The New Europe/Volume 6/Number 69/President Wilson's "must" and "should"
President Wilson’s “must” and “should”
We have received from Mr. A. F. Giles, Lecturer in Ancient History at Edinburgh University, the following comment on President Wilson’s Message to Congress:—Mr. Wilson’s Message shows a curious variation of phrase in the statement of its various paragraphs: Nos. 1–6 give the aims as substantives—‘open covenants,’ ‘freedom of navigation,’ ‘removal of economic barriers and establishment of equality of trade,’ ‘adequate guarantees’ for limitation of armaments, ‘free . . . . adjustment of colonial claims,’ and ‘evacuation of all Russian territory’; Nos. 7 and 14 use the word ‘must’—with reference to the restoration of Belgium and the formation of a general association of nations; and Nos. 8–13 use the word ‘should’ with reference to the restoration of invaded French territory and the righting of the wrong of 1871, to the readjustment of Italian frontiers, the autonomy of the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the Balkan settlement, the Turkish settlement, and the erection of an independent Poland. Is this variation of phrase accidental, or does Mr. Wilson—who is usually able to say very precisely what he means—intend to suggest degrees of importance among the several aims proposed? One would be inclined to think so, were it not that the restoration of invaded French territory must obviously be an absolute condition, though it is stated as one of the ‘should’ items.”
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