The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-08-31
PRESIDENT WILSON'S
REPLY TO POPE
Continued from page one)

would result in abandoning the new
born Russia to the intrigue, the mani
fold subtle interference and the GER
tain counterrevolution which would
be attempted by all the malign in
f1uences to which the German govern
ment has of late accustomed the
world. Can peace be based upon
restitution of its power or upon any
word of honor it could pledge in
treaty of settlement and accommoda-
ton?
Basis for Peace.
Irresponsible statesmen must now
everywhere see, if they never saw
before, that no peace can rest securely
upon political or economic reStitu-
tlons meant to benefit some nations
and cripple or embarrass others, upon
vindictive action if any sort or any
kind of revenge or deliberate injury.
The American people have suffered in
tolerable wrongs at the hands of the
imperial German govern nent, but they
desire no reprisal upon the German
people who have themselves suffered
all things in this war, which they did
not choose. They believe that peace
should rest upon the rights of peo-
pies, not the rights of governments
the rights of peoples, great or small,
weak or powerful-their equal right
to freedom and security and self-gov-
ernment and to participation upon
far terms in the economic opportuni-
ties of the world-the German people
of course included, if they will accept
equality and not seek domination.
"The test, therefore, of every plan
of peace is this: Is it based upon the
faith of all the peoples involved or
merely upon the word of an ambitious
and intriguing government, on the one
hand, and of a group of free peoples
on the other? This is a test which
goes to the root of the matter; and it
is the test which must be applied.
Purposes of America.
The purposes of the United States
IN this war are known to the whole
world-to every people to whom the
truth has been permitted to come.
They do not need to be stated again.
we seek no material advantage of any
kind. We believe that the intolerable
wrongs done in this war by the furi |
Gus and brutal power of the imperial
German government ought to be re-
paired, but not at the expense of the |
sovereignty of any people-rather a |
of the SOVEREIGNTY of |
those that are weak and of those that
are strong. Punitive damages, the
dismemberment of empires, the es-
tabllshment of selfish and exclusive
economic leagues we deem inexpedient
and in the end worse than futile, nor
proper basis for a peace of any kind. |
least least OF all for an enduring peace. |
That must be based upon justice and
fairness and the common rights of |
iiianNiiiu. ~ rp~l
I'VE can not take the word of the |
present rulers of Germany as a guar
antee of anything that is to endure.
unless explicitly supported by such
conclusive evidence of the will and
purpose of the German people them
selves as the other peoples of the
world would be justified in accepting.
Without such guarantees, treaties of
settlement, agreements for disarma-
ment, covenants to set up arbitration
in the place of force, territorial ad-
1usts, reconstruction of small nations
II made with the German government.
no man, no nation could now depend
on. We must await some new evil
dence of the purposes of the great peo-
Piles of the central powers. God grant
1T may be given soon and in a way
to restore to the confidence of all
ppeoples everywhere the faith of ma
tlons and the possibility of a COW
enanted peace.
Robert Lansing,
secretary of State of the United
States of America"
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