The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1917-12-04
FULL TEXT Of MESSAGE
TO CONGRESS AS READ
BY PRESIDENT WILSON

will be-ve shall at last be free to
do an unprecedented thing, and this
is the time to avow our purpose to
do II. We shall be free to base peace
on generosity and justice, to the eN-
clusion OF all selfish claims to advan-
tage even on the part OF the victors.
Let there be no Misunderstanding
Our present and immediate task is to
win the war, and nothing shall turn
us aside from 1t until IL is accom-
plished. Every power and resource
we possess, whether OF men, of
money. or Of materials, is being de-
voted and will continue to be devoted
to that purpose until IT is achieved.
Those who desire to bring peace
about before that purpose is achiev-
ed I counsel to carry their advice
elsewhere. We will not entertain 1t.
We shall regard the war as won only
when the German people say to US,
through properly accredited repre-
sentatives. that they are ready to
agree to a settlement based upon jus
tice and the reparation of the wrongs
their rulers have done. They have
done a wrong to Belgium which must
be repaired. They have established
a power over other lands and peoples
than their own-over the great en-
pire of Austria-Hungary. over hither-
to free Balkan states, over Turkey.
and within Asia-which must be re-
linqufshed.
Germany's success by skill. by in
dustry, by knowledge, by enterprise
we did not grudge or oppose, but ad-
mired, rather. She had built up for
herself a real empire OF trade and in
fluence, secured by the peace OF the
world. We were content to abide the
rivalries OF manufacture. science, and
commerce that were involved for us
in her success and stand or fall as
we had or did not have the brains and
the initiative to sufpass her. But at
the moment when she had conspicu-
ousIy won her triumphs of peace she
threw them away. to establish in
their stead what the world will no
longer permit to be established. mill
tary and political domination by
arms. by which to GUST where she
! could not excel the rivals she most
| feared and hated. The peace we
make must remedy that wrong. 1t
must deliver the once fair. lands and
happy peoples OF Belgium and north
ern France from the Prussian con-
| quest and the Prussian menace. but II
must also deliver the peoples of Aus
! tria-Hungary. the peoples OF the Bal
/ lIans, and the peoples OF Turkey.
| alike in Europe and in Asia. from the
| impudent and alien dominion OF the
Prussisn military and commercial au-
| tocracy.
We owe il, however, TO ourselves to
say that we do not wish in any way
o impair or to rearrange the Austro-
Hungarian Empire. It is no affair
of ours what they do with their own
life, either industriaIly or politically.
We do not purpose or desire to die
tate to them in any way. We only
desire to see that their affairs are
left in their own hands, in all mat
tiers, great or small. We shall hope
to secure for the peoples Of the
balkan peninsula and for the people
OF the Turkish Empire the right and
opportunity to make their own lives
safe, their own fortunes secure
against oppression or injustice and
from the dictation Of foreign courts
| or parties.
And our attitude and purpose with
regard to Germany herself are of a
like kind. We intend no wrong against
| the German Empire, no interference
| with her internal affairs. We should
deem either the one or the other alb,
solutely unjustifable, absolutely con.
trary to the principles we have pro.
fessed to live by and to hold most
( sacred throughout our life as a ma
ton.
The people OF Germany are being
told by the men whom they now per
nit to deceive them and to act as
their masters that they are fighting
for the very life and existence oi
their empire, a war of desperate self
defense against deliberate aggression
Nothing could be more grossly ol
wantonly false. and we must seek by
the utmost Openness and candor a.
| to our real aims to convince them oi
its falseness. We are in fact fighting
/ for their emancipation from fear
along with our Own-frOm the feal
as well as from the fact OF unjust
attack by neighbOrs or rivals Of
4 schemers after world empire No one
| is threatening the existence or tht
Independence or the peaceful enter
prise OF the German Empire
The worst that can happen to the detri
ment OF the German people Is this thai
II they should still. after the war is over
continue TO be obliged to live under am
bilious and intriguing masters interested
to disturb the peace Of the world. mel
'bI NAhH-fs VI lllFl NAlOlll Allt- bAlltl pFopl'l
u the world could not trust, it nigh
be impossible TO admit them to the part
ernship Of nations which must hencefortl
guarantee the worlds peace. That part
nership must be a partnership OF PEG
Piles. not a mere partnership OF govern
ments. II might be impossible ALSO. IL
such untoward circumstances. TO admi
Germany to the free economic Inter
course which must Inevitably spring on
Of the other partnerships Of a rea
peace. But there would be no aggres
sion in that; and such a situation, in
evitable because II distrust. would in tn
very nature OF things sooner or late
cure itself by processes which would as
suredly set in.
The wrongs. the very deep wrongs
committed in this war will have to b.
righted. That OF course. But they can
not and must not be righted by the com
mission Of similar wrongs against Ger
many and her allies. The world vii
not permit the commission OF simila
wrongs as a means OF reparation ant
settlement. Statesmen must by this tim
have learned that the opinion Of tn
world IL everywhere wide awake an,
; fully comprehends the issues involved
} No representative OF any self-governe,
, nation will dare disregard IT by attempt
ing any such covenants Of selfishnes
! and compromise as were entered int
At the Congress Of Vienna. The though