The Green Forest tribune., 1918-02-22

| standing between rivals and antagon iSts. National aspirations must be respected, peoples may now be domi- mated and governed only by their own | consent.
 'Self-determination' is not mere phrase, it is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will hence forth ignore at their peril We cannot have general peace for the asking Or by the mere arrangement of peace conference. It cannot be pieced to- gether out of individual understand iugS between powerful states.
 All Parties Must Join.
 All the parties to this war must join in the settlement of every issue anywhere involved in it, because what We are seeking is a peace that we can all unite to guarantee and maintain and every item of it must be submit ted to the common judgment whether It be right or fair, an act of justice rather than a bargain between sov- ereignS
 
 interfere in European affairs or to act as arbiter in European territorial dis putes. She would disdain to take ad- vantage of any internal weakness or disorder to impose her own will upon another people. She is quite ready to be shown that the settlements she has suggested are not the best or the most enduring They are only her own pro NiSfonal sketch of principles and of the way in which they should be ap- plied
 But she entered this war because she was made a partner, whether she would or not, in the sufferings and in dignities inflicted by the military mas ters of Germany, against the peace and security of mankind, and the con ditions of peace will touch her as near ly Us they will touch any other nation to which is intrusted a leading part in the maintenance of civilization. She cannot see her way to peace until the causes of this war are removed. it's re- newal rendered as nearly as may be i'm possible.
 Rights of Weak Dsregarded.
 ''The war had it's roots in the disre- gard of the rights of small nations and of natiOnalities which lacked the union and the force to make good their claim tO determine their own allegiances and their own forms of political life.
 Covenants must now be entered into which will render such things i'm possible for the future: and those cov- enantS must be backed by the united force of all the nations that love just ice and are willing to maintain it at any cost. If territorial settlements and the political relations of great populations which have not the organ iZed power to resist are to be deter mined by the contracts of the power ful governments which consider them selves most directly affected, as Count von Hertling proposes, why may not economic questiones also? It has come about in the altered world in which We now find ourselves that justice and the rights of peoples affect the whole field of international dealing as much as access to raw materials and fair and equal conditions of trade.
 Count von Hertling wants the es- sential bases of commercial and indus trial life to be safeguarded by common agreement and guaranty, but he cannot expect that to be conceded him if the other matters to be determined by the articles of peace are not handled in the same way as items in the final ae- counting
 Separate Facts Barrier.
 He cannot ask the benefit of com mon agreement in the one field with out according it in the other. I take it for granted that he sees that sep arate and selfish compacts with regard to trade and the essential materials of manufacture would afford no founda- tion for peace. Neither, he may rest assured, will separate and selfish com pacts with regard to provinces and peoples.
 Count CZernin seems to see the fundamental elements of peace with clear eyes and does not seek to obscure them. He sees that an independent Poland, made up of all the indisputa- bly, Polish peoples who lie contiguous to one another, is a matter of Euro pea concern, and must, of course, be conceded; that Belgium must be evac- uated and restored, no matter what sacrifices and concessions that may in- volve and that national aspirations must be satisfied even within his own empire in the common interest of Eu- rope and manlSnd. If he is silent about questions which touch the inter- est and purpose of his allies more nearly than they touch those of Aus tria only, it must of course be because he feels constrained, l suppose, to de- fer to Germany and Turkey in the cir cumStanceS.
 "Seeing and conceding as he does the essential principles involved and the necessity of candidly applying them, he naturally feels that Austria can respond to the purpose of peace as expressed by the United States with less embarrassment than could Germany. He would probably have gone much further had it not been fol | the endorsements of Austria's ali ances and of her dependence upon Ger many.
 After all, the test of whether it is possible for either government to gc any further in this comparison ol viayvc is simnIp and ObyiOuS