The Green Forest tribune., 1918-01-18
WORLD WIDE PEACE
 PROGRAM NAMED
PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES DEFI-
 MITE PLANS FOR PEACE, CON- . TANNING IA CONSIDERATIONS
MORAL CLIMAX HAS COME
Freedom of Seas, Evacuation of AL sace-Lorraine To France, Reduction of Armaments Among Conditions
 United States Wilt Accept.
Washington. Wilson in

shington.-President Wilson in addressing Congress delivered a re- statement of war aims in agreement with the recent declaration by the British premier, David Lloyd George.
 The president presented a definite program for world peace, containing IA specific considerations.
 "For such arrangements and cove nants," said the president in conclu- oion, i've are willing to fight and con tinue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire just and stable peace"
 Such a program, he said, removed chief provocations for further war.
 "The moral climax of this, the cu,- minating and final war for human lib erty, has come," said the president In ending his address, land they (people of the United States) are ready to put their own strength, their own high est purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test"
 Presidents Address.
 The president spoke as follows:
 Gentlemen of the Congress-: Once more as repeatedly before, the spokes- men of the Central empires have indi- cated their desire to discuss the ob- jects of the war and the possible bas- is of a general peace. Parleys have hnpn fin ot pTnCtI itnucly ha- tween Russian representatives and representatives of the Central powers to which the attention of all the bel ligerents has been invited for the pur- pose of ascertaining whether it may be possible to extend these parleys into general conference with regard to terms of peace and settlement The Russian representatives presented not only perfectly definite statement of the principles upon which they would be willing to conclude peace, but also an equally definite program of the con- crete application of those principles. The representatives of the Central powers on their part presented au out line of settlement which, if much less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal Interpretation until their specific pro gram of political terms was added. That program proposed no concessions at all either to sovereingty of Russia or to the preferences of the population with whose fortunes it dealt, but meant, in a word, that the Central empires were to keep every foot of territory their armed forces had oc- cupied-every province, every city, every point of vantage-as perma- nent addition to their territories and their power.
 It is a reasonable conjecture that the general principles of settlement which they at first suggested originat- sd with the more liberal statesmen of Germany and Austria, the men who have begun to feel the force of their own peoples thought and purpose, while the concrete terms of actual set clement came from the military lead CTS who have no thought but to keep what they have got. The negotiations have been broken off. The Russian representatives were sincere and in earnest. They cannot entertain such proposals of conquest and domina- tion.
 Incident of Significance.
 The whole incident is full of signffi- cance It is also full of perplexities. With whom are the Russian represen- tatives dealing? For whom are the representatives of the Central empires ~fpeakir g? Are they speaking for the majorities of their respective parlia- ments or for the minority parties, that military and imperialistic minority which has so far dominated their whole policy and controlled the af- fairs of Turkey and of the Balkan etates which have felt obliged to be- come their associates in this war? The Russian representatives have in sisted, very justly, very wisely and in the true spirit of democracy that the conference they have been holding with the Teutonic and Turkish states men should be held within open, not closed doors, and all the world has been audience as was desired. To whom have we been listening then? To those who speak the spirit and inten- ton of the resolutions of the Ger man reichstag of the ninth of July, last, the spirit of intention of the lin- eral leaders and parties of Germany, or to those who resist and defy that spirit and intention of insisting upon conquest and subjugation? Or are we ,o1< -on .o...n-1 oo. 1,rD