Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-01-22

rifiee and would leave a sting, resent
ment, bitter memory Hpon which terms
OF peace would rest, not permanently
but only as upon quicksand Only a
peace between equals can last. Only q
peace the very principle of which is
equality and common participation in a
common benefit. The right state of
mind, the right feeling between nations
Is as necessary for lasting peace as is
the just settlement of vexed questions
OF territory or OF racial and national
allegiance"
The president declared "the very ex.
plieit assurances" regarding peace, re-
eeived from bellgerents imply that the
peace that comes must be ga peace
without victory" Victory, he declar-
ed, would be peace forced upon the
loser, victor S terms, imposed upon the
vanquished
1.-THE equality of nations upon which
peace must be founded if il is 10 last
must be equality of rights; the guar.
antees exchanged must neither reeog-
nize nor imply difference 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 individual strength,
of the nations upon whose concert peace
will depend. Equality of territory or
of resources there of course cannot be;
nor any other sort of equality not gain
ed in the ordinary peaceful and legiti-
mate development of the peoples them
selves. But no one asks or expects any
thing more than equality Of rights. Man
kind is looking now for freedom of life,
nor for equipoises Of power"
And there is a deeped 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 principle
that governments derive all their lust
powers from the consent of the gov
erned and that no right anywhere ex-
lists to hand peoples about from SOW
ereignty to sovereignty as if they
were property L take it for granted,
for instance, if / may venture upon a
single example, that statesmen every
where are agreed that there should be
a united, independent and autonomous
Poland, and that henceforth inviolable
security of life, of worship and of in
dustrial and social development should
be guaranteed to all peoples who have
lived hitherto under the power of gov
ernments devoted to faith and pur-
pose hostile to their own.
''I 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 / have spoken Of
the other conditions of peace which
seem to me clearly indispensible-be
cause L wish frankly to uncover real
tiles. Any peace which does not reeog-
nize and accept this prciple will in
evitably be upset. 1t will not rest up
on the affections or the convictions of
mankind. The ferment 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 its life is stable
and there can be no stability where
the will is in rebellion, where there is
not tranquility of spirit and a sense
of justice, Of freedom and of right
80 far as practicable, moreover,
every great people now struggling to-
ward full development of its re-
sources and of its powers, should be
assured direct outlet to the great
highways of the sea. Where this can
not be done by the cession of territory,
it can do doubt be done by the neutral
| ization Of direct rights of way under
the general guarantee which will as
| o,ra tbo nnoca itself With a right
comfy of arrangement 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 free
| dom of the seas is the sine qua non OF
peace, equality and cooperation. NO
doubt a somewhat radical reconsider
/ alton of many of the rNes of interna-
tional practice hitherto thought to be
established may be necessary in order
to make the seas indeed free and COM
mon in practically all circumstances
for the use of mankind, but the mo-
tive 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, unthreatened intercourse OF
nations is an essential part of the pro
cess of peace and development. Ii
need not be difficult either to define
or to secure the freedom of the seas
; if the governments of the world SIN
! cerely desire to come to an agreemen
t concerning it.
a 'It is a problem closely connected