The Tupelo journal., 1917-08-24

merely pTOpOScu q COIIcI6Ilct. lucy
adjourned all discussion Of any plan
for a league Of peace until after hos
tilities should end.
The response Of the Entente Pow
ers was frank and in harmony with
our principal purpose. Many ques-
tions raised in the statement of their
aims were so purely European in
character as to have small interest
for US; but our great oncern in Eu-l
rope was the lasting restoration of
peace, and it was clear that this was
also the chief interest of the Entente
Nations. AS to the wisdom of some
of the measure they proposed toward
this end, we might differ in opinion,
but the trend of their proposals was
the establishment of just frontiers
based on the rights of all nations, the
small as well as the great, to- decide
their own destinies.
The aims of the belligerents were
now becoming clear. From the out
break of hostilities the German Gov
eminent had claimed that it was
fighting a war of defense. But the
tone of it's recent proposals had been
that of a conqueror. 1t sought a
peace based on victory. The central
empires aspired to extend their domi
nation over other races. They were
willing to make liberal terms to any
of their enemies, in a separate peace
which would free their hands to
crush other opponents. But they were
not willing to accept any peace which
did not, all fronts considered, leave
them yictors and the dominating i'm
perial power of Europe. The war
aims of the Entente showed a deter
mination to thwart this ambition of
the Imperial German Government.
Against the German Peace to further
German growth and aggression the
Entente Powers offered a plan for a
European Peace that should make
the whole continent secure.
AT this juncture the President read
his address to the Senate, on Janu-
airy %, 1917, in which he outlined
the kind of peace the United States
of America could join in guarantee
ing. His words were addressed not
only to the Senate and this Nation
but to people of all countries.
MAY l not add that l hope and be-
lieve that | am in effect speaking for
liberals and friends Of humanity in
every nation and of every program of
liberty? l would fain believe that I
am speaking for the silent mass of
mankind everywhere who have as yet
had no place or opportunity to speak
their real hearts out concerning the
death and ruin they see to have come
already upon the persons and the
homes they hold most dear"
The address was a rebuke to those
who still cherished dreams of a world
dominated by one nation. For the
peace he outlined was not that of a
emperor, it was not the
peace of Caesar. 1t was in behalf Of
all the world, and it was a Peace of
the People.
mo peace can last, or ought to
last, which does not recognize and ac-
cept the principle that governments
derive all their just powers from the
consent of the governed and that no
anywhere exists to hand people
about from sovereignty to sovereign
ty as if they were property"
81 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
its policy over any other nation or
people, but that every people should
be left free to determine its own pol
icy, its own way Of development, unN
hindered, ~unthreatened, unafraid, the
along with the great and pow
81 am proposing that all nations
henceforth avoid entangling alliances
which would draw them into compel
titions of power, catch them in a net
of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and
disturb their own affairs with inhu-l
ences intruded from without. There
is no ~entangling alliance in a concert
of power. When all unite to act in
the same sense and with the same pur-
pose, all act in the common interest
and are free to live their own lives
under a common protection"
81 am proposing government by the
consent of the governed; that free
dom of the seas which in interna-
tional conference after conference