Europe, the several nations of Europe would have eliminated
the chief cause of European conflicts, namely, economic contention. The
racial, religious, and cultural rivalries would assume a decreased importance
in view of the widely spread increased economic prosperity. Such rival-
ries could be solved by effecting some considerable degree of political au-
tonomy in the midst of a strong economic union. Thus might eventuate
in Europe a Federation of Sovereign States such as exists in the United
States.
APPENDIX F
I. Christian Unity
Peace Points Jointly Adopted by all Churches ln England
The following letter appeared in The London Times of December 21,
1940. with a strong leading-article in support of it:
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES:
36
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
Sir: The present evils in the world are due to the failure of nations
and peoples to carry out the laws of God. No permanent peace is possible
in Europe unless the principles of the Christian religion are made the
foundation of national policy and of all social life. This involves regard-
ing all nations as members of one family under the Fatherhood of God.
We accept the five points of Pope Pius XII as carrying out this prin-
ciple:
1. The assurance to all nations of their rights to life and independence.
The will of one nation to live must never mean the sentence of death
passed upon another. When this equality of rights has been destroyed, at-
tacked, or threatened order demands that reparation shall be made, and the
measure and extent of that reparation is determined, not by the sword
nor by the arbitrary decision of self-interest, but by the rules of justice
and reciprocal equity.
2. This requires that the nations be delivered from the slavery imposed
upon them by the race for armaments and from the danger that material
force, instead of serving to protect the right, may become an overbearing
and tyrannical master. The order thus established requires a mutually
agreed organic progressive disarmament, spiritual as well as material, and
security for the effective implementing of such an agreement.
3. Some juridical institution which shall guarantee the loyal and faith-
ful fulfillment of conditions agreed upon and which shall in case of
recognized need revise and correct them.
4. The real needs and just demands of nations and populations and
racial minorities to be adjusted as occasion may require, even where no
strictly legal right can be established, and a foundation of mutual confidence
to be thus laid, whereby many incentives to violent action will be removed.
5. The development among peoples and their rulers of that sense of
deep and keen responsibility which weighs human statutes according to the
sacred and inviolable standards of the laws of God. They must hunger
and thirst after justice and be guided by that universal love which is the
compendium and most general expression of the Christian ideal.
With these basic principles for the ordering of international life we
would associate five standards by which economic situations and proposals
may be tested:
1. Extreme inequality in wealth and possessions should be abolished.
2. Every child, regardless of race or class, should have equal opportuni-
ties of education, suitable for the development of his peculiar capabilities.
3. The family as a social unit must be safeguarded.
4. The sense of a Divine vocation must be restored to man’s daily work.
5. The resources of the earth should be used as God’s gifts to the
whole human race, and used with due consideration for the needs of the
present and future generations.
We are confident that the principles which we have enumerated would
be accepted by rulers and statesmen throughout the British Commonwealth
of Nations and would be regarded as the true basis on which a lasting
peace could be established.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
37
Signed: COSMO CANTUAR, Archbishop of Canterbury; A. CARDI-
NAL H1NSLEY, Archbishop of Westminster; WALTER H. ARM-
STRONG, Moderator, Free Church Federal Council; WILLIAM EBOR,
Archbishop of York.
II. A Just and Durable Peace
An example of the work being done in this country looking toward a
better world order is furnished by the publication, “A Just and Durable
Peace,” of the Commission to Study the Bases of a Just and Durable
Peace of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, 297
Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. This booklet is a compilation of many
proposals which have been made for a just peace. It contains material
on the following:
PRINCIPLES OF A JUST AND DURABLE PEACE RECOM-
MENDED BY RESPONSIBLE CHRISTIAN LEADERS: The American
Churches and the International Situation; the World Crisis; the National
Study Conference of the Churches and the International Situation (1940);
the Malvern Conference, Malvern, England (1941) ; Proposals of Prot-
estant and Roman Catholic Leaders of England; Religious Leaders’ Mani-
festo (Britain) (1940); the Oxford Conference (1937); Excerpts from
Memorandum prepared by an International Conference of Lay Experts and
Ecumenical Leaders convened by the Provisional Committee of the World
Council of Churches; Memoranda of Study Department, Prepared under
the auspices of the Provisional Committee of the World Council of
Churches; Relation of the Christian and the Church to the International
Order — 'from Report of the Madras Conference; and Statements by Pope
Pius XII.
CURRENT PROPOSALS REGARDING A NEW WORLD ORDER:
Reorganization of the League of Nations; Labor’s (British) Peace Aims; the
National Peace Council (England); Plan of British Experts; Two London
Proposals; Preliminary Report of the Commission to Study the Organi-
zation of Peace (United States); Regional Unions and Federations; Report
of the National Peace Conference Commission on the World Community;
Federal Union (Union Now) ; and Campaign for World Government.
READING SUGGESTIONS: Appendix A — -Syllabus of Discussion Ques-
tions— prepared by Walter W. Van Kirk; Appendix B — Bibliography.
APPENDIX G
The World Society
“A disposition, in fact, of the divinely-sanctioned natural order divides
the human race into social groups, nations or States, which are mutually
independent in organization and in the direction of their internal life. But
for all that, the human race is bound together by reciprocal ties, moral
and juridical, into a great commonwealth directed to the good of all nations
and ruled by special laws which protect its unity and promote its pros-
perity.”— Pope Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus (p. 29, N. C. W. C. Edition).
38
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
APPENDIX G'
Migration and Economic Justice
“According to the teaching of the Rerum Novarum nature itself
has closely joined private property with the existence of human society
and its true civilization and in a very special manner with the existence
and development of the family. Such a link appears more than obvious.
Should not private property secure for the father of a family the healthy
liberty he needs in order to fulfill the duties assigned him by the Creator
regarding the physical, spiritual and religious welfare of the family?
“In the family the nation finds the natural and fecund roots of its great-
ness and power. If private property has to conduce to the good of the
family, all public standards, and specially those of the State which regulate
its possession, must not only make possible and preserve such a function
in the natural order under certain aspects superior to all others — but must
also perfect it ever more.
“A so-called civil progress would in fact be unnatural which^either
through the excessive burdens imposed or through exaggerated direct inter-
ference— were to render private property void of significance, practically
taking from the family and its head the freedom to follow the scope set
by God for the perfection of family life.
“Of all the goods that can be the object of private property none is
more conformable to nature, according to the teaching of the Rerum
Novarum, than the land, the holding in which the family lives, and
from the products of which it draws all or part of its subsistence. And it
is in the spirit of the Rerum Novarum to state that, as a rule, only
that stability which is rooted in one’s own holding makes of the family
the vital and most perfect and fecund cell of society, joining up, in a
brilliant manner, in its progressive cohesion the present and future genera-
tions. If today the concept and the creation of vital spaces is at the
center of social and political aims, should not one, before all else, think
of the vital space of the family and free it of the fetters of conditions
which do not permit even to formulate the idea of a homestead of one’s
own?
“Our planet, with all its extent of oceans and seas and lakes, with
mountains and plains covered with eternal snows and ice, with great deserts
and tractless lands, is not, at the same time, without habitable regions
and vital spaces now abandoned to wild natural vegetation and well suited
to be cultivated by man to satisfy his needs and civil activities; and more
than once, it is inevitable that some families migrating from one spot
to another should go elsewhere in search of a new homeland. Then ac-
cording to the teaching of the Rerum Novarum the right of the family
to a vital space is recognized. When this happens emigration at-
tains its natural scope as experience often shows; we mean the more fa-
vorable distribution of men on the earth’s surface suitable to colonies of
agricultural workers; that surface which God created and prepared for the
use of all. If the two parties, those who agree to leave their native land
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
39
and those who agree to admit the newcomers, remain anxious to eliminate,
as far as possible, all obstacles to the birth and growth of real confidence
between the country of emigration and that of immigration, all those af-
fected by such a transference of people and places will profit by the
transaction: the families will receive a plot of ground which will be native
land for them in the true sense of the word: the thickly inhabited coun-
tries will be relieved and their people will acquire new friends in foreign
countries; and the States which receive the emigrants will acquire indus-
trious citizens. In this way the nations which give and those which re-
ceive will both contribute to the increased welfare of man and the progress
of human culture. . . . ” — Pope Pius XII, Radio Address (Commemorating
Issuance of Social Encyclicals), June 1, 1941.
APPENDIX H
Inter-American Co-operation
The Latin America Committee of the Catholic Association for Inter-
national Peace in 1929 issued a report on Latin America and the United
States in which it proposed methods of preventing the domination of
Latin America by either the United States or Europe, including the follow-
ing proposal for the Inter- American protection of the Monroe Doctrine:
“Mutual agreement among the American republics upon their mutual
rights and duties, formulated in a code of law.
“Creation of a Pan-American Court to interpret the code.
“Creation of a method of Inter-American sanction as contrasted with
sanction by ourselves alone.
“Limitation of sanctions to peaceful means until there is hope in suffi-
ciently important cases in none but armed intervention.”
APPENDIX I
International Boycott Agreement
The following paragraphs are taken from a statement favoring an in-
ternational boycott, issued in February, 1933, by the Chairmen of the
Ethics, Economic Relations, and International Law and Organization Com-
mittees of the Catholic Association for International Peace and thirty-one
members of these committees and of the Executive Committee of the As-
sociation:
“While the nations by treaty have renounced war as an instrument of
national policy, the question still stands open as to what action should be
taken by a nation that violates the treaty and thereby imperils in a
closely knit world the peace of nations everywhere. . . .
“A penalty short of war is necessary to prevent war. The penalty
that is immediately effective in case war threatens or has been declared
is the economic penalty of boycotting the nation which refuses arbitration
or arbitral decision. If the nations were in earnest to stop a war this
40
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
would probably be the action decided on in the international consultation
which both major parties have agreed should be the settled practice of our
country when war threatens anywhere. But unless the United States
agrees to a boycott policy beforehand, the air cannot be cleared of fears
because there would be no certainty of any effective peaceful action what-
soever. Indeed unless a different policy is agreed on beforehand, the nations
might after consultation even leap to the ultimate sanction of war.
“We recommend, therefore, that the United States call a conference of
all the nations that signed the Kellogg Pact for the purpose of negotiating
an agreement by all, both to consult and join in an international boycott
against any nation found after consultation to have violated its agree-
ment to use only peaceful means to settle its disputes.
“The boycott should be as extensive as is necessary to scotch the evil.
Certainly it should be agreed beforehand to levy it against direct military
supplies and articles closely related thereto, and loans for these purposes.
Beyond that point it could at the time of consultation be extended to
other categories of supplies as needed.
“The proposal contemplates an agreement of all the nations to consult
and an agreement to join under the above conditions in an international
boycott. Its purpose is to prevent war immediately upon threat of its
outbreak or actual outbreak by the most drastic sanction possible short
of war itself. For its fully effective and just use there is, indeed, implied
a world better organized than ours is now, and one habituated to joint
consultation and action, equipped with the institutions of arbitration, con-
ciliation and pacific settlement of international problems, and imbued with
the determination to place morality above physical power. ...”
APPENDIX J
Forms of World Organization 1
I. An Outline for World Organization
Marie J. Carroll
World Peace Foundation, Boston, Mass.
“Once the bitterness and cruel strifes of the present have ceased, the
new order of the world, of national and international life, must rest no
longer on the quicksands of changeable and ephemeral standards that de-
pend only on the selfish interests of groups and individuals. No, they must
rest on the unshakable foundation, on the solid rock of natural law and
Divine Revelation. There the human legislator must attain to that balance,
that keen sense of moral responsibility, without which it is easy to mistake
the boundary between the legitimate use and abuse of power.” — Sutttmi
Pontificatus (Pope Pius XII, October 20, 1939, “The Function of the State
in the Modern World”).
l The two forms given are digests of proposals made at the Fifteenth Annual
Conference of the C. A. I. P., Washington, D. C., April 15, 1941.
AMERICA’S PE ACE AIMS
41
Any framework for building the machinery of peace after this war must
take account of the structure and work of the League of Nations. Almost
all the proposed plans for world organization emphasize the necessity for
restoring the League in some altered form. Because its success was limited
to achievements in the field of non-political activities, Americans are prone
to scoff at its imperfections. The experience gained in the twenty years of
its existence will no doubt prove valuable in planning the new order of
international co-operation and collective responsibility for security.
The political philosophy of some of the major nations today may stand
in the way of building a universal association, as they believe in the abso-
lute sovereignty of the national state, not only over the rights of its
citizens, hut also in its relations to other states. It will be of no value
to force unwanted membership upon such states. Efforts should be made,
however, to create a community of interest which will demonstrate the
advantages of world unity.
A stable international order, based upon morality and law, the inter-
dependence of peoples and the stimulation of international trade, can be
created if every nation in the future accepts its obligations in the family
of nations. War must be brought under control if there is to be any possi-
bility of order and stability and co-operation among the nations of the
world.
Peace requires the control of force by the organized community. Other-
wise, violence will be used by some state or states to achieve its own
purposes by aggression.
Certain international controls must be provided in this universal or
world organization, such as a world court for the adjudication of disputes,
equity tribunals or conciliation commissions for non-justiciable disputes re-
quiring peaceful adjustment ; a legislative body or parliament, representative
not only of governments in power but also of major groups within states,
with the power to impose sanctions against aggressors, adequate police
forces, either regional or world-wide, and various commissions for admin-
istration of social and economic problems.
Economic management for the advancement of human freedom as a
substitute for economic nationalism and autarchy requires the international
supervision of trade and finance. Control of raw materials and markets
and access thereto are matters which a world economic organization must
deal with in order to assure benefits to all members of the world associ-
ation, and to firmly establish the economic foundations of peace after this
war. The major problems of world reconstruction will lie in the economic
field for many decades to come, and adequate machinery to supervise the
commercial policies of members of the world association must be created
so as to render available to human needs the whole productive capacity
of the globe.
An inter-governmental banking system, modeled upon the Bank for In-
ternational Settlements, and regional banking systems to regulate the course
42
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
of investment funds and the flow of trade, such as the charter of the
Inter-American Bank drawn up on October 3, 1939, for promotion of
hemisphere trade, are essential to the functioning of intelligently planned
trade relations.
So many of the economic needs and interests of peoples do not coincide
with the political frontiers in which they are confined that national eco-
nomic security can only be attained in an international order flexible enough
to insure peaceful change and capable of breaking down economic na-
tionalism.
An international congress consisting not only of the belligerent states,
but also neutral states, with adequate representation of labor, agricultural,
industrial and consumer groups should be convened after the treaty of peace
ending the present war has been negotiated by the belligerents. The two
vital problems to be considered by this representative assembly will be the
maintenance of peace, and economic and social reconstruction.
Since no nation can be trusted to be the sole judge of its own actions,
it must recognize certain moral obligations, based on law and justice, to-
wards other nations and provide for an International Authority to exercise
the powers necessary to secure justice and prevent aggression.
The Bill of Rights for the Peoples of the World (see Proposed Bill of
Rights by Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J.), would guarantee the national exist-
ence of all states within the organized world community and form the basic
principles of a new and better world order. Recognizing also that the unit
of value is the individual and that the least of these must be assured of
certain fundamental rights and liberties, a Bill of Human Rights would be
incorporated with the Declaration of International Rights in the provisions
of a Constitution for World Government to which all states would pledge
themselves upon admission to membership.
A limitation upon absolute sovereignty of the nation-state, for the
purpose of curbing economic imperialism, and the elimination of the use
of armed force to impose its will on others must be accepted if human
interests are to be organized on the underlying principles of social justice
and political and economic security. The unwillingness to abridge national
sovereignty has been and remains today the chief obstacle to effective world
organization.
One of the fundamental points for a just and honorable peace laid
down in the “Five Point Peace Program” of Pope Pius XII on December
24, 1939, concerns the necessity of international organization.2
Whether this International Institution or Authority be a reconstituted
League of Nations, a world federation or union, a world association or so-
ciety of states, its two main functions of maintaining peace and organizing
the economic and social life of peoples with a view to the moral and ma-
terial welfare of humanity should be kept quite separate. The procedures
for carrying out these purposes might take the following form:
2 See Point III of the Preface.
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
43
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS
Assembly: With jurisdiction over all matters, political, economic and
social. Ultimate authority for international legislation rests with this repre-
sentative body. Delegates will represent each member state.. Two-thirds
will be elected by the people to represent economic groups — workers and
employers and consumers — and one-third appointed by government. Voting
will be by individuals and a two-thirds vote will be required for passage
of any measure.
Executive Board or Council: Will be composed of fifteen eminent per-
sons, not representatives of any Member State, who will be elected by the
Assembly and serve as an administrative body. The control of the In-
ternational Police Force will be under jurisdiction of the Executive Board.
Auxiliary Organizations Such as International Reconstruction and Labor
Organization — The three semi-autonomous organizations — the International
Labor Organization, the Economic and Financial Organization, the Com-
munications and Transit Organization — and the Social Questions Section of
the League are co-ordinated to form the International Reconstruction and
Labor Organization with one Governing Body, conferences and research in-
stitutes responsible to the Assembly. Will have control of matters in
specific fields designated by Assembly for consideration and action for bet-
terment of social and economic life. Each organization will be represented
in its conferences and governing body by delegates representing agricul-
ture, capital goods industries, consumer goods industries, transportation,
financial and economic experts, professional groups, employers, workers and
administrative officers of governments, elected within Member States.
Decisions will be by majority vote. Reports of action taken will be sub-
mitted to Assembly for approval and recommendations of Assembly for
work will be carried out.
Intellectual Co-operation Organization: To bring about a spiritual renais-
sance, to co-ordinate programs for the education of the peoples through
churches, educational institutions, radio, press and literature, on the princi-
ples basic to the organization of peace, and to foster an appreciation of the
cultures and achievements of the various peoples of the earth.
Administrative Commissions : Responsible to Assembly for administrative
work under resolutions passed by Assembly. Personnel to be appointed
by Executive Board or Council.
POWERS OF WORLD ORGANIZATION
To consider any question affecting international co-operation for mainte-
nance of peace based on justice between nations and justice and freedom
within nations, and to carry out and apply the principles in the Bill of
Human Rights and Bill of Rights for Peoples. To submit disputes to
conciliation commissions, equity tribunals or to the World Court for set-
tlement after failure of parties to agree on solution.
To review treaties made by members to examine possibility of agree-
ments entered into which may prove detrimental to interests of others in
conduct of foreign policy.
44
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
To place the responsibility for the exercise of force in preventing ag-
gression or suppressing violence which may lead to war, upon the Executive
Board with power to give orders to Commander of International Police
Force.
To maintain an International Police Force open to service by enlistment
of nationals of member states, but not provided in units by the various
nations. Salaries to be paid for out of international budget. To provide
for an International Air Force larger than that of any individual nation
to protect member states who may become victims of aggression.
To supervise all humanitarian activities carried out by the Auxiliary
Organizations by discussion of conference and committee reports and by
receiving recommendations for submission to Assembly, or Congress.
To provide for peaceful change of intolerable conditions in the rela-
tions between states.
Regional Pacts or Federation With a World Organization as the
Source of Authority
European Federation
European union or confederation for political security is the central
problem.
A European union working with the other continents within the frame-
work of a world community with powers and functions to preserve peace
and secure justice throughout its geographical area is the keystone of an
effective world organization.
Europe must organize a federation with a military and air police more
powerful than the force of any of the member states. (See “European
Federation” by Rev. Gregory Feige.)
Other regional groupings which might be entrusted with the solution
of political difficulties arising in those areas are the Western Hemisphere
(exclusive of Canada and European possessions), the British Empire, Asia
and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The inter-federation relations
and those of the federations with the International Authority present so
many complexities in the field of Administrative machinery that no attempt
will be made to develop them here.
This Outline attempts to apply the principles enunciated in the various
pronouncements of Our Holy Father “for a new order that will be solid,
true and just.” In his Easter Sunday message. April 13, 1941. Pope Pius XII
prayed for peace based not upon the oppression and destruction of peoples
but peace which, while guaranteeing the honor of all nations, will satisfy
their vital needs and insure the legitimate rights of all.” He expressed the
hope “that a new spirit may take root and develop in all peoples and
especially among those whose greater power gives them wider influence
and imposes upon them additional responsibility; the spirit of willing-
ness, devoid of sham and artifice, that is ready to make mutual sacrifices
in order to build upon the accumulated ruins of war, a new edifice of fra-
ternal solidarity among the nations of the world, an edifice built upon
new and stronger foundations, with fixed and stable guarantees, and with
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
45
a high sense of moral sincerity which would repudiate every double standard
of morality and justice for the great and small or for the strong and the
weak.”
STRUCTURE OF WORLD ORGANIZATION
(Based on Constitution embodying Bill of Rights for Peoples
and Bill of Human Rights)
3 Decisions to be by two-thirds vote. 4 Decisions to be by majority vote.
46
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
II. Plan for a World Organization
Charles G. Fenwick, Ph.D.
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
In attempting to prepare a plan or alternative plans of a world organi-
zation it is necessary to consider first the functions which such an organiza-
tion is intended to serve. Its primary function must, of course, be to pre-
vent violence. The second function of the international organization is that
of promoting justice. This function is an essential condition of the suc-
cessful accomplishment of the function of preventing violence. In addition
to these two essential functions there are many others of an economic and
social character which should be directed towards the improvement of
living conditions in different nations. During the past twenty years many
of these functions have been administered by the Secretariat of the League
of Nations, and their general character is well understood and almost uni-
versally approved.
With the above functions to perform the machinery of the organization
of the community of nations may take many forms. No definite blue
prints can be made at this time; but certain broad features may be de-
scribed. There must be an executive agency to prevent violence. This
agency must be composed of a world court for the settlement of disputes
of a legal character, and an executive council for the temporary adjust-
ment of controversies which are not susceptible of judicial settlement by
the court because of the lack of clear rules of law to be applied to them.
The executive council must also be the body to take prompt action in all
cases of a threat to the peace where one party refuses to submit its
dispute either to judicial settlement by the court or to temporary adjust-
ment by the executive council. This latter function may make it necessary
for the executive council to have at its disposal some sort of an interna-
tional police force which can be used in emergencies.
The legislative functions of the world organization call for a general
assembly of all the nations. In this assembly not only will it be neces-
sary to weight the representation of the different nations so as to give a fair
representation to the population of the State and to its degree of economic
development; but it will also be desirable to arrange that the representa-
tion of a particular state shall take into account the different interests
of the State and thus to be a cross-section of people rather than the ex-
pression of the views of the government that happens to be in power.
This last feature will encourage the delegates who, in different states,
represent interests of the same general character to find a basis of co-opera-
tion which will cut across national lines and tend to promote national
unity.
Within the framework of the larger international organization the effort
must be made to develop regional organizations which will undertake to
promote regional interests as distinct from world interests. Some form of
European regional federation is clearly called for, as indicated by the State-
ment of Peace Aims. It should also be possible to develop more fully the
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
47
regional organization of the Inter-American community, bearing in mind
the necessary relation of the interests of many of the Latin American
states to the European regional federation and to individual European
states.
It is important that at this time as many forms of international or-
ganization as appear in any way practicable should be examined and
studied; not with the object of deciding which of them is the most feasi-
ble, but with the object of preparing ourselves to appraise constructively
the proposals that may be made when the war is over and definite blue
prints are drawn up. Unless we study the problem now in the light of
possible alternatives we may find ourselves in the position of opposing
plans which could well be supported as transitional steps to something
better. Experience suggests that a satisfactory form of international or-
ganization may be likely to be obtained only after resort has been had to
temporary expedients during the critical period following the war. The
important thing is not to await agreement upon a perfect plan of
organization, but to keep before us the great objectives, the prevention of
violence and the promotion of justice; and to be ready to support any
practical form of preliminary organization, provided there is provision for
amendment and improvement.
APPENDIX K
American Catholics and Peace Aims
“The American people has, through orderly democratic action, expressed
its solemn judgment that to be safe in the world today our nation must
be strong. That judgment is reflected in the greatest defense effort in the
history of the United States. An adequate program of national defense,
as we see it, embraces both strength in arms and strength in spirit. With
armed strength, it is not for us Bishops to deal. We leave that to our
civil and military authorities. Our particular part in any program of na-
tional defense must have to do with the things of the spirit.
“We are deeply concerned, therefore, with seeing to it that the spiritual
influences of their home communities shall follow our boys who answer
their country’s call to train themselves to be their country’s defenders if
the need arise. Our Government has followed the best of American tradi-
tions in entrusting the task of maintaining morale for camp communities
and defense areas to private agencies whose service is inspired and guided
by faith in God and love for man. We deeply appreciate the confidence
this invitation implies, the challenge it carries and the co-operation it
promotes. . . .
“The will of America today is set on peace, not war, as the aim of our
defense program. The strongest defense weapon with which we can equip
the American soldier is a clear vision of the kind of peace that constitutes
our ideal. An august voice has sounded again and again in an America
still at peace, as well as in a Europe already at war, applying to the condi-
tions of our day the Gospel message of peace on earth to men of good
48
AMERICA’S PEACE AIMS
will. In his Christmas allocution of 1939, Pope Pius XII laid down these
five essential points of world order, and therefore of enduring world
peace :
“First — the assurance to all nations of their right to life and inde-
pendence— the will of one nation to live, never justifying the death sen-
tence of another.
“Second — Progressive disarmament, spiritual as well as material, and se-
curity for the effective implementing of agreements to this end.
“Third — Juridical institutions guaranteeing loyal fulfillment of peace
terms and providing for revisions called for by changing conditions.
“Fourth — Satisfaction of the fair demands of national and racial minori-
ties.
“Fifth — A deep sense of responsibility for the observance of the pre-
cepts of justice and charity among men and nations.
“It is significant, indeed, that the authoritative spokesmen for widely
divergent Christian groups in a great nation now at war have publicly
accepted these five points as basic principles for a just peace and com-
mended them to the consideration of their government. This action is an
inspiration to all who have the cause of true Christian peace at heart. . . .
“No armament for national defense for peace can be strong which lacks
the spiritual armory of prayer for peace. . . .
“In the spirit of Christian brotherhood, therefore, we shall pray, first
of all, for the victims of cruel war in all lands. In the same spirit, too,
we shall pray for an early peace; we shall pray for a world-wide peace;
we shall pray for a peace, not based on the oppression or the destruction
of peoples, but for a peace which will guarantee the rights and the honor
of all nations and satisfy their vital needs.
“And in our prayers we shall not forget fervently to beg God to guide
and strengthen our President, our Congress and all our civil authorities
in the overwhelming responsibilities of this tragic hour.” — Statement of Ad-
ministrative Board of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, April 26,
1941.
APPENDIX L
Student Peace Federations Resolution
The following resolution, passed by the Capital, Lake Erie, Middle
Atlantic, Mid-Western, New England and Ohio Valley Student Peace Federa-
tions of the C. A. I. P., at their annual meeting, April 16, 1941, furnishes
a heartening example of recognition of responsibility for world order:
“Resolved: That the Catholic Student Peace Federations urge their re-
spective units to study plans for a European and world federation for
justice and peace in order that the United States will do its part to obtain
a peaceful and just world when this war ends.”
rpHE Catholic Association for International Peace is a
A membership organization. Its object is to further,
in accord with the teachings of the Church, the “Peace
of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ,” through the prepa-
ration and distribution of studies applying Christian
teaching to international life.
It was organized in a series of meetings during 1926
and 1927 — the first held just following the Eucharistic
Congress in Chicago, the second held in Cleveland that
fall to form an organizing committee, and the third in
Easter week, 1927, in Washington, when the permanent
organization was established.
The Association works through the preparation of
committee reports. Following careful preparation, these
are discussed both publicly and privately in order to se-
cure able revision. They are then published by the
organization. Questions involving moral judgments are
submitted to the Committee on Ethics.
The Association solicits especially the membership
and co-operation of those whose experience and studies
are such that they can take part in the preparation of
Committee reports.
The junior branch of the Association is composed of
students in International Relations Clubs in more than
a hundred Catholic colleges and in Catholic clubs of
secular universities. The separate clubs are united in
geographical federations, e. g., New England, Lake Erie,
Middle Atlantic, Capital, Ohio Valley, Mid-Western and
Central. They are known as Catholic Student Peace
Federations and receive the co-operation and assistance
of the parent organization. The Catholic Student Peace
Federations are autonomous and function under the di-
rection of Boards of Directors composed of six student
officers, four faculty advisers and one regional faculty
adviser. A national Co-ordinating Committee brings to-
gether the regional federations.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE C.A.I.P.
Pamphlet Series — (10c a copy; $1.00 a dozen)
No. 1 — International Ethics.*
No. 2 — Latin America ond the United States.*
No. 3 — Causes of War, and Security, Old and New* (out of print).
No. 4 — Haiti, Past and Present (out of print).
No. 5 — Francis de Vitoria (out of print).
No. 6 — American Agriculture and International Affairs.*
No. 7 — Puerto Rico and the United States (out of print).
No. 8 — Europe and the United States — Elements in Their Rela-
tionship.*
No. 9 — The Ethics of War (out of print).
No. 10 — National Attitudes in Children.
No. 11 — Tariffs and World Peace.*
No. 12 — Manchuria — The Problem in the For East.*
No. 13 — International Economic Life* (out of print).
No. 14 — The Church and Peace Efforts.*
No. 15 — War and Peace in St. Augustine's "De Civitate Dei."
No. 16 — Peace Education in Catholic Schools.
No. 17 — Peace Action of Benedict XV.
No. 18 — Relations Between France and Italy.
No. 19 — Catholic Organisation for Peace in Europe.
No. 20 — The United States and the Dominican Republic (out of print) .
No. 21 — An Introduction to Mexico.*
No. 22 — A Papal Peace Mosaic.
No. 23 — Arbitration and the World Court.*
No. 24 — Agriculture and International Life.*
No. 25 — Patriotism, Nationalism, ond the Brotherhood of Man.*
No. 26 — The Church and the Jews.
No. 27 — The Obligaton of Catholics to Promote Peace, and The Rights
of Peoples.*
No. 28 — America's Peace Aims.
No. 29— The World Society ( in preparation).
No. 30 — The Conscientious Objector (in preparation).
MISCELLANEOUS SERIES
Appeals for Peace of Pope Benedict XV and Pope Pius XI 10c
Catholic Primer of Peace 25c
Permanent Peace Program of Pope Benedict XV 10c
Syllabus on International Relations 10c
Catholic Tradition of the Law of Nations, John Eppstein $2.50
Monthly News Letter (Issued during school months) $1.00
NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE
PEACE PAMPHLETS
Peace Statements of Recent Popes 10c
The Christian Way to Peace * 10c
Pius XII ond Peace * 10c
The Pope's Peace Program and the United States * 10c
* Study Outline Appended.
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