Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-04
esident Urges War Against Austria
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS
DEALS WITH TOPICS OF
INTERNATIONAL CONCERN

Our present and immediate task Is to
win the war. and nothing shall turn
US aside from 1t until it is accom-
plished. Every power and resource
We possess, whether Of men. OF
money. or Of materials. is being oe.
voted and will continue to be devoted
to that purpose until 1t is achieveo.
Those who desire to bring peace about
before that purpose Is achieved l
counsel to carry their advice else
where. We will not entertain 1t. we
shall regard the war as won only wnen
the German people say to us, through
properly accredited representatives,
that they are ready to agree to q
settlement based upon Justice and
the reparation of the wrongs their
wrong to Belgium which must be re-
paired. They have established
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-
linquished.
Built Empire of influence.
Germany's success by skill. by in
dustry. by knowledge, by enterprise
we did not grudge or oppose. but
admired. rather. She had built up
for herself real empire of trade
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 surpass her. But the moment
when she had conspicuously won
her triumphs OF peace she threw
them away. to establish in. their
stead what the world will no longer
hermit n ho OF h1iohad vv,ilifoFv
and political domination by arms.
by which to oust where she could
not excel the rivals she most feared
and hated. The peace we make
deliver the once fair lands and
happy peoples of Belgium and
northern France from the Prussian
conquest and the Prussian menace.
but 1t must also deliver the peoples
OF Austria-Hungary. the peoples Of
Turkey, alike In Europe and in Asia,
from the impudent and alien do
minion Of the Prussian military and
commercial autocracy.
We owe. 1t, however, to ourselves
to say that we do not wish in any
way to impair or to rearrange the
Austro- o-Hungarian empire. It is
no affair of ours what they do with
their own life, either industrially
or politically. We do not purpose
VI 0SoiI0 " QiCt4t0 10 IuSm any
way. We only desire to: see that their
affairs are left In their own hands,
in all matters, great or small. We
shall hope to secure for the peoplea
Of the Balkan peninsula and for the
people OF the Turkish empire tho
right and opportunity to make their
own lives safe. their own fortunes
secure against oppression or injus-
tice and from the dictation of for
eign courts or parties.
Attitude and Purpose Alike.
And our attitude and purpose with
regard to Germany herself are of
against the German empire. no i'm
reference with her Internal affairs
We should deem either the one or
the other absolutely unjustidab BILE,
absolutely contrary to the princi-
pies We have professed to live by
and to hold most sacred through
out our }ife as q nation.
The people of Germany are being
told by the men whom they now per-
init to deceive them and to act as
for the very life and existence Of
their empire. war of desperate
self-defense against deliberate ag-
gression. Nothing could be more
grossly or wantonly false. and we
must seek by the utmost openness
and candor as to our real aims to
convince them of it's falseness. we
are in fact fighting for their eman-
cipation from fear. along with our
own-from the fear as well as from
the TACT OF unjust attack by neigh
bors or rivals or schemers after
world empire. No one is threaten
ing the existence or the independ.
ence or the peaceful enterprise of
the German empire.
The worst that can happen to the
0etT1ment OF the
this. that IL they should still, after
the war is over, continue to be
obliged to live under ambitious and In
triguing masters interested to dis
classes of men whom the other peo-
pies Of the world could not trust. II
might be impossible to admit them
to the partnership of nations which
must henceforth guarantee the
worlds peace. That partnership must
be partnership OF peoples, not a
mere partnership Of governments. II
might be impossible. also. in such
untoward circumstances. to admit
Germany to the free economic, inter-
course which must inevitably spring
out OF the other partnerships of q
real peace. But there would be no
aggression in that; and such situa-
tion. inevitable because of distrust,
sooner or later cure itself. by proc
esses which would assuredly set in.
Wrongs Must Be Righted.
The wrongs. the very deep wrongs,
committed in this war will have to be
righted. That. OF course. But they
cannot and must not be righted by the
commission Of similar wrongs against
Germany and her allies. The world
will not permit the commission Of sim
liar wr0nRH a 0f
and settlement. Statesmen must by
this time have learned that the opin-
ion Of the world Is everywhere wide
awake and fully comprehends the is
sues involved. No representative OF
any self-governed nation will dare dis
regard It by attempting any such
covenants Of selflshness and COM
promise as were entered into at the
congress of Vienna. The thought Of
the plain people here and everywhere
throughout the world. the people who
enjoy no privilege and have very sim
pie and unsophisticated standards of
right and wrong, is the air all gov
ernments must henceforth breathe IL
they would live. 1t is in the full dis
closing light of that thought that all
ed in this midday hour Of the worlds
life. German rulers have been able
to upset the peace of the world only
because the German people were not
suffered under their tutelage to share
the comradeship Of the other peoples Of
the world either In thought or In pur-
pose. They were allowed to have M
opinion Of their own which might be
set up az a rule OF conduct for thoee
who exercised authority over them.
war will feel the full strength OF the
tides that run now in the hearts and
consciences OF free men everywhere Its
conclusions will run with those tides.