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ELIHU ROOT INTERPRETS THE LEAGUE 205
from suspicion; she is not an object of distrust; her friendship is valued; her word is potent. We can be of more value to the peace of the world by keeping out of the petty quarrels that arise than by binding ourselves to take part in them. Just so far as it is necessary to modify this settled historic American policy in order to put into effect a practical plan for a League of Nations to preserve peace we ought to go and we ought not to go one step farther. If the step -proposed by Article X is not necessary for such a plan then we ought not to take it.
In the same manner that the exchange of letters between Mr. Root and myself was made known, this letter from Root to Lodge was given general publicity. I had it printed in pamphlet form and gave it wide circulation. It had no stamp of political party headquarters. It was distributed with no other thought than as a public service to all the voters of America.
Early in July, I sent to Mr. Root a canvass of the Senate, made by Lodge, which indicated that all the forty-nine Republican senators would line up in favor of his last two reservations dealing with withdrawal, the Monroe Doctrine, and domestic questions. In spite of the optimistic nature of Lodge's report on the effect of Mr. Root's letter, the matter was by no means settled. Taft still was opposing any reservations, and my own position probably was interpreted by the public as "sitting on the fence," for I was trying to draw all elements of the party together. Various individual senators kept finding new difficulties and proposing new amendments. By the seventeenth of July I was able to inform Mr. Root confidentially that Taft had come around to the idea of reservations and had proposed the text of five.