The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1917-01-24

the United States cannot Withhold
! its participation to guarantee peace
and justice throughout the world;
; And that before peace Is made
! the United States government should
{ frankly formulate the conditions up
on which 1t would feel justified In
asking the American people for their
formal and solemn adherence.
| 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 tradition on our
policy as a nation, but fulfillment
rather, of all that we have professed
or striven for.
International Monroe Doctrine
Il am proposing, as it were, that the
nations should with one accord adopt
the doctrine of President Monroe as
the doctrine of the world. that no ma
ton should seek to extend its policy
over any other nation or people, but
that every people should be left free,
to determine its own policy, its own
way of development, unhindered, I'M
threatened, unfraid the little along
with the great and powerful
81 am proposing that all nations
henceforth avoid entangling alliances
which would draw them into COM
petition of power, catch them in net
of intrigue and selfish rivalry and dis
turb their own affairs with influence
intruded from without. There is no
entangling alliance in concert Of
power. When all unite to act in the
same sense and with the same power,
all act in the common interest and are
free to live their own lives under a
common protection.
Il am proposing government by the
consent Of the governed; that free
dom of the seats, which in interna-
tional conference after conference,
representatives of the United States
have argued with the eloquence of
those who are the convinced disciples
Of liberty and that moderation OF
ornaments which makes of armies
and nations a power for orders mere
ly, not an instrument of aggression OF
selfish violence.
American Principles
These are American principles
American policies. We could stand for
no other And they are also the prin-
ciples and policies of forward-look-
ing men and women everywhere, Of
every modern nation, of every en-
iightened 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 al
the belligerent countries for the in.
formation Of the foreign offices ant
were being prepared for representa-.
tlves of neutral governments here.
Back of the fundamental proposals
for some sort of international sanction
for preservation of the future peace
of the world, now already accepted In
principle by both sets of the belliger.
ents In their replies to President
Wilson's peace note, like the RESPONSE
bi)ity which the President today Cd
emily expressed, that thereby be lait
the ground work upon which an ap
proach may be made to an end of the
present conflict.
In public utterances the Presiden
has hitherto expressed the conviction
that the present was the last grea
war in which the United States coult
be NEUTRAL that 1t no longer coult
remain in the position of being hal
in and half out of world affairs. In hi!
speech accepting his second nomin
alton and in other public addresses
he touched upon the same sentimen
which found its whole development II
his addresses today.
THE American people," the Presl
dent told the Senate, cannot in homo
withhold the service to which they ar,
about to be challenged. They owe |
to themselves" he said, land to tn,
other nations of the world, to state thu
conditions under which they will fee
free to render it. am here to at
| ton, mt 20 cd, 30 A.