League of Nations

The League of Nations serves in the narrative as a marker of the postwar order—and of how quickly that order was coming apart. Its significance is conveyed less through a description of the institution itself than through the consequences attached to Germany’s decision to leave it in 1933: the weakening of the peace settlement and the approach of a more dangerous international crisis.

Withdrawal and the weakening of the postwar settlement

On October 14, 1933, Adolf Hitler abruptly quit the League of Nations and ended Germany’s ongoing disarmament talks with France and its allies. The account presents the two actions together: withdrawal was not simply a change in diplomatic affiliation but part of a rejection of the restraints and negotiations associated with the postwar settlement. It describes the move as effectively abrogating the Treaty of Versailles and undermining the foundations on which European peace had rested since 1919.

The surrounding details give that diplomatic break a material edge. Friedrich Krupp AG had secretly begun work on an initial order of 135 Panzer I tanks. Meanwhile, observers in Panama reported a surge in nitrate shipments, a material used to manufacture munitions, traveling from Chile toward the Azores under blind sailing orders. The account does not present these developments as actions by the League; rather, their proximity to Germany’s withdrawal makes the contrast plain between disarmament negotiations and preparations that suggested a turn toward rearmament.

A crisis reported, but scarcely answered

Reports from Germany described assaults on Americans and other foreign nationals who refused to give Nazi salutes. The United States, Britain, and Holland warned Berlin of serious consequences if the attacks continued. Richard Tyler, dean of engineering at the University of Washington, returned from Germany and reported that people were afraid to express even trivial opinions and that criticism of the Nazi regime could lead to arrest without trial. By then, thousands of political dissidents had already been imprisoned at Dachau.

The reports did not produce broad American support for confronting Germany. When students at the University of Washington were asked whether the United States should ally with France and Britain to oppose Germany, 99 percent said no. Will Rogers likewise captured the prevailing reluctance to become involved in another French-German conflict, arguing that the United States should leave the two countries alone and attend to the injuries left by its last attempt to intervene. The passage thus sets the League’s weakening international order against an American public that, despite reports of repression and signs of rearmament, overwhelmingly rejected a more active response.

Narrative significance

The League’s role is chiefly structural: its abandonment marks a turning point in the political background against which the book follows its sporting story. The account places Germany’s withdrawal beside evidence of rearmament, reports of intimidation, and American isolationism, allowing the reader to see the 1930s as more than a sequence of athletic contests. The League stands for an already-fragile system of negotiation; its rejection sharpens the contrast between the promise of collective security and the political choices that were eroding it.