Denver labor bulletin., 1917-09-08

To His Holiness, Benedictus XIV,
Pope: In acknowledgment of the COM
munication of your holiness to the bel
ligerent 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 it
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.
1t is not a mere cessation of arms he
desires; it is a 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 gen.
eral condonation, 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 a peace, due re-
gard being paid to the aspirations of
the peoples whose political fortunes
and affiliations will be involved,
To Make People Free.
at 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 a vast military es-
tablishment, controlled by an ire
sponsible government, which, 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 estab-
lished practices and long cherished
principles of international action and
honor; which chose its own time for
the war, delivered its blow fiercely
and suddenly; stopped at no barrier
| either of law or OF mercy; swept a
whole continent within the tide of
blood-not the blood of soldiers only,
but the blood of innocent women and
children also and of the helpless poor;
and now stands baked but not de-
feated, the enemy of four-fift of the
world.
Wants an End of Autocracy.
"This power is not the German peo-
pie. 1t is no business of ours how that
great people came under its control
or submitted with temporary zest to
the domination of its purpose, but it
is our business to see to it that the
history of the rest of the world is no
longer left to it's handling.
"To deal with such power by way
of peace upon the plan proposed by
his holiness, the pope, would, so far as
we can see, involve a recuperation of
its strength and a renewal of its pol
icy; would make it necessary to ere
ate a permanent hostile combination of
nation against the German people
who are its instruments; and would re-
suit in abandoning the newborn Rus
sia to the intrigue, the manifold sub
tie interference, the certain counter
revolution which would be attempted
by all the malign influences to which