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The Commonet
VOL.. 17, NO. 12
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justfce dono at every point and to every na
tion the final settlement must affect, our en
emies as well as our friends.
DENOUNCES ANNEXATIONS
, You catch, with me, the oices of humanity
that are in the air. They grow daily more au
dible, more articulate, more persuasive and thoy
come from tho heart of men everywhere. They
insist that the war shall not end in vindictive
action of any kind'; that no nation or people
shall ho robbed or punished because the irre
sponsible rulers of a single country have them
selves dono deep and abominable wrong. It is
this thought that has been expressed in the
formula, "no annexations, no contributions, no
punitive indemnities," fust because this crude
formula expresses tho Instinctive judgment as to
right of plain men everywhere it has .been made
diligent use of by the master., of German in
trigue to lead tho people of Russia astray and
tho people of every other country their agents
could reach, in order that t. premature peace
might bo brought about before autocracy has
"been taught its final and convincing lesson arid
tho people of tho world put in control of their
own destinies.
But the fact that a wrons use has beon made
of a. just idea Is no reason why a right use
should npt be made of it. It ought Jo brought
undor tho patronage of its real friends. Let it
be said again that autocracy must first be shown
the utter futility of its claims to power or lead
ership in the modern world. It is impossible to
apply any standard of justice so long as such
forces are unchecked and undefeated as the pres
ent masters of Germany command. Not until
that has been done can right bo set up as ar
biter and peace maker among the nations. But
when that has been done as God'4 willing It as
suredly will be we shall at last bo free to do
an unprecedented thing and this Is the time to
avow our purposes to do it. We shall be free
to base peace on gonorosity and justice to the
exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage even
on the part of the victors,
. JUSTICE AND REPARATION' -
Tjot t.ho.rfo bo no misunderstanding. Our pres
ent and immediate task is to win the war and
nothing shall turn us aside from it until it Is
accomplished. Every power and resource we
possess, whether of men, of money or of ma
terials, is being devoted and will continue to ne
devoted to that purpose until it is achieved.
Those who desire to bring peace about before
that purpose is achieved, I counsel to carry their
advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. We
shall regard the war as won only, wuen the Ger
man people say to us, through properly accred
ited representatives, that they are ready to agree
to a settlement based upon justice and the rep
aration of the wrongs their rulers have done.
They have done a wrong to Belgium which must
be repaired. They have established, a power
over other lands and peoples than their own
over the great empire of Austria-Hungary, over
hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey within
Asia which must be relinquished.
Germany's success by skill, by industry, by
knowledge, by enterprise, we dt- not grudge or
oppose, but admired rather. She I ad built up
for herself a real empire of trade and influence,
secured by the peace of the world. We were con
tent to abide the rivalries of manufacture, sci
ence and commerce that were involved for us. in
her success and stand or fall as we had or did
not have the brains and tho initiative to surpass
hsr. But at the moment when she had conspic
uously won her triumphs of peace she threw
them away to establish in their stead what the
world will no longer permit to be established
military and political domination by arms, by
which to oust where she could not excel the
rivals she most feared and hated. The peace we
make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver
the once fair lands and happy peoples of Bel
gium and northern Prance from the Prussian
menace but it must also deliver the peoples of
Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans and
the people of Turkey, alike in Europe and Asia
from the impudent and alien domination of the
Prussian military and commercial aristocracy.
We owo, howefver, to ourselves to say that we
do not wish in any way to impair or to re-arrange
the Austro-Hungarian empire. It is no
affair of ours what they do with their own life
either industrially or politically. We do not pur
pose or desire to dictate to them in any way.
We only desire to see that their affairs are left
In their own hands, in vall matters, great or
small. We shall hope in secure for the peoples
of the Balkan peninsult, and for the people of
the Turkish empire the i$ht and opportunity
to make their own lives safe, their own fortunes
secure againat oppression or injustice and from
the dictation of foreign courts or parties.
OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY
And our attitude and purpose. with regard to
Germany herself are of a like kind. We intend
no wrong against the German empire, no inter
ference with her Internal affairs. We should
deem either the one or the other absolutely un
justifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles
yfQ have professed to live by and to hold most
sacred throughout our life as a nation.
Tho people of Germany are being told by the
mc n whom they now permit to deceive' them and
to act as their masters, that they are fighting
for the very life and existence of their empire,
a war of desperate self defense against deliber
ate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly
or wantonly false, 'and we must seek by the ut
most openness and candor as to our real aims
to convince them of its falseness. We are in
fact fighting for their emancipation from fear,
along with our own, from the fear as well as
from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or
rivals or schemers after 'world empire. No one
is threatening the existence or the independence
or the peaceful enterprise of the German empire.
The worst that can happen to the detriment of
th German people is this, that if they should
still, after the war-is-over continue to be obliged
to live under ambitious and intriguing masters
interested to disturb the peace of the world,
men or classes of men whom the other peoples
of the world could not trust, it might be impos
sible to admit them to the partnership of na
tions which must henceforth guarantee the
world's peace. That partnership must be a part
nership of peoples, not a mere partnership of
governments. It might be impossible, also, in
such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany
to the free economic intercourse which must in
evitably spring out of the other partnerships of
a real peace. But there would be no aggression
in that; and such a situation, Inevitable because
of distrust, would in the very natur6 of things
sooner or later cure itself by processes which
would assuredly set in.
RIGHTS OF CENTRAL POWERS
The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in
this war will have to be righted. That of course.
But they can not and must not be righted by the
commission of similar wrongs against Germany
and her allies. The world will not permit the
commission of similar wrongs as a means of rep
aration and settlement. Statesmen must by this
time have learned that the opinion of the world
is everywhere wide awake and fully compre
hends the Issues involved. No representative of
any self-governed nation will dare msregard it
by attempting any such covenants of selflshnbss
and compromise as were entered into at the con5
gress of Vienna. The thought of the plain peo
ple here and everywhere throughout the world,
the people who enjoy no privilege and have very
pimple and unsophisticated standards of right
and wi5png, is the air all governments must
henceforth breathe if they would live. It is in
the full disclosing light of that thought that all
policies must be conceived and executed in this
midday hour of the world's life. German rulers
have been able to upset the peace of the world
only because the German people were not suf
fered under their tutelage to share the comrade
ship of the other peoples of the world either m
thought or in purpose. They were allowed to
have no opinion , of their own which might be
set up as a rule of conduct for those who exer
cised authority over them. But the congress
that concludes this war will feel the full strength
of the tides that run now in the hearts and con
sciences of free men everywhere. Its conclu
sions will run with those tides.
All these things have been true from the very
beginning of th's stupenduous war; and I can
not help thinking that if they had been made
plain at the very outset, the sympathy and en
thusiasm of the Russian people might have been
once for all enlisted on the side of the allies
suspicion and distrust swept away and a real
and lasting union of purpose affected. Had they
believed these things at- the very moment of
their revolution and had thoy been confirmed in
that belief since, the sad reverses which have
recently marked the progress of their affairs
towards an ordered and stable government of
free men miuht have been avoided. The Russian
people have been poisoned by the very same
falsehoods that have kept the German people in
the-dark, and the poison has been' administered
by the very same hands. The only possible anti
dote is the truth. It can not be uttered too
plainly or too often.
ATTITUDE NOT CHANGEp
From every point of view, therefore, it has
seemed to be my duty to speak these declarations
of purpose, to add these specific interpretations
to what I took the liberty of saying to the sen
ate in January. Our entrance into the war has
not altered our attitude towards the settlement
that must come when it is over. When I said in
January that the nations of the worm were en
titled not Only to free pathways upon the sea
but also to assured and unmolested access to
those pathways, I was thinking, and I am think
ing now, not of the smaller and weaker nations
alone, which need our countenance and support
but also of the great and powerful nations, and
of our present enemies as well as our present as
sociates in the war. I was thinking, and am
thinking now of Austria herself, among the rest
as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and
equality t)f rights can be had only .at a great
price. We are seeking permanent, not tempor
ary, foundations for the peace of the world and
must seek' them candidly and fearlessly, as al
ways the right will prove to be the expedient.
What shall we do then to push th's great war
of freedom and justice to its righteoi.: conclu
sion? We must clear away with a thorough
hand all impediments to success and we must
make every adjustment of law that will facil
itate the full and froe use of our whole capacity
and force as a fight? unit.
WAR AGAINST, AUSTRIA '
One very embarrassing obstacle1 that stands in
our way is that we are at war with Germany but
not witb her allies. I therefore earnestly reco -mend
that the congress' immediately' declare tho
United States in a state of war with Austria
Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this
should be the conclusion of the argument I havo
just addressed to you? It is not. It is in fat
the inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria
Hungary is for the time being not her own mis
tress, but simply the vassal of the German gov
ernment. We must face the facts as they are
and act upon them w'thout sentiment in this
stern business. The government of Austria-Hungary
is not' acting upon Its own initiative or in
response to the wishes and feelingsbf its own
peoples, but as the instrument of another nh
tion. We must meefcits force with our own and
regard the central powers as but one. The war
can be successfully conducted in no other way.
The same logic would lead also to a declaration
of war against Turkey and Bulgaria. They also
are the tools of Germany. But they are mere
tools and do not yet stand in the direct path of
our necessary action. We thall go wherever the
necessities of th's war carry us, but it seems to
me that we should go only where immeaiate and
practical considerations lead us and not heed ay
others.
Tho financial and military measures which
must be adopted will suggest themselves as the
war and its undertakings develop, but I w'll take
the 1'berty of proposing to you certain other acts
of legislation whlch-seem to me to be needed for
the support of the war and for the release of our
whole force and energy.
STRICTER GRIP ON ENEMY ALIENS
It will be necessary to extend in certain par
ticulars the 1-gislation of the last session with
regard to alien enemies; and also necessary, I
believe, to create a very definite and particular
control over the entrance and departure of all
persona into and from the United States.
Legislation should be enacted defining as a
criminal offense every wilful violati6n of the
pres'dent'al proclamations relating to alien en
emies promulgated under section 4067 of the re
vised statutes andproviding appropriate punish
ments; and women as welj as men should be in
cluded, under the terms of the acts placing re
straints upon alien onemies. It is likely that as
time goes on many alien enemies will be willing
to be fed and housed at the expense of the gov
ernment in the detention camps andjt n-ould be
the purpose of the legislation I have sucr2r00trd to
confine offenders among them in penitentiaries
.and other pimilar institutions where, th-r would
be. made to work as other criminals fr
FURTHER LIMITING OF. BRICE3
.; Recent .experience has convinced, me that tho
congress must go furthei in authorizing the gov-
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