Dulles explores the implications of the World War I reparations on the world's economy. The speech was initially delivered at the League of Free Nations Association on March 12, 1931 in New York and then published in the New Republic.
Hull summarized and outlined works by David Starr Jordan, French Ensor Chadwick, Henri Lambert, and John Atkinson Hobson, for discussion and adoption by the Central Organization for a Durable Peace.