Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1917-01-26

ity and common participation in a
common benefit. The right state of
mind, the right feeling between ma
lions, is as necessary tor a lasting
peace as is the just settlement of
vexed questions Of territory or Of ra-
cial 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 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
peoples themselves. But no one
asks or expects anything more than
an equality of rights. Mankind is
looking now for freedom Of life, for
equipose of power.
Poland Should no Independent.
And there is a deeper thing in
volved 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 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. I take it for
granted, for instance, if may ven
ture upon single example, that
statesmen everywhere are agreed
that there should be united, indie
pendent and autonomous Poland;
that henceforth an inviolable secur-
ity of life, of worship and of indus
trial and social development should
be guaranteed to all peoples who
have lived hitherto under the power
of governments devoted to faith and
purpose 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 I wish frankly
to uncover realities. Any peace
which does not recognize and accept
this principle will inevitably be up
set. It will not rest upon the affec-
lions or the convictions of mankind.
The ferment of 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 II its life is stable, and
there can be no stability where the
will is in rebellion, where there is
not tranquility Of spirit and sense
of justice and freedom and right.
Should BE Given OutieG.
$50 far as practicable, moreover.
every great people now struggling
toward 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 ter
ritory 1t can no doubt be done
through the naturalization of direct
rights of way under the general guar
antee which will assure the peace IT
self. With a right comfy or ar
rangement no nation need be shut
away from free access to the open
paths of the worlds commerce.
"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 co-opera-
ton. No doubt 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
and Of development. It need not be
difficult to define or to secure the
freedom of the seas II the govern
ments Of the world sincerely desire
to come to an agreement concerning
It.
''It is a problem closely connected