At the conclusion of the war, though not a member of the U.S. Mission to Paris to conclude peace, his advice was requested in the matter of the Covenant of the League of Nations and his views prevailed to a certain extent. To the Covenant as actually drafted, however, he was opposed. He was, nevertheless, of the opinion that the Covenant and the Treaty of Versailles should be accepted with reservations, to secure the.interests of the United States, inasmuch as the President's re-election in 1916 and his presence as negotiator at Paris had led the other plenipoten tiaries, however erroneously, to believe that he represented the opinion of his fellow countrymen. In Mr. Root's opinion it would be better to accept the Covenant with reservations, and by subsequent amendments to remove the obstacles which had originally stood in the way of its acceptance.
He accepted an invitation from the League of Nations to be come a member of the Advisory Committee of Jurists which met at The Hague in 192o for the purpose of devising a plan for a permanent court of international justice, in accordance with Art. 24 of the Covenant. His presence enabled the committee to frame a plan acceptable to all by which the judges were to be elected by the separate and concurrent action of the Council (in which the Great Powers had a preponderance) and the Assembly (in which the Small Powers were in a majority), each interest, real or alleged, having thus a veto upon the abuse of power by the other. The plan was accepted with modifications by the Council and Assembly on Dec. 14, 192o, and became the statute of the court. It functioned perfectly when the judges were elected in 1921.
Root was appointed by President Harding one of the U.S. dele gates to the International Conference on Armament Limitation, which met at Washington in Nov. 1921. There he secured the
adoption of the convention subjecting submarines to the require ments of surface vessels and prohibiting the use of noxious gases in warfare. He devised the Pacific agreements which resulted in the cancellation of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and drafted the Four Power Pacific Treaty, which took its place. In Jan., 1929, he accepted an invitation to be a member of a committee of jurists meeting at Geneva to test and revise the original statutes of the Permanent Court of International Justice in the light of eight years' experience. He participated in every session held for this purpose and offered valuable suggestions. His main work, however, was the working out of a formula upon which the United States might see its way clear to become a member of the court. This Root protocol, as redrafted by Sir Cecil Hurst, was unanimously accepted by the committee of jurists, and was in tended to replace the protocol of Sept. 23, 1926 drawn up in answer to the American Senate reservations. The changes made were only in the article on advisory opinions and were held to be favourable to the United States. The hope was general that the United States Senate would act favourably after the report of the committee had been formally accepted by the League Council, but the Senate rejected it. Mr. Root died Feb. 7, 1937.
A collection of Root's public addresses has been edited by Robert Bacon and James Brown Scott in eight volumes. He also published Experiments in Government and the Essentials of Constitution (Princeton Lectures, 1913) and American Ideals During the as Half Century (International Conciliation, no. 210, 1925).