NOVEMBER 4, 1918-REPUBLICANS GAIN CONTROL OF BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS.

NOVEMBER 5, 1918-PRESIDENT WILSON NOTIFIES GERMANY TO CALL ON MARSHAL FOCH FOR ARMISTICE TERMS, WHICH ARE READY.

(The Allied Council at Versailles had drawn up terms upon the basis of President Wilson's program, with two slight modifications, namely, freedom of the seas to be left open for discussion, and compensation to be made by Germany for damage done by land, sea and from the air.)

NOVEMBER 11, 1918-MONS OCCUPIED BY BRITISH; SEDAN BY AMERICANS.

NOVEMBER 11, 1918-PRESIDENT WILSON ANNOUNCES TO CONGRESS ACceptance of TERMS OF ARMISTICE.

(Evacuation, reparation, surrender of quantities of guns, ships, and equipment; blockade continued. Alsace-Lorraine restored. Rhenish region to be occupied by Allies as a guarantee.)

"PEACE."

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS ANNOUNCING ARMISTICE TERMS, NOVEMBER 11, 1918.

Gentlemen of the Congress:

In these times of rapid and stupendous change it will in some degree lighten my sense of responsibility to perform in person the duty of communicating to you some of the larger circumstances of the situation with which it is necessary to deal.

The German authorities, who have at the invitation of the Supreme War Council been in communication with Marshal Foch, have accepted and signed the terms of armistice, which he was authorized and instructed to communicate to them.

(President Wilson read the terms of armistice, and continued.) The war thus comes to an end, for, having accepted these terms of armistice, it will be impossible for the German command to renew it.

It is not now possible to assess the consequences of this great consummation. We know only that this tragical war, whose consuming flames swept from one nation to another until all the world was on fire, is at an end and that it was the privilege of our own people to enter it at its most critical juncture in such fashion and in such force as to contribute in a way of which we are all deeply proud, to the great result. We know, too, that the

object of the war is attained; the object upon which all free men had set their hearts; and attained with a sweeping completeness which even now we do not realize.

World domination such as the men conceived who were but yesterday the masters of Germany is at an end, its illicit ambitions engulfed in black disaster. Who will now seek to revive it?

The arbitrary power of the military caste of Germany which once could secretly and of its own single choice disturb the peace of the world is discredited and destroyed. And more than thatmuch more than that-has been accomplished. The great nations which associated themselves to destroy it have now definitely united in the common purpose to set up such a peace as will satisfy the longing of the whole world for disinterested justice, embodied in settlements which are based upon something much better and more lasting than the selfish competitive interests of powerful states.

There is no longer conjecture as to the objects the victors have in mind. They have a mind in the matter, not only, but a heart also, and the avowed and concerted purpose is to satisfy and protect the weak as well as to accord their just rights to the strong.

The humane temper and intention of the victorious governments has already been manifested in a very practical way. Their representatives in the Supreme War Council at Versailles have by unanimous resolution assured the peoples of the central empires that everything that is possible in the circumstances will be done to supply them with food and relieve the distressing want that is in so many places threatening their very lives and steps are to be taken immediately to organize these efforts at relief in the same systematic manner that they were organized in the case of Belgium. By the use of the idle tonnage of the central empires it ought presently to be possible to lift the fear of utter misery from their oppressed populations and set their minds and energies free for the great and hazardous tasks of political reconstruction which now face them on every hand. Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and all the ugly distempers that make an ordered life impossible.

For with the fall of the ancient governments which rested like an incubus on the peoples of the central empires, has come political change not merely, but revolution; and revolution which seems as yet to assume no final and ordered form but to run from one fluid change to another, until thoughtful men are forced to ask themselves, with what governments and of what sort are we about to deal in the making of covenants of peace? With what authority will they meet us, with what assurance that their authority will abide and sustain securely the international arrange

ments into which we are about to enter? There is here matter for no small anxiety and misgiving. When peace is made, upon whose promises and engagements besides our own is it to rest?

Let us be perfectly frank with ourselves and admit that these questions cannot be satisfactorily answered now or at once, but the moral is not that there is little hope of an early answer that will suffice. It is only that we must be patient and helpful and mindful above all of the great hope and confidence that lie at the heart of what is taking place. Excesses accomplish nothing. Unhappy Russia has furnished abundant recent proof of that. Disorder immediately defeats itself. If excesses should occur, if disorder should for a time raise its head, a sober second thought will follow and a day of constructive action, if we help and do not hinder.

The present and all that it holds belongs to the nations and the peoples who preserve their self-control and the orderly processes of their governments; the future to those who prove themselves the true friends of mankind. To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest. I am confident that the nations that have learned the discipline of freedom and that have settled with self-possession to its ordered practice are now about to make conquest of the world by the sheer power of example and of friendly helpfulness.

The peoples who have just come out from under the yoke of arbitrary government and who are now coming at last into their freedom will never find the treasures of liberty they are in search of if they look for them by the light of the torch. They will find that every pathway that is stained with blood of their own brothers leads to the wilderness, not to the seat of their hope. They are now face to face with their initial test. We must hold the light steady until they find themselves. And in the meantime, if it be possible, we must establish a peace that will justly define their place among the nations, remove all fear of their neighbors and of their former masters and enable them to live in security and contentment when they have set their own affairs in order. I, for one, do not doubt their purpose or their capacity. There are some happy signs that they know and will choose the way of self-control and peaceful accommodation. If they do we shall put our aid at their disposal in every way that we can. If they do not we must await with patience and sympathy the awakening and recovery that will assuredly come at last.

THE END.

[This speech concludes President Wilson's addresses upon the war. Subsequent utterances belong in a compilation on Peace.]

APPENDIX

ARMISTICE NOTES-ABSTRACT OF TERMS

Empire who have so far conducted the war. He deems the answer to these questions vital from every point of view.

SECOND GERMAN NOTE
October 12

In reply to the questions of the President of the United States of America, the German Government hereby declares:

The German Government has accepted the terms laid down by President Wilson in his address of Jan. 8, and in his subsequent addresses on the foundation of a per manent peace of justice.

The German Government declares itself ready to comply with the proposition of the President in re gard to evacuation.

The Chancellor speaks in the name of the German Government and of the German people.

(Signed) SOLF. State Secretary of Foreign Office.. SECOND WILSON REPLY October 18

The unqualified acceptance by the present German Government and by a large majority of the German Reichstag of the terms laid down by the President of the United States of America in his address to the Congress of the United States on the 8th of January, 1918, and his subsequent addresses, justifies the President in making a frank and direct statement of his decision with regard to the communications of the German Government of the 8th and 12th of October, 1918.

It must be clearly understood that the process of evacuation and the conditions of an armistice are matters which must be left to the judgment and advice of the military advisers of the government of the United States and the allied gov. ernments, and the President feels it his duty to say that no arrange. ment can be accepted by the gov ernment of the United States which does not provide absolutely satisfac tory safeguards and guarantees of the maintenance of the present mili tary supremacy of the armies of the United States and of the Allies in the field. He feels confident that he can safely assume that this will also be the judgment and decision of the allied governments.

The President feels that it is also his duty to add that neither the government of the United States nor, he is quite sure, the govern ments with which the government of the United States is associated. as a belligerent, will consent to consider an armistice so long as the armed forces of Germany continue the illegal and inhuman practices which they still persist in

At the very time that the German Government approaches the govern ment of the United States with proposals of peace, its submarines are engaged in sinking passenger ships at sea, and not the ships alone, but the very boats in which their passengers and crews seek to make their way to safety.

And in their present enforced withdrawal from Flanders and France, the German armies are pur suing a course of wanton destruction which has always been regarded as in direct violation of the rules and practices of civilized warfare.

Cities and villages, if not destroyed, are being stripped of all they contain, not only, but often of their very inhabitants. The nations associated against Germany cannot be expected to agree to a cessation of arms while acts of inhumanity, spoliation and desolation are being continued, which they justly look upon with horror and with burning hearts.

It is necessary, also, in order that there may be no possibility of mis understanding, that the President should very solemnly call the attention of the Government of Germany to the language and plain intent of one of the terms of peace which the German Government has now accepted. It is contained in the address of the President delivered at Mount Vernon, on the Fourth of July last, and is as fol lows:

"The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can separately, secretly, and of its single choice, disturb the peace of the world; or If it cannot be presently destroyed, at least its reduction to virtual im potency."

The power which has hitherto controlled the German nation is of the sort here described. It is within the choice of the German nation to alter it.

The president's words just quoted naturally constitute a condition

precedent to peace, if peace is to come by the action of the German people themselves. The President feels bound to say that the whole process of peace will, in his judg ment, depend upon the definiteness and the satisfactory character of the guarantees which can be given in this fundamental matter. It is indispensable that the governments associated against Germany should know beyond peradventure with whom they were dealing.

The President will make a sepa rate reply to the Royal and Imperial Government of Austria-Hungary.

THIRD GERMAN NOTE
October 21

In accepting the proposal for an evacuation of occupied territories, the German Government has started from the assumption that the proce dure of this evacuation, and of the conditions of an armistice, should be left to the judgment of the military advisers, and that the ac tual standard of power which both sides in the field have should form the basis for arrangements safeguarding and guaranteeing this

standard.

The German Government trusts that the President of the United States will approve of no demand which would be irreconcilable with the honor of the German people.

The German Government protests against the reproach of illegal and inhumane action against the German land and sea forces, and thereby against the German people.

The German Government further denies that the German Navy, in sinking ships, has ever purposely destroyed lifeboats with their pas sengers.

has

The German Government caused orders to be dispatched to all submarine commanders precluding the torpedoing of passenger ships.

Hitherto the representatives of the people in the German Empire have not been endowed with an influence on the formation of the government.

These conditions have just now undergone a fundamental change. The first act of the new government has been to lay before the Reichstag a bill to alter the constitution of the Empire so that the consent of the representatives of the people is required for decisions on war and peace.

The offer of peace and an armi. stice has come from a government

which is free from any arbitrary and irresponsible influence, and is supported by the approval of an overwhelming majority of the German people. SOLF. State Secretary of Foreign Office. THIRD WILSON REPLY October 28

Having received the solemn and explicit assurance of the German Government that it unreservedly accepts the terms of peace laid down in his address to the Congress of the United States on the 8th of January, 1918, and the principles of settlement enunciated in his subsequent addresses, particularly the address of the 27th of September, and that it desires to discuss the details of their application, and that this wish and purave hitherto emanate,

not from those who

dictated German policy and conducted the present war on Germany's behall, but from ministers who speak for the majority of the Reichstag and for an overwhelming majority of the German people; and having received also the explicit promise of the present German Government that the humane rules of civilized warfare will be observed both on land and sea by the German armed forces, the President of the United States feels that he cannot decline to take up with the governments with which the Government of the United States is associated the question of an armistice.

He deems it his duty to say again, however, that the only armistice he would feel justified in submitting for consideration would be one which should leave the United States and the powers associated with her in a position to enforce any arrangements that may be entered into to make a renewal of hostilities on the part of Germany impossible. The President has, therefore, transmitted his corre. spondence with the present German authorities to the governments with which the government of the United States is associated as a belligerent, with the suggestion that, if those governments are disposed to effect peace upon the terms and princi. ples indicated, their military ad visers and the military advisers of the United States be asked to submit to the governments associated against Germany the necessary terms of such an armistice as will

fully protect the interests of the peoples involved and insure to the associated governments the unrestricted power to safeguard and enforce the details of the peace to which the German Government has agreed, provided they deem such an armistice possible from the mili tary point of view. Should such terms of armistice be suggested, their acceptance by Germany will afford the best concrete evidence of her unequivocal acceptance of the terms and principles of peace from which the whole action proceeds.

the

The President would deem himself lacking in candor did he not point out in the frankest possible terms the reason why extraordinary safeguards must be demanded. Sig. nificant and important as the constitutional changes seem to be which are spoken of by the German Foreign Secretary in his note of the 20th of October, it does not appear that the principle of a gov. ernment responsible to the German people has yet been fully worked out or that any guarantees either exist or are in contemplation that the alterations of principle and of practice now partially agreed upon will be permanent. Moreover, it does not appear that the heart of has present difficulty been reached. It may be that future wars have been brought under the control of the German people, but the present war has not been; and it is with the present war that we are dealing. It is evident that the German people have no means of commanding the acquiescence of the military authorities of the empire in the popular will; that the power of the King of Prussia to control the policy of the empire is unimpaired; that the determining initiative still remains with those who have hitherto been the masters of Germany. Feeling that the whole peace of the world depends now on plain speaking and straightforward action, the President deems it his duty to say, without any attempt to soften what may seem harsh words, that the nations of the world do not and cannot trust the word of those who have hitherto been the masters of German policy, and to point out once more that in concluding peace and attempting to undo the infinite injuries and injustices of this war the government of the United States cannot deal 143