Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1917-08-31
PRESIDENT REPLIES TO
P0PE'S PEACE PLEA

ITO His Holiness. Benedictus XIV, Pope:
In Acknowledgement of the commune
cation of Your Holiness to the belligerent
peoples, dated August l, 1917, the Presi-
dent of the United States requests me to
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 humane and generous
motives which prompted it, and must
fervently wish that we might take the
pain or peace he so persuasiVely points
out; But it would be folly to take it, if
proposes. Our response must be based
upon the stern facts and upon nothing
else. 1t is not a mere cessation of arms
peace. This agony must not be gone
! through with again. and it must be a
matter of very sober judgment that will
/ insure US against it.
| that we. return to the status quo ante
bellum and that then there be general
conformation. disarmament, and concert
the principle of arbitration that by a
similar concert freedom of the seas be
estblished; and that the territorial claims
Of France and Italy, the perplexing prob
tuition of Poland be left to such concil-
iatory adjustments as may be possible
in the new temper of such peace, due
|
the peoples whose political fortunes and
affiliations will be involved.
| FREE PEOPLES MENACED
1T is manifest that no part of this pro-
gram can be successfully carried out I'M
les the restitution of the status quo ante
furnishes firm and satisfactory basis
for it. The object of this war is to de-
| liver the free peoples of the world from
vast military establishment controlled by
an irresponsible government, which, hav-
| ing secretly planned to dominate the
| world. proceeded to carry the plan
obligations of treaty or the long estab-
| lished practices and long cherished prin-
ciples of international action and honor;
Which chose It's its own nut time Tor the war:
! stopped at no barrier either of law or
, of mercy; swept a whole continent WITH
! in the tide of blood-not the blood of SOL
| diers only, but the blood of innocent
| women and children, also, and of the
helpless poor; and now stands baked,
but not defeated. the enemy of four-fifths
of the world This power is not the Ger
| man people. 1t is the ruthless master of
the German people. 1t is no business of
! ours how that great people came under
: it's control or submitted with temporary
zest to the domination of it's purpose; but
it is our business to see to it that the his
tory Of the rest of the world is no longer
left to its handling.
NO PEACE ON STATUS QUO
'To deal with such power by way OF
peace upon the p plan o, PROPOSED a.. oy Hi us
can see, involve a recuperation of it's
strength and a renewal of it's policy;
would make it necessary to create per-
manent hostile combination of nations
against the German people, who are it's
Instruments; and would result in abon-
dOning the newborn Russia to the intrl-
que, the manifold subtle interferenc..
and the certain condensation which
would be attempted by all the malign in
fiuences to which the German govern
ment has of late accustomed the world.
of it's power or upon any word of honor
it could pledge in a treaty of settlement
and accommodation!
Irresponsible statesmen must now ev-
erywhere see, if they never saw before,
that no peace can rest securely upon po-
litical or economic restrictions meant to
benefit some nations and cripple or en-
barrass others, upon indicative action
of any sort. or any kind of revenge or
deliberate injury.
1.-The American people have suffered
fntOlerable wrongs at the hands OF the
Imperial German government nm but they
pie, who have themselves suffered all
things in this war, which they did MT
choose. They believe that peace should
rights of governments rights of peo-
pies great or small, weak or powerful
their equal right to freedom and secur-
ity and self government and to to partlc eio
opportunities of the world-the German
people of course included. if they will
accept equality and not seek domination:
peace is this: Is it based upon the faith
of all the peoples involved or merely up
on the word of an ambitious and intrigu.
ing government, on the one hand, and of
This is a test which goes to the root of
the matter; and it is the test which must
be applied.
u. 8. AIMS KNOWN TO WORLD
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 materlat
the intolerable wrongs done in this war
by the furious and brutal power of the
Imperial German government ought to
be repaired but not at the expense OF
vindication. of the sovereignty both OF
those that are weak and of those that
are strong. Punitive damages, the dis
memberment Of empires: the establish
leagues we deem inexpedient and In the
end worse than futile, no proper basis
for a peace of any kind. least Of all for
an 1Ees snd and the
mon rights of mankind.
I'VE cannot take the word of the pres
ent rulers of Germany as a guarantee ol
anything that is to endure, unles expllc-
itly supported by such conclusive evil
dence of the will and purpose of the Ger
man people themselves as the other peo-
pies Of the world would be JUSTIFIED IN
accepting Without such guarantees
treaties Of settlement, agreements for dis
armament, covenants to set up arbitra-
ton in, the place Of force, territorial ad-
iustments, reconstitutions of small ma
lions. if made with the German govern
ment no man, no nation could now de-
pend on: We must await some new cyl
Mes of the Central Powers. God grant
It may be given soon and in a way to
restore the confidence Of all peoples ev-
erywhere in the faith of nations ana the
iSigned) ROBERT LANSING,
"Secretary of State of the United
States of America"
CLAM SHE'LL FISHERS