Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-08-29
Sought World Domination.

Government"
Sought World Domination.
That irresponsible government, in
the words of the Presidents indict-
ments having secretly planned to
dominate the world. proceeded to
carry the plan out without regard
either to the sacred obligations of
treaty or the long-established prac-
tices and long-cherished principles of
international action and honor, which
chose its own time for the war; deliv-
cred its blow fiercely and suddenly;
stopped at no barrier either of law or
of mercy; swept whole continent
within the tide of blood-not the blood
of soldiers only, but the blood of in
nocent women and children also and
of the helpless poor; and now stands
baked but not defeated. the enemy of
four-fifths of the world"
Men who are in the Presidents con-
fidence have been saying privately
that he had set his teeth in the de-
termination to go on with the war un-
til the German autocracy had come TO
an end His words confirm all that
they have said.
NThe Presidents response fairly
bristles with indignant denunciation
of the German Government. He is
careful to make a distinction between
the German people and their rulers,
He holds out the hope to the German
people that they will not be made the
subject of revenge on account of the
crimes of those who have plunged
them into the bloody struggle which
has come from the ambition of these
men, The object of the war, says the
President, is to deliver the free peo-
pies of the world from the menace
and the actual power of a vast mili-
tary establishment controlled by an
irresponsible government.
President wilson's reply to the
Pope, in detail, follows:
Washington, ID. c.,
Aug. 81, 1917. r
To His Holiness Benedictus XIV,
Pope:
In acknowledgment of the communi-
cation of your Holiness to the belliger-
ent peoples, dated Aug. /, 1917, the
President of the United States re-
quests me to transmit the following
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 II
would be folly to take it if it does not
in fact lead to the goal he proposes.
Our response must be based upon the
stern facts, and upon nothing else.
II is not a mere cessation Of arms he
desires; it is stable and enduring
peace. This agony must not be gone
through with again. and it must be a
matter of very sober judgment what
will insure US against it.
| His Holiness in substance proposes
that we return to the status quo ante
bellum and that then there be a gen.
eral conformation, disarmament, and a
concert of nations based upon an ac-
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 regard
being paid to the aspirations of the
peoples whose political fortunes and
affiliations will be involved.