The Robesonian., 1917-12-06
WILSON URGES DECLARATION
WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA-HUNCARY
PRESIDENT SECOND WAR MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
MAKES DEFINITE STATEMENT OF AMERICAS
WAR AIMS AND BASIS UPON WHICH
PEACE WILL CONSIDERED

been expressed in the formula No an
nexations, no contributions, no puni
tive indemnities'. Just because thu
crude formula expressed the instinc
tive judgment as to right of plain mel
everywhere it has been made diligen
use Of by the masters of German in
trigue to lead the people of Russi;
astray-and the people of every othe:
country their agents could reach, il
order that a premature peace nigh
be brought about before autocracy ha
been laugh it's final and convincing
lesson, and the people of the worlt
put in control Of their own destinies
But the fact that wrong use ha:
been made of just idea, is no reaso,
why right use should not be made
of it. 1t ought to be brought unde1
the patronage Of it's real friends. Le'
it be said again that autocracy mus
first be shown the utter futility Of
it's claims to power or leadership in the
modern world. 1t is impossible to ap
ply any standard of justice so long
as such forces are unchecked and un-
| defeated as the present masters OF
Germany command. Not until that
has been done can right be set up as
arbiter and peace-maker among the
nations. But when that has beer
done-as, God willing, it assuredly
| will be-we shall at last be free to
do an unprecedented thing and this is
| the time to avow our purpose to dc
it. We shall be free to base peace on
generosity and justice, to the exclus-
| ion of all selfish claims to advantage
even on the part of the victors.
Let there be no misunderstanding.
Our present and immediate task is to
win the war, and nothing shall turn
US aside from it until it is accomplish
ed. Every power and resource we
possess, whether of men, of money, or
of materials, is being devoted and will
continue to be devoted to that pur-
pose until it is achieved. Those who
desire to bring peace about before
that purpose is achieved, I counsel to
carry their advice elsewhere. We will
not entertain it. We shall regard the
war as won only when the German
people say to us, through properly ac-
credited representatives, that they are
ready to agree to a settlement based
upon justice and the reparation Of
the wrongs their rulers have done.
!hey have done a wrong to Belgium
which must be repaired. They have
established power over other lands
and peoples than their own-over the
q es + nDira Ct Asst ia. Hungary, ov-
e. hitherto free Balkan states, over
Turkey, and within Asia-Whicl must
Je lel4nquisla ed.
4! afmary's success Ky skill, .bv in
qulry, by knowledge, by enterprise we
did not grudge or oppose, but admired.
rather. She had built up for herself
a real empire of trade and influence.
secured by the peace of the world. We
were content to abide the rivalries cf
manufacture, science and commerce
that were involved for us in her sue
cess and stand or fall as we had or
did not have the brains and the ini-
tlatlve to surpass her. But at the mo-
ment when she had conspicuously wen
her triumphs of peace she threw them
away, to establish in their stead what
the world will no longer permit to be
established military and political dom
nation by arms, by which to oust
where she could not excel the rivals
she most feared and hated. The peace
we make must remedy that wrong. 1T
must deliver the once fair lands and
happy peoples Of Belgium and north
ern France from the Prussian con-
quest and the Prussian menace, but it
must also deliver the peoples of Aus
trla-Hungary, the peoples of the f,al-
kans and the peoples of Turkey, alike
IN Europe and in Asia, from the i'm
pudent and alien domination of the
Prusslan military and commercial au.
tocracy.
We owe it, however, to ourselves to
say that we do not wish in any way
to Impair or to re-arrange the Austro
Hungarian empire. 1t is no affair of
ours what they do with their own
lie, either industrially or politically.
we DO not purpose or desire to die
tate to them in any way. We only de-
sire to see that their affairs are left
IN their own hands, in all matters,
great or small. We shall hope to Sc
cure Tor the peoples of the Balkan
peninsula and for the people of the
turkish empire the right and oppor-
t1unlty to make their own lives safe,
tnelr own fortunes secure against op-
preston or injustice and from the
olctatlon OF foreign courts or parties.
And our attitude and purpose with
regard to Germany herself are of a
IKE KIND. We intend no wrong against
AA.e@ii SAlP11C, 1lO interference
with her internal affairs. We should
deem either the one or the other ab-
solutely unjustifiable, absolutely con-
trary to the principles we have pro
tessed to live by and to hold most
sacred throughout our life as a na-
tion. ia
The people of Germany are being
told by the men whom they now per,
mt to deceive them and to act as
their masters that they are fighting
Tor the very life and existence of Their
empire, a war of desperate defense
against deliberate aggression. Moth
ing. could be more grossly or wanton-
ly false, and we must seek by the ut
most openness and candor as to our
real aims to convince them of its
falseness. We are in fact fighting for
their emancipation from fear, alone
with our own-from the fear as wei
as from the, fact of unjust attack by
nelghbors or rivals or schen1ers afte1
world empire. No one is threatenino o
the existence or the Independence o7