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the privilege of men everywhere to choose their own way of life and obedience . . . for the rights and liberties of small nations."

"We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, and the undictated development of all peoples," he said to Russia (May 26, 1917). “No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live."

"What we demand in this war," he told Congress, in the speech of the Fourteen Points, "is that the world . . . 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."

"Self-determination is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action," he announced, in the speech of the Four Principles (February 11, 1918).

Speaking in contemplation of war, in his inaugural address, 1917, he informed us:

"These, therefore, are the things we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace. . . . That the essential principle of peace is the actual equality of nations in all matters of right and privilege."

"The equality of nations upon which peace must be founded, if it is to last, must be an equality of rights," he said, in his Peace Without Victory Address. "The guarantees exchanged must neither recognize nor imply a difference between big nations and small, between those that are powerful and those that are weak."

In summing up the meaning of the Fourteen Points (January 8, 1918) he pointed out:

"An evident principle runs through the whole program 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 safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this principle be made its foundation no part of the structure of international justice can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other principle; and and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything that they possess."

Summing up the pledges enunciated September 27, 1918, the President said:

"They (the issues of the struggle) must be settled . . . definitely and once for all and with a full and unequivocal acceptance of the principle that the interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of the strongest."

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