The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-01-19
PEACE TERMS ARE
GIVEN BY vii son
Must Restore AISace and BeIqi-
UNI, Is Declaration of the
President.
OUTLINES FOURTEEN STEPS
Reoraanize Countries on Lines OF Ma
tionaiities or Fight to Death, VIII
son Says of Peace-Insists on
Evacuation of Russian
Territory.

Washington, Jan. Open and free
consideration of covenants of peace is
the only way permanent peace can be
secured. President Wilson told a spe-
ciaI session of congress.
He restated specifically and emphat-
icaliy the peace aims of the allies, so
far as the United States is concerned
for the benefit of the Russian people
The 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.
Parleys nave 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 it may be possible to
extend these parleys into. a general
conference with regard to terms of
peace and settlement.
Presented Definite Statement.
"The 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.
1.-THE 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-
sfanS at all. either 70 sovereignty of
Russia or to the preferences of the
population with whose fortunes 1t
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 a perrna-
nent addition to their territories and
their power.
Full of Significance.
''The Russian Representatives were
sincere and in earnest. They cannot
entertain such proposals of conquest
and domination.
''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
I'm the true spirit o democracy, that
the conferences they have been hold
ing with the PeutOnic and Turkish
statesmen should be held within omen.
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
leaders and parties of Germany, or to
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 spokesman of
the central empires, they have again
dIIC1HptcO 10 dCQudinC 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 it. 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 definitive
terms of settlement must necessarily
spring out of them.
Lauds Lloyd Georges Speech.
''Within the last week Mr. Lloyd
George has spoken win admirable can
dor and in admirable spirit for the peo-
pie and government of Great Britain.
There is no confusion of counsel
among the adversaries of the central
powers, no uncertainty of principle, no
vagueness of detail.
"The only secrecy of counsel, the
only lack of fearless frankness, the
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