The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-02-11
President Replies to Count
Czen1in and Won Hertling

/ their own sIlegiances and their owr
forms Of political life. Covenants
must now be entered into which
viii render such things impossible
| for the future, and those covenants
must be backed by the united force
| OF all the nations that love justice
and are willing to maintain 1t at any
cost. IL territorial settlements and
/ the political relations OF great popu-
lations which have not the organ
l lied power to resist are to be deter
mined by contracts Of the powerful
governments which consider them
selves most directly affected, as
Count Won HertlinG proposes, why
may not economic questions al
so? 1t has come about in the alter
ed world in which we now find our
selves that justice and the rights Of
peoples affect the whole field of in
teTnational dealing as much as ac-
cess to raw materials and fair and
equal conditions of trade. Count
Won Hertling wants the essential
bases of commercial and industrial
life to be safeguarded by common
agreement and guarantee, but he
cannot expect that to be conceded
him IL the other matters to be deter
mined by the articles Of peace are
not handled in the same way as
items in the final accounting. He
cannot ask the benefit of common
agreement in the one field without
according it in the other. take ii
for granted that ne sees that separ-
ate and selfish compacts with regard
to trade and the essential materials
of manufacture would afford no
foundation for peace. Neither, he
may rest assured, will separate and
selfish compacts with regard to-
provinces and peoples.
Czernin Sees Clearly.
Count Czernin seems to see the
fundamental elements Of peace with
clear eyes and does not seek to OBJ
scure them. He sees that an inde-
pendent Poland, made UP Of all the
indisputably Polish peoples who lie
contiguous to one another, Is a
matter of European concern and
must, Of course, be conceded in that
Belgium must be evacuated and re-
stored, no matter what sacrifices
and concessions that may involve, |
and that national aspirations must
be satisfied, even within his own
empire, in the common interest of |
Europe and mankind. II he is silent |
about questions which touch the in
terest and purpose of his allies more
nearly than they touch those OF AUS |
tria only it must, of course be be-
cause he feels constrained, l sup
pose, to defer to Germany and Tur-
key in the circumstances. Seeing
and conceding. as he does, the es-
sential principles involved and the
necessity of candidly applying them,
he naturally feels that Austria can
respond to the purpose of peace as
expressed by the United States with
less embarrassment than could Ger
many. He would probably have
gone much farther had it not been
for the embarrassment Of Austria's
alliances and of her dependence up
On Germany.
Principles To BE Applied,
After all, the test or whether 1t -
possible for either government to goI
my further in this comparison Of (
Jews is simple and obvious. The
principles to be applied are these:
''First. that each part of the final
settlement must be based upon the !
essential justice of that particular
ause and upon sIch adjustments as
ire most likely to bring peace that
will be permanent;
Second, that peoples and prov :