United as never before, our people have fought this war. United and above party we must consider the problems of peace, resolved that so far as in us lies, war shall no more scourge mankind. The Covenant reported to the Paris Conference has come since the last election, and the people have had no chance to pass judgment upon it. In this journey from coast to coast we have looked into the faces of more than 100,000 typical Americans, and believe that the great majority of our countrymen desire to take part in such a league as is proposed in that document. We appeal to our fellow citizens, therefore, to study earnestly this question, and express their opinions with a voice so clear and strong that our representatives in Congress may know that the people of the United States are determined to assume their part in this crisis of human history. The alternative to a League of Nations is the heavy burden and the constant temptation of universal armament. February 23, 1919. (Signed) WILLIAM H. TAFT. HENRY MORGENTHAU. A. LAWRENCE LOWELL. HENRY VAN DYKE. Mr. Taft’s endorsement of the Covenant as then drawn moved me, at our journey’s end, to telegraph to Washington suggesting that he join President Wilson in an exposition of the League before a great mass meeting. The reply came back that such a plan was already being put into execution. It was carried out at the gathering on March 4, 1919, in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, on the eve of Mr. Wilson’s return to Paris. That night, when the Democratic President of the United States walked on the stage with the Republican ex-President, the audience seemed almost justified in thinking that the Covenant had been lifted above partisanship and that the Magna Charta of the Nations was secure. This conviction was strengthened by Mr. Taft’s address. He delivered it without any apparent exertion. He had thoroughly mastered the general subject during his long connection with the League to Enforce Peace, he had secured the draft of the Covenant, locked himself up with it, analyzed and digested it. He had “tried out” the subject in conferences with specialists, and presented it before popular meetings across the Continent. Now, for one hour and a half, he discussed this historic document in all its national and international phases. His address, given with natural and admirable simplicity, the quintessence of deep thought, was complete, technical, erudite, judicial: the reading of a momentous interpretation by the future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The speaker injected some of his native geniality into his delivery; but not for that reason alone did the vast audience listen ninety minutes without a sign of restlessness: the believers, the doubters, and the active opponents were spellbound by his logical and convincing argument.