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Published August 29, 2019
In 1933, weeks before his own passing, B. H. Roberts delivered an address to the World Fellowship of Faiths entitled “The Standard of Peace.” In it, the religious and political figure denounced international war as a threat to civilization itself. Roberts had reflected on the scourge of war and the behaviors and mechanisms necessary to achieve peace throughout his decades of oratory; now, at the end of his life, he was placing a capstone on that body of thought. Yet sixteen years earlier, this same man had enlisted as a chaplain in the cause of World War I and suggested that God sanctioned righteous wars.
John Sillito, in the Spring 2019 UHQ, traces the evolution of Roberts’s thought and motivations. Below, we provide links to a sampling of the sources Sillito used to understand Roberts’s view of the league, as well as further reading about the league and the controversy surrounding it.
- “B. H. Roberts Scores League Opponents,” Salt Lake Tribune, March 10, 1919, p. 16. A news article on a statement that Roberts made regarding the arguments of opponents to the League of Nations.
- “Governor Proud of Utah’s War Record,” Salt Lake Tribune, March 22, 1919, p. 14. A short article detailing a welcome home party in Sandy, Utah, for returning troops during which Roberts made a case for the League of Nations.
- “League Is Only Plan For Universal Peace, Declares Former Army Chaplain,” Salt Lake Tribune, June 9, 1919, p. 16. A statement from Roberts appealing for support of the League of Nations. It comes in the context of a plea for a monument for the Mormon Battalion.
- “B. H. Roberts Speaks Monday,” Ogden Standard-Examiner, October 22, 1920, p. 16. A news article announcing Roberts’s intent to give a speech on the League of Nations during the 1920 gubernatorial race in Utah.
- “Senator Smoot is Scored by Elder B. H. Roberts,” Price Sun, October 29, 1920, p. 1. The followup and reactions to Roberts’s speech.
- “B. H. Roberts Raps Smoot,” Ogden Standard-Examiner, October 26, 1920, p. 18. An in-depth report of Roberts’s speech, including quoted portions.
- “Mrs. E. C. Jenkins Talks Plain on the League,” Logan Republican, September 11, 1919, p. 1. A published version of a letter sent to the Logan Republican denouncing the League of Nations and Roberts’s rhetoric.
- “Tabernacle Crowded When B. H. Roberts Replies to Clark on the League of Nations,” Ogden Daily Standard, September 17, 1919, p. 5. Roberts retorts to J. Reuben Clark’s opposition to the league.
- League of Nations Bibliography: over 3,000 citations to English language books and dissertations on the League of Nations
- Jeffrey L. Swanson, “That Smoke-filled Room: A Utahn’s Role in the 1920 GOP Convention”
- Justin H. Libby, “Senators King and Thomas and the Coming War with Japan”
- Kristen Smart Rogers, “‘Another Good Man’: Anthony W. Ivins and the Defeat of Reed Smoot”
- James B. Allen,
- “J. Reuben Clark, Jr., on American Sovereignty and International Organization,” Brigham Young University Studies 13, no. 3 (1973).
- “Personal Faith and Public Policy: Some Timely Observations on the League of Nations Controversy in Utah,” BYU Studies Quarterly, 14, no. 1 (1974).
- A free, digitized collection of books by B. H. Roberts.
