r own part we see very clearly that unless
justice be done to others it will not be done to us."

Of the Fourteen Points into which he then divided his peace programme,
the first five were general in nature. The first insisted upon open
diplomacy, to begin with the approaching Peace Conference: "Open
covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no
private international understandings of any kind." Next came "absolute
freedom of navigation upon the seas ... alike in peace and in war." Then
"the removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the
establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations
consenting to the peace." There followed a demand for the reduction of
armaments "to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety." The
fifth point called for an "impartial adjustment of all colonial claims,
based upon ... the interests of the populations concerned" as well as
"the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined."

These generalizations were not so much God-given tables which must
determine the international law of the future as they were subtle
inducements to cease fighting; they were idealistic in tone, but
intensely practical in purpose. They guaranteed to any Germans who
wanted peace that there would be protection against British "navalism,"
against the threatened Allied economic boycott, as well as a chance of
the return of the conquered colonies. The force of their seductiveness
was proved, when, many months later, in October, 1918, defeated Germany
grasped at them as a drowning man at a straw. At the same time Wilson
offered to liberals the world over the hope of ending the old-style
secret diplomacy, and to business men and labor the termination of the
system of competitive armaments, with their economic and moral waste. No
one would suggest that Wilson did not believe in the idealism of these
first five points; no one should forget, however, that they were
carefully drafted with the political situation of the moment definitely
in view. They might be construed as a charter for future international
relations, but they were designed primarily to serve as a diplomatic
weapon for the present.

Each of the succeeding eight points was more special in character, and
dealt with the territorial and political problems of the warring states.
They provided for the evacuation and restoration of all conquered
territories in Europe, including Ru