its conclusion, lest the situation of neutral nations, now exceedingly hard to endure, be rendered altogether intolerable, and lest, more than all, an injury be done civilization itself which can never be atoned for or repaired.

The President therefor feels altogether justified in suggesting an immediate opportunity for a comparison of views as to the terms which must precede those ultimate arrangements for the peace of the world, which all desire and in which the neutral nations as well as those at war are ready to play their full responsible part. If the contest must continue to proceed toward undefined ends by slow attrition until the one group of belligerents or the other is exhausted, if millions after millions of human lives must continue to be offered up until on the one side or the other there are no more to offer, if resentments must be kindled that can never cool and despairs engendered from which there can be no recovery, hopes of peace and of the willing concert of free peoples will be rendered vain and idle.

The life of the entire world has been profoundly affected. Every part of the great family of mankind has felt the burden and terror of this unprecedented contest of arms. No nation in the civilized world can be said in truth to stand outside its influence or to be safe against its disturbing effects. And yet the concrete objects for which it is being waged have never been definitely stated.

The leaders of the several belligerents have, as has been said, stated those objects in general terms. But, stated in general terms, they seem the same on both sides. Never yet have the authoritative spokesmen of either side avowed the precise objects which would, if attained, satisfy them and their people that the war had been fought out. The world has been left to conjecture what definitive results, what actual exchange of guaranties, what political or territorial changes or readjustments, what stage of military success even, would bring the war to an end.

It may be that peace is nearer than we know; that the terms which the belligerents on the one side and on the other would deem it necessary to insist upon are not so irreconciliable as some have feared; that an interchange of views would clear the way at least for conference and make

the permanent concord of the nations a hope of the immediate future, a concert of nations immediately practicable. The President is not proposing peace; he is not even offering mediation. He is merely proposing that soundings be taken in order that we may learn, the neutral nations with the belligerent, how near the haven of peace may be for which all mankind longs with an intense and increasing longing. He believes that the spirit in which he speaks and the objects which he seeks will be understood by all concerned, and he confidently hopes for a response which will bring a new light into the affairs of the world.

Congressional Record, LIV, App. 36.

YEAR 1917/

52. SUPPORT FOR THE RED CROSS

(January 7, 1917)

PUBLIC APPEAL AS PRESIDENT OF THE RED CROSS

Another Winter closes around the great European struggle and, with the cold, there comes greater need among soldiers in the fighting line and in the hospitals, and still more among the women and children in ruined homes or in exile. This country, at peace, blessed with prosperity, can hardly imagine the needs, but it can help to meet them.

Of great importance among the agencies which have expressed our sympathy with suffering humanity among the belligerent nations has been the American Red Cross. This organization of our countrymen has brought relief to every nation in the great war. Its skilled workers have cared for the wounded in every army, have gone forth through the desolate Siberian plains to bring help to thousands of prisoners, have fought disease in pestilence-ridden Siberia, and have brought hope to countless non-combatants, women, and children.

Wherever these Red Cross men and women go, they are carrying the message that Americans cannot rest without seeking to relieve such suffering. Organized, persistent work, like that conducted by our American Red Cross, requires a great deal of money. Since the beginning of the war, money has come to us from men and women in all walks of life. We have received checks in five figures and pennies wrapped in smudged envelopes. What we have done with the money is told in the accompanying statement.

But now our funds are well-nigh exhausted. We find

ourselves at a point where activities must be seriously curtailed and we must turn away from the heart-breaking appeals brought by every European mail, unless by your contribution you help us to continue.

It is for you to decide whether the most prosperous nation in the world will allow its national relief organization to keep up its work or withdraw from a field where there exists the greatest need ever recorded in history. We leave the decision in your hands, confident of its outcome.

New York Times, Jan. 8, 1917.

53. CONDITIONS OF PEACE

(January 22, 1917)

ADDRESS TO THE SENATE

On the eighteenth of December last I addressed an identic note to the governments of the nations now at war requesting them to state, more definitely than they had yet been stated by either group of belligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it possible to make peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of the rights of all neutral nations like our own, many of whose most vital interests the war puts in constant jeopardy. The Central Powers united in a reply which stated merely that they were ready to meet their antagonists in conference to discuss terms of peace. The Entente Powers have replied much more definitely and have stated, in general terms, indeed, but with sufficient definiteness to imply details, the arrangements, guarantees, and acts of reparation which they deem to be the indispensable conditions of a satisfactory settlement. We are that much nearer a definite discussion of the peace which shall end the present war. We are that much nearer the discussion of the international concert which must thereafter hold the world at peace. In every discussion of the peace that must end this war it is taken for granted that that peace must be followed by some definite concert of power which will make it virtually impossible that any such catastrophe should ever overwhelm

us again. Every lover of mankind, every sane and thoughtful man must take that for granted.

I have sought this opportunity to address you because I thought that I owed it to you, as the council associated with me in the final determination of our international obligations, to disclose to you without reserve the thought and purpose that have been taking form in my mind in regard to the duty of our Government in the days to come when it will be necessary to lay afresh and upon a new plan the foundations of peace among the nations.

It is inconceivable that the people of the United States should play no part in that great enterprise. To take part in such a service will be the opportunity for which they have sought to prepare themselves by the very principles and purposes of their polity and the approved practices of their Government ever since the days when they set up a new nation in the high and honorable hope that it might in all that it was and did show mankind the way to liberty. They cannot in honor withhold the service to which they are now about to be challenged. They do not wish to withhold it. But they owe it to themselves and to the other nations of the world to state the conditions under which they will feel free to render it.

That service is nothing less than this, to add their authority and their power to the authority and force of other nations to guarantee peace and justice throughout the world. Such a settlement cannot now be long postponed. It is right that before it comes this Government should frankly formulate the conditions upon which it would feel justified in asking our people to approve its formal and solemn adherence to a League for Peace. I am here to attempt to state those conditions.

The present war must first be ended; but we owe it to candour and to a just regard of the opinion of mankind to say that, so far as our participation in guarantees of future peace is considered, it makes a great deal of difference in what way and upon what terms it is ended. The treaties and agreements which bring it to an end must embody terms which will create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and preserving, a peace that will win the approval of mankind,