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duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or

shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service

of the United States, to the injury of the service or of the

United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than

$10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years

or both.

Sec. 4. If two or more persons conspire to violate the

provisions of sections two or three of this title, and one or

more of such persons does any act to effect the object of

the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall

be punished as in paid sections provided in the case of the

doing of the act the accomplishment of which is the

object of such conspiracy. Except as above provided con-

spiracies to commit offenses under this title shall be pun-

ished as provided by section thirty-seven of the Act to

codify, revise, and amend the penal laws of the United

States approved March fourth, nineteen hundred and

nine.

Sec. 5. Whoever harbors or conceals any person who

he knows, or has reasonable grounds to believe or suspect,

has committed, or is about to commit, an offense under

this title shall be punished by a fine of not more than

$10,000 or by imprisonment for not more than two years,

or both.

* * *

Sec. 7. Nothing contained in this title shall be deemed

to limit the jurisdiction of the general courts-martial, mili-

tary commissions, or naval courts-martial. . . .

Sec. 8. The provisions of this title shall extend to all

Territories, possessions, and places subject to the jurisdic-

tion of the United States whether or not contiguous

thereto, and offenses under this title when committed

upon the high seas or elsewhere with in the admiralty and

maritime jurisdiction of the United States and outside the

territorial limits thereof shall be punishable hereunder.

Sec. 9. The Act entitled “An Act to prevent the disclo-

sure of national defense secrets,” approved March third,

nineteen hundred and eleven, is hereby repealed.

* * *

Title III

Injuring Vessels Engaged in Foreign Commerce.

Section 1. Whoever shall set fire to any vessel of for-

eign registry or any vessel of American registry entitled to

engage in commerce with foreign nations, or to any vessel

of the United States as defined in section three hundred

and ten of the Act of March fourth, nineteen hundred and

nine, entitled “An Act to codify, revise, and amend the

penal laws of the United States,” or to the cargo of the

same, or shall tamper with the motive power or instru-

mentalities of navigation of such vessel, or shall place

bombs or explosives in or upon such vessel, or shall do any

other act to or upon such vessel while within the jurisdic-

tion of the United States, or, if such vessel is of American

registry, while she is on the high sea, with intent to injure

or endanger the safety of the vessel or of her cargo, or of

persons on board, whether the injury or danger is to

intended to take place within the jurisdiction of the United

States, or after the vessel shall have departed therefrom; or

whoever shall attempt or conspire to do any such acts with

such intent, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or

imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

Title IV

Interference with Foreign Commerce by Violent Means.

Section 1. Whoever, with intent to prevent, interfere

with, or obstruct or attempt to prevent, interfere with, or

obstruct the exportation to foreign countries of articles

from the United States shall injure or destroy, by fire or

explosives, such articles or the places where they may be

while in such foreign commerce, shall be fined not more

than $10,000, or imprisoned not more that ten years, or

both.

* * *

Title VIII

Disturbance of Foreign Relations.

Section 1. Whoever, in relation to any dispute or con-

troversy between a foreign government and the United

States, shall willfully and knowingly make any untrue state-

ment, either orally or in writing, under oath before any

person authorized and empowered to administer oaths,

which the affiant has knowledge or reason to believe will,

or may be used to influence the measures or conduct of

any foreign government, or of any officer or agent of any

foreign government, to the injury of the United States, or

with a view or intent to influence any measure of or action

by the Government of the United States, or any branch

thereof, to the injury of the United States, shall be fined

not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five

years, or both.

Sec. 2. Whoever within the jurisdiction of the United

States shall falsely assume or pretend to be a diplomatic or

consular, or other official of a foreign government duly

accredited as such to the Government of the United

States with intent to defraud such foreign government or

any person, and shall take upon himself to act as such, or

in such pretended character shall demand or obtain, or

attempt to obtain from any person or from said foreign

government, or from any officer thereof, any money,

paper, document, or other thing of value, shall be fined

not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more than five

years, or both.

Sec. 3. Whoever, other than a diplomatic or consular

officer of attache, shall act in the United States as an agent

1272 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

of a foreign government without prior notification to the

Secretary of State shall be fined not more than $5,000, or

imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Sec. 4. The words “foreign government” . . . shall be

deemed to include any Government, faction, or body of

insurgents within a country with which the United States

is at peace, which Government, faction, or body of insur-

gents may or may not have been recognized by the United

States as a Government.

Sec. 5. If two or more persons within the jurisdiction

of the United States conspire to injure or destroy specific

property situated within a foreign country and belonging

to a foreign Government or to any political subdivision

thereof with which the United States is at peace, or any

railroad, canal, bridge, or other public utility so situated,

and if one or more of such persons commits an act within

the jurisdiction of the United States to effect the object of

the conspiracy, each of the parties to the conspiracy shall

be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more

than three years, or both. Any indictment or information

under this section shall describe the specific property

which it was the object of the conspiracy to injure or

destroy.

Title IX

Passports.

Section 1. Before a passport is issued to any person by

or under authority of the United States such person shall

subscribe to and submit a written application duly verified

by his oath before a person authorized and empowered to

administer oaths, which said application shall contain a

true recital of each and every matter of fact which may be

required by law or by any rules authorized by law to be

stated as a prerequisite to the issuance of any such pass-

port. Clerks of United States courts, agents of the Depart-

ment of State, or other Federal officials authorized, or who

may be authorized, to take passport applications and

administer oaths thereon, shall collect, for all services in

connection therewith, a fee of $1, and no more, in lieu of

all fees prescribed by any statute of the United States,

whether the application is executed singly, in duplicate, or

in triplicate.

Sec. 2. Whoever shall willfully and knowingly make

any false statement in an application for passport with

intent to induce or secure the issuance of a passport under

the authority of the United States, either for his own use or

the use of another, contrary to the laws regulating the

issuance of passports or the rules prescribed pursuant to

such laws, or whoever shall willfully and knowingly use or

attempt to use, or furnish to another for use, any passport

the issue of which was secured in any way by reason of any

false statement, shall be fined not more than $2,000 or

imprisoned not more than five years or both.

Sec. 3. Whoever shall willfully and knowingly use, or

attempt to use, any passport issued or designed for the

use of another than himself, or whoever shall willfully

and knowingly use or attempt to use any passport in vio-

lation of the conditions or restrictions therein contained,

or of the rules prescribed pursuant to the laws regulating

the issuance of passports, which said rules shall be

printed on the passport; or whoever shall willfully and

knowingly furnish, dispose of, or deliver a passport to any

person, for use by another than the person for whose use

it was originally issued and designed, shall be fined not

more than $2,000 or imprisoned not more than five years,

or both.

Sec. 4. Whoever shall falsely make, forge, counterfeit,

mutilate, or alter, or cause or procure to be falsely made,

forged, counterfeited, mutilated, or altered any passport or

instrument purporting to be a passport, with intent to use

the same, or with intent that the same may be used by

another; or whoever shall willfully or knowingly use, or

attempt to use, or furnish to another for use and such false,

forged, counterfeited, mutilated, or altered passport or

instrument purporting to be a passport, or any passport

validly issued which has become void by the occurrence of

any condition therein prescribed invalidating the same,

shall be fined not more than $2,000 or imprisoned not

more than five years, or both.

* * *

Title XI

Search Warrants.

Section 1. A search warrant authorized by this title

may be issued by a judge of a United States district court,

or by a judge or a State or Territorial court of record, or by

a United States commissioner for the district wherein the

property sought is located.

Sec. 2. A search warrant may be issued under this title

upon either of the following grounds:

1. When the property was stolen or embezzled in vio-

lation of a law of the United States; in which case it may be

taken on the warrant from any house or other place in

which it is concealed, or from the possession of the person

by whom it was stolen or embezzled, of from any person in

whose possession it may be.

2. When the property was used as the means of com-

mitting a felony; in which case it may be taken on the war-

rant from any house or other place in which it is concealed,

or from the possession of the person by whom it was used

in the commission of the offense, or from any person in

whose possession it may be.

* * *

Sec. 3. A search warrant can not be issued but upon

probable cause, supported by affidavit, naming or describ-

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1273

ing the person and particularly describing the property and

the place to be searched.

Sec. 4. The judge or commissioner must, before issu-

ing the warrant, examine on oath the complainant and any

witness he may produce, and require their affidavits or

take their depositions in writing and cause them to be sub-

scribed by the parties making them.

Sec. 5. The affidavits or depositions must set forth the

facts tending to establish the grounds of the application or

probable cause for believing that they exist.

* * *

Sec. 8. The officer may break open any outer or inner

door or window of a house, or any part of a house, or any-

thing therein, to execute the warrant, if, after notice of his

authority and purpose, he is refused admittance.

Sec. 9. He may break open any outer or inner door or

window of a house for the purpose of liberating a person

who, having entered to aid him in the execution of the war-

rant, is detained therein, or when necessary for his own lib-

eration.

Sec. 10. The judge or commissioner must insert a

direction in the warrant that it be served in the daytime,

unless the affidavits are positive that the property is on the

person or in the place to be searched, in which case he may

insert a direction that it be served at any time of the day or

night.

Sec. 11. A search warrant must be executed and

returned to the judge or commissioner who issued it

within ten days after its date; after the expiration of this

time the warrant, unless executed, is void.

Sec. 12. When the officer takes property under the

warrant, he must give a copy of the warrant together with

a receipt for the property taken (specifying it in detail) to

the person from whom it was taken by him, or in whose

possession it was found; or, in the absence of any person,

he must leave it in the place where he found the property.

* * *

Sec. 14. The judge or commissioner must thereupon,

if required, deliver a copy of the inventory to the person

from whose possession the property was taken and to the

applicant for the warrant.

* * *

Sec. 17. The judge or commissioner must annex the

affidavits, search warrant, return, inventory, and evidence,

and if he has not power to inquire into the offense in

respect to which the warrant was issued he must at once

file the same, together with a copy of the record of his pro-

ceedings, with the clerk of the court having power to so

inquire.

Sec. 18. Whoever shall knowingly and willfully

obstruct, resist, or oppose any such officer or person in

serving or attempting to serve or execute any such search

warrant, or shall assault, beat, or wound any such officer or

person, knowing him to be an officer or person so autho-

rized, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned

not more than two years.

Sec. 19. Sections one hundred and twenty-five and

one hundred and twenty-six of the Criminal Code of the

United States shall apply to and embrace all persons mak-

ing oath or affirmation or procuring the same under the

provisions of this title, and such persons shall be subject to

all the pains and penalties of said sections.

Sec. 20. A person who maliciously and without proba-

ble cause procures as search warrant to be issued and exe-

cuted shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned

not more than one year.

Sec. 21. An officer who in executing a search warrant

willfully exceeds his authority, or exercises it with unnec-

essary severity, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or

imprisoned not more than one year.

Sec. 22. Whoever, in aid of any foreign Government,

shall knowingly and willfully have possession of or control

over any property or papers designed or intended for use

or which is used as the means of violating any penal

statute, or any of the rights or obligations of the United

States under any treaty or the law of nations, shall be fined

not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than two

years, or both.

Sec. 23. Nothing contained in this title shall be held to

repeal or impair any existing provisions of law regulating

search and the issue of search warrants.

Title XII

Use of Mails.

Section 1. Every letter, writing, circular, postal card,

picture, print, engraving, photograph, newspaper, pam-

phlet, book, or other publication, matter, or thing, of any

kind, in violation of any of the provisions of this Act is

hereby declared to be nonmailable matter and shall not be

conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or

by any letter carrier: Provided, That nothing in this Act

shall be so construed as to authorize any person other than

an employee of the Dead Letter Office, duly authorized

thereto, or other person upon a search warrant authorized

by law, to open any letter not addressed to himself.

Sec. 2. Every letter, writing, circular, postal card, pic-

ture, print, engraving, photograph, newspaper, pamphlet,

book, or other publication, matter or thing, of any kind,

containing any matter advocating or urging treason, insur-

rection, or forcible resistance to any law of the United

States, is hereby declared to be nonmailable.

1274 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

Sec. 3. Whoever shall use or attempt to use the mails

or Postal Service of the United States for the transmission

of any matter declared by this title to be nonmailable,

shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not

more than five years, or both. Any person violating any

provision of this title may be tried and punished either in

the district in which the unlawful matter or publication

was mailed, or to which it was carried by mail for delivery

according to the direction thereon, or in which it was

caused to be delivered by mail to the person to whom it

was addressed.

Title XIII

General Provisions.

Section 1. The term “United States” as used in this Act

includes the Canal Zone and all territory and waters, con-

tinental or insular, subject to the jurisdiction of the United

States.

Sec. 2. The several courts of first instance in the

Philippine Islands and the district court of the Canal Zone

shall have jurisdiction of offenses under this Act commit-

ted within their respective districts, and concurrent juris-

diction with the district courts of the United States of

offenses under this Act committed upon the high seas, and

of conspiracies to commit such offenses, as defined by sec-

tion thirty-seven of the Act entitled “An Act to codify,

revise, and amend the penal laws of the United States,”

approved March fourth, nineteen hundred and nine, and

the provisions of said section, for the purpose of this Act,

are hereby extended to the Philippine Islands, and to the

Canal Zone. In such cases the district attorneys of the

Philippine Islands and of the Canal Zone shall have the

powers and perform the duties provided in this Act for

United States attorneys.

Sec. 3. Offenses committed and penalties, forfeitures,

or liabilities incurred prior to the taking effect hereof

under any law embraced in or changed, modified, or

repealed by any chapter of this Act may be prosecuted and

punished, and suits and proceedings for causes arising or

acts done or committed prior to the taking effect hereof

may be commenced and prosecuted in the same manner

and with the same effect as if this Act had not been passed.

Sec. 4. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of

this Act shall for any reason be adjudged by any court of

competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall

not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof but

shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence,

paragraph, or part thereof directly involved in the contro-

versy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.

Source:

Statutes at Large, Vol. 40, pp. 217–231; Vol. 40, pp. 533–534.

Woodrow Wilson, Fourteen Points, 1918

Address delivered to Congress on January 8, 1918, by Presi-

dent Woodrow Wilson, setting forth his program for a just and

enduring world peace. These points became the basis for

negotiating an end to World War I. A year earlier, the president

had addressed the U.S. Senate, calling for an end to the war

and outlining his ideas for the basis of an enduring world

peace. In the speech, Wilson sought a peace that would pro-

tect the rights of both sides, a “peace without victory” between

nations equal in rights, if not in power. This peace had to be

guaranteed by an international organization, “the organized

major force of mankind.” He argued that peace must be based

on the principle of government by the consent of the gov-

erned, that all nations must have free access to the seas and

the paths of commerce, that no nation should seek to extend

its powers over another, that nations should avoid entangling

alliances, and that armaments must be limited.

These points were developed further in Wilson’s Fourteen

Points speech. Wilson called for “open covenants of peace,

openly arrived at”; absolute freedom of the seas, in peace and

war; equality of trade conditions among nations; reductions of

national armaments; impartial adjustment of colonial claims;

self-determination for Russia and the peoples of the former

Austria-Hungary; restoration or adjustments of Belgian,

French, Italian, Rumanian, Serbian, and Montenegrin borders;

autonomy for nationalities formerly under Turkish rule, but

sovereignty for Turkey; opening of the Dardanelles to all

nations; establishment of an independent Poland; and forma-

tion of an association of nations to guarantee “political inde-

pendence and territorial integrity to great and small states

alike.”

________________________

_______________________

Gentlemen of the Congress: Once more, as repeatedly

before, the spokesmen of the Central Empires have indi-

cated their desire to discuss the objects of the war and the

possible bases of a general peace. Parleys have been in

progress at Brest-Litovsk between representatives of the

Central Powers, to which the attention of all the belliger-

ents has been invited for the purpose of ascertaining

whether it may be possible to extend these parleys into a

general conference with regard to terms of peace and set-

tlement. The Russian representatives presented not only a

perfectly definite statement of the principles upon which

they would be willing to conclude peace, but also an

equally definite programme of the concrete application of

those principles. The representatives of the Central Pow-

ers, on their part, presented an outline of settlement

which, if much less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal

interpretation until their specific programme of practical

terms was added. That programme proposed no conces-

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1275

sions at all either to the sovereignty of Russia or to the

preferences of the populations with whose fortunes it

dealt, but meant, in a word, that the Central Empires were

to keep every foot of territory their armed forces had occu-

pied,—every province, every city, every point of van-

tage,—as a permanent addition to their territories and

their power. It is a reasonable conjecture that the general

principles of settlement which they at first suggested orig-

inated with the more liberal statesmen of Germany and

Austria, the men who have begun to feel the force of their

own peoples’ thought and purpose, while the concrete

terms of actual settlement came from the military leaders

who have no thought but to keep what they have got. The

negotiations have been broken off. The Russian represen-

tatives were sincere and in earnest. They cannot entertain

such proposals of conquest and domination.

The whole incident is full of significance. It is also full

of perplexity. With whom are the Russian representatives

dealing? For whom are the representatives of the Central

Empires speaking? Are they speaking for the majorities of

their respective parliaments or for the minority parties,

that military and imperialistic minority which has so far

dominated their whole policy and controlled the affairs of

Turkey and of the Balkan states which have felt obliged to

become their associates in this war? The Russian repre-

sentatives have insisted, very justly, very wisely, and in the

true spirit of modern democracy, that the conferences they

have been holding with the Teutonic and Turkish states-

men should be held within open, not closed doors, and all

the world has been audience, as was desired. To whom

have we been listening, then? To those who speak the

spirit and intention of the Resolutions of the German

Reichstag of the ninth of July last, the spirit and intention

of the liberal leaders and parties of Germany, or to those

who resist and defy that spirit and intention and insist

upon conquest and subjugation? Or are we listening, in

fact, to both, unreconciled and in open and hopeless con-

tradiction? These are very serious and pregnant questions.

Upon the answer to them depends the peace of the world.

But, whatever the results of the parleys at Brest-

Litovsk, whatever the confusions of counsel and of pur-

pose in the utterances of the spokesmen of the Central

Empires, they have again attempted to acquaint the world

with their objects in the war and have again challenged

their adversaries to say what their objects are and what sort

of settlement they would deem just and satisfactory. There

is no good reason why that challenge should not be

responded to, and responded to with the utmost candor.

We did not wait for it. Not once, but again and again, we

have laid our whole thought and purpose before the world,

not in general terms only, but each time with sufficient

definition to make it clear what sort of definitive terms of

settlement must necessarily spring out of them. Within the

last week Mr. Lloyd George has spoken with admirable

candor and in admirable spirit for the people and Govern-

ment of Great Britain. There is no confusion of counsel

among the adversaries of the Central Powers, no uncer-

tainty of principle, no vagueness of detail. The only secrecy

of counsel, the only lack of fearless frankness, the only fail-

ure to make definite statement of the objects of the war,

lies with Germany and her Allies. The issues of life and

death hang upon these definitions. No statesman who has

the least conception of his responsibility ought for a

moment to permit himself to continue this tragical and

appalling outpouring of blood and treasure unless he is

sure beyond a peradventure that the objects of the vital

sacrifice are part and parcel of the very life of Society and

that the people for whom he speaks think them right and

imperative as he does.

There is, moreover, a voice calling for these defini-

tions of principle and of purpose which is, it seems to me,

more thrilling and more compelling than any of the many

moving voices with which the troubled air of the world is

filled. It is the voice of the Russian people. They are pros-

trate and all but helpless, it would seem, before the grim

power of Germany, which has hitherto known no relenting

and no pity. Their power, apparently, is shattered. And yet

their soul is not subservient. They will not yield either in

principle or in action. Their conception of what is right, of

what is humane and honorable for them to accept, has

been stated with a frankness, a largeness of view, a gen-

erosity of spirit, and a universal human sympathy which

must challenge the admiration of every friend of mankind;

and they have refused to compound their ideals or desert

others that they themselves may be safe. They call to us to

say what it is that we desire, in what, if in anything, our

purpose and our spirit differ from theirs; and I believe that

the people of the United States would wish me to respond,

with utter simplicity and frankness. Whether their present

leaders believe it or not, it is our heartfelt desire and hope

that some way may be opened whereby we may be privi-

leged to assist the people of Russia to attain their utmost

hope of liberty and ordered peace.

It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of

peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and

that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret

understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and

aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret

covenants entered into the interest of particular govern-

ments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset

the peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to

the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still

linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it pos-

sible for every nation whose purposes are consistent with

justice and the peace of the world to avow now or at any

other time the objects it has in view.

1276 ERA 7: The Emergence of Modern America

We entered this war because violations of right had

occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life

of our own people impossible unless they were corrected

and the world secured once for all against their recur-

rence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing

peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and

safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for

every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to

live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured

of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world

as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of

the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our

own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to

others it will not be done to us. The programme of the

world’s peace, therefore, is our programme; and that pro-

gramme, the only possible programme, as we see it, is this:

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after

which there shall be no private international understand-

ings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly

and in the public view.

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, out-

side territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as

the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international

action for the enforcement of international covenants.

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic

barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade con-

ditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and

associating themselves for its maintenance.

IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national

armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent

with domestic safety.

V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial

adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict obser-

vance of the principle that in determining all such ques-

tions of sovereignty the interests of the populations

concerned must have equal weight with the equitable

claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a

settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure

the best and freest and cooperation of the other nations of

the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unem-

barrassed opportunity for the independent determination

of her own political development and national policy and

assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free

nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more

than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may

need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Rus-

sia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the

acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her

needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of

their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.

VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be

evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the

sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other

free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve

to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which

they have themselves set and determined for the govern-

ment of their relations with one another. Without this heal-

ing act the whole structure and validity of international law

is forever impaired.

VIII. All French territory should be freed and the

invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France

by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which

has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years,

should be righted, in order that peace may once more be

made secure in the interests of all.

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be

effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place

among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and

assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of

autonomous development.

XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evac-

uated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free

and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the sev-

eral Balkan states to one another determined by friendly

counsel along historically established lines of allegiance

and nationality; and international guarantees of the politi-

cal and economic independence and territorial integrity of

the several Balkan states should be entered into.

XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman

Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty but the

other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule

should be assured an undoubted security of life and an

absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous devel-

opment, and the Dardanelles should be permanently

opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all

nations under international guarantees.

XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected

which should include the territories inhabited by indis-

putably Polish populations, which should be assured a free

and secure access to the sea, and whose political and eco-

nomic independence and territorial integrity should be

guaranteed by international covenant.

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed

under specific covenants for the purpose of affording

mutual guarantees of political independence and territo-

rial integrity to great and small states alike.

In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and

assertions of right we feel ourselves to be intimate partners

of all the governments and peoples associated together

against the Imperialists. We cannot be separated in inter-

est or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.

For such arrangements and covenants we are willing

to fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved; but

only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just

Causes and Consequences of World War I 1277

and stable peace such as can be secured only by removing

the chief provocations to war, which this programme does

remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and

there is nothing in this programme that impairs it. We

grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of

pacific enterprise such as have made her record very

bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or

to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We

do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile

arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate herself

with us and the other peace-loving nations of the world in

covenants of justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her

only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the

world,—the new world in which we now live,—instead of

a place of mastery.

Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alter-

ation or modification of her institutions. But it is necessary,

we must frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any

intelligent dealings with her on our part, that we should

know whom her spokesmen speak for when they speak to

us, whether for the Reichstag majority or for the military

party and the men whose creed is imperial domination.

We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to

admit of any further doubt or question. An evident princi-

ple runs through the whole programme I have outlined. It

is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities,

and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safely

with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless

this principle be made its foundation no part of the struc-

ture of international justice can stand. The people of the

United States could act upon no other principle; and to the

vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their

lives, their honor, and everything that they possess. The

normal climax of this the culminating and final war for

human liberty has come, and they are ready to put their

own strength, their own highest purpose, their own

integrity and devotion to the test.