Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-08-30
THE PRESIDENT TO THE POPE

& PRESIDENT Wilson has done the expected thing In ad-
dressing to the pope q n message in which, while the pope's
peace proposals are treated with the courtesy due the dis.
tinguisheds pontiff who made them, it is made clear that
those proposals furnish no basis on which the United
States can consider a peace with Germany, and 1t is un-
derstood that In this the president voices the sentiments
Of all the nations which are allied with ours in this strug-
gle. The really noteworthy feature Of the presidents let
ter lies in the manner in which 1t sweeps aside everything
in the nature Of detailed peace terms and goes right to
the basis Of the whole matter.
Several Of the things which the pope proposes are ex-
cellent, and they have long been recognized as desirable.
But the American note makes 1t plain that we are not
now discussing, or ready to discuss, details. but we are en-
gagged in a determined effort first to create such condi-
tons that whatever terms are decided upon as Just and
fair will be accepted in good faith, and that the peace
which ensues will be q permanent one because It will rest
on the will and the conscience Of great peoples rather
than on the ambitions Of designing rulers.
It would be hard to find in a great state paper issued
before this one a more scathing arraignment Of a gov
eminent than is contained in this document in it's ref
erence to the government Of Germany. That government
has shown that it is not to be trusted in the making Of
any agreement whatever, and the statements Of President
Wilson may be taken as voicing the discrimination Of all
the democratic powers Of the world not to treat with that
government nor to come to any conclusion with ~ except
upon the basis of d full acceptance of the terms reached
by the German people themselves, and the presentation
Of ample evidence that the rulers will not be. permitted
under any circumstances to violate the agreements and re-
peat the tragedies of these years.
That communication ought to induce some sober
thinking in Germany. With %four-fifths Of the world ar
rayed against her, and with her adversaries committed
ny Woro II deed % n same program, with q detern11-
nation fully fixed that there shall be no peace until con-
ditions have been created which will make peace worth
while, with the German government formally arraigned
on charges Of brutality ana bad faith, and with an implied
invitation to the German people to take matters into
their own hands and rescue their government from the
hands in which 1t has been so grossly misused, 1t must at
length become plain to the German government that this
is no game in which it is engaged. but a desperate enter
prise in which the confidence OF the world has been SO
shaken that no compromise or agreement can be made
with IT, and it must become plain to>the German people,
Il hov p arSoiffo "a kNow fha We that h Dnuarn.
mont which has forced them into these bloody paths must
be thrown off before Germany can again stand before the
world as an equal with other nations and be treated on
the same basis. The pope's message came as a surprise.
1t has given opportunity for the most concise and search
ing statement that has yet been issued, and for one Of
the most important state papers Of our time.