Evening star., 1918-12-16
us. WILL INSIST
ON K|ND0 OF PEACE
SHE FOR
President Expected to Define
Ideals in Address to Ameri-
can Troops.
CERTAIN PERSONS TRY
TO DEPRECIATE AMERICA
Attitude on League Of Nations and
Freedom of the Seas Issues
Are Made Clearer.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


Copyright. 1918, by N. Y. Evening Post Incl
PARIS, December 16.-President
Wilson is going to visit the American
troops about December "a. Gen.
Pershing has arranged for the trip.
Undoubtedly it will be the occasion
for an important speech that will en-
phasize and delineate in the public
mind the achievement of the American
forces.
While this is appreciated by the
great mass of the French and British
people, certain interests, which want
to make a different kind of peace
from that which America understood
when she announced her creed and
battle cry of making the world safe
for democracy, have been trying to
depreciate what has been done by
the United States in the war. .-
This tendency ought to be checked
because it can prove disturbing 1t
permitted to assume wider proper
tions. After all, it may be merely
a human tendency which in the hour
of triumph sometimes forgets how
the triumph was accomplished, just
as a man made rich often forgets
who gave him his first start.
Some Europeans Can't Understand.
It seems to be difficult to impress
some Europeans with the idea that
when America came 5000 miles across
the seas with her big Army and Navy,
and left on this soil thousands OF
graves of American youths, we Droke
the American traditional policy OF
isolation, and now, that victory is
achieyed' we cannot allow a peace to
be made which is in any wise different
from the views Of democracy which in
spired our troops at Chateau-I h1erry
and elsewhere to carry FORWARD Inc
battle flag of world democracy. Our
t to the Ideals Of America IT It per-
mitted without protest, Its colleagues
to say: "This is strictly European
.affair. Your own policy in the past
has been to. keep aloot, and now II
should be isolation once more,
America certainly has no desire to
interfere in the slightest degree in
trade and business questions involv-
ing the legitimate expansion OF Euro
pean nations, but 1t will insist on
voice in the arrangements ana agree
ments which will make it certain that
nothing will be done which will make
necessary another war by another
generation-the bringing OF American
into the maelstrom anew. In other
words, the American attitude mere Is:
I'VE were partners in the world pol
icy when the war came. We must be
partners in peace. 50 that war VIII be
We have shown that our sacrifice
knows no. boundaries when the princi-
pies of world settlement are at stake,
and we are ready to insist that every
nation must exhibit the same spirit
of self-denial in the hours of peace.
Freedom Of the Seas Issue.
Perhaps in respect to no question
more than that of the freedom of the
seas is the issue more clearly drawn.
There is much discussion in America
as to what that term means, but there
is no doubt in the minds of the allied
governments. Indeed. in my opinion
some American newspapers have been
interpreting the phrase too extreme
ly and radically and have been partly
misled by expressed or unexpressed
apprehensions of the British.
AS a matter of fact, England will
find in the last analysis that America
is not asking her to adopt the i'm
possible. but asking for something
to see is for her benefit as well as
for the peace of the world. There is
not the slightest objection. for in
stance, to possession by Great Britain
of a large navy. Any idea that
America wants England to reduce to
a point Of equality with us her naval
strength is absurd and mischievous.
America simply wants the league of
nations not to be dominated by sin
gle power any more than in a fra
ternal or charitable organization
among private individuals we permit
the man who makes the largest do
nation Of money to administer the
land probably will make in the end
the largest naval donation to the
league offnations, but America be-
lieves that international compacts
should delimit the sphere of every
nations activities, so that navalism
menace any more than militarism.
British Attitude Liberal.
Americans agree that the British
attitude in controlling the seas in the
past has been most liberal. but no
league of nations can rest on nrm
foundations if dependent merely on
unwritten expectation and benevo-
lence. The American contingent, there
fore, believes that England eventu-
ally will give the world a magnif1-
cent example of her own unself1sh-
ness by pooling her navy in the
forces of an international organiZa-
ton, SO that by common council and
treaty the right of every nation not
to be Disseminated against in COM
merce will be set down definitely.
America would not, more than any
other country, permit the seas to be
dictated by a single power, but would
willingly submit to arrangements and
ruling made by league. because if
adopted in the open and in full view
of the whole world, opportunity
would be equal even if resources
were not the same.
This is important. incidentally from
the viewpoint of American business,
because the whole future and expan-
sion of foreign trade, so as to main
tain high wages and present pros
perity in America. depend on our op-
portunity to participate in world
commerce without having certain
ports closed or certain regulations
made about freight rates by one ma
ton or group of, nations. which would
hamper us at every turn in develop
ing our merchant marine. Americans
here believe that there is room
enough for everybody In world trade,
and that England has nothing to fear
from American competition. as she
~NOntinuad nm SoOoDI ID, r-o -