THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

The Assembly appointed a number of committees to study
various matters before it. La Fontaine acted as rapporteur
for Committee No. 2, Technical Organisations, among whose
business was his own proposals concerning the organisation
of intellectual work at the League. On behalf of his committee
he presented this resolution to the Assembly:
The Assembly of the League of Nations, approving the assistance which
the Council has given to works having for their object the development
of international co-operation in the domain of intellectual activity,
and especially the moral and material support given to the
Union of International Associations on the occasion of the Inaugural
Session of the International University and of the publication of the
list of Recommendations and Resolutions of the International Congresses
[Code des Voeux], recommends that the Council should continue
its efforts in this direction, and should associate itself as closely as
possible with all efforts tending to bring about the international
organisation of intellectual work.
The Assembly further invites the Council to report favourably the
efforts which are already in progress to this end, to place them under
its august protection, if it be possible, and to present to the Assembly
during its next session a detailed report on the educational influence
which it would be their duty to exert with a view to developing a liberal
spirit of goodwill and world-wide co-operation, and to report on
the advisability of giving them shape in a technical organisation
attached to the League. 30
La Fontaine spoke eloquently in support of the resolution
rallying to him a number of tired and hungry listeners, «and
1here was a great deal of applause*. 31 A debate ensued for
there were some, especially an English Labour Member of
Parliament, who opposed the resolution mistaking it according
to an American observer, Princeton University's Librarian,
Ernest Cushing Richardson, as a call for the unionisation
of intellectual workers. This was a misunderstanding La
Fontaine clarified, according to Richardson, «in a capital
speech which showed all the best traits of the trained parliamentary
debater». The losing and passing of various procedural
motions which followed «was done so rapidly under the
skilled driving of M. Hymans, that it sounded like a machine
gun, and it was about as hard to follow as the gun's bullets». 32
The upshot of it all was that when La Fontaine's motion was
put «the representatives of thirty-four states rose to their
feet». 33 Here, then, was considerable support for the UIA, and
a willingness to pursue the implications of its elevation to
a technical organisation attached to the League.
Nevertheless, Nitobe, reporting to Otlet after the Assembly
dispersed, was still cautious and observed only that «the
•organisation of intellectual labour is in prospect... I am
afraid we shall have to work pretty hard during the next
few weeks if we are to expedite the matter, but I know your
soul is in it». 34 Nothing could be truer than this, and work
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