Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-02-16
Rights of Smaller Nations
Must be Secured so Well
That Threat of Their
Safety Can Never Again
be Made.
BELGIUM MUST BE
REHABILITATED
Speech on Peace Aims Delivered
Before Congress Monday in Answer
to Speeches by German and Aus
trian Spokesman.

The president Monday addressed
congress on the basis for peace, ans
wering speeches made in the parlia-
ments of Germany and Austria, by
the spokesman of those nations
which were answers to the address of
the president last month in which he
outlined the fourteen points to be
settled before mediators at the coun-
ell table could arrive at common
basis for settlement The presindent
makes it plain that this nation is
not in the war for gain, and that we
will not recede from the position
that the weaker nations of the earth
must be protected from the stronger.
The presidential address in full
was as follows:
Gentlemen of the congress:
On the eighth of January l had
the honor of addressing you on the
objects of the war as our people con-
ceive them. The prime minister of
Great Britain had spoken in similar
terms on the fifth of January. To
these addresses the German chancel-
lor replied on the oath and Count
Czernin for Austria on the same day.
1t is gratifying to have our desire so
promptly realized that all exchanges
OF views on this great matter should
be made in the hearing of the world.
Count Zernin's reply, which is di-
rected chiefly to my own address on
the Sth of January, is uttered in a
very friendly tone.
He finds in my statement a sutfi-
GENTLY encouraging approach to the
views of his own government to justi-
fly him in believing that it furnishes
a basis for a more detailed discus
sion of purposes by the two govern
ments. He is represented to have in
timated that the views he was ex-
pressed had been communicated to
me beforehand and that was aware
of them at the time he was uttering
them, but in this | am sure he was
misunderstood. | had received no
intimation of what he intended to
say. There was, of course, no reason
why he should communicate privately
with me- | am quite content to be
one of his public audience.
Count Won Hertling's reply is,
must say, very vague and very
confusing. 1t is full of equivo-
cal phrases and leads, it is not
clear where. But it is certainly
in a very different tone from
that of Count Czernin and appar-
emily of an opposite purpose. It
confirms, I am sorry to say,
rather than removes, the un-
fortunate impression made by
what we had learned of the con-
ferences at Brest-Litovsk. His
discussion and acceptance Of our
general principles lead him to
no practical conclusions.
He refuses to apply them to the
substantive items which must con-
stitute the body of any final settle
ment. He is jealous of information
al action and of international coun-
sci. He accepts, he says, the prin-
ciple of public diplomacy but he ap-
pears to insist that 1t be confined,
at any rate in this case, to gener-
alities and that the several parti-
cular questions of territory and
sovereignty, the several questions
upon whose settlement must depend
the acceptance of peace by the 2S
states now engaged in the war must
be discussed and settled, not In gen.
eral council, but severally by the ma
tions most Immediately concerned by
interest or neighborhood.
He agrees that the seas should be
free but looks askance at any limita-
tion to that freedom by international
action in the interest of the common
order He would without reserve be
glad to see economic barriers re.
moved between nation and nation
for that could in no way impede the
ambitions of the military party with
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