French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1919-05-01
THURSDAY, MAY list, 1919
t. Button
WILSON STANDS FOR pRJNc,pIF

WILSON STANDS FOR PRINClPLI
President Wilson has offended III
Italian diplomats attending the Peace
Conference by reiterating the pro.
nouncement long ago promulgated
that America entered the world wal
in defense of principle and not fol
spoils. Secret compacts are indie.
feasible and the people of this country
do not wish to become parties to a
peace that cannot be defended in the
open. It may be true that Presiden,
Wilson's declaration on the italian
claims to Fiume almost tool awsk the
breath of that country's delegates to
the Peace Conference but it occasions
but little surprise on this side of the
Atlantic. The American people. are
coVersant with the Presidents sense
of justice and know that he possesses
the courage of his convictions. Sci
fshness and greed do not appeal to
him any more in France than in
America. In the reconstruction OF
the world he believes that the smaller
nations are entitled to the same pro-
lection and privileges that are accord
ed to the larger ones, which is the
only guarantee t. an enduring peace
1t is true, as the president says,
that America is ItaIy's friend" Her
people are drawn, millions strong.
from Italy's own fair country sides
She is linked in blood, as well as in
affection, with the Italian people.
such ties a. never be broken. Anc
America was privileged, by the gene
rOus commission of her associates In
the war, to initiate the peace VIC are
about to cOnsummate-to initiate it
upon terms which she had herself
formulated and in which 1 was her
spokesman. The compulsion IS up2a
her to square every decision snc takes
a part in with those principles. She
cando nothing else. She trusts Italy,
and in her trust believes thai italy
will seek nothing of her that cannot
be Enthusiastically consistent with those
sacred obligations.
"The interests are not now in uues-
ton, but the rights of peoples, OF
states new and old, of liberated peo-
pies, whose rulers have never ac-
counted them worthy of a right;
above all the right of the world to
peace and to such settlement Of inter
ests as shall make peace secure,
These and these only are the primo
pies upon which she can consent to
make peace. Only upon thesc princi-
pies she hopes and believes will the
people of Italy ask her to make, peace"
This is the last word. Presiuen.
Wilson means business. The titaaltic
struggle for the liberation of nations
and peoples reached the climax with
American soldiers defending the n!fn-
ciples outlined by their President up
on Americas entrance into the war.
They, fought to make the world safe
for Democracy and not to satisfy the
greed of any nation, large OF small.
Allowing the claims of Italy in the
Adriatic region would block in from
the sea behind the coast of DaImatia
the new independent nations which
+ to become members of the Lea
que of Nations and President Wilson
clearly. points out the danger and in
justice Of such a course. He would
have Ffume serve as the outlet OF til
commerce, not of Italy alone, but Of the
land to the north and northeast of that
port; Hungary, Bohemia, Rumaria,
and the states Of the new Jugo-Slav
group. ITO assign Fiume to Itaiy,"
says the President, would be to Gre
ate the feeling that we have delibe1-
ate1y put the port upon which ali
those countries chiefly depend rnr
their access to the Mediterranean N
the hands of a power Of which it did
not form an integral part and whose
sovereignty, if set up there, must in
eTitably seem foreign, not domestic OF
identified with the commercial and In
dustrial life of the regions which the
port must serve" No further arsp-
ment is necessary, Mr.. President.
'tStand by your guns" and the Amel;-
can people will continue to stand ny
son.