The Benson signal., 1917-01-27
Peace Lasting Through ALI Time
Should Recognize Equality of
All, Declares President.
WAY TO SEA OPEN TO ALL
New Monroe Doctrine Urged in
Plan for League to Stop Clash
of Armed Forces.
Western Newspaper Union News Service.

is one of the necessities of peace,
when belligerent Europe sits down to
make treaty, Woodrow Wilson told
the Senate Monday. And that peace,
the President declared, must be Civ
en- by some definite concert of power
which will make it virtually impossi-
BILE that any such catastrophe"
should overwhelm us again"
To that end, said the President, dis
cussing his idea of World League to
Enforce Peace, the people of America
should add their authority and their
power to the authority and force Of
other nations to guarantee peace and
Justice throughout the world
"Such settlement" he added, "can-
not now be long postponed" but, he
declared, any treaty which ends the
war must be mot merely peace that
will serve the several interests and
immediate aims of the nations en-
gaged;;" it must be a peace without
victory. He realized, he declared,
that mere terms of peace between
the 0elligerents will not satisfy the
belligerents themselves" and thus
brings the need of a World Peace
league.
Victory" declared the President,
would mean peace forced upon the
loser, victor's terms imposed upon
the vanquished," and, he asserted,
only peace between equals can
last" When the war ends, he said,
''the paths of the sea must, alike in
law and fact. be free" because 'the
free, constant, unthreatened inter
course of nations Is an essential part
In the process of peace and develop
ment."
German Reply to Note is Indefinite.
The President spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the Senate: On the
18th of December last | addressed an
Identical note to the governments of
the nations now at war, requesting
them to state more definitely than
they had yet been stated by either
group of belligerents the terms upon
which they would deem it possible to
AAohC pCoCC. i OpOhC OA UCl1dll VI uu-
manity and of the rights of all neutral
nations like our own, many of whose
most vital interests the war puts in
constant jeopardy.
The central powers united in a re-
ply which stated merely that they
were ready to meet their antagonists
in conference to discuss terms of
peace.
The entente powers have replied
much more definitely and have stated
in general terms indeed, but with suf-
ficient- definiteness to imply details,
the arrangements, guarantees and
acts of reparation which they deem to
be the indispensable conditions of a
satisfactory settlement.
Peace Only by Union of Powers.
We are that much nearer definite
end the present war. We are that
much nearer the discussion of the in
ternational concert which must there
after hold the world at peace.
In every discussion of the peace
that must end this war it is taken for
granted that peace must be given by
some definite concert of power which
will make it virtually impossible that
any catastrophe should ever over
whelm us again. Every lover of man
kind, every sane and thoughtful mai
must take that for granted.
l have sought this opportunity to
address you because l thought that l
owed it to you, as the council associ-
ated with me in the final determine
tion of our international obligations,
to disclose to you, without reserve, the
thought and purposes that have been
taking form in my mind in regard to
the duty of our government in these
days to come, when it will be neces-
sary to lay afresh and upon new
plan, the foundations of peace among
the nations.
America to Play Part in Peace.
It is Uncomfortable that the people
of the United States should play no
part in that great enterprise. To take
part in such service will be the op-
portunity for which they have sought
to prepare themselves by the very
principles and purposes of their pol
ity 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 mankind
the way to liberty. They cannot, in
honor, withhold the service to- which
they are now about to be challenged.
They do not wish to withhold it. But
they owe it to- themselves and to the
other nations of the world to state the
conditions under which they will feel
free to render it,
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 a
settlement cannot now be long post
poned 1t is right that before it comes
this government should frankly formu-
late the conditions upon which it
would feel justified in asking our peo-
pie to approve it's formal and solemn
to League for Peace.
am here to attempt to state those con-
Aitinna