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National Geographic : 1919 Jun
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VOL. XXXV, No. 6 WASHINGTON JUNE, 1919 AT©ONAIL MAGAZEn]E COPYRIGHT,1919. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICSOCIETY,WASHINGTON, D. C. THE MILLENNIAL CITY The Romance of Geneva, Capital of The League of Nations BY RALPH A. GRAVES AUTHOR OF "FEARFUL FAMINES OF THE PAST," "SHIPS FOR THE SEVEN SEAS," ETC. W HETHER the League of Na tions prove a will-o'-the-wisp, leading peoples into a morass of war-breeding misunderstandings, or the beacon guiding them into the paths of perpetual peace, Geneva, its capital, will be known henceforth as the Millennial City. If the League succeeds, the Swiss municipality will become the city set on a hill, the center of man's moral universe. Viscount Bryce has said that there are four cities that belong to all men rather than to any one nation-cities that have influenced the whole world, or round which its history has at one time or an other revolved; cities in which students and philosophers from every country are equally interested. To these four-Je rusalem, Athens, Rome, and Constanti nople-must now be added Geneva. Jerusalem gave to western civilization its religion. Athens was our great pre ceptress in liberty, literature, and art. Rome was the mother who gave us our laws and to most of us our language, while the power of her political and ec clesiastical institutions still sways half the globe. Constantinople, after the sacking of Rome, became the preserver of civili zation, was the birthplace of the Justinian Code, the seat of an empire for fifteen hundred years, and the link between the waning glories of the Orient and the growing splendors of the Occident. Gen eva now becomes the fountain-head of what may be either the most noble tri umph or the most colossal failure in the history of human endeavor. A HALF-WAY HOUSE BETWEEN BELLIGER ENTS DURING THE WAR Seated serenely on both banks of the River Rhone, where it leaves the limpid waters of Lake Geneva as a placid stream, in contrast to the muddy turbulence of its ingress at the other end of the lake, Gen eva is not the metropolis of the miniature Republic of Switzerland, for Zurich sur passes it in population by 50 per cent and Bern is the capital. But it is doubtful whether before the world war any other city of its size was visited annually by as many tourists, for it was the main gate way into the world-famous "playground of Europe." During the European conflict many of the finest Swiss hotels, which in seasons past have entertained thousands of Amer icans, suffered greatly for lack of wealthy patronage, and the federal government found it advisable to come to their financial relief by passing an ordinance
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