The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-11

condition of a general peace, not of
national ACKNOWLEDGMENT or of
rargement between state and state.
The peace of the world depends. upon
the just settlement of each of the sew
eral problems to which I adverted in
my recent address to the congress.
Can't Be Discussed Separately.
81, 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
mean only that those problems each
and all affect the whole world; that
unless they are dealt with in a spirit
OF unselfish and unbiased justice. with
a view to the wishes, the natural con-
nections. the racial aspirations. the Sc
curity AID peace of mind of the peo-
pies involved, no permanent peace
will have been attained. They canuot
be discussed separately or in corners.
None of them constitutes private or
separate interest from which the opin-
ion of the world may be shut out.
Whatever affects the peace affects
mankind, and nothing settled by mill
tary force. If settled wrong, is settled
at all 1t will presently have to be
reopened- Is Count Won Hertling not
aware that he is speaking in the court
OF mankind, that all the awakened ma
tons OF the world now sit in judgment
on what every public man. of what
ever nation, may say on the issues of a
conflict which has spread to every re-
glon of the world? The reichstaE
resolutions of July themselves frankly
accepted the decisions of that court
Inere snail be no annexations no con-
t1putions. no punitive damages. Peo-
pies are not to be handed about from
one sovereignty to another by an in
ternational conference or an under
standing between rivals and antaeo
nists.. National aspirations must be re-
soected. peoples may now be don1i-
mated and governed only by their own
consent.
An Imperative Principle,
:" Self determination is not a mere
phrase. 1t is an imperative principle
OF acton, which statesmen will hence
Iorth ignore in their peril. We cannot
nave general peace for the asking or
by the mere arrangements of a peace
conference. 1t cannot be pieced to-
gether out of individual understand
ing between powerful states! All the
parties to this war must join in the
settlement of every issue anywhere in
Nvolved in it because what we are seek
ing is peace that we can all unite to
guarantee and maintain and every
Item of it must be submitted to the
common judgment whether it be right
and rair, an act of justice rather than
bargain between sovereigns. The
United States has no desire to inter-
fere in European affairs or to act as
arbiter in European territorial dis
putes- We would disdain% to take ad-
vantage 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 enduring They are only her own
provisional sketch of principles and
or the way in which they should be
applied. But she entered this war be-
cause she was made partner
whether>she would or not-in the suf-
ferings 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 maintenance of CIV
ilization. She cannot see her way to
peace until the causes of Ills war are
removed, its renewal / 4ldered as
nearly as may be impossible.
What Started the War.
This war had it's 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 be en-
tered 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
maintain it at any cost If territorial
settlements and the political relations
of great populations which have not
the organized power to resist are to
be determined by the contracts of the
powerful governments which consider
= y, 1xyoe- n q nd a &
Count Won Hertiing proposes why
may not economic questions also? 1t
has come about in the altered world
in which we now find ourselves that
justice and the, rights of peoples af-
feet the whole field of international
dealing as much as access to raw ma
terials and fair and equal conditions
of trades. 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 con-
ceded him if the other matters to be
determined by the articles of peace
items in the final accounting. He
cannot ask the benefit of common
agreement in the one field without
according it in the other. / take it
for granted that he Sees that sep
arate and selfish compacts with re-
gard to trade and the essential ma
terials of manufacture would afford
no foundation for peace. Neither, he
may be assured. will separate and
selfish compacts with regard to prov
inces and peoples.
Czernin Doesn't Obscure Point.
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 indie
Of n
in disputabfy Polish peoples who lie
contiguous to one another is a matter
of European concern and must of
course. be conceded: in that Belgium