The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-01-26

course of nations is an essential part
of the process of peace and of devel-
opment. 1t need not be difficult to de-
fine or to secure the freedom of the
seas if the governments of the world
sincerely desire to come to an agree
ment concerning it.
at is problem closely connected
with the limitation of naval arma.
ments and the cooperation of the ma
vies of the world in keeping the seas
at once free and safe. And the ques-
tion of limiting naval armaments
opens the wider and perhaps more
difficult question of the Limitation of
armies and of all programs of military
preparation.
Difficult and delicate as these
questions are, they must be faced
with the utmost candor and decided
in spirit of real accommodation, if
peace is to come with healing in its
wings, and come to stay. Peace can
not be had without concession and
sacrifice. There can be no sense of
safety and equality among the ma
tions if great preponderating arma-
ments are henceforth to continue and
here and there to be, built up and
maintained. This statesmen of the
world must plan for peace and nations
must adjust and accommodate their
policy to it as they have planned for
war and made ready for pitiless con-
test and rivalry. The question of
ornaments, whether on land or sea,
is the most Immediately and intensely
practical question connected with the
future fortunes of nations and of
mankind.
Time for Frankness.
81 have spoken upon these great
matters without reserve and with the
utmost eXplicitness because it has
seemed to me to be necessary if the
worlds yearning desire for peace was
anywhere to find free voice and utter
ance. Perhaps l am the only person
! in high authority amongst all the peo-
pies of the world who is at liberty to
speak and hold nothing back. I am
speaking as an individual, and yet 1
am speaking also, of course, as the
responsible head of great govern
ment, and feel confident that have
said what the people of the United
States would wish me to say.
May / not add that l hope and be-
lieve that l am in effect speaking for
liberals and friends of humanity in
every nation and of every program
of liberty? l would fain believe that
| am speaking for the silent mass of
mankind everywhere who has vet
had no place or opportunity to speak
their real hearts out concerning the
death and ruin they see to have come
already upon the persons and the
homes they hold most dear.
And in holding out the expectation
that the people and government of
the United States will join the other
civilized nations Of the world in guar
anteeing the permanence of peace
upon such terms as / have named III
speak with the greater boldness and
confidence because it is clear to every
man who can think that there is in
this promise no breach as a nation,
but fulfillment rather of all that we
have professed or striven for.
Il am proposing, as it were, that
the nations should with one accord
adopt the doctrine of President Mon-
roe as the doctrine of the world: That
no nation should seek to extend it's
policy over any other nation or people,
but that every people should be left
free to determine it's own polity, it's
own way of development, unhindered,
unthreatened, unafraid, the little
along with the great and powerful.
Must Avoid Intrigue.
Il am proposing that all nations
henceforth avoid entangling alliances
which would draw them into compe
tltlons of power, catch them in a net
OF intrigue and selfish rivalry, and
disturb their own affairs with inf1u-
ences intruded from without. There
is no entangling alliance in a concert
of power. When all unite to act in
the same sense and with the same
purpose, all act in the common in
terest and are free to live their own
llVes under a common protection.
Il am proposing government by the
consent of the governed; that freedom
of the seas which in international
conference after conference, repre-
sentativeS of the case have urged with |
the eloquence of those who are the |
convinced disciples of liberty: and |
that moderation of armaments which |
makes of armies and navies a power |
for order merely, not an instrument
of aggression or of selfish violence.
These are American principles,
American policies. We can stand for
principles and policies of forward
looking men and women everywhere,
of every modern nation, of every en-
lightened community. They are the
principles of mankind and must pre-
vail"
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