The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-02-11
SHOT AT HEART
OF DECEIT
Continued from page l.,

his statement, to a league of nations
which would undertake to hold the
new balance of power steady agalns
external disturbance.
1t must be evident to every one who
understands what this war has
wrought in the opinion and temper OF
the world, that no general peace, nc
peace worth the infinite sacrifices OF
these years OF tragical suffering can
possibly be arrived at in any such
fashion. 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 peace OF the
world.
What we are striving for is new
international order, based on broad
and universal principles of right and
Justice; no mere peace OF shreds
and patches. Is it possible that Count
Won Hertling does not see that, does
not craps it, is in fact, living in his
thought in world dead and gone!
Has he utterly forgot the reichstag
resolutions of the nineteenth OF July
or does he deliberately ignore them
| They spoke of the conditions OF a
general peace, not of national ag-
!
| tween state and state The peace OF
the world depends upon the just set
Element of each of the several prob
lens to which adverted in my recent
address to the congress. |, 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 prob
| lens each and all affect the whole
world; that unless they are dealt
with in spirit of unselfish and un-
biased justice, with 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 contributes private or sep
arate interest from which the op1n-
| ion of the world may be shut out.
Whatever affects the peace, affects
mankind.
| Whatever affects the peace affects
mankind, and nothing settled by
military 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
lions of the world now sit in judg-
ment on what every public man, Of
whatever nation, may say on the
! issues Of 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
lamentations, no contributions, no
punitive damages. Peoples are not
to be handed about from one
sovereignty to another by an inter
national conference or an understand
| ing between rivals and antagonists.
National aspirations must be respect
ed: peoples may now be 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 henceforth ignore at their peril.
We cannot have general peace for
the asking, or by the mere arrange
ments of a peace conference. 1t can
not be pieced together out of 1ndt-
yidual understandings between pow
erful states. All the parties to this
war must join in, the settlement OF
every issue anywhere involved in IT.;
because what we are seeking is
peace that we can all unite to guar
antee and maintain, and every item
of it must be submitted to the COM
mon judgment whether it be right
and fair, an act of justice, rather
than bargain between sovereigns.
| The United States has no desire
to interfere in European affairs or
to act as arbiter in European terri
torial 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 enduring.
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 partner, whether she would
or not, in the sufferings and indigni-
! ties inflicted by the military masters
of Germany against the peace and
security of mankind; and the condi-
tons Of peace will touch her as
nearly as they will touch any other
nation to which is entrusted a leading
I part in the maintenance OF civiliZa-
ton. 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 it's roots in the disre-
| gard 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 it at any cost. IF territorial set
Elements and the political relations of
great populations which have the or
ganized power to resist are to be
determined by the contracts of pow
,erful governments which consider
themselves most directly affected, as
Count Won Hertling proposes, why
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