Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-01-23

is to last, must be an equality of
rights; the guarantees exchanged
must neither recognize nor imply a
difference between big nations and
small, between those that are power
full and those that are weak. Right
must be based upon the common
strength, not upon the individual
strength, Of the nations upon whose
concert peace will depend. Equality
of territory or of resources, of course
cannot be; nor any other sort of
equality not gained in the O binary
peaceful and legitimate development
of the peoples themselves. But no
one asks or expects anything m re
than an equality of rights. Mankind
is looking now for freedom of life,
not for equipoises of power,
Sovereignty Should Be Free.
"And there is a deeper thing in
volved than even equality Of right
among organized nations. No peace
can asst, or ought to last, which does
not recognize and accept the principle
that governments derive all their just
powers from the consent Of the gov
crned, an that no right anywhere
exists to hand peoples about from
sovereignty to sovereignty as if they
were property l take it for granted,
for instance, il | may venture upon
single example, that statesmen every
where are agreed that there SHOULD
be united, independent and autono-
nous Poland and that henceforth an
inviolable security of life, of worship
and of Industrial and social develop
ment should be G aranteed to all
peoples who have lived hitherto I'M
der the power of governments de-
voted to faith and purpos- hostile
to their own.
II speak of this, not because Of any
desire to exalt an abstract political
principle which has always been held
very dear by those who have sought
to build up liberty in America, but
for the same reason that I have
spoken of the other conditions of
peace which seem to me clearly in
dispensable because l wish frankly to
uncover realities.
No Peace Without Stability.
ANY peace which does not rec
ognize and accept this principle will
inevitably be upset. 1t will not rest
upon the affections or the convictions
of mankind. The spirit of whole pop
ulations will fight subtly and con-
stantly against it and all the world
will sympathize. The world can be
at peace only if its life is stable and
there can be no stability where the
will is in rebellion, where there is not
tranquility of spirit and a sense of
justice and freedom and right.
80 far as practicable, moreover,
every great people now struggling to-
wards a 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
cannot be done by the cession OF
territory it can no doubt be done by
the naturalization of direct rights of
way under the general guarantee
which will assure the peace itself.
With a right comfy of arrangements
liO HdtlOH UCSu uS SHut away llolIl
free access to the open paths of the
worlds commerce.
Seas 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 corpora
ton. No doubt a somewhat radical
reconsideration OF many of the rules
of international practice hitherto
sought to be established may be nee
essary in order to make the seas in
deed free and common in practically
all circumstances for the use of man
kind, but the motive for such changes
is convincing and compelling. There
can be no trust or intimacy between
the peoples Of the world without
them. The free, constant, unthreat-
ened intercourse of nations is an es-
sential part OF the process OF peace