The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1918-02-21

selves. After a settlement all around,
effected in this fashion, by individual
barter and concession, he would have
no objection il l. correctly interpret
his statement. to a league of nations
which would undertake to hold the
new balance of power steady against
external disturbance.
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 sacrifices of
these years Of tragical suffering, can
possibly be arrived at in any such as
sociation. The method the German
chancellor 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 a 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 a world dead and gone?
Has he utterly forgotten the Reichstag
resolution of the 18th of July, or does
he deliberately ignore themf They
spoke of the conditions of a general
peace, not of national aggrandizement
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 l adverted
in my recent address to the Congress.
], Of course, do not mean that the
acceptance OF any particular set of sug-
gestions 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 un.
less they are dealt with in spirit of
unselfish and unbiased justice, with a
view to the wishes, the natural connec-
tions, the racial aspirations, the Sc
cuTity and peace of mind of the peo-
pies involved, no permanent peace will
have been attained. They can not be
discussed separately or in corners.
None of them constitutes private or
separate interest from which the opin-
ion of the world may be shut out.
Whatever affects the peace affects
mankind, and nothing settled by mill
ary force, if settled wrong, is settled
at all. 1t will presently have to be re-
opened.
Nations to Judge Issues.
els 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 judgment
on what every public man of whatever
nation, may say on the issues of a
conflict which has spread to every
region of the world? The Reichstag
resolutions of July themselves frankly
accepted the decisions of that court.
There shall be no annexations, no
contributions, no punitive damages.
Peoples are not to be handed about
from one sovereignty to another by an
international conference, or an under
standing between rivals and antagon-
lists. National aspirations must be
respected; peoples may now be DOM
mated and governed only by their own
consent. Self-determination' is not
mere phrase. 1t is an imperative
principle of action, which statesmen
will henceforth ignore at their peril.
hoH a
asking, or by the mere arrangements
of a peace conference. 1t can not 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 any
where involved in it, because what we
are seeking is peace that we can
all unite to guarantee and maintain
and every item of it must be submitted
to the common judgment whether it be
right and fair, an act of justice, rather
than a bargain between sovereigns.
"The United States has no desire to
interfere in European affairs or to act
as arbiter in European territorial dis
putes. We would disdain to take ad-
vantage of any internal weakness or
disorder to impose her own will upon
another people. She is quite ready to
be shown that the settlements she had
suggested are not the best or the most
enduring. They are only her own pro-
visional sketch of principles, and Of
the way in which they should be ap-
piled. But she entered this war be-
cause she was made a partner, wheth.
er she would or not, in the sufferings
and indignities inflicted by the mill
tary masters of Germany against the
peace and security of mankind; and
the conditions of peace will touch her
as nearly as they will touch any other
nation to which is entrusted leading
part in the maintenance Of civiliza-
ton. She can not see her way tc
peace until the causes of this war are
removed, its renewal rendered as near
ly as may be impossible.
"This war had it's roots in the disre-
gard of the rights of small nations and
of nationalities which lacked the union
and the force to make good their claim
to determine their own allegiance and
their own forms of political life.
Covenants must now be entered
into which will render such things i'm
possible for the future; and these cove
nants must be backed by the united
force of all the nations that love JUS
tice and are willing to maintain it at
any cost. If territorial settlements
and the political relations Of great pop
ulations which have not the organized
power to resist are to be determined
by contracts of the powerful govern
ments which consider themselves most
directly affected, as Count Won Hert-
ling proposes, why may not economic
questions also? 1t has come about in
the altered world in which we now find
ourselves that justice and the rights