The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-07-12

! lives ana fortunes as tney VIII,
as well as of the lives and fortunes
of every people VINO tail under their
power-governments clothed with the
strange trappings and the primitive
authority of an age that is alto
gether alien and hostile to their
own. The past and the present are
in deadly grapple and the peoples of
the world are being done to death
between them.
Can Be No Compromise
"There can be but one issue. The
settlement must be final. There
must be no compromise. No half
way decision is conceivable. These
are the ends for which the associat-
ed peoples of the world are fight
ing, and which must be conceded
them before there can be peace:
1.-The destruction of every ar
birtrary power anywhere that can
separately, secretly and of its sim
gle choice, disturb the peace of the
world; or, if it cannot be presently
destroyed, at the least its reduction
to virtual impotence.
"&The settlement of every ques-
ton, whether of territory, of SOW
eighty, of economic arrangement or
of political relationship, upon the
basis of the free acceptance of that
settlement by the people immediate
ly concerned, and not upon the basis
of the material interests or advant-
age of another nation or people which
may desire a different settlement
for the sake of its own interior in
fluence or mastery.
"3-The consent of all nations to
be governed in their conduct towards
each other by the same principles
of honor and of respect for the
common law of civilized society that
govern the individual citizens of all
modern states in their relations with
one another; to that end all promises
and covenants may be sacredly OBJ
served; no private plots or con
spiracics Matched, no selfish injur-
les wrought with impunity, and
mutual trust established upon the
handsome foundation of mutual
respect for right.
"4--Tha establishment of an or
ganizatiOn of peace which shall
make it certain that the combined
power of free nations will check
every invasion of right and serve
to make peace and justice the more
secure by affording definite tribu-
nal of opinion to which all must
submit and by which every inter
national readjustment that cannot
be amicably agreed upon by the
peoples directly concerned, shall be
sanctioned.
''Th,se great objects can be put
into single sentence. What VIC
seek is the reign of law, based upon
the consent of the governed, and
sustained by the organized opinion
of mankind.
Prussianism to End
"These great ends cannot be
achieved by debating and seeking
to reconcile and accommodate what
statesmen may wish, with their
projects for balances of power and
of national opportunity. They can
be realized only by the determine
ton of what the thinking people of
The world desire, with their longing
hope for justice and for social
freedom and opportunity.
81 can fancy that the air of
this place carries the accents of
such principles with peculiar kind
ness. Here were started forces
which the great nation against which
they We're primarily directed at first
regarded as a revolt against its
rightful authority, but which it has
long since seen to have been
step in the liberation of its own
people, as well as the people of the
United States; and | stand here now
to speak-speak proudly and with
confident hope-of the spread of this
revolt, this liberation, to the great
stage of the world itself. The
blinded rulers of Prussia have
reused forces they knew little Of
forces which, once reused, can never
be crushed to earth again, for they
have at their heart, an inspiration
and a purpose which are deathless
and of the very stuff of triumph"