Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1917-01-25
PRESIDENT APPEARS BEFORE CON-
GRESS W|THBASIS FOR WORDPFACE

secure by the organized ma or force of
mankind
Is the present war struggle for
"a just and secure peace or only for a
new balance of power? If it be only
a struggle for a new balance of pow
err, who will guarantee, who can guar
antee, the stable equilibrium of the new
i arrangement Only tranquil Europe
can be a stable Europe. There must be-
not balance OF power, but commu-
nifty of power; not organized rivalries,
but an organized common peace.
Not Seeking to Conquer.
Fortunately, we have received very
explicit assurance on this point. The
statesmen of both of the groups of
nations now arrayed against one an
other have said, in terms that could
not be misinterpreted, that it was no
part of the purpose they had in mind
to crush their antagonists But the
implications of these assurances may
not be equally clear to all-may not be
the same on both sides of the water.
| think it will be serviceable if I at
tempt to set forth what we understand
them to be.
They imply first of all that it must
be a peace without victory. 1t is not
pleasant to say this. / beg that l may
be permitted to put my own interpreta-
ton upon it and that it may be under
stood that ne other Interpretation was
in my thought. / am seeking only to
face realities and to face them without
soft concealments. Victory would mean
peace forced upon the loser, victor IS
terms imposed upon the vanquished.
1T would be made in humiliation
| unlnr IuracS at tn1 ~
flee and would leave sting, resent
ment, bitter memory upon which
terms of peace would rest, not perma
nently but only as upon quicksand
Only peace between equals can last;
only peace the very principle of
which is equality and common par
ticipation in common benefit The
right state of mind, the right feeling
between nations, is as necessary for
lasting peace as is the just settlement
of vexed questions of territory or of
racial or national allegiance.
Must Free Poland.
And there is deeper thing in
Volved than even equality of right
jamong organized nations. No peace
can last, or ought to last, which does
not recognize and accept the principle
that governments derive all their Just
powers from the consent of the govern
ed, and that no right anywhere exists to
hand people about from sovereignty to
sovereignty as if they were property.
50 take it for granted, for instance,
If | may venture upon single exam
pie, that statesmen everywhere are
agreed that there should be united,
independent and autonomous Poland,
and that henceforth inviolable security
of life, of worship and of industrial
and social development should be
guaranteed to all peoples who have
lived hitherto under the power of gov
arnments devoted to faith and purpo-e
hostile to their own.
$50 far as practicable, moverever,
every great people now struggling to-
wards full development of its re-
sources and of its powers should be
assured a direct outlet to the great
highways of the seas. Where this can
be done by the cession of territory, it
can no doubt he done bv the neutraliza-
ton, of direct rights OF way under the
general guarantee which will assure the
peace itself. With a right comfy of
arrangement no nation need be shut
away from access to the open paths of
the world IS commerce.
alike in law and in fact be free. The
freedom of the seas is the sine quanon
of peace, equality and cooperation.
81 No doubt in somewhat radical re-
consideration 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 practically all circumstances
/ for tho Of mo I'M Int
for such changes is convincing and com.
pelling. There can be no trust or init
macy between the peoples of the world
without them. The free, constant, I'M
threatened intercourse of nations is an
essential part of the process of peace
and of development. 1t need not be
difficult to define or to secure the free
dom of the seas if the governments of
the world sincerely desire to come to
an agreement concerning it.
Must Limit Armament.
. 1t is problem closely connected with
the limitation of naval ornaments and
the cooperation of the navies of the
world in keeping the seas at once free
and safe. And the question of limiting
naval ornaments openes the wider and
perhaps more difficult question of limi.
tation of armies and of all programs of
military preparation. Difficult and
delicate as these questions are, they
must be faced with the utmost candor
and decided in a spirit of real accomo-
aation if peace is to come and come to
stay.
q have spoken upon these great
matters without reserve and with the
utmost explicitness because it has
seemed to me to be necessary if the
worlds yearning desire for peace was
anywhere to find free voice and utter
lance. Perhaps / am the only person in
high authority amongst all the peoples
of the world who is at liberty to speak
and hold nothing back. | am speak
ing as an individual and yet I am
speaking, also, of course, as the respon-
| Sible head of a great government and