Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-12-04
TEXT OF PRESIDENTS
ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

/ that If they should still. after the war
is over. continue to be obliged to live
under ambitious and intriguing mas
! tiers interested to disturb the peace of
the world, men or classes of men
whom the other peoples of the world
could not trust 1t might be impossi-
! BILE to admit them to the partnership
of nations which must henceforth
| guarantee the worlds peace. That
partnership must be partnership of
peoples. not a mere partnership of
! governments
1T might be impossible, also, in
such untoward circumstances, to adj
nit Germany to the free economic in
tercourse which must inevitably spring
out of the other partnerships of a real
peace. But there would be no agrees
| sion in that: and such a situation, in
evitable because of distrust, would in
the very nature of things sooner or
later cure itself, by processes which
would assuredly set in.
NO SIMILAR WRONGS.
"The wrongs, the very deep wrongs
committed in this war, will have to be
righted. That of course. But they
cannot and must not be righted by
the commission of similar wrongs
against Germany and her allies. The
world will not permit the commission
of similar wrongs as a means of rep
araton and settlement Statesmen
must by this time have learned that
the opinion of the world is everywhere
wide awake and fully comprehends
the issues involved. No representative
of any self governed nation will dare
disregard it by attempting any such
covenants OF selfishness and compro
mise as were entered into at the con-
gress of Vienna.
THE thought of the plain people
here and everywhere throughout the
world, the people who enjoy no privi-
lege and have very simple and unso-
phsticated standards of right and
wrong, is the air all governments
must henceforth breathe If they would
live. 1t is in the full disclosing light
of that thought that all policies must
be conceived and executed in this mid
day hour of the worlds life.
! NO OPINION OF THEIR OWN.
'GermHn rulers have been able to
upset the peace of the world only be
I cause the 1efllldH people were lbl
suffered under their tutelage to share
the comradeship of the other peoples
of the world either in thought or in
purpose. They We're allowed to have
no opinion of their own which might
be set up as a rule of conduct for
4 those who exercised authority over
them. But the congress that con-
cludes this war will feel the full
strength of the tides that run now in
the hearts and consciences, of free
men everywhere. It's conclusions will
run with those tides.
AN those things have been true
from the very beginning of this stu
pendous war: and I cannot help think
ing that if they had been made Ilain
at the very outset the sympathy and
enthusiasm of the Russian people
might have been once for all enlisted
on the side of the allies suspicion and
distrust swept away and real last
ing union of purposes effected.
POISON BY SAME HANDS.
Had they believed these things at
/ the very moment of their revolution
and had they been confirmed in that
belief since the sad reverses which
nave recently Ulalhtu llt pIoSit VI
their affairs towards an ordered and
stable government of free men might
have been avoided. The Russian peo-
pie have been poisoned by the very
!. same falsehoods that have kept the
German people in the dark, and the
poison has been administered by the
very same hands. The only possible
| antidote is the truth. 1t cannot >be ut
tered too plainly or too often.
From every point of view, there
fore, it has seemed to be my duty to
J speak these declarations of purpose
| to add these specific interpretations &c
what | took the liberty of saying to
the senate in January Our entrance
into the war has not altered our at
ltitude towards the settlement that
! must come when it is over.
FOR FREEDOM OF THE SEAS.
When | said in January that the
nations of the world were entitled not
vonly to free pathways upon the sea
but also to be assured of unmolested
rights to pathways. I was thinking and
am now thinking not of the smaller
nations, alone, which need our coun
: tenance and support. but also of the
great and powerful nations and of ouI
: present enemies as we'll as our present
associates in the war. / was thinking
and am thinking now of Austria her
self, among the rest, as well as of Ser
bia and Poland. Justice and equality
: of rights can be had only at a great
price. WE ARE SEEKING PER
, MANENT, NOT TEMPORARY
FOUNDATIONS FOR THE PEACH
OF THE WORLD AND MUST SEEK
THEM CANDIDLY AND FEARLESS
LY. AS ALWAYS, THE RIGHT
WILL PROVE TO BE THE EXPE.
3 DENT.
What shall we do them to push
this great war of freedom and justice
to it's righteous conclusion? We mus
i. clear away with a thorough hand al
: impediments to success and we mus
make every adjustment of law thai
will facilitate the full and free use Of
pur whole ranncity and fnrpe /.