TLS signed “Wm. H. Taft,” one page, 8.25 x 10, League to Enforce Peace letterhead, September 9, 1916. Letter to Senator John W. Weeks of Massachusetts, in part: "Our Executive Committee hopes that, in case you favor the program of the League to Enforce Peace, you will be willing to send us a brief statement of your views, which can be printed in whole or in part in a second and larger edition of the enclosed folder, which gives excerpts from President Wilson, Justice Hughes, Senators Root and Lodge and other men in public life. It is proposed to use the booklet in propaganda work both in this country and abroad. Our Committee is assured by those who are in close touch with the European situation that while leaders of thought there are so absorbed by events of the war that they have little leisure in which to plan for the future, they will welcome evidence that American public men are giving thought to the erection of safeguards against the recurrence of the calamity which is now devouring their lives and property, and will be disposed to follow leadership which may be furnished from this country." In very good to fine condition, with paper loss to the top, and right side.
In 1915, Taft became the first president of the League to Enforce Peace, an organization that advocated the formation of an international coalition aimed at preventing war. The fruition of President Wilson's Fourteen Points plan similarly and more famously established the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, with the League's charter later incorporated into the conference's WWI-dissolving Treaty of Versailles. Taft's public support of the League was chastised by many of his fellow Republicans, and his inconsistent views on the Versailles reservations were rebuked by both parties. Wilson's opposition to any amendments or reservations of the treaty subsequently concluded with its final rejection on March 19, 1920.
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