Mexico Missouri message., 1918-01-31
PRESIDENT WILSON'S LUCID
STATEMENT OF AMERICAS WAR
AIMS AND PEACE TERMS.
PUTS THE ONUS ON GERMANY
5olshevlkI Make Peace With Bulgaria
and Resume Negotiations at Brest-
Litovsk-Snow Stops Teutons In
ltaly-secretary 5aker's
Elaborate Defense.
BY EDWARD W. PIcKARp.

President Wilson's statement of the
war aims of America, following and al
most identical with that of Premier
Lloyd George, placed fatty before the
people of the central powers the choice
between a reasonable peace and con-
unuance of the war until they are
forced to accept the terms offered them
by victorious foes. Moreover, the
choice of the German government must
soon be made, for according to credible
reports from Europe the statements of
the president and the premier have
brought close to q crisis the political
dissension in the Fatherland and have
served to unmask the pan-Germans,
who demand, with threats, that the
kaiser shall align himself with them
for "strOng peace" The socialists
stand as firmly as ever for a demo-
cratic peace, and If Wilhelm sides
against them, he and the Prussian mill
tarists will have before them the i'm
possible task Of making good with de-
cisive military victories over the armed
forces of Great Britain, France and the
United States. If they fail, as fail they
must, 1t is easy to predict a sweeping
revolution in Germany, but between
now and that event must intervene q
long period of bloody fighting. The
pan-Germans have no idea of yielding
| tamely, especially II they are support
ed by the emperor, which seems likely.
In the main Mr.. Wilson's address CO.
incided with that of Mr.. Lloyd George
so far as the essentials of peace are
concerned. He was a little more in
sistent on some points. little less on
others; and he spoke more at length
about Russia, expressing the deep
sympathy of America for the strug-
| Cling people Of that country and en-
couraglng the bolsheviki to stand firm
against the terms of German con-
quest.
All through the program set forth
by the president, runs, as he said, the
principle of justice to all peoples and
all nationalities, and their right to live
on equal terms of liberty and safety
with one another, whether they be
strong or weak.
Just one of the peace essentials as
stated by Mr.. Wilson met with some
criticism In the United States, and that
from certain Republican leaders. This
was the section calling for the "estab-
lishment of an equality of trade con-
ditiOns among all the nations consent
ing to the peace and associating them
selves for its maintenance" If that
means the elimination of all tariffs, a
world free trade, sny the Republican
statesmen, they cannot assent to 1t. All
who were quoted concerning the mes
sage declared 1T most timely, for they
believe with the president that the
moral climax Of the war has come.
The German press generally con-
dennis President Wilson's peace aims
as 1t did those of Lloyd George, most
Of the papers calling his program ut
terly impossible, especially as regards
Alsace-Lorralne, the internal affairs of
Austria-Hungary and the partition of
Turkey.
Peace Conference Resumed.
Apparently backing water, the Rus
sian delegates, headed by Trotzky him
self. returned to Brest-Litovsk on Tues
day and resumed the peace negotia-
tiOns with the central powers. Be
fore departing from Petrograd the boil
sheviki foreign minister expressed his
deep suspicion of the motives of the
entente allies, declaring they wanted
Germany to make an advantageous
separate peace with Russia so Ger
many would be more willing to sur
render what the allies want in the
west. Incidentally. Trotzl1y repeated
] the story that 25,000 German troops In