respect for the common law of civilized society that govern the individual citizens of all modern states in their relations with one another; to the end that all promises and covenants may be sacredly observed, no private plots or conspiracies hatched, no selfish injuries wrought with impunity, and a mutual trust established upon the handsome foundation of a mutual respect for right. 4. The establishment of an organization of peace which shall make it certain that the combined power of free nations will check every invasion of right and serve to make peace and justice the more secure by affording a definite tribunal of opinion to which all must submit and by which every international readjustment, that cannot be amicably agreed upon by the peoples directly concerned, shall be sanctioned. WE SEEK THE REIGN OF LAW. These great objects can be put into a single sentence. What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind. These great ends cannot be achieved by debating and seeking to reconcile and accommodate what statesmen may wish, with their projects for balances of power and national opportunity. They can be realized only by the determination of what the thinking peoples of the world desire, with their longing hope for justice and for social freedom and opportunity. I cannot but fancy that the air of this place carries the accents of such principles with a peculiar kindness. Here were started forces which the great nation against which they were primarily directed at first regarded as a revolt against its rightful authority, but which it has long since seen to have been a step in the liberation of its own peoples, as well as of the people of the United States; and I stand here now to speak-speak proudly and with confident hope-of the spread of this revolt, this liberation, to the great stage of the world itself! The blinded rulers of Prussia have roused forces they know little of-forces which, once roused, can never be crushed to earth again; for they have at their heart an inspiration and a purpose which are deathless and of the very stuff of triumph! JULY 15, 1918-GERMANS RESUME GENERAL OFFENSIVE, STRIKING ON BOTH SIDES OF RHEIMS. (An attempt on the part of the German High Command to clear their left flank before striking at Paris from their position astride the Marne.) WOODROW WILSON AND THE WAR JULY 15, 1918-AMERICANS HOLD GERMANS AT CHATEAU THIERRY AND CLEAR THE SOUTH BANK OF THE MARNE IN THEIR SECTOR. JULY 18, 1918-GEN. FOCH BEGINS COUNTER ATTACK ON THE FLANKS OF THe German SalIENT BETWEEN Soissons and RHEIMS. (The definite turn in the tide of war began with this drive, mercilessly maintained by Gen. Foch until Germany, broken and terrified, asked for peace discussions, early in October.) AUGUST 13, 1918-PRESIDENT WILSON ADDRESSES VISITING ITALIAN JOURNALISTS. "Gentlemen: We are not here in the service of Italy. We are not here in the service of America. We are here in that greatest of all services, the service which ennobles all who engage in it, the service of mankind." AUGUST 31, 1918—PresideNT WILSON SIGNS BILL FOR THE SECOND SELECTive draft INCLUDING MEN From 18 to 45, aND ISSUES A PROCLAMATION. SEPTEMBER 6, 1918-FOOD ADMINISTRATION DECREES THAT ALL BREWERIES MUST CLOSE DECEMBER 1ST. SEPTEMBER 12, 1918-THE FIRST AMERICAN ARMY WIPES OUT THE ST. MIHIEL SALIENT. SEPTEMBER 15, 1918-NEW GERMAN PEAce offensive-AUSTRIA ASKS FOR AN INFORMal, secret dISCUSSION. SEPTEMBER 16, 1918-PRESIDENT WILSON DESTROYS THE LATEST PEACE OFFENSIVE IN 68 WORDS. REPLY TO AUSTRIA "The Government of the United States feels that there is only one reply which it can make to the suggestion of the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Government. It has repeatedly, and with entire candor, stated the terms upon which the United States would consider peace, and can and will entertain no proposal for a conference upon a matter concerning which it has made its position and purpose so plain." SEPTEMBER 16, 1918—OffENSIVE BEGINS Against BulgarIA. SEPTEMBER 18-25, 1918-BRITISH UNDER GEN. ALLENBY SWEEP PALESTINE OF TURKS, capturing two armies total- SEPTEMBER 27, 1918—BULGARIA SUES FOR PEACE. SEPTEMBER 27, 1918-FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN DRIVE FOR $6,000,000,000 INAUGURATED THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. PRESIDENT WILSON DELIVERS AN address in New York City. (4 restatement of war issues and a more definite laying down of a foundation for a League of Nations. He asks five searching questions and submits five essentials to a league. In many respects his most memorable and momentous utterance up to this time.) “IMPARTIAL JUSTICE IS THE PRICE OF PEACE.” ADDRESS DELIVERED IN NEW YORK AT THE OPENING OF THE FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN DRIVE. My Fellow Citizens: (Complete) I am not here to promote the loan. That will be done, ably and enthusiastically done, by the hundreds of thousands of loyal and tireless men and women who have undertaken to present it to you and our fellow citizens throughout the country; and I have not the least doubt of their complete success; for I know their spirit and the spirit of the country. My confidence is confirmed, too, by the thoughtful and experienced co-operation of the bankers here and everywhere, who are lending their invaluable aid and guidance. I have come, rather, to seek an opportunity to present to you some thoughts which I trust will serve to give you in perhaps fuller measure than before, a vivid sense of the great issues involved, in order that you may appreciate and accept, with added enthu siasm, the grave significance of the duty of supporting the government by your men and your means to the utmost point of sacrifice and self-denial. No man or woman who has really taken in what this war means can hesitate to give to the very limit of what they have; and it is my mission here tonight to try to make it clear once more what the war really means. You will need no other stimulation or reminder of your duty. 130 WOODROW Wilson and THE WAR "A PEOPLES' WAR." At every turn of the war we gain a fresh consciousness of what we mean to accomplish by it. When our hope and expectation are most excited, we think more definitely than before of the issues that hang upon it and of the purposes which must be realized by means of it. For it has positive and well-defined purposes which we did not determine, and which we cannot alter. No statesman or assembly created them; no statesman or assembly can alter them. They have arisen out of the very nature and circumstances of the war. The most that statesmen or assemblies can do is to carry them out or be false to them. They were, perhaps, not clear at the outset; but they are clear now. The war has lasted long enough to draw the whole world into it. The common will of mankind has been substituted for the particular purposes of individual states. Individual statesmen may have started the conflict, but neither they nor their opponents can stop it as they please. It has become a peoples' war, and peoples of all sorts and races, of every degree of power and variety of fortune, are involved in its sweeping processes of change and settlement. We came into it when its character had become fully defined and it was plain that no nation could stand apart or be indifferent to its outcome. Its challenge drove to the heart of everything we cared for and lived for. The voice of the war had become clear and gripped our hearts. Our brothers from many lands, as well as our own murdered dead under the sea, were calling to us, and we responded, fiercely and of course. SOME PENETRATING QUESTIONS. The air was clear about us. We saw things in their full, convincing proportions as they were; and we have seen them with steady eyes and unchanging comprehension ever since. We accepted the issues of the war as facts, not as any group of men either here or elsewhere had defined them, and we can accept no outcome which does not squarely meet and settle them. Those issues are these: Shall the military power of any nation or group of nations be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the rule of force? Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and make them subject to their purpose and interest? Shall peoples be ruled and dominated, even in their own internal affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible force, or by their own will and choice? AMERICANISM Shall there be a common standard of right and privilege for all peoples and nations, or shall the strong do as they will and the weak suffer without redress? Shall the assertion of right be haphazard and by casual alliance, or shall there be a common concert to oblige the observance of common rights? No man, no group of men, chose these to be the issues of the struggle. They are the issues of it; and they must be settled-by no arrangement or compromise or adjustment of interests, but definitely and once for all and with a full and unequivocal acceptance of the principle that the interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of the strongest. This is what we mean when we speak of a permanent peace, if we speak sincerely, intelligently, and with a real knowledge and comprehension of the matter we deal with. "No BARGAINS, NO COMPROMISES, POSSIBLE, WITH OUR FOESOR WITH OURSELVES.” We are all agreed that there can be no peace obtained by any kind of bargain or compromise with the governments of the Central Empires, because we have dealt with them already and have seen them deal with other governments that were parties to this struggle, at Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest. They observe no covenants, accept no law but force and their own interest. We cannot "come to terms" with them. They have made it impossible. The German people must, by this time, be fully aware that we cannot accept the word of those who forced this war upon us. We do not think the same thoughts or speak the same language of agree ment. It is of capital importance that we should also be explicitly agreed that no peace shall be obtained by any kind of compromise or abatement of the principles we have avowed as the principles for which we are fighting. There should exist no doubt about it. I am, therefore, going to take the liberty of speaking with the utmost frankness about the practical implications that are involved in it. If it be in deed and in truth the common object of the governments associated against Germany, and of the nations whom they govern, as I believe it to be, to achieve, by the coming settlements, a secure and lasting peace, it will be necessary that all who sit down at the peace table shall come ready and willing to pay the price, the only price, that will procure it; and ready and willing, also, to create, in some virile fashion, the only instrumentality by which it can be made certain that the agreements of the peace will be honored and fulfilled. "IMPARTIAL JUSTICE IS THE PRICE of Peace." The price is impartial justice in every item of the settlement, no matter whose interest is crossed; and not only impartial justice, but also the satisfaction of the several peoples whose fortunes are dealt with. That indispensable instrumentality is a league of nations formed under covenants that will be efficacious. Without such an instrumentality, by which the peace of the world can be guaranteed, peace will rest, in part, upon the word of outlaws and only upon that word. For Germany will have to redeem her character, not by what happens at the peace table, but by what follows. And, as I see it, the constitution of that League of Nations and the clear definition of its objects must be a part, is in a sense the most essential part, of the peace settlement itself. It cannot be formed now. If formed now, it would be merely a new alliance confined to the nations associated against a common enemy. It is not likely that it could be formed after the setlement. It is necessary to guarantee the peace; and the peace cannot be guaranteed as an afterthought. The reason, to speak in plain terms again, why it must be guaranteed, is that there will be parties to the peace whose promises have proved untrustworthy, and means must be found in connection with the peace settlement itself to remove that source of insecurity. It would be folly to leave the guarantee to the subsequent voluntary action of the governments we have seen destroy Russia and deceive Rumania. But these general terms do not disclose the whole matter. Some details are needed to make them sound less like a thesis and more like a practical problem. These, then, are some of the particulars, and I state them with the greater confidence because I can state them authoritatively as representing this government's interpretation of its own duty with regard to peace: BASIS FOR A League of NatIONS. First, the impartial justice meted out must involve no discrimination between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just. It must be a justice that plays no favorites and knows no standard but the equal rights of the several peoples concerned; Second, no special or separate interest of any single nation or any group of nations can be made the basis of any part of the settlement which is not consistent with the common interest of all; Third, there can be no leagues or alliances or special covenants and understandings within the general and common family of the League of Nations; 133 |