The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1917-09-06
WILSON REJECTS
PEACE PROPOSALS
OFFERED BY POPE
WILL NOT DEAL WITH RULERS
RESPONSIBLE FOR BLOOD OF
INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILL
DREN AS WELL AS SOLDIERS.
PEACE MUST BE BASED
ON FAITH OF ALL PEOPLES
Cannot Take Word Of German Rulers
as Guarantee Of Anything That
Is to Endure Without Evidence
of Will and Purpose Of Ger
man People.

Is to Endure Without Evidence
Of Will and Purpose Of Ger
man People.
Washington, Aug. 80. - President
Wilson has rejected the Pope's peace
proposals. In a note dispatched and
made public here the President says
that every heart not blinded and hard
ened by the terrible war must be
touched by the moving appeal of His
Holiness, it would be folly to take the
path Of peace he points out If it does
not in fact lead to the goal he pro-
poses.
To deal with such power as the
present ruler Of Germany upon Pope
Benedict's plan, declares the Presi-
dent, would involve recuperation of
the strength and renewal of the world
domination Of that power, now baked
but not defeated after sweeping a
continent with blood of innocent wom-
en- and children and the helpless poor
as we'll as of soldiers.
Permanent peace must be based up
on the faith of all the peoples and upon
Justice and fairness and the common
rights of mankind, he adds.
Complete Text Of Note.
The complete text Of the not fol-
lows:
ITO His Holiness, Benedictus XIV,
Pope:
In acknowledgement Of the CON-
munication Of Your Holiness to the
belligerent peoples, dated August l.,
1917, the President of the United
States requests me to transmit the fol-
lowing reply:
Every heart that has not been
blinded and hardened by this terrible
war must be touched by this moving
appeal of His Holiness, the Pope, must
feel the dignity and force of the hu-
name and generous motives which
prompted it, and must fervently wish
that we might take the path Of peace
he so persuasively points out. But
it would be folly to take it, if 1t does
not in fact lead to the goal he pro-
poses. Our response must be based
upon the stern facts and upon nothing
else. 1t is not a mere cessation of
arms he desires; it is a stable and en-
during peace. This agony must not be
gone through with again, and 1t must
be matter of very sober judgment
that will insure US against it.
His Holiness in substance proposes
that we return to the status quo ante
bellum and that then there be gen.
eral conformation, disarmament, and
81
ceptance of the principle of arbitra.
ton; that by a similar concert free
dom of the seas be established; and
that the territorial claims Of France
and Italy, the perpleXing problems of
The Balkan states, and the restitution
Of Poland be left to such conciliatory
adjustments as may be possible in the
new temper of such peace, due re-
gard being paid to the aspirations of
the peoples whose political fortunes
and affiliations will be involved.
Free Peoples Menaced.
1T is manifest that no part of this
program can be successfully carried
out unless the restitution of the status
quo ante bellum furnishes a firm and
satisfactory basis for it. The object
Of this war is to deliver the free peo-
pies of the world from the menace and
the actual power of vast military es-
Enlistment controlled by an irrespon-
sible government, which, having secret
ly planned to dominate the world, pro-
ceeded to carry the plan out without
regard either to the sacred obligations
of treaty or the long established prac-
tees and long cherished principles of
international action and honor; which
chose it's own time for the war; de-
livered it's blow fiercely and suddenly;
stopped at no barrier, either law or
mercy; swept a whole continent with
In the tide of blood-not the blood Of
soldiers only, but the blood of limo
cent women and children also, and of
the helpless poor; and now stands
baked, but not defeated, the enemy Of
four-fifths of the world. This power
is not the German people. It is the
ruthless master Of the German people.
1t Is no business of ours how that
great people came under it's control or
submitted with temporary zest to the
aszi OF its pun pose; but it rs
our business to see to it that the his
tory of the rest Of the world is no long
er left to its handling.
No Peace on Status Quo.
"To deal with such a power by way