The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1917-01-26
PRESIDENT WILSON
BEFORE THE SENATE
Continued from page ID

are weak. klght must be based upon
the common strength, not upon the in
dividual strength, of the nations upon
whose concert peace viii depend.
Equality of territory or of resources
there of course cannot be; nor any 9th
er sort of equality not gained in the or
binary peaceful and legitimate devel-
opment of the peoples themselves. But
no one asks or expects anything more
than an equality of rights. Mankind
is looking now for freedom of life, not
for equipoise of power.
"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 rec
ognize and accept the principle that
governments derive all their just pow
ers from the consent of the governed,
and that no right anywhere exists to
hand people about from sovereignty to
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 a united, indie
pendent and autonomous Poland, and
that hence forth inviolable security of
life, of worship, of industrial and So
cial development should be guaranteed
to all peoples who have lived hitherto
under the power or governments de-
voted to faith hostile to their own.
Il speak of this, not because of any
desire to exalt an abstract political
principle which has always been held
very dear to those who have sought to
build up liberty in America, but for the
same reason that l have spoken of the
other conditions of peace which seem
to me clearly Observation-Disclosures
wish frankly to uncover realities. Any
peace which does not recognize and ac-
cept the principle will inevitably be up
set. 1t will not rest upon the affections
or the convictions of mankind. The
ferment of spirit of whole populations
will fight subtly and constantly against
it, and all the world will sympathize.
"The world can be at peace only if
its life is stable, and there can be no
stability where the will is rebellious,
where there is not tranquility of spirit
and a sense of justice, of freedom and
of right.
$50 far as practicable, moreover,
every great people now struggling to
wards full development of its resour-
ces and of its powers should be as
sured direct outlet to the great high
ways of the sea. Where this cannot be
done by the cession of territory it can
no doubt be done by the naturalization
of direct rights of way under the gem
eral guarantee which will assure the
peace itself. With right comfy of
arrangement no nation need be shut
away from access to the open paths
of the worlds commerce.
"And the paths of the sea must,
alike in law and in fact, be free. The
freedom of the seas is the sine qua
non of peace, equality and cooperation.
No doubt somewhat radical reconsid-
Grafton of many of the rules of inter
national practice hitherto sought to be
established may be necessary in order
to make the seas indeed free and com
mon in practically all circumstances
for the use of mankind, but the mo-
tive for such changes is convincing
and compelling. There can be no trust
or intimacy between the peoples of the
world without them. The free, con-
slant, unthreatened intercourse of ma
lions is an essential part of process of
peace and Of development. 1t need not
be difficult to define or to secure the
freedom of the seas if the governments
OF the world sincerely desire to come
to an agreement concerning it.
1T is problem closely connected
with the limitation of naval arma-
ments and the cooperation of the ma
vies OF the world in keeping the seas at
once free and safe. And the question
of limiting naval ornaments opens the
wider and more difficult question of
limitation of armies and of all pro-
grams Of military preparation.
Difficult and delicate as these cues
lions are, they must be faced with the
utmost candor and decided in a spirit
OF real accommodation, if peace is to
come with healing in its wings, and
come to stay. Peace cannot be had
without concessions and sacrifice
There can be no sense of safety anc
equality among the nations if great
prepondering ornaments are hence.
forth to continue and here and there
to be built up and maintained The
statesmen of the world must plan fol
peace, and nations must adjust anc
accommodate their policy to it as they
have planned for war and made read,
for pitiless contest and rivalry. TIL,
question of ornaments whether or
land or sea, is the most important anC
intensely practical question connected
with the future fortunes of nations an,
of mankind.
Il have spoken upon these grea
matters without reserve and with tn,
utmost explicitness, because It ha,
seemed to me to be necessary if tn,
worlds yearning desire for peace wa
anywhere to find free voice and utter
anee. Perhaps | am the only perso,
: IN high authority amongst the people
OF the world who is at liberty to speal
and hold nothing back am sneak
ing as an individual, and yet / an
speaking also of no,,reo o. a.