Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-02-16
PRESIDENT STATES CONDITIONS ON
WHICH PEACE CAN BE MADE With HUNS

item OF 1t must be submitted TO the
common judgment whether it be right
and fair, an act of justice rather than
bargain between soverigns.
The United States has no desire to
interfere in European affairs or to
act as arbiter in European territorial
disputes We would disdain to take
advantage of any internal weakness
or disorder to impose her own will
upon another people She is quite
ready to be shown that the settle
ments she has suggested are not the
best OF the most enduring They are
only her own provisional sketch of
principals and of the way in which
they should be applied.
Eut she entered this war because
she was made partner, whether she
would or not, in the sufferings
and indignities inflicted by
the military masters of Germany
against the peace and security of
mankind; and the conditions of peace
Will touch her as they touch any other
nation to which is entrusted a lead
ing part in the maintenance of civ
ilization She cannot see her way to
peace until the causes of this war are
removed, its renewal rendered, as
nearly as may be, impossible.
This war had its roots in the dis
regard 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
allegiances and their own forms of
political life
Covenants must now be entered
into which will 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 main
| tain 1t at any cost.
If territorial settlement and the po-
| litieal relations of great populations
which have not the organized power
to resist, are to be determined by the
| contracts of the powerful govern
ments which consider themselves
most directly affected, as Count Won
Hertling proposes why may not ec-
onomic questions also? 1t has come
about in the altered world in which
we now find ourselves, that justice
and the rights of people effect the
whole field of international dealing
as much as access to raw materials
md fair and equal conditions of
trade.
Count Won Hertling wants the es-
sential basis OF commercial and indus
trial life to be safeguarded by com
mon agreement and guarantee, but
he cannot expect that to be conceded
| him if the other matters to be de-
te1mined by the articles of peace
are not handled in the same way as
tens in the final accounting. He can
not ask the benefit of common agree
ment in the one field without accord
ing it in the other. | take it fo1
granted that he sees that separate
and selfish compacts with regard tt
trade and the essential materials OF
manufacture would afford no found
alton for peace. Neither he may rest
assured, will separate and selfish
eompacts with regard to provinces
and peoples
Count Czernin seems to see the
fundamental elements of peace witt
clear eyes, and does not seek tC
obscure them. He sees that an in
dependent Poland, made up Of all th'
indisputably Polish peoples who liz
contiguous to one another, is mat
ter of European concern and must
of course, be conceded; in that Bel
GUM must be evacuated and restored
no matter what sacrifices and con
cessions that may involve; and tina
, national aspirations must be salts
fed, even within his own empire, il
the common interest of Europe ant
! mankind.
If he is silent about question
which touch the interest and purpos
I of his allies more nearly than the.
touch those of Austria only, it must
of course, because he feels con
, strained | suppose, to defer to Ger
: many and Turkey in the circumstan
ces. Seeing and conceding, as he does
the essential principals involved an
. the necessity of candidly applying
them, he naturally feels that Austri
| can respond to the purpose of peac
: as expressed by the United State
) with less embarrassment than eoul
! Germany He would probably hav
= gone much farther had it not bee
' for tibet embarrassment of Austria
' alliances and her dependency on Gel
many.
A After all, the test of whether II
e possible for any government to go an
n further In this comparison Of views