The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1918-02-21
PRESIDENT WILSON GIVES
TERMS OF PEACE UNITED
STATES WILL ACCEPT
-FOUR CONDITIONS NAMED
No Other Choice Left Than For
Our Armies to Go Across
More and More Rapidly to
Make World Safe BY Force
of Arms, Executive Tells
Congress

WdSlluBLOQ.-HTeS WllSOu, du-
dressing Congress in joint session, re-
piled to the recent speeches by Ger
man Chancellor Won Hertling and the
Austrian foreign minister, Count Ger
min.
Chancellor Won Hertling's state
ment, the President said, was very
vague and confusing, and led to virtu-
ally no conclusion. 1t was very differ
ent in tone from Count Czernin's,
which, the President said, had very
friendly tone.
The President reiterated that the
United States had no desire to inter-
fere in European affairs and would
disdain to take advantage Of any iu'
ternal weakness or disorder to impose
her own will upon another people"
The text of the Presidents address
follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress-On the
eighth of January l had the honor Of
addressing you on the objects Of the
war as our people conceive them. The
prime minister of Great Britain had
spoken in similar terms on the fifth
of January. To those addresses the
German chancellor replied on the GATH,
and Count Czernin for Austria on the
same day. 1t is gratifying to have our
desire so promptly realized that all ex-
changes of view on this matter should
be made in the hearing of all the
world.
Count Czernins reply, which is di-
rected chiefly to my own address, on
the eighth of January, is uttered in a
very friendly tone. He finds in my
statement a sufficiently encouraging
approach to the views of his own gov
ernment to justify him in believing
that it furnishes a basis for more
detailed discussion of purposes by the
two governments. He is represented
to have intimated that the views he
was expressing had been communi.
Gated to me before hand, and that
was aware of them at Che time he was
uttering them; but in this I am sure
he was misunderstood. 1 had received
no intimation of what he intended to
say. There was, of course, no reason
why he should communicate privately
with me. l am quite content to be one
of his public audience.
Count Won Hertling's reply is,
must say, very vague and very confus-
ing. 1t is full of equivocal phrases and
leads it is not clear where. But it is
oor+o;,11, -, n 1,arxy diffo roD+ topo from
that of Count Czernin and apparently
of an opposite purpose. 1t confirms,
am sorry to say, rather than removes,
the unfortunate impression made by
what he had learned Of the confer
ences at Brest-Litovsk His discussion
and acceptance Of our general princi-
pies lead him to no practical conclu-
sions.
Won HertIng Shows Jealousy.
"He refuses to apply them to the
substantive items which must consti-
tute the body of any final settlement.
He is jealous of international action
and of international counsel He ac-
cepts, he says, the principle Of public
diplomacy, but he appears to insist
that it be confined, at any rate in this
case, to generalities and that the sew
eral particular questions of territory
and sovereignty, the several questions
upon whose settlement must depend
the acceptance of peace by the %
states now engaged in the war, must
be discussed and settled. not in gen.
eral council, but seVerally by the ma
tions most Immediately concerned by
interest or neighborhood He agrees
that the seas should be free, but looks
askance at any limitation to that free
dom by international actj IN in the in
terest of the common ord-sr. He would
without reserve be glad to see eco
pomic barriers removed between ma
tion and nation, for that could in no
way impede the ambiticnI of the mill
tary party with whom he seems con.
strained to keep on terms. Neither
does he raise objection to limitation
of armaments. That matter will be
settled of itself, he thinks, by the eco
nomic conditions which must follow
the war. Pvt the German colonies, he
demands, must be returned without
debate. He will discuss with no one
but the representatives of Russia what
disposition shall be made Of the peo
pies and the lands Of the Baltic prov
inces; with no one but the government
of France the conditions under which
French territory shall be evacuated;
and only with Austria what shall be
done with Poland. In the determine
tion of ell questions affecting the Bal
kan states he differs, as I understand
him, to Austria and Turkey; and with
regard to the agreements to be en-.
tered into concerning the non-Turkish
peoples of the present Ottoman en-