James Thomson Shotwell (August 6, 1874 – July 15, 1965) was a Canadian-born American history professor. He played an instrumental role in the creation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1919, as well as for his influence in promoting inclusion of a declaration of human rights in the UN Charter.
Career
Background
Shotwell was born in Strathroy, Ontario, to American Quaker parents.
He obtained a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1898. He obtained his doctorate from Columbia University in 1903, where he studied under James Harvey Robinson.
Columbia University's alumni magazine records: At Columbia he encountered a lively intellectual community, seized with debates about the "New History." He quickly adopted his adviser’s view that the increasingly influential "scientific" methods of studying society might be applied to the practice of history and he applied them in his dissertation in medieval history, "A Study of the History of the Eucharist." He would later observe that although he took "a semester on the history of international law, by the distinguished jurist John Basset Moore, later a judge on the World Court... this was the only course that had any bearing on international relations in the faculty of Political Science, a subject... on which most of my later life was spent."
Academics
In 1903, Shotwell became an History instructor.
To underwrite studies overseas, he began writing articles for the Encyclopædia Britannica; soon, he became managing editor of its eleventh edition. This work provided a good salary, honed his organizational skills, and led to his meeting people like Bertrand Russell and Henry Ford. Eventually, he wrote some 250 articles.
In 1908, he became full professor. His interest lay in particular with the influence of science and technology on historical change and international relations.
In 1917, he became director of research at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where Columbia's president, Nicholas Murray Butler who was also president.
In 1927, he became the first chair of the advisory committee on international relations of the newly formed Social Science Research Council. He then became director of planning and research in international relations.
In 1930, he returned to Columbia full-time. In 1937, he was appointed Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations at Columbia University. He retired from full-time teaching at Columbia in 1942. During his time at Columbia, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.
All in all, he studied and taught at Columbia for nearly 50 years, where his closest friends were fellow professors Robinson and Charles A. Beard.
Political contributions
Shotwell attended the Paris Peace Conference as a member of "The Inquiry" (a study group established by Woodrow Wilson to prepare materials for the peace negotiations), historian of the American delegation, and author of the provisions establishing the International Labour Organization (ILO). He then he worked to counter U.S. isolationism and to promote U.S. entry into the League of Nations.
He met with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Aristide Briand in Paris and suggested that a bilateral treaty be negotiated that would outlaw war between the U.S. and France. Their work led to the Kellogg-Briand Pact being signed on August 27, 1928.
In 1932, he met Senator Cordell Hull at the Democratic national convention; Hull went on to become Roosevelt's Secretary of State the following year. In 1934, Shotwell campaigned for Congress to authorize U.S. membership in the ILO. In 1935, he became president of the League of Nations Association, whose executive director had been Clark Eichelberger since 1933.
In 1939, William Allen White, editor of the Gazette of Emporia, Kansas, along with Eichelberger and Shotwell, established the Non-Partisan Committee for Peace Through Revision of the Neutrality Acts. They formed an Eichelberger-White Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, founded in May 1940. Eichelberger and Shotwell created a Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (CSOP), which Virginia Gildersleeve supported. The CSOP conducted studies, held popular radio discussion shows and through national and local affiliates became a powerful engine of mass education on behalf of collective security. The CSOP applauded the Moscow Four Power Declaration of November 1, 1943, and issued a report on "Fundamentals of the International Organization." Under Edward Stettinius, the State Department used this report for its Dumbarton Oaks proposals. Shotwell worked closely with Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles.