March 5, 1936
Over 200 students from 29 colleges and universities in the Middle Atlantic region convened at Vassar for the 10th annual model League of Nations. Introduced by Dean C. Mildred Thompson ‘03, Carnzu Clark ’36, president of the Political Association, offered the convention’s focal question: what kept the League of Nations from being effectual. The convention, she said “can have real value only if it shows how the real League works and what keeps it from being effectual; and if it shows us what might be set up as ideal.” In preparation for their deliberations, political science professor Charles G. Fenwick from Bryn Mawr addressed what he saw as the flaw in the League of Nations, its failure to embody two basic principles of the American federal state: the ceding by individual states of the absolute power to make and enforce their own laws and the guarantee to all member states of mutual defense and economic and material parity.
Advised by Eloise Ellery ’97, professor of history, Vassar’s 12-member team represented India and Yugoslavia.