Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1917-01-26
PRESIDENTS EpOCH.MAk|NG
ADDRESS TO THE SENATE


be built up and maintained. The
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 contest and riv-
airy. 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.
II have spoken upon these great
matters without reserve and with the
utmost explicitness because it has
seemed to me to be necessary II the
worlds yearning desire for peace was
anywhere to find free voice and ut
terance. Perhaps I am the only per-
son in high authority amongst all
the peoples of the world who is at
liberty to speak and hold nothing
back. am speaking as an individ-
ual and yet l am speaking also, of
course, as the responsible head of a
great government, and 1 feel 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 am in effect speaking for
liberals and friends of humanity in
every nation and of every program of
liberty? I would fain believe that
I am speaking for the silent mass of
mankind everywhere who have as
yet had no place or opportunity to
speak their real hearts out concern
ing the death and ruin they see to
have come already upon the persons
and the homes they hold most dear.
International Monroe Doctrine.
"And in holding out the expecta-
ton that the people and government
of the United States will join the
other civilized nations of the world
in guaranteeing the performance of
peace upon such terms as I have
named, 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 in either our traditions or our
policy as a nation, but fulfillment
rather of all that we have professed
or striven for.
II am proposing, as 1t 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
its policy over any other nation or
people, but that every people should
be left free to determine its own poll
icy. its own way of development. un-
threatened. unafraid, the little along
with the great and powerful.
II am proposing that all nations
henceforth avoid an entangling ALL
ance which would draw them into
competitions of power. catch them in
a net Of intrigue and selfish rivalry
and disturb their own affairs with
influences 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
interest and are free to live their
own lives under q common protec-
ton.
American Principles.
II am proposing government by
the consent of the governed: that
freedom of the seas. which in inter-
national conference after conference
representatives of the United States
have urged with the eloquence of
those who are the convinced disciples
of liberty; and that moderation of
ornaments which makes of armies
and navies power for order merely,
not an instrument of aggression or
of selfish violence.
these are American principles,
American policies. We can stand for
no others. And they are also the
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 nro