Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-11-12
ALLIES temper
BLOW TO ENEMY;
FOOD FOR FOE
President Wilson Says Victors
Will Not See Central En-
pire People Starve
in Defeat. q.
BY Associated Press.

Washington, Nov. ll.-Presiden
Wilson today after making known
the armistice terms to congress!
closed his address in these words:
The war thus comes to an end
for, having accepted these terms Of
armistice, it will be impossible fol
the German command to renew it
1T is not now possible to assess
the consequences of this great con-
summation. We know only thai
this tragical war, whose consuming
flames swept from one nation to
another until all the world was on
fire, is at an end and that it was
the privilege of our own people to
enter it at its most critical juncture
in such fashion and in such force
as to contribute in a way of which
we are all deeply proud, to the great
result. We know, too, that the OBJ
ject of the war is attained: the OBJ
ject upon which all free men had
set their hearts; and attained with
a sweeping completeness even now
we do not realize.
Militarism Destroyed.
Armed imperialism, such as the
men conceived who were but yes
terday masters of Germany, is at an
end. its illicit ambitions engulfed in
black disaster. Who will now seek
to revive It, The arbitrary power
Of the military caste of Germany
which once could secretly and of its
own single choice disturb the peace
of the world is discredited and de-
stroyed. And more than that--much
more than that-has been accom-
plished. The great nations which as
ISOLATED themselves to destroy it
have now definitely united in the
common purpose to set up such a
/. peace as will satisfy the longing of
the whole world for disnterested
justice, embodied in settlements
which are based upon something
much better and much more lasting
than the competitive selfish inter-
ests Of powerful states. There is no
longer conjecture as to the objects
the victors have in mind They have
a mind in the matter, not only, but
a heart also. Their avowed and
concerted purpose is to satisfy and
protect the weak as we'll as to ac-
cord their just rights to the strong.
Food For Enemies.
1.-THE humane temper and inten-
ton of the victorious governments
has already been manifested in a
very practical way. Their repre-
sentatives in the supreme war coun-
Gil at Versailles have by unanimous
resolution assured the peoples Of
the central empires that everything
that is possible in the circumstances
will be done to supply them with
food and relive the distressing want
that is in SO many places threatening
theirtsery lives; and steps are to be
taken Immediately to organize these
efforts at relief in the same syste-
matte manner that they we're or
ganixed in the case of Belgium. By
the use Of the idle tonnage of the
central empires it ought presently
to be possible to lift tine lear of ut
Ter misery from their oppressed pop
ulations and set their minds and
energies free for the great and
hazardous tasks of political recon-
struction which now face them on
every hand. Hunger does not breed
reform; it breeds madness and all
the ugly distempers that make an
ordered life impossible.
Governments Change.
"For with the fall of the ancient
governments, which rested like an
incubus upon the peoples of the
central empires, has come political
change not merely, but revolution;
and revolution which seems as yet
to assume no final and ordered
form, but to run from one fluid
change to another, until thoughtful
men are forced to ask themselves,
with what governments, and OF
what, sort, are we about to deal in
the making of the covenants of
peace1 With what authority will
they meet US, and with what assur-
arce that their authority will abide
and sustain securely the interna-
tional arrangements into which we
are about to enter? There is here
matter for no small anxiety and
misgiying. When peace is made,
upon whose promises and engage
ments besides our own is it to rest?
"Let us BE- perfectly frank with
ourselves and admit that these ques-
tons cannot be satisfactorily an
swered now or at once. But the
moral is not that there is little hope
of an early answer that will suffice.
and helpful and mindful above all
of the great hope and confidence
that lie at the heart of what is TAX
ing place. Excuses accomplish
nothing. Unhappy Russia has fur
nished abundant recent proof Of
that. Disorder Immediately defeats
itself If excuses should occur, if
disorder should for a time raise its
head, a sober second thought will
follow and a definite idea of con-
structive action, if we help and we
do not hinder.
Discipline OF Freedom.
"The present and all it holds be-
longs to the nations and the peo-
Piles who preserve their self control
and the orderly processes of their
governments; the future to those
who prove themselves true friends
Of mankind. To conquer with arms
is to make only temporary con-
quest; to conquer the world by
earning its esteem is to make per-
manent conquest. / am confident
that the nations that have learned
the discipline of freedom and that
have settled with self-possession to
its ordered practice. are now about
"a make conuuest If the worfd nv