Majority Voting Impossible

The council, as we know, is composed of nine nations, five of which are permanent members of the council, the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan. The other four members are elected by the members of the league from time to time and at present they are Spain, Brazil, Belgium and Greece. This council, then, must meet. The only action it can take is to advise members of the league what they should do in the emergency. They cannot even give advice except by a unanimous vote. There is no majority voting on such questions and even a vote of eight to one would not do. The vote by which the council gives advice on carrying Article X into effect must be by unanimity, and as the United States is a member of the council there is no possibility of carrying Article X into effect except by the agreement of the United States as well as every other one of the nine nations in the council.

All of the attacks made on Article X to the effect that a majority might decide to involve the members of the league in war or that the United States might be outvoted are utterly without foundation.

Article X Binds Morally

The real justification for Article X is that it morally binds every member of the league to immediate action against any nation attempting a war of conquest providing the nine members of the council unanimously decide that action should be taken. This provision, it is thought, will be strong enough to prevent any nation of the world daring to attack another with a view to disputing its independence or taking its territory.

One hundred years ago the United States in the Monroe Doctrine notified the nations of the world that the United States would go to war if any European country undertook a war of conquest in the Western Hemisphere. That announcement was criticised at the time by reactionary statesmen who said it would involve us in wars with European countries for the protection of little republics in the New Yorld. It has never cost us a dollar and never cost us a man but it has prevented European nations from interfering with the territorial integrity and political independence of 20 American republics. What the United States did for the Western Hemisphere by the Monroe Doctrine it is believed can be done for the whole world by Article X.