William Gardner Hale - Multilateralist

Multilateralist

When the German Empire invade Belgium in 1914, Professor Hale was abroad in Europe. He cabled the New York Times from Havre, France, and permitted his name to be published with his cable recommending the United States declare war on Germany. Six months into the First World War, the Wilson Administration had succeeded in keeping the United States neutral. Professor Hale called for war in September 1914; in January 1915 he was in partial agreement with former President Theodore Roosevelt on the need to act against the German Empire. But like fellow progressive Alfred Hayes, Jr., William Gardner Hale viewed the American role as supporting the internationalist and multilateral position represented by the Hague Conventions. Roosevelt was defining the unilateralist tenet that would become a hallmark of 20th century Republican Party foreign policy doctrine. On in May 1916, Hale agreed to serve as an honorary vice president of the American Rights Committee during its Carnegie Hall memorial protest of the Lusitania sinking by a German Navy U-Boat. The purpose of the mass meeting was to organize a petition to President Woodrow Wilson demanding an end of diplomatic relations with the Imperial Court at Berlin. New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel succeeded in postponing the protest, in part to ameliorate worsening relations in the city between the pro-Allied and pro-German factions. In the 1916 Presidential election, William Gardner Hale endorsed Woodrow Wilson over Charles Evans Hughes. Hale's position was based on his concern that Hughes would draw the United States into another war with the Republic of Mexico and that Wilson, while not supportive enough of the Allies in Europe, "had the high aim of building up a national life in which, while honest business shall have every opportunity, privilege shall not rule the poor and the weak. He has made of his party a truly progressive party." Hale was a member of the New England Anti-Imperialist League.