The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1917-01-26
Our New Serial, the web of Steel
PRESIDENT WILSON'S ADDRESS BEFORE The
Governor Rye's Inaugural Address Should Be Read
President Wilson
Before the Senate
QUESTION OF JOINING WORLD LEAGUE TO PRESERVE rhAoh
AFTER WAR LAID DOWN IN ADDRESS WHICH DECLARES RE-
CENT EFFORTS NOT IN VAIN.

diate aims of the nations engaged.
We shall have no voice in determining
what these terms shall be, but we shall
| feel sure, Rave a voice in determin-
ing whether they shall be made lasting
or not by the guarantees of a universal
covenant, and our judgment upon what
is fundamental and essential as a con-
dition precedent to permanency, should
be spoken now, not afterwards, when
it may be too late.
"No covenant of cooperative peace
that does not include the peoples of the
new world can suffice to keep the fu-
ture safe against war, and yet there is
only one sort of peace that the peo-
pies of America could join in guaran-
teeing. The elements of that peace
must be elements that engage the
confidence and satisfy the principles
of American governments, elements
consistent with their political faith
and the practical convictions which the
peoples of America have once for all
embraced and undertaken to defend.
Il 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 bel
| lgerents will not satisfy even the bel
! hgerents themselves Mere agree
ments may not make peace secure. 1t
will be absolutely necessary that a
force be created as guarantor of the
permanency of the settlement so much
greater than the force of any nation
now engaged, or any alliance hereto
fore formed or projected that no ma
tion, no probable combination of ma
tions could face or withstand it, If
the peace presently to be made. is to
endure it must be peace made secure
by the organized major force of man
kind.
"The terms of the immediate peace
, agreed upon will determine whether it
is peace for which such guarantee
can be secured. The question upon
which the whole future peace and pol
| icy of the world depends is this:
Ts the present war struggle for
just and secure peace, or only for a
new balance of power? If it be only
a struggle for a new balance of power
who will guarantee, who can guaran-
tee, the stable equilibrium of the new
arrangement? Only a tranquil Eu-
rope can be stable Europe, There
must be, not balance of power, but a
community of power, not organized RI
valries, but an organized common
peace.
Fortunately we have received very
explicit assurances on this point, The
statesmen of both the groups of ma
tions 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 implica-
tions of these assurances may not be
equally clear to all-may not be the
same on both sides of the water.
think it will be serviceable if | attempt
to set forth what we understand them
to be.
"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 interpre-
tation upon it and that it may be un-
derstood that no other Interpretation
was in my thought. | am seeking only
to face realities, and to face them. with
out soft concealments. Victory would
mean a peace forced upon the loser, q
! victor's terms imposed upon the van.
quished. 1t would be accepted in hu.
initiation, under duress, at an intoler.
able sacrifice, and would leave a sting
a resentment, a bitter memory upor
which terms of peace would rest, moi
permanently, but only upon a qulch
sand. Only a peace between equals
can last. Only peace the very prin.
ciple 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 o.
racial and national alliance.
i "The equality of nations upon which
peace must be founded if it is to las
must be an equality Of rights; tn,
guarantees exchanged must neither
recognize nor imply a difference be
tween big nations and small, between
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