March 2012 Auction Ends Wednesday, March 28th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/28/2012
Exceptional typed letter signed by William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court regarding a proposed plan to amend the League of Nations. Letter marked ''CONFIDENTIAL'' on Supreme Court stationery dated 17 December 1923 is to Edward Bok, creator of the American Peace Award, which granted $100,000 to the best plan for world peace as chosen by a committee of jurors headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elihu Root. In the letter to Bok, Taft references an enclosed three page typed letter from Taft to Root, which attempts to influence Root's choice for the American Peace Award winner. Taft writes at length: ''...the jury have tentatively selected a very admirably prepared plan...an amendment of the League of Nations...it eliminates the Monroe Doctrine...from considering of the League. It strikes out articles ten and sixteen in order to eliminate any fixed obligation of the members to unite in coercion by force or economic pressure...actual experience shows them useless...It intimates the wisdom of curtailing of armaments...I think...it might have been...more affirmative in proposals for limitation of armament and agreements not to manufacture destructive war instrumentalities, chemical and otherwise...The longer I have watched the play of selfishness and the prejudice of excessive nationalism among the European Nations, the clearer becomes my conviction that the terms of the present League covenant are too advanced for present-day operation...Not until suspicions are allayed...can we hope for more or closer union than is proposed in this plan...'' 3pp. letter to Root is signed in type by Taft; single page letter to Bok is signed boldly ''Wm H Taft''. All pages measure 8'' x 10.5'', in very good condition with a cigarette burn and chipping to upper left corner of last two pages.
Taft Endorses a Peace Plan Amending the League of Nations -- ''...I have watched the play of selfishness and the prejudice of excessive nationalism among the European Nations...''
Click above for larger image.