The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-11
WILSON'S SPEECH
Before Congress Today
President Wilson's speech in full
before congress today follows:

before congress today follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress-:
ION the eighth of January had the
honor of addressing you on the objects
of the war as our people conceive
them. The prime minister of Great
Britain had spoken in similar terms
on the fifth of January. To these adj
dresses the German chancellor replied
on the oath and Count Czernin for
Austria on the same day. 1t is graft
realized that all exchanges of view on
this great matter should be made in
the hearing of an the world.
Count CZernin's reply, which is
directed chiefly to my own address on
the eighth of January, is uttered in a
very friendly tone.
He finds in my statement suf-
ficient1y encouraging approach to the
views of his own government to justify
him in believing that it furnishes a
basis for more detailed discussion of
purposes by the two governments. He
is represented to have intimated that
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.
am sure he was misunderstood. I had
received no intimation of what he in
tended to say. There was, of course,
no reason why he should communicate
privately with me. 1 am quite content
to be one of his public audience.
Hertling Vague and Confusing.
Count Won HeEtlfng's reply is,
must say, very vague and very con-
fusing. 1t is full of equivocai phrases,
and leads-it is not clear where. But
it is certainly in a very different tone
from that of Count Czernin, and ap-
parently of an opposite purpose. 1t
confirms 1 am sorry to say, rather
than removes, the unfortunate impress
sion made by what we had learned of
the conference at Brest-Litovsk. His
discussion and acceptance of our gen.
eral principles lead him to no practical
conclusions.
HE refused to apply them to the
substantive items which must consti-
tute the bodJ of any final settlement.
He is jealous of International action
and of international counsel He ac-
cepts, he Gays, 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 sew
eral particular questions of territory
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 settled, not in
general council, but sevcrally by the
nations most Immediately concerned
by interest o. ne1ghborhood. He
agrees that the seas should be free,
but looks askance at any Limitation
to that freedom by international &C
ton in the interest of the common
order. He would with reserve be glad
to see economic barrier, removed be-
tween ma ton 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 mat
ter will be settled of itself he thinks.
by the economic conditions which
must follow the war.
Makes Unreasonable Demands.
sBut the Germanzeoionies, he de-
mands must be returned without de-
bate He will discuss with no one
bat the representatives of Russia what
dispositions shall be made of the peo-
pies and the lands of the Baltic prov
ment of France the conditions under
which French territory shall be evacu-
ated: and only with Austria what
shall be done with Poland. In the
determination of all questions affect
ing the Balkan states he refers, as L
understand him, to Austria and Tur-
key; and with regard to the agree
merts to be entered into concerning
the non-Turkish peoples of the present
Ottoman empire to the Turkish au-
thOritieS themselves. After SETTLE
ment all around, effected in this fash
ion, by individual barter and conces-
sion. he would have no objection, II
7 correctly interpret his statement, to
a league of nations which would un-
dertake to hold the new balance or
power steady against external dis
turbances.
"It must be evident to every one
who understands what this war has
wrought in the opinion and temper or
the would. that no general peace, no
pe1ce worth the infinite sacrifice of
these years of tragical suffering can
possibly be arrived at in any such
fashion.
World Peace the Big Stakes.
The method the German chancellor
proposes is the method of the congress
of Vienna. We cannot and will not
return to that. What is at stake now
is the reace of the world! WHAT we
are striving for is a new international
order based upon broad and universal
principles of right and Justice-no
more peace of shreds and patches. Is
it possible that Count Won Hert1ing
does not see that, does not grasp it, is
in fact living in his thought in a world
dead and gone? Hasshe utterly for
gotten the reichstag resolutions on the
nineteenth of July or does he deIiber-
ately igrore them? They spoke of the