Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-03-05
WORLD PEACE
PLEA MADE BY
THE PRESIDENT
CONTINUED fror, First Page)

(Continued from First Page)
and action with such unusual concen-
tration to which we addressed our
selves four years ago, other matters
have more and more forced themselves
upon our attention, matters lying out
side our own life as q, nation and over
which we had no control. but which de-
spite our wish to keep free of them,
have drawn us more and more into
their own current and influence.
BLOOD OF ALL NATIONS.
at has been impossible to avoid
them. They have affected the life of
the whole world. They have shaken
men everywhere with n passion and
an apprehensi0 they never knew be-
fore. II has been hard to preserve
calm counsel while the thought of our
own people swayed this way and that
under their influences. We are a COM
posite and cosmopolitan people We
are of the blood of all the nations that
are at war. The currents of our
thoughts as well as the currents of our
trade run quick at all seasons back
and forth between us and them. The
war inevitably set its mark from the
first alike upon our minds, our indus
tries, our commerce. our politics and
our social action. To be indifferent of
1t or independent OF it was out of the
question.
And yet all the while we have been
conscious that we were not part of it.
in that consciousness, despite many di-
visions, we have drawn closer togeth-
er. We have been deeply wronged up
on the seas, but we have not wished
to wrong or injure in return; have re-
tanned throughout the consciousness Of
standing in some sort apart intent up
on an interest that transcribed the
immediate issues of the war itself. AS
some of the injuries done us have be-
come intolerable we have still been
clear that we wished nothing for our
selves that we were not ready to de-
lmand for all mankind-fair dealing
Justice, the freedom to live and be at
ease against organized wrong.
FIRM IN ARMED NEUTRALITY.
at is in this spirit and with this
thought that we have grown more
and more aware, more and more
certain that the part we wished to
play was the part of those who
mean TO vindcate and fortify
peace. We have been obliged to
arm ourselves to make good our
claim to a certain minimum of
right and of freedom of action We
stand firm in armed neutrality
since it seems that In no other
way can we obtain what we insist
upon and cannot forego. We may
even be drawn on, by circum-
stances, not by our own purpose
or desire, to a more active asser-
ton of our rights as we see them
and a more immediate association
with the great struggle itself. But
nothing will alter our thought or
our purpose. They are too clear
to be obscured. They are too
deeply rooted in the principles of
our national life to be altered. We
desire neither conquest nor advant-
age. We wish nothing that can
he had only at the cost OF, another
people. We have always profe.sed
unselfish purpose and we covet
the opportunity to prove that our
professions are sincere.
There arc many things still to do
at home, to clarity our own politics
and give new vitality to the industrial
processes of our own life. and we shall
do them as time and opportunity serve:
but we realize that the greatest things
that remain to be done must be done
with the whole world for a stage and
in cooperation with tn wide and uni
versal forces of mankind, and we are
making our spirits ready for those
things. They will follow in the i'm
mediate wake of the war itself, and
will set civilization up again. We are
provincials no longer.
NO TURNING BACK.
1.-THE tragical events of the 80 months
of vital turmoil through which we have
just passed have made us citizens Of
the world. There can be no turning
back. Our own fortunes as a nation
are involved, whether we would have
1t so or not.
And yet we are not the less Ameri-
cans on that account. We shall be the
more American If we but remain true
TO the principles in which we have been
bred. They are not the principles of a
province or a single continent. We
have known and boosted all along that
they were the principles of liberated
mankind.
AMERICAN PRINCIPLES.
These, therefore, are the things we
etdAu IOIp WHETHER III WuT OF III peace.
THAT all nations are equally in
terested in the peace of the world
and in the political stability of free
peoples, and equally responsible for
their maintenance;
"That the essential principle Of
peace 10 the actual equality Of ma
tions in all matters of right or
privilege;
THAT peace cannot securely or
justly rest upon an armed balance
of power;
"That governments derive all
their just powers from the consent
of the governed, and that no other
powers should be supported by the
common thought, purpose or power
Of the family Of nations;
"That the sean should be equally
free and safe for the use of all
peoples. under rules set up by com.