The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-07-20
president WILSON'S PATRIOTIC ADDRESS
Past and Present GrappIe.

armies, stand an isolated, friendleSS
group of governments, who speak no
common purpose but only selfish am
| billions of their own, by which none
can profit but themselves, and whose
peoples are fuel in their hands; gov
| ernments which fear their people and
yet are for the time their sovereign
| lords, making every choice for them
and disposing of their lives and for
tunes as they will, as well as of the
| lives and fortunes of every people
who fall under their power-govern-
ments clothed with the strange trap
pings and the primitive authority of
an age that is altogether alien and hos
tile to our own.
"The past and the present are in
deadly grapple; and the peoples of the
world are being done to death be-
tween them.
Can Be No Compromise.
There can be but one issue. The
settlement must be final. There can
be no compromise. No halfway de-
cision would be tolerable. No halfway
decision is conceivable. These are the
of the world are fighting, and which
must be conceded them before there
can be peace:
81. The destruction of every arbi-
trary power anywhere that can sepa-
rately, secretly and of it's single choice
ictI hn Of hn
it cannot be presently destroyed, at
the least it's reduction to virtual i'm
| potence.
"2. The settlement of every ques-
ton, whether of territory, of SOW
ereignty, of economic arrangement, or
of the free acceptance of that settle
ment by the people Immediately con-
cerned, and not upon the basis of the
material interest or advantage of any
other nation or people, which may de-
sire different settlement for the sake
of it's own exterior influence or mas
terry.
For Peace Tribunal.
SO. 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 an
other; to the end that all promises
and covenants may be sacredly OBJ
served; no private plots or conspira-
cies Matched; no selfish injuries
wrought with IMMUNITY, and mutual
trust established upon the handsome
foundation of mutual respect for
right.
Il. The establishment of an organ
ization 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
a definite tribunal of opinion, to which
all must submit, and by which every
international readjustment that cannot
be amicably agreed upon by the peo-
pies directly concerned, shall be sane
toned.
Demands Reign of Law.
"These great objects can be put into
a single sentence: What we seek is
the reign of law, based upon the con-
sent of the governed, and sustained
by the organized opinion of mankind.
"These great ends cannot be achiev-
ed by debating and seeking to recon
cile and accommodate what statesmen
may wish, with their projects for bal
ances of power and of national oppor-
tunity. They can be realized only by
the determination of what the think
ing peoples of the world desire, with
their longing hope for justice and for
social freedom and opportunity.
Defiance to Prussia.
81 can fancy that the air of this
place carries the accents of such prin-
ciples with peculiar kindness. Here
were started forces which the great
nation against which they were pri-
marily directed at first regarded as
revolt against it's rightful authority,
but which it has long since seen to
have been step in the liberation of
it's own people as well as of the people
of the United States; and l 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 aroused, can never
be crushed to earth again; for they
have at their heart an inspiration and
purpose which are deathless and of
the very stuff of triumph"