Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1918-01-16
PRESIDENT STATES
PEACE TERMS OF
UNITED STATES
Alsace Must Be Restored to
France and Belgium Must
Be Freed.
Wilson Outlines Fourteen Steps To.
ward Cessation of Warfare-Re.
adjustment of Italy's Frontier
and Evacuation of Russia.

'oIi, Jan. 9.-HroSlQent VIII
son IN an address before a joint ses-
Sion of congress presented a definite
program for world peace containing
fourteen specific considerations 1t was
restatement of war aims in agreement
with the recent declaration of Premier
Lloyd George.
Inc president spoke as follows:
gentlemen of the Congress: Once
more, as repeatedly before, the spokes-
men OF the central empires have indi-
Gated their desire to discuss the OBJ
Jects Of the war and the possible basis
of general peace.
Parieys have been in progress at
brest-Litovsk between representatives
OF the central powers to which the
attention of all the belligerents has
been Invited, for the purpose Of ascer-
tanning whether 1t may be possible to
extend these parleys into a general
conference with regard to terms of
peace and settlement.
Presented Definite Statement.
Inc Russian representatives pre-
sented not only a perfectly definite
statement of the principles upon which
they would be willing to conclude
peace, but also an equally definite pro-
gram OF the concrete application Of
those principles.
Inc representatives of the central
powers, on their part, presented an
outline of settlement which, if much
less definite, seemed susceptible of lib
eral Interpretation until their specific
program of practical terms was added.
THE program proposed no conces-
sfons at all, either to sovereignty of
Russia or to the preferences of the
population with whose fortunes it
dealt, but meant, In word that the
central empires were to keep every
foot of territory their armed forces had
occupied-every province, every city,
every point of vantage-as Il perma-
nent addition to their territories and
their power.
Full of Significance.
1.-THE Russian representatives were
sincere and in earnest. They cannot
entertain such proposals of conquest
dDO
1.-THE whole incident is full of sig
nificance. 1t is also full of perplexity.
1.-THE Russian representatives have
insisted, very justly, very wisely, and
in the true spirit of democracy, that
the conferences they have been hold
Ing with the Teutonic and Turkish
statesmen 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 in
tention of the resolutions of the Ger
man reichstag ON the 9th of July last
the spirit and intention of the liberal
those who resist and defy that spirit
and intention and insist upon conquest
and subjugation? Or are we listening
in fact to both unreconciled and in
open and hopeless contradiction?
These are very serious and pregnant
questions.
World Peace at Stake.
Upon the answer to them depends
the peace of the world.
But whatever the results of the par
leys at Brest-Litovsk, whatever the
confusions of counsel and of purpose
in the utterances of the spokesme'l of
the central empires, they have again
attempted to acquaint the world with
their objects in the war and have
again challenged their adversaries to
say what their objects are and what
sort of settlement they would deem
Just and satisfactory.
"There is no good reason why that
challenge should not be responded to
and responded to with the utmost can
dor. We did not wait for 1t. Not once,
but again and again we have laid our
whole thought and purpose before the
world, not in general terms only, but
each time with sufficient definition to
make it clear what sort of def1nitiye
terms of settlement must necessarily
spring out of them.
Lauds Lloyd Georges Speech.
within the last week Mr.. Lloyd
George has spoken with admirable can
dor and in admirable spirit for the peo-
ME and government Of Great Britain.
There is no confusion of counsel
among the adversaries of the central
mowers. no uncertainty of principle, no
yagueness of detail.
"The only secrecy of counsel, the
only lack OF fearless frankness, the
only failure to make definite statement
of tbe objects of the war, lies with
Germany and her allies.
"The issues of life and death hang
unon these definitions. No statesman
who has the least conception of his re-