College of Diplomacy

"We don't even know what it [diplomacy] is in the United States and, of course, we don't go about doing it right. If we did, we shouldn't pick up a green fellow on the plains of Long Island and send him here: we'd train the most capable male babies we have, from the cradle."

Thus, on Dec. 28, 1913, wrote Walter Hines Page, President Wilson's able War-time Ambassador to the Court of St. James, shortly after his arrival at his London post, to his partner Frank N. Doubleday.

More than a decade later Mr. Page's idea bore fruit:

1) Recognizing in the growing influence of the United States in world affairs, and the inevitable interdependence of nations the need of a school of highest standards and equipment for the conduct of research and training in the field of international relations, we cordially endorse in principle the establishment of a school of international relations.

2) We understand a proposal has been advanced that such a school be connected with Johns Hopkins University and also that the further proposal has been advanced that, because of his eminent practical service in promotion of sound international relations at a critical period in our history, the name of Walter Hines Page be associated with the school.

3) The Chairman is hereby authorized to appoint a committee to confer with the President; of Johns Hopkins University, with friends of the late Walter Hines Page and others, in order to further these proposals and bring them, if possible, into full realization.

A score of notable educators, business men and publicists, unanimously adopted these resolutions. They had been called to a luncheon at the Bankers' Club, Manhattan, by Franklin D. Roosevelt, onetime Assistant Secretary of the Navy; John W. Davis, Mr. Page's successor as Ambassador to Great Britain; George W. Wickersham, Attorney General under President Taft; Dr. John H. Finley, educational expert of The New York Times; Dr. Albert Shaw, Editor of The Review of Reviews, and Julius H. Barnes, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

These gentlemen, under the benign chairmanship of Mr. Roosevelt, feasted on excellent viands, gazed amiably out over the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan. With the appearance of coffee and cigars, they proceeded to discuss plans for the establishment of a school of international relations for the promotion' of peace and the training of diplomats at the University where Walter Page matriculated with the first Freshman class in 1876.

The proposal was elaborated by Dr. Finley, who suggested that the three years course should embrace five elemental subjects for investigation and teaching: 1) the fundamental bases of international relations, 2) the history of international relations, 3) international law, 4) diplomatic practice and procedure, 5) international organizations.

Dr. Harry A. Garfield, President of Williams College and Chairman of the Institute of Politics (TIME, May 5), stated that no such course would be complete unless it included travel abroad and first-hand touch with other nations.

Dr. J.A.C. Chandler, President of William and Mary College, who had introduced the resolutions, suggested that the third year of the course could be devoted to a sort of Grand Tour for Fledgling Diplomats.