The world has come to regard President Wilson as the special promoter and sponsor for the League of Nations. It is perfectly true that Mr. Wilson went to Paris with a fixed determination, above all else, to bring about some definite arrangement which would tend to prevent future wars. It is also true, however, that English statesmen had, for an even longer time than President Wilson, been giving this same subject earnest thought and study. Some of the more enlightened French statesmen, like Leon Bourgeois, had also been sketching out plans for a League of Free Nations. In England Viscount Grey of Falloden, England's really great Minister of Foreign Affairs for almost a decade prior to the war, the man who did everything that human intelligence and wisdom could devise to prevent the war, and now happily named as British Ambassador to the United States, had long worked for a League of Nations. Lord Robert Cecil, a worthy son of a noble father, was another British statesman who had given his mind to the same subject. General Smuts of South Africa, recently made Premier in succession to the late General Botha, was another. So that President Wilson, Colonel House, and the other delegates, upon their arrival in Paris, found themselves in a not uncongenial atmosphere. To be sure, on the part of Clemenceau and of course of the militarists, there was great scepticism. Nevertheless the French joined in, and early in January the Covenant for the League of Nations began to evolve. It was built up step by step, President Wilson taking a most active part in the work. Finally the Covenant was adopted in a preliminary way and made public late in February. It was subject to amendment, and those who drafted the document welcomed amendments and urged that they be offered. An especial effort was made to secure suggestions from various Republican statesmen. No amendments, so far as I have been able to learn, were offered by any of the Republican Senators, but ex-President Taft suggested certain changes, some of which were adopted. President Lowell of Harvard contributed one or two which were taken over almost verbatim. Ex-Senator Elihu Root also made valuable suggestions, some of which were utilized in the final drafting of the Covenant, made public early in April. ESSENCE AND SPIRIT OF THE LEAGUE