Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-02-12
peace will have been attained. They
cannot be discussed separately or in
corners.
MIGHT is NOT RIGHT

peace will have been attained. They
cannot be discussed separately or in
corners.
MIGHT is NOT RIGHT
"None of them constitutes a private
or separate interest from which the
opinion 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 presently will have to be re-
opened.
! "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
region Of the world? The reichstag
resolutions of July themselves, frankly
accepted the decisions of that court.
There shall be no annexations, no con-
tributions, no punitive damages. Peo-
pies are not to be handed about from
,one sovereignty to another by inter-
national conference or an understand
ing between rivals and antagonists.
National aspirations must be respect
ed. People may now be dominated and
governed only by their own consent.
PEACE MUST BE JUST
"'Self determination is not a mere
phrase. It is an imperative principle
of action, which statesmen henceforth
will ignore at them peril. cannot
have general peace for the asking or
by the mere arrangements Of peace
conference. 1t cannot be pieced TO-
gether out Of individual understand
ings between powerful states. All the
parties to this war must join in the
settlement of every issue anywhere in
volved 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 fair, an act Of justice, rather than
a bargain between sovereigns.
NO INTERFERENCE BY U. S.
"The United States has no desire to
interfere 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 pro-
visional sketch of principles, and of
the way in which they should be ap-
piled. But she entered this war be.
cause she was made a partner, wheth->
er she would or not, in the sufferings
and inidgnities inflicted by the mill
tary 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 leading |
part in the maintenance 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
MUST SAFEGUARD NATIONS
"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. Cow
snants must be entered into which will |
render such things impossible for the |
,uture: and those covenants must be |
packed by the united force of all the ;
nations that love justice and are will.
ng to maintain it at any cost.
IF territorial settlements and the po-
itical relations of great populations
which have not the organized power to
'esist are to be determined by the con.
racts Of the powerful governments
which consider themselves most direct.
y affected, as Count Won Hertling pro-
poses, why may not economic ques.
ions also.
APPLIES HERTLING PRINCIPLE
at has come about in the altered
world in which we now find ourselves
hat justice and the rights of peoples
fleet the whole field of international
[ealings as much as access to raw
materials and fair and equal conditions
# trade. Count Won Hertling wants
he essential bases Of commercial and
Industrial life to be safeguarded by
ommon agreement and guarantee but
e cannot expect that to be conceded
i'm If the other matters to be deter
nined by the articles of peace and not
andled in the same way as items in
he final accounting. He cannot ask
he benefit of common agreement in
he one field without according 1t in
he other.
czERNIN'S ATTITUDE BETTER
II take it for granted that he sees
hat separate and selfish compacts
nth regard to trade and the essential
of manufacture would afford
o foundation for peace Neither, he
lay rest assured. will separate and
elfish compacts with regard to prov.
ices and peoples.
Count Czernin seems to see the fun.
elements of peace with clear
yes, and does not seek to obscure
hem. He sees that an independent
GLAND made up Of all the indisputably
olish peoples who live contiguous to ,
ne another is a matter Of European I
oncern and must of course be con. /
eded, that Belgium must be evacuated /
nd restored, no matter what sacrifices
nd concessions that may involve; and ,
hat national aspirations must be salts .
led, even within his own empire in
ne common interest of Europe and ,
DEFERS TO ALLIES ;