River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-02-21

If l correctly interpret his state
ment, to a league of nations which
would undertake to hold the new
balance of power steady against ex-
ternal disturbance.
1T must be evident to everyone
who understands what this war has
wrought in the opinion and temper
Of the world, that no general peace,
no peace worth the infinite sacrifices
of these years of tragical suffering,
can possibly be arrived at in any
such fashion. The method the Ger
man chancellor proposes is the meth
cd of the Congress of Vienna. We
cannot and will not return to that.
What is at stake now is the peace
of the world.
No Peace of Patches.
"What we are striving for is a. new
international order, based on broad
and universal principles of right and
iustice-no mere peace of shredS and
patches. It is possible that Count
Won Hertling does not see that, does
not grasp it, is in fact living in his
thought in world dead and gone.
Has he utterly forgotten the reichs-
tag resolutions of the nineteenth of
July or does he deliberately ignore
them? They spoke Of the conditions
of a general peace, not Of national
ACKNOWLEDGMENT or of arrangements
between state and state. The peace
of the world depends upon the just
settlement of each of the several
problems to which I adverted in my
recent address to the Congress.
"I, of course, do not mean that
the peace of the world depends upon
the acceptance of any particular set
of suggestions as to the way in
which those problems are to be dealt
with. I mean only that those prob
lens each and all effect the whole
world, that unless they are dealt with
in a spirit of unselfishness and un-
biased Justice, with a view to the
wishes, the natural connections, the
racial aspirations, the security and
the peace of mind of the peoples in
volved, no permanent peace will have
been attained. They cannot be dis
cussed separately or in corners. None
Of them constitutes a private or sep
arate interest from which the opinion
Of the world may be shut out. What
ever affects the peace affects man
kind, and nothing settled by military
force, if settled wrong, is settled at
ALL 1t will presently have to be re-
opened.
All Nations in Judgment.
els Count Won Hertling not aware
that he is speaking in the court of
mankind, that all the awakened ma
lions of the world now sit in judg-
ment on what every public man, of
whatever nation, may say on the is
sues of a conflict which has spread to
every region of the world? The
reichstag resolutions of July them
selves frankly accepted the decisions
of that court. There shall be no an
neXations, no contributions, no punl-
tive damages. Peoples are not to
be handed about from one soVer-
eighty to another by an internatio-
nal conference of an understanding
between rivals and antagonists. Ma
tional aspirations must be respected;
peoples may now he dominated and
be governed only by their own con-
sent.
"Self-determination" is not mere
phrase. 1t is an imperative principle
of action, which statesmen will hence
forth ignore at their peril. We can
not have general peace for the asking.
or by the mere arrangements Of a
peace conference. It cannot be
pieced together out of individual IN
derstandings between powerful states.
"Ready to Be Shown"
"The United States has no desire
to interfere in European affairs or to
act as arbiter in European territorial
disputes. She 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 settlements she
has suggested are not the best or the
most enduringL They are only her
own provisional sketch Of principles
and Of the way in which they should
be applied. But she entered this
war because she was made a part
ner, 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 nearly as they will
touch any other nation to which is
entrusted a leading part in the main
tenance of civilization. She cannot
see her way to peace until the causes
of this war are removed, it's renewal
rendered as nearly as may be impos-
sible.
"This war had it's roots in the dis
regard of the rights of small ma
tons and of nationalities which
lacked the union and the force to
make good their claim to determine
their own al1egiances and their own
forms of political life. Covenants
must now be entered into which will
render such things impossible for
the future; and these covenants must
be backed by the united force OF all
the nations that love justice and are
willing to maintain it at any cost.
Foe Offer Not Peace.
eff territorial settlements and the
political relations of great popula-
lions which have not the original or
lganized power to resist, are to be de-
termined by the contracts Of the pow
erful governments which consider
themselves most directly affected, as
Count Won Hertling proposes, why
may not economic questions also? 1t
rT<NNyF ~