The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1917-08-31

Wilson's message to the Pope in re-
jecting the proposed peace proposals:
"To His Holiness, Benedictus XIV,
Pope:
I'm acknowledgements Of the COM
munication of your holiness to the
belligerent peoples, dated Aug. 1, 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 It
is not mere cessation of arms he de-
slres; it Is stable and enduring
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.
His holiness in substance proposes
that we return to the status quo ante
bellum, and that then there be a gen.
eral cOndonation, disarmament, and a
concert of nations, based upon an ac-
ceptance of the principle of arbitra-
t1on; 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
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 war is to deliver the free peoples
Of the world from the menace and the
actual power of a vast military estab-
lishment controlled by an irrespons-
ible government which, having Sc
cretly planned to dominate the world,
proceeded to carry out the plan with
out regard either to the sacred obli-
cations of treaty or the long estab-
lished practices and long cherished
principles of international action and
honor; which chose it's own time for
the war; delivered it's 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 defeat
ed, the enemy of fOur-ffth of the
world. This power is not the German
people. It is the ruthless master of the
German people. 1t is no business of
ours how that great people came under
its control or submitted with tempor-
ary zest to the domination of it's pur-
pose; 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.
ITO 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 recuperation of
its strength and a renewal of it's pol
icy; would make it necessary to
create permanent hostile combina-
ton of nations against the German
people, who are its instruments; and
would result in abandoning the new
born Russia to the intrigue, the mani
fold subtle interference, and the GER
tain counter revolution which would
be attempted by all the malign in
fuences to which the German govern
ment has of late accustomed the world.
Can peace be based upon a restitution
of it's power or upon any word of
honor it could pledge in a treaty of
settlement and accommodation?
Irresponsible statesmen must now
everywhere see, if they never saw be-
fore, that no peace can rest securely
upon political or conomic restrictions
meant to benefit some nations and
cripple or embarrass others, upon vim
dictive action of any sort, or any kind
OF revenge or deliberate injury. The
American people have suffered intoler-
able wrongs at the hans of the inn
per1al German government, 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 peoples,
not the rights of governments-the
rights Of peoples great or small, weak
or powerful-their equal right to free
dom and security and government
and to participation upon fair terms
in the economic opportunities 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 ambitions
and intriguing government, on the one
hand, and 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.
The purposes of the United States
in this war are known to the whole
World-tO every people to whom the