The Benson signal., 1918-02-16
PRESIDENT SEES HOPE IN AUS
TRAN BUT NONE AT ALL IN
GERMANY'S ANSWER.
PEACE MUST Be FOR ALL
Declares. Every Nation Must Be Givon
Voice Upon Every Issue Involved
If Conflict Is Settled With
Justice to All.
Western Newspaper Union News Service

Western Newspaper Union News Service
Washington. Wilson ad-
dressed a joint session of Congress
Monday with the hope OF ending the
war. The full text OF rs address fol-
lows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
On the 8th of January | had the
honor of addressing you on the OBJ
jects of the war, as our people con-
ceive them. The prime minister of
Great Britain had spoken in similar
terms on the 5th of January. To these
addresses the German chancellor re-
piled 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 view on this great matter should
be made in the hearing of all the
world:
Count CZernin's reply, which is di-
rected chiefly to my own address on
the 8th of January, is uttered in a
very II10uuly LOu0.
He finds in my statement a suffi-
GENTLY encouraging approach to the
views of his own government to JUS
tify him in believing that it furnishes
basis for a more detailed discussion
Of purposes by the two governments
He is represented to have intimated
the views he was expressing had been
communicated to me beforehand and
that l was aware of them at the time
he was uttering them; but in this l
am sure he was misunderstood. / had
received no intimation of what he in
tended to say. There was, of course,
no reason why he should communi-
cate privately with me. I am quite
content to be one of his public audi
ence
Count Won Hertling's reply is, must
say, very vague and very confusing
1t is full Of equivocal phrases and
leads it is not clear where. But it is
certainly in a different tone from that
of Count Czernin and apparently of
an opposite purpose. 1t confirms,
am sorry to say, rather than removes,
the unfortunate impression made by
what we had learned of the confer
ences at Brest-Litovsk. His discussion
and acceptance of our general princi-
pies lead him to no practical conclu-
SiOns.
Hertlng's Views Too General.
He refuses to apply them to them to
the substantive items which must
constitute the body of any final set
tlement. He is jealous of interna-
tional action and of international coun-
sci. He accepts, he says, the principle
Of public diplomacy, but he appears to
insist that it be confined, at any rate
in this case, to generalities, and that
the several particular questions of ter
ritory and sovereignty, the several
questions upon whose settlement must
depend the acceptance Of peace by the
twenty-three states now engaged in
the war, must be discussed and set
tied, not in general counsel, but sew
orally by the nations most Immediate
ly concerned by interest or neighbor-
hood.
He agrees that the seas should be
free, but looks askance at any limita-
ton to that freedom by international
action in the interest of the common
order. He would without reserve be
glad to see economic barriers removed
between nation and nation, for that
could in no way impede the ambitions
of the military party with whom he
seems constrained to keep on terms
Neither does he raise objection to
limitation of ornaments. That matter
will be settled of itself, he thinks, by
the economic conditions which must
follow the war. But the German col
Onies, he demands, must be returned
without debate
He will discuss with no one but the
representatives of Russia what dispo-
sitions shall be made of the peoples
and the lands of the Baltic provinces;
with no one but the government of
France "the conditions" under which
French territory shall be evacuated;
and only with Austria what shall be
done with Poland. In the determina-
tion of all questions affecting the Bal
kan states he defers, as l understand
him, to Austria and Turkey; and with
regard to the agreements to be en-
tered into concerning the non-Turkish
peoples Of the present Ottoman en-
pire to the Turkish authorities them
selves.
Settlement by Individual Barter.
After a settlement all around, effect
ed in this fashion, by individual barter
and concession, he would have no OBJ