New-York tribune., 1918-02-12

balance Of power steady against ex~
ternal disturbance
What Is at Stake Now
Is Peace Of the World
1t must be evident to every one
who understands what this war has
wrought in the opinion and temper
of the world that no general peace,
no peace worth the infinite sacri-
fees of these years Of tragical suf-
fering, can possibly be arrived at
in any such fashion.
The method the German Chan
cellor proposes is the method of
the Congress of Vienna. We can
not and will not return to that.
What is at stake now is the peace
of the world. What we are striving
for is new international order
based upon broad and universal
principles Of right and justice, no
mere peace of shreds and patches.
Is it possible that Count Won
Hertling does not see that, does not
grasp it; is, in fact, living in his
thought in world dead and gone?
Has he utterly forgotten the Reichs-
tag resolutions of the 10Th of July,
or does he deliberately ignore them?
They spoke of the conditions of
general peace, not Of national ag-
grandizement or of arrangements
between state and state.
The peace of the world depends
upon the just settlement of each of
the several problems to which | ad-
verted in any recent address to the
Congress. |, of course, do not mean
that the peace of the world depends
upon the acceptance of any particu-
lar set of suggestions as to the way
in which those problems are to be
dealt with. l mean only that those
problems each and all affect the
whole world; that unless they are
dealt with in spirit of unselfsh and
unbiased justice, with a view to the
wishes, the natural connections, the
racial aspirations, the security and
the peace of mind of the peoples in
volved, no permanent peace Will
have been attained.
They cannot be discussed sepa-
rately or in corners. None of them
constitute private or separate in
tcrest from which the opinion of the
world may be shut out. Whatever
affects the peace affects mankind,
and nothing settled by military
force, if settled wrong, is settled at
| ALL 1t will presently have to be re-
opened.
Awakened Nations
Now Sit in Judgment
Is Count Won Hertling not aware
that he is speaking in the court of
mankind; that all the awakened ma
tions of the world now sit in judg-
ment on what every public man, of
whatever nation, may say on the is
sues of conflict which has spread
to every region of the world?
The Reichstag resolutions Of July
themselves frankly accepted the de-
clslons of that court. There shall be
10 annexations, no contributions, no
punitive damages. Peoples are not
to be handed about from one sov-
eighty to another by an interna-
tional conference of an understand
ing between rivals and antagonists.
National aspirations must be re-
spected; peoples may now be domi-
mated and governed only by their
own consent.
"Self elf-determination" is not a mere
phrase. 1t is an imperative prin-
c!ple Of action, which statesmen will
henceforth ignore at their peril. We
cannot have general peace for the
asking, or by the mere arrangements
of a peace conference. 1t cannot be
pieced together out of Individual un-
derstandings between powerful
states.
All the parties to this war must
join in the settlement of every issue
anywhere involved in it; because
what we are seeking is a peace that
we can all unite to guarantee and
maintain, and every item of it must
be submitted to the common iudg-
ment whether it be right and fair,
and an act Of justice, rather than a
bargain between sovereigns.
United States Has No
Desire to Interfere
The United States has no desire to
interfere in European affairs or to
act as arbiter in European territor-
ial disputes. She would disdain to