Abstract
James Shotwell, Professor of History at Columbia University, was an original member of the Inquiry, drafted the critical article for the Protocol on Peaceful Settlement of Disputes and largely drafted Briand’s message to the American people proposing a treaty between the United States and France which initiated the Kellogg-Briand treaty. Carnegie’s editor of the History of the War series, he turned the League of Nations Association to support a new organisation in the form of the United Nations and convened and oversaw the Commission for the Study of the Peace whose reports formed the basis of the UN Charter. Human rights entered into the Charter under his aegis. He represents a shift from political initiatives to social initiatives which marked sections of the progressive movement, pioneered the International Labor Organization and agitated unceasingly for the United States to join international organisations.
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Notes
- 1.
To the Nobel Prize Committee, 26 Nov 1951, Shotwell Papers, Columbia University (JTS Papers) Box 25 (Josephson, 290).
- 2.
To JP Chamberlain, 13 June 1919, JTS papers Box 113 (Josephson, 94).
- 3.
Shotwell argued that if historians did not serve the American public, those of a “journalist cast of mind” would, with even greater distortions, failing which the American people would be “forced to accept the prejudicial statements of the various European belligerents”. JTS to Westerman 21 July 1917 (Josephson, 60–61); Westerman was Professor of History at Wisconsin, who objected to the NBHS’ readiness to “adjust history” to make it more relevant to the war.
- 4.
The Britannica had been bought by an American publisher who was seeking to “Americanise” it.
- 5.
The text is in his memoirs (Shotwell 1961, 95).
- 6.
Mitrany records both the value of the appointment to him and its chance nature (1975: 38, 65).
- 7.
Article 16 demanded “the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals of the covenant-breaking State, and the prevention of all financial, commercial or personal intercourse between the nationals of the covenant-breaking State and the nationals of any other State, whether a Member of the League or not”.
- 8.
“Any signatory which claims that another signatory has violated the terms of this Treaty shall submit its case to the Permanent Court of International Justice. Any Signatory refusing to accept the jurisdiction of the Court in any such case shall be deemed an aggressor within the terms of this Treaty. Failure to accept the jurisdiction of the Court within four days after submission of a claim or violation of this Treaty shall be deemed a refusal to accept the jurisdiction.”
- 9.
See Howlett on Dewey in Chap. 6, this volume.
- 10.
Their importance has been little recognised. The relevant memos are in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace archive at Columbia University and include the “Confidential Memorandum of the German Committee on Arbitration and Security” and the “Memorandum on the Creation of a French Committee of Arbitration and Security” (Josephson, 131, who notes that they ‘strongly influenced the negotiations’; see also Shotwell 1960).
- 11.
“Where one of the Powers … refuses to submit a dispute to peaceful settlement or to comply with an arbitral or judicial decision, the other Party shall bring the matter before the Council of the League of Nations, and the Council shall propose what steps shall be taken; the High Contracting Parties shall comply with these proposals.”
- 12.
Shotwell did not claim much credit, noting only in his memoirs that “[b]ehind the Locarno agreements lies an untold story” (Shotwell 1961: 197–98).
- 13.
See also Locarno and the Balkans: The Possibility of a Balkan Locarno by Shotwell and Mitrany with a foreword by Nicholas Murray Butler, published in the April 1927 issue of International Conciliation.
- 14.
The standard account is in Ferrell 1952.
- 15.
“Briand Sends Message to America on Anniversary of Entering the War”, New York Times, 6 April 1927, 5.
- 16.
It appeared in the New York Times of 25 April 1927 under the rubric “When the world outlawed war”.
- 17.
Twelve universities across the country with six lectures at Dartmouth on the history of war and six at the University of Virginia.
- 18.
J.T.S to Robert S. Lynd, 11 Dec 1930, J.T.S. Papers Box 241 (Josephson, 189).
- 19.
The same Condliffe who in 1931 joined the economic secretariat of the League of Nations, where for six years he compiled its World Economic Survey, on which he based his argument, influential for decades, that continued expansion of world trade, was a necessary condition for peace and prosperity.
- 20.
The revised League would be organised around (1) the Kellogg-Briand treaty, (2) peaceful change, (3) graded obligations (4) and the extraction of the Covenant from the Versailles Treaty (Josephson, 216).
- 21.
The 1939 revision allowed belligerents to buy arms, which meant that the United States could aid the allies.
- 22.
In September 1940, eight employees of the economic and financial section (EFO) of the League arrived at Princeton’s Advanced Institute for Study, under the directorship of Alexander Loveday, British economist and long-time member of the EFO, to become a “mission” of the League to the United States. But it had no official status other than that which the US administration wished to give it, and the administration did not want to receive any plans for a revived League from it. It was an important source of technical information that led to the IMF and the World Bank (Clavin 2013).
- 23.
Possibly drawn from Clarence Streit’s Union Now, published the previous year and calling for a federation of the democracies.
- 24.
It was this place that was taken by Morgenthau, initially on a temporary appointment (see Jackson below).
- 25.
Shotwell stated flatly that “a lasting peace” would be impossible, implying that the job of the committees was to search out such a peace (Shotwell 1961, 312).
- 26.
The three “significant unofficial proposals” are in Pasvolsky Papers Box 4 Folder 8; Pasvolsky’s comparison is in Pasvolsky Papers Box 4 folder 7 (Shinohara, 185).
- 27.
The Official List of Consultants, Department of State Bulletin 22 April 1945, 724–25; there were 42 official consultants, each representing one organisation but few came entirely alone.
- 28.
Pasvolsky Papers Box 4 file 8 (Shinohara, 180).
- 29.
To appear as the 1946 “Statement of Essential Human Rights” (Committee of Advisors 1946).
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Navari, C. (2017). James T. Shotwell and the Organisation of Peace. In: Cochran, M., Navari, C. (eds) Progressivism and US Foreign Policy between the World Wars. The Palgrave Macmillan History of International Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58432-8_8
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