Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-23


a lasting peace as is the just set
Element of vexed questions of terri
tory or of racial and national al
legiance.
The equality of nations upon
which peace must be founded if il
is to last must be an equality of
3 rights; the guarantees exchanged
must neither recognize nor imply
difference between big nations and
small. between those that are pow
erful and those that are weak. Right
must be based upon the common
strength. not upon the individual
strength, of the nations upon whose
concert peace will depend.
Equality of territory or of re-
sources there of course cannot be;
nor any other sort of equality not
gained in the ordinary peaceful and
legitimate development of the peo-
pie themselves. But no one asks or
expects anything more than an
equality of rights. Mankind is
looking now for freedom of life, not
for equipoises of power.
And there is a deeper thing in
volved than even equality of right
among organized nations. No peace
does not recognize and accept the
principle that governments derive
all their just powers from the con-
sent of the governed, and that no
right anywhere exists to hand peo-
Piles about from sovereignty to SOW
ereignty as if they were property.
POLAND Is EXAMPLE.
II take it for granted. for in
stance. if may venture upon sin
gle example that statesmen every
where are agreed that there should
be a united, independent and au-
tonomous Poland and that henceforth
inviolable security of life, of wor-
ship and of industrial and social de-
velopment should be guaranteed to
all people who have lived hitherto
under the power of governments de-
voted TO faith and purpose hos
tile to their own.
II speak of this, not because of
any desire to exalt an abstract po-
litical principle 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 con-
ditions of peace which seem to me
clearly indispensa ble-because
wish frankly to uncover realities.
ANY peace which does not recog-
nize and accept this principle will
inevitably be upset 1t will not rest
upon the affections or the convic-
tons of mankind. The ferment of
spirit of whole POPULATIONS will
fight subtly and constantly against
il. and all tire world will sympa-
thize. The world can be at peace
only if its life is stable, and there
can be no stability where the will
is in rebellion, where there is not
tranquility of spirit and a sense of
justice, OF freedom. and of right.
FREE PATH TO SEA.
So far as practicable, moreover,
every great people now struggling
toward a full development of it's re-
sources and of its powers should be
assured a direct outlet TO the great
highways 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 general guarantee
which will assure the peace itself.
With "A right comfy of arrange
ment no nation need be shut away
from free 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 co-opera-
ton. No doubt a somewhat radical
reconsideration of many of the rules
of international practice hitherto
sought TO be established may be
necessary in order 10 make the seas
indeed free and common in practi.
cally all circumstances for the use of
mankind. but the motive for such
changes is convincing and COM
polling. There can be no trust or
intimacy between the people of the
world without them. The free, con-
slant. unthreatened intercourse of
nations is an essential part of the
process of peace and development
II need not be difficult TO define or
TO secure the freedom of the seas if
the governments of the world sin
cerely desire tos come 10 an agree
ment concerning it.
at * a problem closely connected
with the Limitation of naval arma-
ments and the cooperation of the
ravies of the world in keeping the
seas at once free and safe. And
the question of limiting naval arma-
ments opens the wider and perhaps
more difficult question of the lini-
tation of armies and of all programs