Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1917-08-30
August 81, 1877 r.,
To His Holiness,
Ben dictus XIV
Pope.

Pope. # e.
y as8 s. In acknowledgment of the com
munication of Your Holiness to the
belligerent peoples, dated August 1,
1917, the president Of the United
States requests 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 fo.sce of the
Y humane and generous motives which
prompted it. and must ferYently wish
that we might take the path Of peace
4 he SO persuasively points out. But it
would be folly to take. lit 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 It
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 lit must he a
matter of very sober jud dgment what
& Will insure us against it,.
His Holiness in substance proposes
\ that W return to the status quo ante
bellnm and that then there be q gem
eral condonation, disarmament, and
concert of nations, based upon an
acceptance Of the principle Of arbi..
tration; that by the similar concert
freedom of the seas be re-established,
and athat the - 1itorial claims Of
France and Italy. the perplexing prob
lens Of the Balkan states and the
restitution of Poland be left to such
\ possible in the new temper Of such d
aspirat ions of the peoples whose po-
liIical fortunes and Affiliations will
be involved. s3as
IT is manifest that no part of this
program can be successfiilly carried
out unless the restitution Of the status
quo ante furnishes firm and satis-
factory basis for iii, The object or
this war is to deliver the free peoples
of the world from menace and the
actual power Of a vast mil Iitary es-
tablishment controlled by an ire
spoIfsiuie GOVT liIle eilt Iwh h1c h aa wing
secretly planned to dominate the
world, proceed ~ to carry the plan
out without regard either to the sac
red OBJ bligations of treaty or the long
established practices and long cher
ished principles Of international ac-
tion and honor; which chose its own
time for the war delivered its blow
fercely and sud denly; stopped at no
barrier either Of law or Of mercy;
swept a whole continent within the
tide of blood not the Blood OF sol
diers only but the blood Of innocent
women and children also and .of the
the helpless poor: and now stands
balked but not defeated the enemy
Of fouTsffths of the world This
power is not the German people. IT
s is no bus less of hi,
people came under its control or sub
mitted with temporary zest to the
dominatio Of its purpose; but II is
our business to see to 1t that the his
tory of the rest ossssszss he world is no
longer left to its handling
TO deal with such a power BY way
Of peace upon the plan proposed by
His Holiness, the Pope would. SO far
as we can see involve IA recuperation
of its strength and a renewal of It's
policy would AXE IL necessary to
create permanent hostile combin
alton of ations gainst the German
people WI o are it's inst rumen ts and
would result in abandoning thsnew-
born Russia to the iltri que, the ami
fold and subtle int erference and the