The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1917-01-26
vexed questions of territory or OF
racial and national allegiance

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Inc equality Of nations upon
which peace must be founded il it +
to last must be an equality OF rights
the guarantees exchanged must
neither recognize nor imply d-fiel :
ence between D;g> nations and small,
b@tween those that are powerful amt
taose that are weak. Right must lie
based upon Ihe common strength. not
upon the individual strength, OF tie
hatluus upOn whose cOlcgrt peace
will depend. Equality of territory OF
OF resuurces there OF course can nor
be: nc" any ether sort Of equality 1ot
sained in the ordinary peaceful and
legitimate development Of the peo-
pies themselves. But no one askS
or txEects anything more than All
equality OF rights. Mankind is LOOK
ing now Tor freedom OF life, not for
equip0ise Of power.
Ihe Main Principle.
'And there is a deeper thing in
VOWED than even equality of right
among organized nations. No peace
can last, or ought to last, which does
not recognize and accept the prin-
ciple that governments derive all their
just powers from the consent of the
governed, and that no right any
where exists to hand peoples about
from sovereignty to sovereignty as II
they were property. l take it for
granted, for instance, if I may VEN
ture upon simple example, that
statesmen everywhere are agreed thar
there should be united independnr
and autonomous Poland and that
hnceforth inviolable security of life,
or worship and of industrial and So
cial development should be guaran-
teed to all people who have lived
hitherto under the power Of govern
ments devoted to a faith and pur-
pose hostile to their own.
Il speak of this, not because Of
any desire to exalt an abstract polir-
ical principle which has always been
held very dear by those who have
sought to build up liberty in iAmerica,
but for the same reason that / have
spoken of the other conditions of
peace which seem to me clearly in
dispensible-because I wish frankly
to uncover realities. Any peace which
does not recognize and accept tE's
principle will inevitably be upset it
will not rest upon the affections or
the convictions of mankind. The fer
ment Of spirit of whole populations
will fight subtly and constantly
against it, and all the world will SYM
pathize. The world can be at peace
only if it's life is stable, and there
can be no stability where the will Is
in rebellion. where there is not tran
guilty of spirit and sense Of JUS
tice, of freedom and of right.
SO far as practicable every great
people now struggling towards full
development Of it's resources and OF
it's powers should be assured direct
outlet to the great highways Of the
sea. Where ithis' can not be done by
the cession Of territory, it can no
doubt be done by the naturalization
of direct rights of way under the
guilty of spirit and a sense Of justice,
the peace itself With the right
comfy of arrangement no nation need
be shut away from free access to
the open paths of the worlds COM
merce.
Sea Must be Free.
"And the paths OF the sea must
alike in law and in fact be free. The
freedom of the seas is the sine qua
non of peace, equality and coopera-
reconsideration of many of the rules
of international practice hitherto
sought to be established may be
necessary in order to make the seas
indeed free and common in prac-
tically all circumstances for the use
of mankind, but the motive for such
changes is convincing and compell-
ing. There can be no trust or in
timacy between the peoples of the
world without them. The free, con-
slant, unthreatened intercourse of ma
tions is an essential part of the pro-
cess OF peace and OF development. II
need not be difficult to define or to
secure the freedom of the seas if the
governments Of the world sincerely
desire to come to an agreement con-
corning it.
''It is a problem closely connected
with the limitation Of naval arma-
ments and the cooperation of the ma
vies of the world in keeping the seas
at once free and SAFE And the ques-
ton of limiting naval ornaments
opens the wider and perhaps more
difficult question of the limitation OF
armies and of all programmes of mil
itary preparations.
Difficult and delicate as these
questions are, they must be faced
with the utmost candor and decided
in a spirit of real accommodation, if
peace is to come with healing in it's