f the world:
that no nation should seek to extend its polity over any other
nation or people, but that every people should be left free to
determine its own polity, its own way of development, unhindered,
unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful.

"I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid entangling alliances
which would draw them into competitions of power, catch them in a net
of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and disturb their own affairs with
influences intruded from without. There is no entangling alliance
in a concert of power. When all unite to act in the same sense and
with the same purpose all act in the common interest and are free
to live their own lives under a common protection.

"I am proposing government by the consent of the governed; that
freedom of the seas which in international conference after conference
representatives of the United States have urged with the eloquence of
those who are the convinced disciples of liberty; and that moderation
of armaments which makes of armies and navies a power for order
merely, not an instrument of aggression or of selfish violence.

"These are American principles, American policies. We could stand
for no others. And they are also the principles and policies of
forward looking men and women everywhere, of every modern nation,
of every enlightened community. They are the principles of mankind
and must prevail."

In Helfferich's account of these matters, the author charges this
appeal of Mr. Wilson's with having favored the Entente side, because
in it the conditions laid down are regarded as an acceptable basis
for peace. When I returned to Germany the Imperial Chancellor advanced
the same argument in my presence; I have heard it repeated again
and again at home, and among other places, before the Examination
Committee of the National Assembly. It seems to me that this view is
rather a Berlin _fable convenue_. There is no word in the document
which would justify one in drawing such a conclusion. The President
stated simply that he had invited both belligerent parties to define
the conditions under which they would make peace, and that the
Entente had replied fully to the invitation, whereas the Central
Powers had not submitted their terms. He then proceeded to say
that in so far as the conditions insisted upon by one side had
become known, we had advanced a step nearer to the discussion of
peace. If we read the wording of the