The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-01-26

.hSicoy apdiiuon us CraQlClOnal pOucy
of isolation and no entangling ALI.
ances, was laid squarely before con.
gress and the country today by Pres
ldent Wilson in a personal address
to the senate. IS
For the first time in more than 3
hundred years a president of the
United States appeared in the senate
chamber to discuss the nations for
elgn relations after the manner OF
Washington, Adams and Madison. The
effect was to leave congress, all off.
cial quarters and the foreign diplo-
mats amazed and bewildered. I'M
medlately there arose a sharp division
of opinion over the propriety as well
as the substance of the presidents
proposal
"Startling," Staggering" "astound-
ing" "the mobiles utterance that has
fallen from human lips since the
Declaration of independence" were
among the expressions of senator's.
The president himself, after his ad-
dress said:
Seems Possible Now. *
81 have said what everybody has
been longing for, but has thought i'm
possible. Now it appears to be pos
sible." "
The chief points of the presidents
address were:
That lasting peace in Europe can
not be peace of victory for either
side. Nc
That peace must be forwarded by a
definite concert of power to assure
the world that no catastrophe of war
shall overwhelm it again. TF
That in such a concert of power
the United States can not swithhoId
Its participation to guarantee peace
and justice through the world.
And before peace is made the
United States government should
frankly formulate the conditions suptll
which 1t would feel justified in: ss3k
}pg theSsA Anesiesns-Fpsapls -fersths,1
Formal and solemn adherence. q
at is clear to every man who
thinks" the president told the SEN
ate, "that there is in this promise no
breach in either our traditions or our
policy as nation, but fulfillment
rather, of all that we have professed
or striven for.
Il am proposing, as it 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 it's
policy over any other nation or peo-
pie, but that every people should be
left free to determine its own policy,
its own way of development, unhin-
dered, unthreatened, unafraid, the lit
tie along with the great and the pow
erful.
To Avoid New Dangers.
81 am proposing that all nations
henceforth avoid entangling alliances
which would draw them into compe-
tltlons of power, catch them in a net
OF intrigue, and selfish rivalry and
disturb their own affairs with infiu-
ence intruded from without. There
is no entangling alliance in a con-
cert of power. When all united to act
in the same sense and with the same
purpose, all act in the common in
terest and are free to live their own
lives under common protection.
Il am proposing government by the
consent of the governed, that freedom
of the seas which in international
conference after conference represen-
tatives of the United States have
urged with the eloquence with those
who are the convinced disciples of
liberty and that moderation of arma-
ments 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 could 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-
llghtened community. They are the
principles of mankind and must pre-
vail"
While the president was speaking
copies of his address had been for
warded to American diplomats in all
the belligerent countries for the in
formation of the foreign officers, and
were being prepared for repre-
Sentatives of neutral governments
mere: Back of the fundamental pro-
posal for some sort of international
sanction for preservation of the fu-
ture peace of the world, now already
accepted in principle by both sets of
belllgerents in their replies to Presi-
dent Wilson's peace note, lies the pos
sibility, which the president today op-
enly expressed, that thereby may be
lald the ground work upon which an
approach may be made to an end of
the present conflict.
Last Great Neutral.
In public utterances the president
has hit thnrfn avncacsaJ tho-