Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-01-23
TEXT OF WILSON'S
SPEECH IN SENATE
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the practical convictions which the
peoples Of America have once for all
embraced and undertaken to defend.
Advocates Enforced Peace.
II do not mean to say that any Amer
lean government would throw any OBJ
stacle 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.
l only take it for granted that mere
terms of peace between the belliger-
ents will not satisfy even the belliger-
ents themselves. Mere agreements
may not make peace sure 1t will be
absolutely necessary that force be
created as guarantor of the perman-
ency of the settlement SO much great
er than the force of any nation now
engaged or any alliance hitherto form
ed or projected that no nation, no
probable combination Of nations could
face or withstand it. If the peace pres:
emily to be made is to endure 1t must
be a peace made secure by the organ
lied major force of mankind. The
terms of the immediate peace agreed
upon will determine whether there is
peace where such guarantee can be
secured The question upon which the
whole future peace and policy of the
world depends Is this:
"Is the present war struggle for
just and secure peace or only for
new balance Of power? If 1t be only
struggle for new balance Of power,
who will guarantee, who can guaran-
tee, the stable equilibrium of the new
arrangement? Only tranquil Europe
can be stable Europe. There must
be, not balance Of power, but COM
munity of power; not organized rival
ries, but an organized common peace.
Not War OF Determination.
fortunately, we have received very
explicit assurances on this point. The
statesmen of both of the groups of ma
! lions now arrayed against one another
have said, in terms that could not be
nisinterpreted, that it was no part Of
| the purpose they had In mind to crush
their antagonists But the implications
of these assurances may not be equally
clear to all = may not be the same on
| both sides Of the water. l 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 pvt my own interpreta-
ton upon 1t and that 1t may be under
stood that no other Interpretation was
In my thought am seeking only to
face realities and to face them without
soft concealments. Victory would
mean peace forced upon the loser, a
victor's terms imposed upon the van
quished. 1t would be adopted in humll-
iation. under duress at intolerable sac
rifce and would leave a sting, re-
sentiment, bitter memory upon which
terms of peace would rest, not per-
manently but only as upon quick sand.
Only peace between equals can last:
only a peace the very principle OF
which is equality and common par
ti"ipation in a common benefit. The
right state of mind, the right feeling
between nations. is as necessary for a
lasting peace as is the Just settlement
OF vexed questions Of territory or Of
racial and national allegiance
Rights Are Equal.
"The equality of nations upon which
peace must be founded, If it Is to last,
must be an equality of rights; the
guarantees exchanged must neither
recognize nor imply difference be-
tween big nations and small, between
those that are powerful and those that
are weak Right must be based upon
the common strength, not upon the In
dividual strength of the nations upon
whose concert peace will depend.
Equality of territory or Of resources
thereof of course cannot be: nor any
other sort OF equality not gained In the
ordinary peaceful and legitimate devel-
opment OF the peoples themselves. But
no one asks or expects anything more
than equality Of rights. Mankind Is
looking now for freedom Of life, not for
eQuipoises of power.
The People Rule.
and there is deeper thing involv-
ed than even equality of right among
organized nations No peace can last
or ought to last. which does not recog-
nize and accept the principle that gov
ernments derive all their just powers
from the consent OF the governed, and
that no right anywhere exists to hand
sovereignty as if they were property.
! take it for granted, for instance, If
may venture upon a single example,
that statesmen everywhere are agreed
that there should be united, indie.
pendent and autonomous Poland and
that henceforth an inviolable security
of life, Of worship and Of industrial and
social development should be guaran-
teed to all peoples who have lives
hitherto under the power Of govern
ments devoted to faith and purpose
hostile to their own.
81 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 indispensable - because
wish frankly to uncover realities
I