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Peacemakers of the Past
When
the First World War ended, much of Yale's gratitude flowed to its
combat veterans. It took longer to catch up with the alumni who
helped negotiate the conflict's aftermath.
March
2002
by Judith Ann Schiff
Judith
Ann Schiff is Chief Research Archivist at the Yale University Library.
The
military contributions of Yale alumni and faculty to the winning
of World War I have long been recognized,
most visibly on the colonnade in front of Commons. But far less
heralded are the efforts—often clandestine—of Yale graduates
in planning for the post-war world.
Shortly
after America entered the war, in 1917, the first long-range studies
aimed at achieving global harmony were undertaken by a secret government
organization known as The Inquiry. At the time, the U.S. state department
could provide few experts on past and current world affairs, so
president Wilson's adviser Colonel Edward M. House formed an independent
group to plan for a new world social order. Isaiah Bowman 1909PhD,
a former Yale geography professor, and the director of the American
Geographical Society, became the most powerful member of this group
of distinguished scholars.
There
were many Yale professors on The Inquiry—among them Charles Seymour,
who taught history and was later the University's President—and
their reports covered the historical, ethnic, sociological, economic,
and political aspects of dozens of geographical problem areas. In
its memorandum of December 22, 1917, The Inquiry advised Wilson
that there should be a league "for common protection, for the
peaceful settlement of international disputes, and for the attainment
of a joint economic prosperity."
In
December 1918 The Inquiry leaders, including Bowman, Seymour, and
Clive Day, a professor of economic history, sailed to France with
the American Commission to Negotiate Peace. Fearing that their professorial
attire would be inadequate in diplomatic circles, the State Department
allotted each man $150 to buy a new suit.
Many
delegations relied on The Inquiry's Black and Red books. Compilations
of proposed solutions, the Black Book dealt with European problems;
the Red dealt with colonial problems. Their authors served on commissions
that framed recommendations for the Supreme Council of heads of
states.
Bowman,
the territorial adviser to the American Commission, was instrumental
in helping create the new boundary lines in Eastern Europe. Twenty-two
additional alumni and one Yale faculty member provided intelligence
reports and administrative support for the American Commission.
In the spring of 1919 Seymour and Day prepared to leave Paris, but
U.S. secretary of state Lansing said that the American Commission
"could not hope to finish without expert help as they really
knew nothing about the problems."
Bowman
later became president of Johns Hopkins, and in 1951 Charles Seymour
delivered the first Isaiah Bowman Memorial Lecture there. In his
talk, "Geography, Justice, and Politics at the Peace Conference
of 1919," Seymour declared, "The only way to bridge .
the gap between national self-interest and human justice . was
through the principle of justice that shall be administered with
an even hand through the organized co-operation of all the nations
of the world."
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