The Washington herald., 1917-01-23
Text of President Wilson's Address
Before Senate Urging League Of All
Nations to Enforce Peace in Future

of armaments which makes of armies
| and navies q power for order merely, not
an instrument of aggression or of selfish
| violence.
These are American principles, Ameri-
can policies. We can stand for no others.
And they are also the principles and poll
! cies of forward-looktng men and women
everywhere. Of every modern nation, of
| every enlightened community. They are
the principles of mankind and must pre-
| vail"
| rs the present war a struggle for a
| Just and secure peace. or only for a new
balance of power7 II 1t be only a strug
gle for a new balance Of power who will
guarantee. who can guarantee. the stable
Only tranquil Europe can be a stable
Europe. There must be. not a balance
OF power. but community of power;
| not organized rivalries, but an organized
| common peace.
Fortunately, we have received very
| explicit assurances on this point The
statesmen Of both of the groups of ma
tions now arrayed against one another
| have said, in terms that could not be
| misinterpreted, that 1t 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. I think II will be
| serviceable II attempt to set forth what
| We understand them to be.
Peace Without Victory.
They imply first of all that 1t must be
a peace without victory It is not pleasant
to say this beg that I may be permit
ted to put my own Interpretation upon It
and that 1t may be understood that no
other Interpretation was in my thought
| tn 70 20
face them without soft concealments
Victory would mean peace forced upon
the loser, victor's terms imposed upon
the vanquished.
1T would be accepted in humiliation,
under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice
and would leave a sting. a resentment =
bitter memory upon which terms OF peace
would rest, not permanently. but only as
! upon Quicksand. Only a peace between
equals can last. Only q peace the very
principle OF which Is equality and a COM
mon 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 al
legiance.
The equality of nations upon which
peace must be founded IL It Is to last
must be an equality of rights; the guar
| antees exchanged must neither recognize
nor imply difference between big nations
and small, between those that arc power
full and those that are weak. Right must
be based upon the common strength, not
upon the individual strength. of the ma
tions upon whose concert peace will
depend.
Expect Freedom OF Life.
Equality of territory or of resources
there, Of course, cannot be; nor any 9TH
4 n anrN
nary peaceful and legitimate develop
ment Of the peoples themselves. But no
| one asks or expects anything more than
| an equality Of rights. Mankind Is look
ing now for freedom of life, not for
! eQuipoises OF power.
And there is a deeper thing involved
than even equality of right among organ
lied nations No peace can last or
ought to last, which does not recognize
and accept the principle that govern
ments derive all their Just powers from
=, the consent Of the governed, and that no
right anywhere exists to hand people
about from sovereignty to sovereignty as
| II they were property.
I take 1t for granted, for instance, II
may venture upon a single example,
that statesmen everywhere are agreed
that there should be united. independ
ent and autonomous Poland and that
henceforth inviolable security OF life Of
worship and of Industrial and social de-
veiopment should be guaranteed to all
peoples who have lived hitherto under
the power of governments devoted to a
taith and purpose hostile to their own.
"oufd Uncover Realities,
Il speaA Of this not because of any d.
sire to eNslt an abstract political princi-
pie which has always been held very
dear by those who have sought to build
up liberty in America, but for the Same
reason that I have spoken of the other
conditions of peace which seem to m,
clearly tndispens nsable-because wish
to uncover realities. Any peace which
does not recognize and accept this princI
pie Will inevitably be upset.
TT Will not rest upon the affections or
the convictions of mankind. The ferrnent
OF spirit of whole populations will fight
subtly and constantly against II, and all
the world will sympathize. The. world
| can be at peace 6niy II its life Is stable,
and there can be no stability whore the
will Is in rebellion, where there In not
tranquility or spirit, and a senss Of rus
tice, of freedom. and Of right
so far as practicable, moreover. every
great people now struggling toward-a full
development of its resources and of It's
powers should be assured a direct outlet
to the great highways of the sea Where
this cannot be done by the cession Of ter
ritory 1t can no doubt be done by the
naturalization of direct rights of way un-
der the general guarantee which will
assure the peace itself With a right
comfy of arrangement no nation need be
shut away from free access to the open