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55 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1940)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry55 and id is 1 raw text is: March z94o POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY VERSAILLES TWENTY YEARS AFTER ONE of the propositions which could probably be put forward without fear of contradiction at the present time is that the World War did not succeed in pro- ducing a satisfactory and lasting peace; the daily papers remind us of that convincingly enough. Beyond this truism, an inquiry into the reasons for this failure reveals considerable divergence of opinion; but there are certain notions which have gained currency until they have become part of the unques- tioned belief of large numbers of people. Among such widely held ideas, none is more common than the legend which has grown up around the name of Versailles. Even among informed people the assumption, explicit or tacit, is often made that the Versailles settlement is the source and fount of the world's subsequent troubles. This conclusion would seem to be the result of a simple syllogism running somewhat like this: the World War was fought essentially for the purpose of establishing an orderly community of nations (whether the emphasis be on making the World safe for de- mocracy, the war to end war, the destruction of militarism, or other kindred slogans) and the primary purpose of the peace was to bring about such a result; now it is clear that such a happy state of affairs has not come into existence; ergo, the war itself was a futile waste and the peace settlements were bad. The Versailles settlement is now twenty years old and, despite the fact that the German Chancellor seems to find it necessary to resort to periodic announcements of its demise, as Volume L V] [ Number r