The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-01-26

10 enuuTe, IL HluSC De peace Hdue
secure by the organized major force
of mankind.
The terms of the immediate
peace agreed upon will determine
whether it is a peace for which such
a guarantee can be secured. The
question upon which the whole fu-
ture peace and policy Of the world
depends is this: Is the present war
a struggle for just and secure peace,
or only for new balance of power?
If it be only struggle for new
balance of power who will guarantee,
who can guarantee, the stable equili-
brium of the new arrangement Only
a tranquil Europe can be a stable
Europe. There must be, not bal
ance Of power, but a community of
power, not organized rivalries, but
an organized common peace.
Both Claim Justice.
fortunately we have received very
explicit assurances 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 wa
ter. | think it will be serviceable if l
attempt to set forth what we under
stand them to be.
"They imply first of all that it must
be peace without victory. 1t is not
pleasant to say this. I beg that I
may be permitted to put my own in
depreciation upon it and that it may
be understood that no other interpre-
tation was in my thought. I am seek
ing only to face realities and to face
them without soft concealments. Vic
tory would mean peace forced upon
the loser a victor's terms imposed
upon the vanquished. 1t would be ac-
cepted in humiliation under dureSs at
an intolerable sacrifice and would
leave sting, a resentment, bitter
memory upon which terms of peace
would rest, not permanently, but only
as upon quicksand. Only peace be-
tween equals can last. Only a peace
the very principle of which is equality
and common participation in COM
mon benefit. The right state of mind,
the right feeling between nations, is
as necessary for a lasting peace as is
the just settlement Of vexed questions
Of territory or of racial and national
allegiance.
"The equality of nations upon
which peace must be founded if it is
to last must be an equality of rights
the guarantees exchanged must
neither recognize nor imply a differ
ence between big nations and small,
between those that are powerful 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 there of course can not be-;
nor any other sort of equality not
gained in the ordinary peaceful and
legitimate development of the peo-
Piles themselves. But no one asks
or expects anything more than an
equality of rights. Mankind is look
ing now for freedom of life, not for
equipoise of power.
The Main Principle.
"And there is a deeper thing in
volved than even eventuality 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 if
they were property. | take it for
granted, for instance, if I may VEN
ture upon single example, that
statesmen everywhere are agreed that
there should be a united, independent
and autonomous Poland and that
henceforth inviolable security of life,
or worship and of industrial and So
cia development should be guaran-
teed to all people who have lived hith-
erto under the power of governments
devoted to faith and purpose hostile
to their own.
Il 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 spok-
en- of the other conditions of peace
which seem to me clearly indispensa-
ble-because | wish frankly to uncover
realities. Any peace which does not
recognize and accept this principle will
inevitably be upset. 1t will not rest
upon the affections or the convictions
of mankind. The 1erment of spirit
of whole populations will fight subtly
and constantly against it, and all the
world will sympathize The world can
be at peace only if it's life is stable,
and thoro o,n bo no .toI;l;.,