Excerpt from Union League Club of the City of New York, The Proposed Covenant for a League of Nations: Address of Hon. Charles E. Hughes, President of the Club, at a Special Meeting Held Wednesday, March 26, 1919I shall not attempt to review matters of mere form. It seems to be conceded that the Covenant is poorly drafted, and its most earnest supporters have severely criticised it. When Mr. Taft says that its meaning has to be dug out and the language is ponderous and in diplo matic patois, and President Lowell says that in places it is so obscure that the meaning is often inaccurately ex pressed and sometimes doubtful, that it is easily mis understood and has in fact been widely misunderstood, it is unnecessary to say more. The American people were entitled to a better piece of work, and at least it was a mistake to have given the impression that the document was a finished product with a good reason for its choice of expressions, when later it was necessary to excuse it as a hasty draft which required revision. Much would have been gained if at the outset a part of the time ex pended in its praise had been devoted to its correction.However, we are here to deal with matters of sub stance and not of form, except as substance may inhere in form. While much that I have to say is necessarily a restatement of that with which you are familiar, it is only by a review of the Covenant that I am able to state the views to which my study of it has led me.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.