The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-06
Mr.. Wilson and Austria Hun gary.

We are impeiled by a brief refer
ence in Mr.. WIZARDS Nation to turn
back to the text Of President VII
SONS address to Congress on Deem
Der 4, 1917. The President was then
recommending the declaration Of d
state of war with Austria-Hungary |;
but he was at the same time prepar-
ing the way for an understanding
with the enemy Governments as to the
possible basis of the armistice that
came in fact eleven months later.
The burden of that address was
that while the necessities of military
unity required a declaration of u
state of war with Austria Hungary,
we were really fighting, for one thing,
to deliver that great empire" from
the 'impudent and alien dominion Of
the Prussian military and CONNER
cial autocracy." The voices of hui
mainly, said the President to Con-
gress, were in the air, growing daily
more audible, more articulate, more
persuasive. These voices came from
The hearts of men everywhere. They
insisted. said the President, that the
war should not end in vindictive &C.
ton of any kind; that no people
should be robbed or punished because
the irresponsible rulers Of single
country had themselves done deep
and abominable wrong. 1t was this
thought, continued the President, that
had been expressed in the formula
"No annexations, no contributions, no
punitive indemnities." And as to
Austria Hungary:
1--WE owe It to ourselves. however.
to say that we do not wish in any
way to impair or TO rearrange the
Austro Hungarian Empire. 1t IL no
AFFAIR of ours what they do with
their own life. either industrially or
politically. We do not purpose or
desire to dictate to them In any way:
We only desire to see that their af-
fairs are left in their own hands. in
all matters, great or small"
About a month later. on January 8,
1918, Mr.. WILSON returned to the sub
1ect in another address to the two
houses of Congress assembled In joint
session TO hear him. The occasion
was the indication by the spokesman
of the two Central Empires Of their
desire to discuss the objects Of the
war and the possible basis Of a gen.
eral peace. That was the address in
which the President declared to the
world that the processes of peace,
when they were begun, must be alb
solutely open and involve or permit
hereafter no secret understandings of
any kind. 1t was likewise the ad-
dress in which he for the first time
formulated the Fourteen Points or
Principles. Point or Principle Num-
Der Ten was this:
The peoples of Austria Hungary,
whose place among the nations we
wish to sec safeguarded and assured,
should be accorded the freest oppor-
tunity OF autonomous development"
1t is only fair to President WILSON
TO say that his expression of reluc-
lance to impair in any way or rear
range the ustro-Hungarlan Empire,
his confession THAT it was no affair
of ours what the peoples Of that EN-
pire did with their own industrial
and political life, his dlsavowal Of
any purpose to dictate to them in any
way, his desire that their affairs
should he left in their own hands in
NIL matters, great or small, and his
codified resolution TO safeguard and
assure their place among the nations
were uttered long before he discovered
the absolute necessity of bargaining
and bartering away interests and
rights and points and principles in
Vulnerable in order to keep his League
of Nations from becoming a cadaver.