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

the duty OF our government IN lhese
DAYS to come when it will be neces-
sary 10 lay atresh and upon new
plan the foundations OF ace among
the nations
1T is inconceiyable that the people
OF the United States should play no
part in that great enterprise. To
take par, in such service will be
the opportunity for which they have
sought to prepare themselves by the
very principle and purposes OF their
polity and the approved practices OF
their government ever since. the days
when they set up new nation IN the
high and honorable hope that it might
in all that it was and did, show man
kind the way TO liberty. The cannot
in honor, withhold the service to
which they are now about to be chal-
lengcd They do not wish to with
hold it. But they owe it to them
selves and to the other nations OF
the world to state the conditions
under which they will feel free 10
render it.
Attitude Should Be Known.
THAT service is nothing less than
this: To add their authority and
their power to the authority and
force OF other nations to guarantee
peace and justice throughout the
world. Such i settlement cannot now
be long postponed. 1t is right that
before it comes this government
should frankly formulate the condi-
tons upon which it would feel justi-
fed in asking our people to approve
its formal and solemn adherence to
a league for peace. | am here to
attempt to state those conditions.
The present war must FIRST be
ended; but we owe it to candor and
to a just regard for the opinion Of
mankind to say that so far as our
participation in guarantees Of future
peace is concerned, it makes a great
deal Of difference in what way and
upon what terms it is ended. The
treaties and agreements which bring
it to an md must embody terms
which will create a peace that is
worth guaranteeing and preserving, a
peace that will win the approval OF
mankind; not merely peace that will
serve the several interests and i'm
mediate aims Of the nations engaged.
We shall have no voice in determin-
ing what those terms shall be, but
we shall, ! feel sure, have a voice in
determining whether they shall be
made lasting or not by the guaran-
tees OF a universal covenant, and our
Judgment upon what is fundamental
and essential as a condition precedent
to permanency should be spoken now,
not afterwards, when it may be too
late.
Peace Worth Guaranteeing.
mo covenant OF cooperative peac.
that does not include the peoples Of
the new world can suffice to keep the
future safe against war, and yet there
is only one sort of peace that the
peoples Of America could join in
guaranteeing,
THE elements of that peace must
be elements that engage the con-
hdence and satisfy the peace Of the
American government, elements con-
sistent with their political faith and
the practical convictions which the
peoples OF America have once for all
embraced and undertaken to de-
fend."
~ do not mean to say that any
American government would throw
any obstacle in the way Of any terms
of peace the governments now at war
might agree upon or seek to upset
them when made, whatever they
might be. ! only take it for granted
that mere terms of peace between the
belligerents will not satisfy even the
belligerents themselves. Mere agree
ments may not make peace sure. 1t
will be absolutely necessary that a
force be created as a guarantor OF
the permanently of the settlement so
much greater than the force OF any
nation now engaged or any alliance
hitherto formed or projected, that no
nation, no probable combination OF
nations could face or withstand it.
II the peace presently to be made
is to endure it must be peace made
secure by the organized major force
Of mankind. The terms OF the i'm
mediate peace agreed upon will de-
termine whether there is peace
where such guarantee can be Sc
cured.
Real Question at Issue,
"The question upon which the
whole future peace and policy of the
world depends is this:
rs the present war struggle for
= just and secure peace, or only for
q new balance Of powers II it be
only struggle for a new balance Of
power, who will guarantee, who can
guarantee, the stable equilibrium OF
the new arrangement Only a tran
gull Europe can be a stable Europe
There must be, not a balance OF pow
er, but community OF power; not
organized rivalries, but an organized
common peace.
Fortunately, we have received
very explicit assurances on this point.
The statesmen OF both of the groups
of nations now arrayed against one
another 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 he
water, think it will be serviceable
if attempt to set forth what we I'M
derstand them to be.
Imply Peace Without Victory.
They imply first of all that it
must be a peace without victory. 1t
is not pleasant to say this. beg
that ! may be permitted to put my
own interpretatio upon it and that
it may be understood that no other
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