Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1917-09-07
.POPE'S PEACE
PLEA REJECTED
PERMANENT WORLD TRANQUIL.
LITY AIM OF AMERICA AND
ALLIES, SAYS WILSON.
FULLTEXT or U.S,REPLY
WORD OF KAISER CANNOT BE
TAKEN AS GUARANTEE THAT
WAR WILL END.
western Newspaper Union News Service.

western NeWhpdpef Union news service.
To His Holiness, Benedictus XIV.
Pope:
In acknowledgment of the communi.
cation of your Holiness to the bellig.
erent peoples, dated August 1, 1917,
the President of the United States re.
quests me to transmit the following
reply:
Every heart that has not been blind.
ed and hardened by this terrible war
must be touched by this moving ap-
peal of his Holiness, the Pope; must
feel the dignity and force of the hu.
name and generous motives which
prompted it, and must f%ervently 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 pro.
poses.
Our response must be based upon
the stern facts and upon nothing else.
1t is not a mere cessation of arms he
desires; 1t is a stable and enduring
peace. This agony must not be gone
through with again, and 1t must be a
matter of yer sober judgment that
will insure us against it..
To Free Peoples From Militarism.
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 &C
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 p%erplexing 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.
1t 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 wal is to deliver the free peo-
pies of the world from the menace and
the actual power Of a vast military es-
Enlistment controlled by an irrespon-
sible government which, having Sc
cretly planned to dominate the world,
proceeded to carry the plan out with
out regard either to the sacred obli-
cations of treaty or the l~ong-estab-
lished practices and long-cherished
principles of International action and
honor; which chose its own time for
the war; delivered its blow f~iercely
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 m and
children also and Of the helpless poor;
and now stands baked, but not de-
feated, the enemy Of four-fifths of the
world.
Would Need Hostile Combinations.
This power is not the German peo-
Pile. 1t is no business Of urs how
that great people came under It's con-
troll or submitted with temporary zest
t o the domination of its purpose; but
it is our business to e to 1t that the
history of the rest of the world is no
longer left to its handling.